OSU FIS 1405-01: Delegation of Invoice Final Approval to Departments

Purpose

To provide systematic and consistent administration within the university’s financial accounting system for delegation of Payables invoice final approval to departments.

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Policy

When specific criteria are met, final approval authority may be transferred from Payables/Business Affairs to a department for payment of expenses identified with Accounts Codes 20101-25999 and invoice amounts up to/including $1,000. With proven procedures in place, departments can have the authority level increased to $4,999.99. Business Affairs’ review and approval, or disapproval, of this request shall be done on a case-by-case basis and will be based upon the justification provided by the department. Payables/Business Affairs is the final approval for all invoices for which departmental final approval authorization has not been previously delegated. Upon final approval in FIS Banner, by either the delegated department or Payables, a check may be issued to the vendor for payment of goods and services received.

Departmental Approvers may be delegated final approval authority by the Payables Manager and the Business Affairs Director with the following conditions:

1. Departmental Final Approvers must attend Refresher FIS Approvals class and must be re-certified every two years. If recertification has not been completed within three months of their two-year anniversary of taking the previous Refresher Course, approval authority shall be removed. If this were to occur, authority will be reinstated upon completion of the requisite class.
2. Department must complete an Invoice Approval Self-Assessment for Payables review responding to questions regarding internal control issues, awareness of institutional policies, and separation of duties. Form must be filed every two years or when the certifier of the most recent self-assessment has separated from the department, which ever is sooner.
3. Budgetary Authority signature is required on each invoice. Signature indicates that the Budgetary Authority has reviewed the transaction for accuracy, allowability and appropriate program expenditure and that the assigned account coding is correct.
4. Person inputting documents into Banner will not approve his/her own documents; although users may have both input and approval access. Users with both accesses will receive a warning at the first violation of this policy. The second violation will result in revocation of the user’s approval access. The user may regain approval access by attending a refresher course in FIS Banner approvals.
5. Payables will perform monitoring activities utilizing exception reports, post-transaction review analysis, and site visits.
6. Budgetary Authority must monitor the budget/actual program expenditures report provided by departments.

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Procedure

Departments wishing to have Departmental Final Approval authority should contact the Payables Manager to arrange for attendance in a Refresher Course in FIS Approvals, completion of the Invoice Approval Self-Assessment form (to insure internal control and separation of duties are in place), and discussion of the responsibility of Department Final Approvers and the scope of the project. Payables Manager will request to add Final Approval queues based on the result of the Department’s Invoice Approval Self-assessment and completion of the Refresher Course in FIS Approvals.

The procedure for processing invoices within account codes 20101-25999 for those departments that have been granted final approval is as follows:

1. Faculty/delegated purchaser requests or orders services/supplies, providing appropriate Index & business purpose.
2. Office staff receives services/supplies and forwards to faculty/purchasers
3. Faculty/delegated purchasers sign receipts.
4. Accounting/Office staff or Budgetary Authority matches receipts with invoices.
5. Budgetary Authority signs on invoices certifying correct business purpose, coding, and appropriate program expenditures.
6. Office staff input invoice data into Banner to create a Banner I-document. Office staff may include authorized student employees.
7. Department Final Approver verifies data entered in Banner for accuracy and appropriateness of Index, amount, vendor name, vendor payment address, compatibility of account code/commodity purchased and discounts based on approved paper invoice. If there are no errors or issues, the Department Final Approver approves the I-document in Banner.
8. Business Affairs will review exception reports and analyze transactions for questionable costs prior to checks being released. If issues are identified, Payables puts invoices on hold and delays payments until the issue is resolved or corrections made.
9. Payables prepares checks and releases payments to vendor.
10. Payables will provide a Refresher Course in FIS Approvals to Departmental Approvers on a regular basis.
11. Business Affairs will perform reviews of departmental invoice processing procedures on a regular basis.
12. Budgetary Authority reviews and certifies periodic monitoring reports and informs departmental accounting office staff if there are questionable charges.
13. If necessary, departmental accounting staff works with Business Affairs to correct any errors.

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Additional Information

See FIS 1108 Approval Routing for additional information.

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