1. Financial Best Practices

2. Financial Best Practices
Develop a close working relationships with the Comptroller and DQ Manager and be an active member of the DQAT
Discuss all requests for new work centers or closing work centers with them to determine the impact
Get to know your operation
Visit all the work centers in the main hospital and the core facility
Provide training to Clinic Managers and Branch Clinic Managers
Analyze your EAS repository data
Check your MEWACS data and understand why you have outliers
Provide DATA! That is the quickest way to get someone’s attention
Align all source files and tables before the beginning of the FY
Ensure there is a checklist where YOU as the MEPRS coordinator assign the MEPRS code for any new MEPRS code requests
JONs
DMHRSi Tasks (ensure new Task is added and associated JON is entered to FASTDATA)
CHCS MEPRS Site Definable Table
DMLSS Square Footage
ASD and Includes and Excludes
Review all MEPRS/EAS ECU and Pre-allocation warnings and address them
Understand why you have the warning and the impact of not correcting it
Save error reports to excel and note on the reports what the correction was
DEAR/Financial Pure File Comparison
If YTDs don’t equal, either adjust the amounts or re-import the fin file
Personnel DEAR – check that civilian labor expenses and obligations match
Review EAS repository data for each month a day or two after transmission.

3. Close Working Relationship with DQAT
Involve the DQAT in decisions about new or closing work centers.
DQAT members can assist with coordination and training to ensure quality data.

4. Close Working Relationship with Comptroller
The Comptroller owns the MEPRS/EAS financial data.
He or she has a vested interest in quality data.

5. Get to Know your MTF’s Operation
Or a Prescription
Dispensing Machine?
Is there a Pharmacy?
There is a Pharmacy work center established for this branch clinic, but the contract for filling the machine and maintaining it is charged to the Core Hospital Pharmacy.
Where are the expenses associated with the Prescription Dispensing Machine?

6. Get to Know Your MTF’s Operation
Is the doctor busy?
Or are there empty exam rooms?
Is a clinic established without a
corresponding OPTAR?
Is a clinic established for only periodic
visits? Does DMLSS have the correct
JONs?

7. Analyze Your Data. Show it to Someone.
When you observe something, it changes. The intention to have quality data changes the approach to the data collection and processing.
You will get attention and interest in data quality when you show
people what the data looks like. Just looking at the data tends to
improve data quality.

8. Analyze Your EAS Repository Data

9. Review & Understand MEWACS Outliers
Oct FY10 MEWACS Outlier
Review SEPT FY 09 amount and available FTEs

10. Review & Understand MEWACS Outliers
8.49% increase over
previous month.
Pay Table increase of 6.19% plus increase in expense due to 9
additional available FTEs explains the personnel direct increase.

11. Provide Data Source file and table review.
Recommend sharing this data with the Comptroller, the CHCS DB admin and the DQAT, at a minimum?
Source file and table review.

12. Provide Data
DQAT; comptroller, etc
MEWACS data

13. Provide Data What are other data sources we can show?
What are other data relationships

14. Align All Source Files and Tables
Prior to beginning of FY
JONs
CHCS Site Definable
DMHRSi Tasks
ASD
Square Footage
Begin in July or August
Ensure coordination with all stakeholders
CHCS
Providers/Clinics
Ancillaries
Surgical Suite/Anesthesia/PACU

15. Address all MEPRS/EAS ECU and warnings, document corrections and retain
Expenses this month but not last month
Generally overridden, but you must check workload
Pre-allocation errors
Workload without expenses
Expenses without workload
FTEs without workload
Workload without FTEs
Document changes and retain documentation in excel
Later research of discrepancies
Reprocessing
Financial Reconciliation
Audits

16. Address all MEPRS/EAS ECU and warnings, document corrections and retain

17. E011 Error
Expenses/obligations received for last month but not this month. When we receive this error, our first thought it that the fin file is the correct data. Using the incorrect action/response here results in differences in the financial reconciliation. The fin file contains information from STARS/FL – we have to consider it is correct. Of course, we may have to make adjustments for prior year data or when BJONs have been established incorrectly.
DISCUSSION:
What is happening here?
1. Why was the information in the APR file but not the MAY (the accounting transaction)
(if you answer “expenses are valid” what will EAS do? – add the last month expense to this month’s financials) But that expense wasn’t IN this month’s financials.
What are next steps? RESEARCH – HOW?
The fin file is correct; it is what we have to reconcile to.

