Policies & Procedures Manual

260

Policy No: 602

Policy Contact: Vice President for Business Operations

Policy Title: ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING

The accounting system used by East Central Community College follows the principles set forth in the Mississippi Public Community/Junior Colleges Financial Accounting Manual. To satisfy the requirement to account properly for the diversity of resources and their use, the principles and practices of “fund accounting” are employed. In utilizing those principles, the Mississippi State Department of Audit has established a basic chart of accounts coding system for use by all Mississippi public community/junior colleges. The chart creates a common language for use in controlling, recording, accumulating, and reporting the activities of the community college. Financial statements are submitted to the President prior to the tenth of each calendar month, with unaudited financial statements presented to the Board of Trustees at each monthly meeting. A pre-audit report is submitted to the President and then to the Board of Trustees annually at the August Board meeting. This report presents a detailed breakdown of all income and expenditures for the year ending the previous June 30 and contains the balance sheet as of the previous June 30. The College’s financial statements will be audited annually by the State Department of Audit or an assignee thereof. To ensure audit effectiveness, quality, and continuous improvement, East Central Community College has an established Audit Follow-Up Process. This process ensures that corrective management action is taken regarding all notable conditions or finding(s) discovered in the annual audit or in any grant, project, program or specific area audit or monitoring review. The Audit Follow-Up Process is as follows: A copy of all reports resulting from program reviews, monitoring reviews, audits, or any type of external or internal monitoring review will be submitted to the Vice President for Business Operations within seven (7) days of receipt of the report. If there are items noted that require follow-up as a result of an audit or review, the Vice President for Business Operations will begin the audit follow-up process immediately upon receipt of the report. The Vice President for Business Operations will record the finding(s) as an Outstanding Audit Finding and will record the required response date for tracking and further action. At the next meeting of the Executive Council, the finding(s) will be discussed and a plan of corrective action will be written. The Vice President for Business Operations will ensure that the corrective action plan is immediately implemented. The Vice President for Business Operations will then respond to the reporting auditor/monitoring agency as to the corrective action taken. The Vice President for Business Operations will follow-up with all individuals involved to be certain that the corrective action plan has been followed. Upon corrections being taken and completed, the Outstanding Audit Finding will be marked as a Closed Finding and a Closed Findings report will be submitted to the President and the Executive Council.