Fiscal Responsibilities of Account                                   UPPS No. 03.01.09

Managers at Texas State                                                    Issue No. 4

Effective Date: 04/21/2008
October 1 E4Y

 

 

01.       POLICY STATEMENT

 

01.01  The purpose of this UPPS is to define "account manager" as it applies to the Texas State budgeting and financial systems, to identify the responsibilities of an account manager, and to outline requirements for account manager's "access privileges" for the approval of all purchases and expenditures.

 

02.       DEFINITIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

 

02.01  An account manager is defined as a regular university employee who is directly responsible for the fiscal management of one or more university accounts, regardless of the source of funds.

 

02.02  Deans and directors, or the appropriate vice president, designate account managers in their areas. The Vice President for Finance and Support Services (VPFSS) must approve them.

 

02.03  Generally, account managers serve in the following capacities:

 

a.   Department Chairs

 

b.   Directors, managers, supervisors (someone who reports to a director or manager)

 

c.   Associate Vice Presidents, Assistant Vice Presidents and Deans

 

d.   Vice Presidents

 

e.   President

 

f.    Primary Investigator (PI) on a sponsored program

 

02.04  The account manager is responsible for maintaining budgetary control and is personally accountable for all expenditures in his or her department. The Appropriations Act expressly prohibits excess obligations.

           

            The account manager is also responsible for safeguarding university equipment and capital assets.

  

02.05  The account manager is authorized to spend funds appropriated to his or her department up to the approved budget limit. PIs may spend funds not to exceed the sponsored program award amount during the sponsored program period. Account managers and PIs may be personally liable for expenditures in excess of budget.

 

02.06  The sponsored program PI must operate consistently within the budget defined in the notification letter from the Office of Sponsored Programs. Sponsored program PIs may revise their budgets in accordance with guidelines established by the University and the respective sponsor or funding source.

  

02.07  The account manager is expected to plan all expenditures necessary to carry out the department's operation for the fiscal year, September 1 to August 31. Funds appropriated for the current year's budget may not be used for any other period. Extenuating circumstances may necessitate exceptions. Such exceptions must have written approval of the Director of Budgeting prior to the expenditure of funds.  

 

02.08  If he or she requests an exception to a published document processing deadline, the account manager must submit a written request. To be effective, both the appropriate divisional vice president and the AVPFS must approve the request.

 

03.       PROCEDURES REGARDING ACCESS PRIVILEGES

 

03.01  The account manager is responsible for approving all financial transactions, including requisitions, p-card reconciliations, and personnel actions. For each transaction, the account manager must indicate the account number to be charged. Sponsored program PIs may contact the Office of Sponsored Programs for assistance in coding expenditures on the sponsored program account.

 

03.02  The account manager's signature (whether electronic or manual) denotes approval for the expenditure of funds and must appear on all invoices, purchase requisitions, Non Purchase Order payments (NPO), personnel actions, etc. The account manager, if a P-card holder, cannot purchase and sign p-card reconciliations. An additional person must be delegated to approve p-card reconciliations for the account manager. An account manager’s designee must have necessary security for approving through workflow.

 

03.03  The account manager may delegate access privileges (rights to perform specific financial transactions) to other individuals. This delegation of access privileges does not change the account manager's accountability as outlined in Section 02. The account manager may also delegate limited authority to expend funds to make purchases through the University’s P-card and COOL programs subject to the policies and procedures of these programs and the concurrence of the Director of Accounting, or their designee.

   

03.04  In the planned absence of the account manager, the account manager may designate an individual to approve for them during the absence. Substitution is maintained through SAP.

 

03.05  If the account manager is unavailable and has not delegated another person to act, then either the account manager’s supervisor, the AVPFS, or the VPFSS may act for the account manager.

 

03.06  When a designee signs for an account manager, the designee should sign the account manager’s name and “by” the designee.  For example: “John Smith (e.g. Account Manager) by Susan Jones (e.g. designee)”.

