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Managing Group Accounts > Account Access
Account Reports and Statements
Monthly Account Reconciliation

Any discrepancies should be brought to SAFO’s attention so they can be investigated and taken care of in a timely manner if necessary.

MIT expects that the group treasurers or other responsible officers are reconciling group accounts monthly. Reconciliation involves comparing line items in the transaction report to a group’s internal record or actual paper documents.

Authorized students can make an appointment during business hours to use a SAFO computer to look at their account statements on the web and compare against all of the paperwork in the account file. Contact funds@mit.edu to arrange an appointment.
Reconcilers need to check that charges and deposits hitting their account are:
1. Accurate
2. For the correct amount
3. Belong to the group
4. Approved group expenses

Tips on Reading an Account Report

Treasurers should be monitoring their group’s account activity regularly. The President or other Financial Signatories should be auditing the account occasionally to ensure transactions make sense and the group approved all expenses. There are several ways an authorized user can monitor their group's accounts online. Authorized individuals may also come into SAFO for a SAP printout and staff can discuss any questions in person. We urge students to come in immediately if they discover a discrepancy or are confused by anything they see on the account so we can help identify the issue and if necessary resolve it right away.

First, it is important to know the difference between the various reports. There are 4 different reports available through the web system to view account information.

Cumulative Main Account Balance Report:
View the account balance for your main/operating, reserve or endowment accounts

This report lets groups look at the account balance for their main/operating or interest bearing accounts (reserve and endowment accounts). The web system allows groups to view their expendable income available for use and monitor the cumulative principal accruing interst.

The web system Main account balance report breaks down the account balance in two different ways.

  • It shows the “Unexpended Balance” which is all of the money a group has in the account.
  • It also shows the “Commitments”, which is the total of all currently open purchase orders or requisitions (or, in other words, all the money a group has promised to pay upon receipt of the invoice to an internal provider or vendor who accepted an MIT purchase order for payment.)
  • Lastly, the “Available Balance” is the true account balance of funds the group has available to spend or use. This balance is the actual account balance after the commitments have been deducted from the unexpended balance.

It is important to note that if you are using the Athena system to view your main, reserve or endowment account balance you are going to see the balance differently.

  • First of all the money in the account will appear as a negative number. This actually means you have money in the account to spend.
  • If your account balance appears as a positive number in Athena your group currently is in deficit and you owe money to MIT.
  • In addition, you will see the cumulative balance along with the list of cumulative spending on the account by G/L category for the current month, fiscal year and cumulative since the account was opened.

Funding Balance Report:
View funding account budget, expenses and available balance by funding term

This report looks very different from the Main Account Balance Report because funding accounts are budget based. The UA Finboard and GSC Funding Board allocate funds to funding accounts according to specific categories or G/Ls for approved expenses. The report available on the web allows groups to view their budget allocations, expenses, commitments (requisitions and purchase orders) and available or uncommitted balance by specific funding terms. It also has the capability to drilldown in the expense column to see the list of transactions that make up the total within the category.

WORD OF CAUTION as of July 1, 2003 the funding term definitions changed for both the UA Finboard and GSC funding boards. The summer/fall term is now defined as July 1 - December 31 and the IAP/spring term is January 1, - June 30 annually. This means that historical data will be skewed slightly when using the reports to review terms prior to this date. If you have any questions please contact funds@mit.edu for assistance.

Transaction List Report:
Allows you to look at all of your transactions by month and calendar year either by date or by category for a period of time

This report allows users to see transactions for a period of time. The web system not only allows users to view a particular month, but also view a series of months either as a straight list sorted by date or a list by category type.

The Athena system is limited to showing transactions by month (@dtr script) or cumulative since the account began (@detail script.) Additionally, it allows users to view transactions by G/L number and name. The web system only shows transactions by G/L expense type (a feature many students requested).

The web system specifically has been created so debits to the account appear as negative numbers with tick marks after the amount and credits are positive numbers. The revenue and expenses have also been separated into separate columns based upon the G/L category used for the transaction. There may be an occasion when you will see a credit come through in the expense column though! This occurs when a check has been voided or a funds transfer has been processed on an expense G/L by a department. Just as long as you do not see the tick mark by the amount, you can be assured that it was a credit to the account.

For groups monitoring spending according to budgets or needing to identify expenses on funding account categories we recommend that you view your Transaction Report by Expense Type. This kind of report will break transactions down within the various categories.

How to interpret transaction reports:
Either way a transaction report is viewed, it shows only those transactions that were processed during the time period initially requested.

Ways to identify different kinds of transactions -If a check was issued you will see
1. Date it was printed
2. Description, that will list the check number - payee name - description from voucher
3. Check amount

If the transaction was an invoice paid from a purchase order you will see
1. Date
2. Purchase order number (usually a 45xxxx or 55xxxxx number), company name
3. Amount

If the transaction is a charge from an internal provider you will see
1. Date
2. Description, which should include either the requisition number, internal reference number, internal provider name or description of service provide and to whom
3. Amount

A couple of helpful hints for identifying internal provider payments
• Requisitions begin with 010xxxxx number
• CopyTech begins with CTC sometimes
• Audio Visual will begin with AV # and list their job number
• Campus Activities Complex (CAC) charges will list description beginning with "IO settlement" a number and a description.
• Telecommunications or network charges will give the IP address or phone number along with the office address in the description

Lastly, credits will come through main accounts in a variety of ways. The most common are direct deposits from the Cashier's office. You can identify these easily because the description will begin with "REC -" and then list the description the group wrote on the cash voucher.

Another form could be gifts received either from alumni or private corporations or individuals. These are easy to spot because the description will begin by a reference number and then full name of the donor.

Other credits that may come through are transfers also known as journal vouchers (jv's). These are used any time you are getting grants from departments or supplemental funding sources. These are not as easy to identify because each department has a different convention for describing the transfer. SAFO can assist a group in identifying vague credits please contact funds@mit.edu for assistance.

Commitments Report:
Used to monitor commitments (requisitions and purchase orders) you have made on your accounts.

This web report lets groups monitor all of their requisitions and purchase orders currently open and committed on their account. This report will only show the current commitments open and awaiting invoices or charges. Once a payment has been made on a commitment the commitment will be closed unless there are funds remaining either as unspent or still to be used (in the case of blanket Pos.) In this case you will see the amount still available as an open commitment. This report will also show what kind of commitment it is and whom it is for (i.e. Budget, MIT Catering, etc).

All commitments are closed out annually by June 30th by SAFO unless arranged differently by the group in advance. Any un-used funds remaining in the commitment will revert back to the group's account as un-commited funds. Groups are responsible for requesting new blanket purchase orders.