1. Billing and AR in FAST

2. Billing Is Used For Two Purposes
General Ledger (business unit USF01)
AR Module
Sponsored Research AR (business unit GRT01)
Grants Module feeds Billing Module
Sponsored research customers
Billing Module
PGI billing customers
Commercial AR (business unit USF01)
Commercial customers

3. The Commercial Stream It all begins with an approved EBA
Educational Business Activity (EBA) approval by UCO is required
It gives authority to conduct a business activity and helps USF comply with UBI (unrelated business income) requirements
It defines what you are selling, your customer base, your costing, your management structure
Controller’s Office will create a unique auxiliary fund to which you deposit revenue and pay expenses
Find EBA information on the Controller’s Office web site or on USF Business Processes

4. The Commercial Stream Commercial (external) customers include Hint
All DSOs like Moffitt, USF Foundation, USF Research Foundation, and the Sun Dome activities
Plus all private businesses, state universities, state agencies, counties, cities and individuals
Hint
The billing module is not for billing other USF departments
Use a journal entry form for interdepartmental billings

5. The Billing Process 1 Department makes the Disbursement sale to the
customer
7 USF accepts cash,
checks, or bank cards
2 UCO creates the
customer ID
6 Collect the money
from the customer
3 Departments create the
customer invoice
4 Overnight
processing
occurs
5 UCO prints the invoice
and sends to
Customer

6. Who Does What Task? Who Does What Task? Departments
Request EBA authority
Find the customers
Provide the service
Request customer setup
Create the billings
Pursue collection from customers
Reconcile billings, payments, and AR balances
Request refunds and write-off
University Controller’s Office
Creates and modifies customer records
Manages nightly processing
Prints and mails invoices to the customer
Creates all credits
Assists with collection from customers
Provides training

7. New Customers and Customer Updates?
Complete a simple one page request form
To request a new customer record
To request an update to an existing customer record
Mail the form to ARCUST (find it in Outlook)
We handle the request through RNS
We will notify you when the customer is setup
Find the form on our web site
(look under forms)

8. About Invoices Invoice Ids are standardized
They begin with the department billing source
The bill source is a three letter prefix representing your auxiliary
Bill source is followed by a dash
Dash is followed by a five digit number
Auto-assigned by FAST beginning with the number 00001
Example of an IT invoice number
ITS-02000

9. About Invoices Invoices are printed on plain paper
Invoices have everything the cashier needs to identify the payment (customer ID, invoice number, and amount)
Customers paying by check are asked include a copy of the invoice with their payment to a USF lock box

10. Cornerstones The customer is the basis for billing
Customers have ID’s based on the department
Always the bill source followed by four digits
The digits are auto-assigned beginning with 1001
Example of a customer ID for IT
ITS1007 Information Technology Services customer # 1007

11. Cornerstones Charge codes identify what you sell to the customer
They appear on the invoice
They begin with the three letter bill source
The bill source is followed by a dash and a description
Example of a charge code for a USFSP auxiliary
CAC-COMREV
This is the charge code for Campus Activities Center revenue

12. Cornerstones
Distribution codes are the chart field strings that drive the accounting entries
They are attached to every charge code
The chart fields:
Operating Unit Required field
Fund ID Required field
Account Required field
Department ID Required field
Product Must be populated but may be
Initiative Not used but must have 7 zeroes

13. Cornerstones
Distribution codes begin with the billing source ID followed by an alpha/numeric description
For example Campus Activities Center has charge code for services they offer; this is the distribution code behind it

14. Cornerstones Hint Always use only your department’s billing source for
Customer ID
Invoice ID
Charge code ID
Request new charges codes and distribution codes and updates to existing codes from
Find the request form on

15. Revenue Budgeting
You must forecast your revenue through the Budget Module (Commitment Control)
Budget by individual chart field string
This includes billings to outside customers and billings to other USF departments

16. Revenue Budgeting There are consequences…
You can finalize the billing, print it, and send it to the customer
But it will not post to the GL
Cashiers will be unable to post payments against the invoice
If billings fail budget checking…
You will receive an to remind you to make the necessary budget adjustment
The will have the accounting information that you need

17. Sales Tax
Your customers may or may not be subject to Florida sales tax
In order to exempt a customer from sales tax, you must obtain a copy of that entity's "Florida Certificate of Exemption" which is Form DR-14.  That is the ONLY way we can extend to anyone an exemption from Florida sales tax.  If we have no Form DR-14, the default is to charge sales tax on the sale of tangible personal property or rentals.
If you have any questions, contact Michelle Verdisco ( or look for her in Outlook)

18. Sales Tax Some of what you sell may be subject to Florida sales tax
It is a complex set of law that can have profound impact on USF
Visit the Controller’s Office web site (click Tax Advisory) or contact Michelle Verdisco ( or look for her in Outlook)

19. UBI (Unrelated Business Income)
To ensure compliance with our non-profit status, we must correctly identify all unrelated business activity
It is a complex set of law that can have profound impact on USF
Record amounts of UBI for each line on the “Line Misc Info” page
Visit the Controller’s Office web site (click Tax Advisory) or contact Michelle Verdisco ( or look for her in Outlook)