 

03.07  Goods receipts must be signed within three days of receiving to enable the University to meet the requirements of the State's Prompt Payment Act.

 

04.       PROCEDURES FOR MAINTAINING BUDGET CONTROL BY ACCOUNT MANAGER

 

04.01  Adequate records and files are mandatory for good fiscal management. Account managers should keep file copies of the following documents:

 

a.   Purchase orders

 

b.   Travel applications and vouchers

 

c.   Interdepartmental transfers (IDT's)

 

d.   Invoices and receiving document (e.g. goods receipt) copies

 

e.   Equipment maintenance and other contracts

 

f.    Receiving copies for the deliveries from: University Printing Services, Duplicating, Audio Visual, Central Receiving (Materials Management), etc.

 

g.   Logs of long distance telephone calls

 

h.   Petty cash transactions

 

i.      P-Card receipts and reconciled cardholder statements

 

j.      COOL receipts

 

k.   Other financial or personnel transactions, as appropriate

 

(Note that the above is not an all-inclusive list. Refer to the Texas State Records Retention Policy.)

 

04.02  Each month, the account manager should verify all accounting and budget transactions reflected on-line by accessing their accounts via the Budget to Actual Report (or other reports) in SAP.

 

04.03 The account manager or designee should send a memo to the General Accounting Office if an error is identified. E-mail directed to the Director of Accounting is acceptable.

 

04.04  Budgets may be increased by budget transfers or by budget supplements (where budget is increased by drawing on available reserves or by increasing estimated income).

 

a.    Budget Transfer: The account manager is responsible for requesting budget adjustments to the account through the appropriate administrative channel by use of the “Budget Adjustment” form available on-line.

 

Account managers or their assistants may initiate transfers within a single fund between fund centers according to their security authorization through the SAP FMBB transaction. Once the budget transaction has been initiated (pre-posted) by the account manager, it will automatically be forwarded to the Budget Office for review and approval. FMBB transaction instructions are located under Training on the Budget Office website

 

Account managers may also request budget transfer by emailing a request to the Budget Office at budget@txstate.edu. The request should include the sender and receiver account numbers, dollar amount, and the purpose of the request.

 

Transfers between funds within the Method of Finance fund group must be initiated by the Budget Office.

 

b.    Budget supplements: Fund managers may request a budget supplement by e-mailing the Budget Office at budget@txstate.edu.  The request should include the full account number, dollar amount, and the purpose of the request. 

 

04.05  The account manager will submit a Personnel Change Request (PCR) to secure changes in the status of departmental employees (terminating, hiring, etc.).

  

05.       REVOCATION OF AN ACCOUNT MANAGER'S ACCESS PRIVILEGES

 

05.01  Misuse or over-expenditure of an account's funds may result in an account manager's p-card or COOL privileges being revoked or an account manager’s access privileges being revoked. This revocation may be applied to all accounts controlled by the account manager, if deemed appropriate and in the University's best interest.

 

05.02  The Director of Accounting, with the Director of Budget’s concurrence, may revoke an account manager’s and their cardholder’s p-card or COOL privileges. The Associate Vice President for Financial Services, with the VPFSS's concurrence, in consultation with appropriate vice president may suspend or revoke an account manager's access privileges.

 

05.03  An account manager may appeal the suspension or revocation of access privileges through administrative channels to the account manager's vice president.

 

05.04  The AVPFS, the VPFSS, or the President’s Cabinet may reinstate an account manager’s access privileges.

 

06.       REVIEWERS OF THIS UPPS

 

06.01  Reviewers of this UPPS include the following:

 

Position                                                         Date

                                                                       

Associate Vice President for                      October 1 E4Y

Financial Services

 

07.       CERTIFICATION STATEMENT

 

This UPPS has been approved by the following individuals in their official capacities and represents Texas State policy and procedure from the date of this document until superseded.

 

Associate Vice President for Financial Services; senior reviewer of this UPPS

 

Vice President for Finance and Support Services

 

President