Expense Transfer Procedures

Additional Navigation

Fund Transfer Procedures

General Accounting Staff

Cardinal Financial Chartfields

Financial Systems and Reports Resources

Financial Close Process

General Accounting Resources

Requesting a New Department ID

Inter-Departmental Charges Procedures

Expense Transfer Procedures

Closure of Cashier's Office on March 15th, 2019

The Expense Transfer Request Form is used for a non-salary expense adjustment, such as moving a paid expense from one department to another. The Expense Transfer Request Form cannot be used for Salary or Fringe Benefit adjustments. Any salary/fringe adjustments should be done via the Human Resources system. Please contact the Budget Office with questions regarding salary adjustments.

PCard Allocation

With the implementation of the Enterprise Spend Platform (ESP) PCard system the department is responsible to allocate the charges through the ESP System. There is a 10 day window of time to allocate PCard charges via the ESP P-Card system in PeopleSoft. Therefore, this form is not intended to transfer PCard charges.

Budget Considerations

If the funds in the Department Receiving the Expense are not sufficient to cover the charge(s), or if no budget exists for the Department, then the Department may require re-budgeting. Please contact your Budget Office representative prior to processing any expense in such instances.

Timing Considerations

The request should be submitted to General Accounting as soon as an error or other need for an adjustment has been identified. Because the University reports to the Board of Trustees and other parties on a quarterly basis these requests should not be submitted later than 60 days following the month in which the expense was originally charged and/or posted to the department. The Controller’s Office sends communications to campus financial users with the appropriate deadlines for each quarter. Timely transfer requests are important for ensuring accurate and complete financial reporting. If the transfer is requested more than 60 days after the original charge date, General Accounting will request that you complete additional information (Page 2 of the Form) so that we can understand the reason for the delay and work with you to avoid similar delays in the future.

Specific Form Field Instructions

Fiscal Year: The University’s fiscal year runs from May 1 to April 30. Deadlines for year-end requests are published to the campus in advance of April 30. Requests received after those deadlines will be processed in the next fiscal year or will not be processed, depending on the specific situation.

Reasons/Explanation: An explanation is required for all expense transfers for audit purposes. Please make the explanation specific to minimize requests for more information. Since these transfers are for actual expenditures that have already occurred and were allocated to a department, the explanation should note how the error occurred and why the charge is appropriate for the recipient department.
Example: Transposition error - When the digits of an account, or Dept ID number were transposed during processing. Example: DeptId 854000 was charged for an item that was supposed to be applied to DeptId 845000.

Accounts: Please use the account where the original expense was charged. All expense accounts are allowed.

Recipient Department: Department receiving the expense through the transfer.

Originally Charged Department: Department originally charged for the expense.

Fund: Please note these restrictions:

Funds 71 and above cannot be used.
Due to the unique regulations involved, expense transfers related to Fund 26 and 27 need to be requested through the Office of Sponsored Accounting.

Project: Necessary for any transfers involving project funds (Fund 39, and 53 only)

Description: Specific information about the expense being charged such as the vendor name and the invoice # with the date (30 characters limit).

Purchase Order#: If applicable

Original Voucher or Journal ID#: You may find it on Financial Detailed Transaction Report

Documentation Required - All expense transfer requests should be accompanied by supporting documentation:

Financial Detailed Transaction Report (a drilldown of the expense from PeopleSoft Financials).
For audit purposes, proper documentation of the expense should accompany each transfer request (a copy of the voucher/invoice). The documentation should show the actual expense(s) to be transferred (as shown on the Detailed Transaction Report), not simply a total for the expense category.
Grouping Similar Expense Categories: Multiple expenses within the same expense code may be grouped together as one line of entry on the Expense Transfer Request Form. The department requesting the transfer should show how the amounts total on the documentation to equal the total transfer amount.
Allocating Expenses: When allocating expenses to multiple accounts, an explanation of the method of allocation used to determine the amount charged to each account should accompany the Expense Transfer Request Form.

Approvals Required and Completion

The Expense Transfer Request Form requires signatures of authorization by an authorized representative of the department accepting the charge. Approvals may be physical signatures or electronic. Physically signed forms may be scanned and emailed CUA-GenAccounting@cua.edu.

Occasionally, it may be necessary for General Accounting to return the form for additional information/ documentation. In such instances, General Accounting will provide notification as to why the form is being returned. Please obtain the additional information required and resubmit it, along with the request, to General Accounting. If you have any questions, please call X5013.