The Fiscal Officer (FO) provides the day-to-day oversight on how the funds of an account are spent and managed. Although additional workflow approvals can be configured to satisfy the business needs of each department, the Fiscal Officer is the one individual who must approve all documents relating to their accounts.

Although the role of Fiscal Officer can be delegated by document type, the fiscal officer should not be a person who will simply delegate the role to another individual on a permanent basis. More information regarding delegating responsibilities, as well as accommodating additional workflow requirements will be forthcoming.

Generally, the Fiscal Officer should have the authority and knowledge to ensure that:

• Funds are budgeted appropriately

• Funds are spent according to fiscal policy and in alignment with the account purpose

• Processes and controls are in place

• Assets are safeguarded

• Transactions are recorded and reported properly

• The account is reconciled monthly

• Expenditures are in conformity with the budget

• Appropriate budget changes have been made to reflect changes in the original budget

Fiscal Officer Suggestions: Business managers, fiscal managers, assistant finance directors, grants and contracts specialists/managers, etc.

Is the Fiscal Officer equivalent to FRS “Responsible Person”? Not necessarily. It has been common practice at UConn that the Responsible Person on an FRS account is, for example, a department head who ultimately delegates the day-to-day duties down to a business manager or fiscal manager. It is this individual who performs the day-to-day duties who should be named the Fiscal Officer. We have learned from other universities who have implemented KFS that this is consistent with best practices in higher education institutions.

How are the Account Supervisor and Account Manager getting assigned? In KFS, there are 3 names associated with each account: The Fiscal Officer, the Account Supervisor, and the Account Manager. Only the Fiscal Officer has workflow responsibilities.

For the implementation, we have standardized the process to assign Account Supervisor and Account Manager. On a grant account, the PI will be the Account Supervisor, and the department head will be the Account Manager. On a non-grant account, the department head will be the Account Supervisor, and the dean will be the Account Manager. The Account Supervisor and the Account Manager can be changed after Go-Live at the department’s discretion.

Below are general definitions of Account Supervisor and Account Manager:

Account Supervisor: The supervisor oversees the management of the account at a higher-level than the fiscal officer, but rarely receives any direct requests for action from the KFS. The account supervisor cannot be the same as the fiscal officer or the account manager.

Account Manager: The account manager has the responsibility for ensuring that funds are spent and managed according to the goals, objectives and mission of the organization, to ensure that the funds are being spent according to a budgeted plan and that the allocation of expenditures is appropriate to the function identified for the account.