Finance Division: Guidance Note regarding Queries and Error Corrections

on Financial Reports issued to Departments

The general policy in Finance Division is that queries are dealt with by the section
responsible for that area of work. In addition, there is a FIS Help Desk which
deals with specific FIS issues eg setting up new users, advising users how to use
FIS, dealing with problems on FIS.

The following guidance relates to queries regarding the information on printed

reports issued from Finance Division.

Regular financial reports are issued from Finance Division to Academic and
Non-Academic Departments as follows:-

(i) General Ledger

• Monthly Balance Report Accounts Payable Section

• Monthly Transactions Report Accounts Payable Section
• Monthly Budget Transactions Accounts Payable Section
• Internal Levy Report Accounts Payable Section
• Departmental Summary Reports Planning and Management
Accounts Section

(ii) Research Grants

• Principal Investigators Reports Research Administration Section

There are some other special reports not covered by this note but these do not
affect a large number of users.

The Finance Division policy is that one set of the general ledger balance and
transaction reports are sent to the Head of Department or to an alternative
nominated person eg Departmental Administrator. Multiple copies are not
issued.

Departmental Summary Reports are sent to Heads of Academic Departments

each month and to Heads of Non-Academic Departments each quarter.

Principal Investigators Reports are sent to Departmental Administrators each

month, for onward distribution to the appropriate Principal Investigator.

(iii) Queries

Queries are dealt with as follows:-

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 (a) General Ledger Balance and Transaction Report error corrections
and queries regarding batch authorisation, processing dates, whether
payment has been made and similar matters are initially handled by
Accounts Payable Section.

(b) General Ledger Budget Transactions and Departmental Summary

report queries are dealt with by Planning & Management Accounts
Section.

(c) Queries regarding the Internal Levy Report are dealt with by the
relevant Management Accounts Officer in Planning and Management
Accounts Section.

(d) Queries on Principal Investigators Reports are dealt with by Research

Administration Section.

Any queries that do not appear to fall into one of the above categories
should be referred to Planning and Management Accounts Section.

(iv) General Ledger Balance and Transactions and queries regarding

batch authorisation, processing dates, whether payment has been
made and similar matters

As indicated above these are, in most cases, investigated and corrected by

Accounts Payable staff.

Full details of the query, including account code, document and batch
numbers, amount and brief details of the problem should be forwarded to
one of the Accounts Payable contacts listed below.

Wherever possible, queries should be raised by email as this allows the

details to be easily passed on to other Finance staff as necessary.

Accounts Payable contacts:

Habib Choudhury – habibur.choudhury@ucl.ac.uk

Eleanor Morrissey – e.morrissey@ucl.ac.uk

The Accounts Payable Service Standards for dealing with the above will be:

Straightforward queries, e.g. mispunching, received up to 5 working days

prior to month end will be corrected and appear in the following months
transaction report.

Queries received within 5 working days of the month will be corrected as

soon as practical but may not appear in transaction reports until the month
after.

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 If the query is complex and requires investigation the user will be informed
of this within 5 working days and kept informed of progress at regular
intervals.

If a particular problem cannot be resolved by Accounts Payable staff it will

be passed to the appropriate person in Finance Division and you will be
informed who will be dealing with it.

April 2009