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Reconciliation Procedures

All Financial Transactions must be the result of official university business and/or agency transactions. Policy 2114 -

Financial Management covers basic financial accountability and reconciliation practices. Units should follow these

procedures to maintain consistent financial management practices, timely reconciliation, and certification of Financial

Reconciler Steps

1. Retrieve MicroStrategy Reconciliation Reports.

2. Review the activity to ensure accuracy of accounting record, appropriateness of charges, and sufficient

supporting documentation (including Banner Finance).

3. Identify significant or questionable transactions and review source documents. Source documents such as

receipts, invoices, and other documentation may be saved in a central file within the unit’s shared drive or MS

Teams. Some financial transaction records may be viewed in the following locations:

a. Accounts Payable Invoice shared files: fsvc.Invoice{year}. For access please email llucas4@gmu.edu.

b. Mason Finance Gateway (MFG): paid travel and expense documentation. Guidance in the MFG Basic

User Reports guide.

this fiscal year and additional training will be provided)

8. Email the Approver that the reconciliation is ready for their review, noting the reconciliation file location.

Department Approver

Approvers review and certify that financial activity recorded in Banner Finance and results of the reconciliation(s) are

reasonable and accurate. The review shall include a comparison of budget to actual and year-over-year actual results

where applicable, and trends or areas of concern should be identified. For significant deviations from expected results,

variances shall be investigated and reasons documented, along with any necessary corrective action plan.

Approver Steps

1. Review the work of the Department Reconciler paying close attention to significant or questionable, and ensure

that previously noted corrections have been resolved.

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2. Analyze the comparison of budget to actual and year-over-year actual results and identify trends or areas of

concern.

3. Identify significant deviations from expected results, investigate variances, document reasons, and note any

necessary corrective action plan.

4. Sign and date the Reconciliation Certification in Smartsheet. (The Smartsheet process will be implemented later

this fiscal year and additional training will be provided)

Principal Investigator (PI)

PIs shall review the financial activity for sponsored projects and certify that the results of the reconciliation(s) are

reasonable and accurate. The review shall ensure that transactions are made for the intended purpose of the grant or

contract, and in accordance with sponsor requirements as well as university policies and procedures for their sponsored

the follow-up.

Reconciliation Certification

Mason will be implementing a new sign-off process using the Smartsheet application. Additional information about this

process and end-user training is forthcoming. Each unit is responsible for ensuring that reconciliation’s are being

performed and reviewed during this time of transition.

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Organization Reconciliation Reports (MSTR)

New reports have been developed for reconciliation in MicroStrategy (MSTR). The Reconciliation Summary is a starting

point and contains a summary by Org and Fund along with a breakdown of Revenue and Expense grouped by

department. From this report you can easily link to the following documents:

All three reports are listed in the Organization Reconciliation folder and can be accessed separately. Users can open the

1. Login to MicroStrategy using your Net ID and Patriot password. Additional information, including the login link

for MicroStrategy is available at https://its.gmu.edu/service/microstrategy/.

2. Select Patriot Reporting > Shared Reports > Reconciliation > Organization Reconciliation

3. And then Reconciliation Summary select. From this report you can

also link to the other two documents – instructions are provided later

on in this guide.

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3. Enter the report parameters:

a. Fiscal Year – the fiscal year you want to be included in the report. Note:

Patriot Reporting contains details for FY23 - forward. Use the

Administrative Project for FY22 and prior years.

b. Start Fiscal Month Name – the beginning month for the transactions you

want to review. You can Search for the month or use the drop-down

arrow to select the desired month.

– Org L5. Most reconciliation will take place at the Org L5 level.

d. Click the “Save the answer when report is run” check box and Name give

the parameter a Name. This will allow you select the parameter the next

time you run the report.

automatically populate every time you run the report.

a. Add View Filter Condition – allows you to apply a Filter.

b. Re-prompt – allows you to change the report

parameters (Fiscal year, Start/End Month).

c. Swap Rows and Columns – will change the report view

so that the columns are displayed as rows.

7. Click on the Report Home tab to perform the following actions.

a. Save – to save a static copy of the report.

b. Share – to share a link to the report with other MSTR

users (login/access required).

c. Export – to download the report using a specific file

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2. The report will open in a browser tab. The report includes a Data

tab and a Summary tab. The Summary tab contains rollup

information for the Org, Fund, and Account codes.

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column. (Example: M13263)

2. The report will open in a new browser tab. The

results are displayed in a series of Tabs located at the

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12. To download the report, select Export and then choose Excel, PDF, or HTML.

changes have been made, click the “Run Report” button at the bottom of the

page to run the new report parameters.