USAS Accounting and Payment Control

Overview

Applicable to

State agencies and institutions of higher education.

Policy

To reduce risks to state funds, agencies should have controls over expenditure processing that segregate each accounting task to the greatest extent practical. Ideally, no individual should be able to enter or alter and then release payments or other accounting transactions within the statewide financial systems without another person’s involvement.

Two tools are available for agencies to use to strengthen internal controls:

• Agencies may request that a preventative control be enforced for all their transactions in USAS. If an agency requests the control, an edit will prevent the release of a document that the same user entered or altered, or warn when this is about to occur.
• The Risky Document Report (DAFR9840) identifies documents that the same user entered or altered and then released for processing. This report enables agency management or internal and external auditors to easily identify these documents.