Pell Reconciliation and Open Q&A PACE Spring Conference April 2014 Reconciliation Definition and Purpose The process by which records from one system are compared to records from another system, and any discrepancies are identified and resolved Example balancing a checkbook Reconciliation - Fulfills a responsibility to safeguard federal funds Ensures funds are used as intended Contributes to the integrity of Title IV programs 2 Three Key Components Financial Aid Office Business Office G5 COD 3 U.S. Department of Education 1
Accounting and Recordkeeping Schools must maintain, on a current basis Financial records that reflect all program transactions General ledger control accounts and related subsidiary accounts identify all program transactions and separate those transactions from all other transactions Program subsidiary ledgers Credit balance ledgers 4 Sample Pell Grant Ledger 5 Sample Pell Grant Ledger 6 U.S. Department of Education 2
Pell Reconciliation Steps Begin with internal reconciliation Compare Business Office records Cash drawdowns and returns Credits and debits to student accounts To Financial Aid Office records Actual disbursement and adjustment records Determine if Business Office records for net disbursements posted to student accounts match the actual net disbursements in the Financial Aid Office records 7 Pell Reconciliation Steps Compare reconciled internal records to ED records Do the net accepted and posted disbursements posted to student accounts match net accepted disbursements in COD? Do net cash drawdowns match net total drawdowns in G5? Use COD funding screens and Electronic Statement of Account (ESOA) from COD Reconciliation and Year-to-Date reports may also be used Records must be reconciled at the student level 8 Electronic Statement of Account ESOA summarizes the school s Current Funding Level (CFL) versus the net drawdown for the year Report includes - Year-to-date unduplicated recipient count Year-to-date total accepted and posted disbursements Net payments drawn in G5 up to an including the current processing day 9 U.S. Department of Education 3
Pell Reconciliation Report This report provides total year-to-date disbursement amount per student with COD Report can be downloaded, printed or imported into a spreadsheet for comparison with school data Provided upon school request Report includes Origination award amount Year-to-date accepted disbursements 10 Pell Year-to-Date Report The Year-to-Date (YTD) report may be requested for one student, or for all Pell Grant recipients at the school Contains detailed award and disbursement data at a transaction level Can be used for reconciliation or to replace a corrupt school database 11 COD Report Tools The Department recently released report readers for the Reconciliation and YTD reports that provide a simplified way of importing the reports into Excel for use in reconciliation See Electronic Announcement January 28, 2014 http://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/012814availabilityofcod ReportReaders.html Access readers via Today s Update on COD homepage COD also provides computer-based training on how to use the system and its reports 12 U.S. Department of Education 4
all discrepancies have been identified and resolved all monthly reconciliation efforts have been documented timing issues are tracked for reconciliation in next month s ESOA reasons for any Ending Cash Balance have been identified Monthly Reconciliation is Complete When 13 Time for Questions on Any Topic! 14 Training Evaluation To ensure quality training, we ask all participants to complete an online evaluation for each session Go to https://s.zoomerang.com/s/byronscott Evaluation form is specific to Feedback is a tool to help us improve our training and to listen to our customers Please provide any comments regarding this training or the trainer to: Jo Ann Borel, Title IV Training Supervisor joann.borel@ed.gov 409-579-3776 15 U.S. Department of Education 5
Contact Information If you have follow-up questions about this session, contact me at:, Training Officer byron.scott@ed.gov 312-730-1534 16 U.S. Department of Education 6