20. Customer Notes
To help your customer and provide them the information they need to expedite payment, use customer notes
Add a header note or individual line note
Provide information like:
The customer’s PO number
Date of service, type of service
Names of individuals

21. Collecting Accounts Receivable
USF AR is aged
20 day “grace” period
0-30 days, , , 90 days and over
During the first 90 days of aging…
Department attempts collection
By calling customer
By ing customer
By sending a copy of the invoice to the customer

22. The AR Office Can Help You
When the debt reaches 90 days…
The AR Office reviews 90 day AR items
AR Office contacts the department to discuss options
Consider using our contracted collection agency

23. AR Reporting AR aging tools include
An AR aging report in the AR module (pdf format)
An AR aging report that UCO sends out quarterly (Excel format)
Public queries

24. Common GL Accounts in Billing
10011 Payment made by cash or check
10061 Payment made by credit card
10091 Payment made by EFT
12010 Commercial Accounts Receivable-FAST
44### Commercial revenue account series

25. Professional Collection Is An Option
If you use the contracted collection agency…
The agency charges a percentage fee contingent upon actual amount collected
You may pass this fee on to the customer only if adequate advance written notification has been given to the customer prior to the sale
Otherwise, the department must pay for the collection fee from sources of your choosing

26. Correcting/Adjusting Invoices
Customers may need to be issued a credit due to
A duplicate billing
An incorrect billing (wrong amount, quantity, etc.)
Only the UCO AR office may create credits – Separation of duties issue
Prepare credit requests on the billing correction form
Find it on the Controller’s training web site; (look under forms)

27. What About Bad Debts?
Write-off should be considered only after all collection efforts have been unsuccessful
Departments should carefully document collection effort
Use the standard format for requests (contact UCO AR Office)
Submit write-off requests to the UCO AR Office

28. What About Bad Debts? With the request, include:
List of all invoices with invoice ID and Customer ID
Customer name
Invoice date
Original invoice amount
Amount to be written off
Description of collection effort

29. Write-off Entries
The UCO AR Office will review the request and obtain the required approval of the USF Controller
The UCO AR office will create the write-off entries
You will be notified when the write-off action is completed

30. How Can The Customer Pay
Customers are asked to return a copy of the invoice with check payments directly to the USF Lock Box
The Lock Box address is:
PO Box
Orlando, FL
Only a USF Cashier Office may handle payments made in person at USF

31. Alternate Payment Methods
Customers may also pay by credit card
We accept VISA, MasterCard, American Express or DiscoverCard
Customer may pay on-line (preferred method)
The web site address is
Customer will need to identify the invoice number and customer ID
This is for invoices of $10,000 or less
Customer may pay at USF Tampa
Pay at the kiosk in the cashier lobby using the commercial account portal

32. Alternate Payment Methods
Customers may also pay by EFT
State agencies, government units, and other state universities should pay by either EFT or check; they should not pay by credit card
To setup a customer for EFT/ACH
Find the EFT/ACH Authorization Form on the UCO/Accounting Services web site

33. What if you receive a payment in the mail?
Take the payment immediately to the cashier office
Do not send to the cashier by campus mail

34. What if Customer Payment Does Not Clear?
If the customer check is returned NSF by the bank
All returned checks are managed by the UCO (Controller’s Office)
Amy Murray is the key person
A new receivable is created
A series of letters are sent to collect from the customer
Customer is charged a flat $25 fee

35. Applying a Payment To An Invoice
To apply a payment, Cashier must have
A customer ID
An invoice ID
Cashiers apply the payment and close the invoice
Payment application automatically closes the invoice
The cash will be added to your auxiliary fund

36. If The Cashier Cannot Identify A Payment
The Cashier will research to the best of their ability
If a check can not be identified, it is recorded by journal entry to suspense: fund 18570, GL code 12120
When the check is finally identified, it will be corrected and correctly applied
Unidentified payments, both checks and EFT, may be viewed on the UCO web site under Library of Resources

37. What About Customer Refunds?
Customers may overpay or pay twice
Departments request refunds to customers
Before requesting a refund, determine that there are no other open (unpaid) invoices for that customer
Use the customer refund form on the UCO web site
Be sure to correctly identify the original deposit
Submit refund requests to

38. Don’t Forget To Reconcile
Reconcile invoices/billings
Confirm that everything that should have been billed, was billed
Confirm that the billing amounts were correct
Confirm that billing adjustments have posted correctly
Reconcile customer payments
Confirm that the payments were applied to the correct invoices
Do this monthly

39. Where Do You Find Information
In Finance Mart
The Balance Sheet has deposits and customer payments
Financial Report Summary and Revenue Detail have billing info
In the Billing module
Billing/Review Billing Information/Details for detail invoice information
In the AR module
Accounts Receivable/Receivables Analysis/Aging for AR reports
Accounts Receivable/Customer Information/Item Information for invoice payment details

40. Let’s Get To Work !