18. E011 Error APRIL Fin Pure What do we know?
We know that the MAY fin file does not have this entry, but that the APR fin file does.
We look at the APR fin file and find the entry.
What if we don’t find the error in the APR Pure File? Where else could you find it? (DEAR Manual)
Clearly one of two things happened: 1. an accounting transaction was made that moved the expense from EKAV. Or 2: you made a manual entry last month for this amount.
Where did it go?
Ask the fiscal staff (when you are comfortable with this process, you may dispense with this step because you will know that the fin file is correct)
APRIL Fin Pure

19. E011 Error APR Fin File Report MAYR Fin File Report
You can also look at the APR and MAY fin file reports. You see the entry in the APR report but not the May report.
You are satisfied that this situation represents the correct financials.
If you had made the entry in the MANUALs for last month, you would check the DEAR Manual and find it. You would have your previous month’s documentation to tell you why you made that change (perhaps inactive MEPRS code).
In any case, since you need the Pure File and the DEAR to match, you would NEVER take action to accept the expense and say expenses are valid! WHY NOT?
(Because it would add expense to the financials and would compromise your fin recon) If you need to adjust transfer an expense, you need to make sure that it is already in the fin file and that you transfer that exact amount to ensure both amounts equal. This will occur later in the financial processing.

20. E011 Error
Now that you have done your research on the E011 errors, you are ready to take action. When you click on Adjust Current, EAS is going to adjust the current month’s financial data.
ONLY ONE SITUATION CAN YOU DO THIS. What situation and why? Bypass file – but not the recommended way to handle the bypass file.
Note that you cannot print these errors as the other ECU reports do. You must use the Comments field to ensure you document your action.
This screen is bringing up the YTD amounts, but remember, it is not the YTD amount from this month’s fin file, but from last month’s (because the error was that the expense was in last month but not this month’s file).
Discuss the SAG shift from FF and ME to M9 and how to do this.
These E011 errors in the ECU do not print to excel as the others do.

21. E011 Error
Don’t put a negative 20 in the YTD actual either. This is telling EAS that the actual YTD amount should be What you want to tell EAS is that the actual YTD amount should be ZERO.
To achieve this, you could put -20 in the adjust by field. But I think it is safer to put the ZERO in the Actual YTD.
This screen shot has the correct Code and Description, and comments have been added so that the fin audit report will remind you of why you made this entry.
In the case of a cost transfer from one BJON MEPRS code to another, where the previous months’ fin file has a record, but the current month’s does not, your comment would be something that explains that the fin file doesn’t contain the record this month due to cost transfer, or SAG shift, etc.

22. E011 Error Enter 0 (ZERO) in The Actual YTD amounts.
Enter a zero in actual YTD. This will provide the zero record that the fin file doesn’t provide.
Enter 0 (ZERO) in
The Actual YTD amounts.

23. E011 Error
This is exactly what you should do to correct E011 errors.

24. 4th Quarter FY 2010 SAG Shifts
Effective July 2010
New SAG DH
Several SAG shifts from FF and ME to M9
MEPRS/EAS considerations
New SAG DH cannot be added to FY 10 table
It will be mapped to M9 in the fin files for 4th quarter
SAG shifts from FF to M9 will occur for Operating Management and Printing and Reproduction
SAG shift from ME to M9 will occur for certain Coordinated Care JONs.
DMHRSi will not be changed for FY 10
Fin file may be impacted
Explain the SAG shifts effective early July from FF and ME to M9 and how this may result in this sort of error. Guidance has been issued to explain how to make the correction to E011 error.

25. 4th Quarter FY 2010 SAG Shifts
Previous discussion on how to handle E011 error applies here
SAG shift may cause E011 errors
Ensure you use the correct procedure of adjusting the amount by its negative to ensure that you don’t bring in expense that is incorrect.

26. Unallocated Expenses
Square footage must be assigned in the data set for each work center in order to allocation to occur for overhead accounts
Cost centers do not need square footage
Utilities
Other base operations
A branch clinic only had square footage set up in EDBI. Unallocated expenses resulted. All clinical and admin areas need to have square footage assigned in order to overhead to allocate.
What does that mean? What MEPRS codes are established at branch clinic? What MEPRS codes need to have square footage in the data set?

27. DEAR/Pure File Comparison
Required as of June FY 10 MEPRS/EAS processing
Must be included in financial reconciliation reporting
Only difference between DEAR and Pure file should be bypass file entries
Run Personnel DEAR to check that civilian labor obligations and expenses are equal.

28. Review EAS repository data after monthly transmission
It seems that the EAS DQ checks don’t always apply and that data does get through that shouldn’t. This is particularly true due to the sensitivity with which EAS applies inactivated MEPRS code rules. For example, if you have an inactivated MEPRS code, but have not put an inactivation date, but instead you put the entire FY, EAS will allow allocation to that code if you are processing a month prior to the actual date of the inactivation. For example, you inactivated a MEPRS code in MAY FY 10, but you are processing NOV FY 10. Even though the code is inactivated, EAS allows allocation because you are processing NOV month rather than MAY month.