Departmental Educational Foundation Scholarships Awards FY 2004 Procedure Changes

Objectives  Provide Responsibility Units with the tools needed to effectively track Educational Foundation Scholarships awards made by their departments  Eliminate use of central University-wide clearing account for tracking Educational Foundation Scholarships awards and replace it with Responsibility Unit level clearing accounts  Improve the accuracy of the accounts receivable statements sent to the Educational Foundation for reimbursement by issuing pre-bills to Responsibility Units

Objectives  Eliminate need for Educational Foundation to return accounts receivable statements to University departments for verification before issuing payment  Eliminate the Educational Foundation’s role of intermediary between Financial Aid and the Responsibility Unit  Provide the Educational Foundation with the information needed to make timely payments

New Process for FY 2004  Budget Office – Established “Educational Foundation Scholarships Accounts (S500)” for each USC unit for use in tracking awards made by their departments  Financial Aid – Incorporated the new accounts into their financial aid tracking system  Educational Foundation – Provides USC units with financial reports that detail spendable earnings for each endowment account

New Process for FY 2004  Responsibility Unit – Determines level funding available to support scholarship awards

New Process for FY 2004  Responsibility Unit – Makes awards to individual students Notifies Financial Aid of awards issued Monitors S500 department fund account transactions throughout the year to ensure that only authorized awards are posted, billed, and paid by the Educational Foundation

Example of How the Expenditures Appear on the General Ledger

New Process for FY 2004  Financial Aid – Enters departmental awards into their aid tracking system using the new S500 accounts Resolves any need-based over award issues that may arise  Financial Services – Applies aid to student’s tuition statement Establishes accounts receivable records for tracking and collecting funds from the Educational Foundation at the Responsibility Unit level Issues semester pre-billing statements on or around October and March to Responsibility Units Establishes due dates for when correcting entries are needed to Financial Aid

New Process for FY 2004  USC Unit – Reviews pre-billing statements for accuracy s Financial Aid (Barbara Friendly) with any needed corrections by due date Monitors activity on S500 account to ensure that corrections are processed prior to the release of the official bill by Financial Services s the Educational Foundation with an endowment account specific listing of authorized payments for scholarships (New address to be established)

Example of to Educational Foundation

Example of Attachment

New Process for FY 2004  Financial Aid – Processes corrections and forwards information to Financial Services  Financial Services – Forwards final semester statements to the Educational Foundation for payment around November and April of each year

New Process for FY 2004  Educational Foundation – Compares individual Responsibility Unit authorizations with the final statements from Financial Services Resolves discrepancies by contacting the Responsibility Unit Processes payments of financial aid award against the spendable balances of the appropriate endowment accounts Issues check to the University along with a list of reconciling items Notifies Responsibility Units that they have reconciling items to resolve

New Process for FY 2004  Financial Services – Applies payment against each Responsibility Unit’s S500 account  Responsibility Unit - Resolves all reconciling items and processes corrections through Financial Aid  Budget Office – Conducts annual review of S500 department fund account balances to ensure that all activity is cleared out in a timely manner

Questions?