University’s Accounting Cycle

The University’s fiscal year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30. GAO divides the year into monthly accounting periods and generates reports for each accounting period. Departments can locate the monthly closing schedule for the current fiscal year at www.events.georgetown.edu or at financialaffairs.georgetown.edu and click on the FY calendar for the appropriate month.

The month of June has the following three closings, which the Director publishes in May at the link mentioned above:

First Closing: is the period for departments to process journal vouchers, expense vouchers, invoices, various accrual entries, and other accounting entries which relate to June activity.

Second Closing: is additional time for departments to accrue any last minute June activity that was not captured in the first closing.

Final Closing: is the period for GAO to process audit adjustments and final transfer entries submitted by the University fiscal officers

June Closing Calendar: can be found at financialaffairs.georgetown.edu. Then locate the FY audit calendar and click on this link.

Departments must assign transactions to the appropriate accounting period, especially at the beginning of the fiscal year when the June closings occur. In July and August, departments must specify the fiscal year to which a transaction applies by indicating the fiscal year in the upper-right-hand corner of all paper accounting forms.

General Accounting Overview

The General Accounting Office (GAO) is responsible for the following daily accounting activities: processing journal vouchers submitted by departments, reconciling all University MasterCard/Visa accounts, reconciling all University cash accounts, recording incoming and out-going wires, and recording and processing returned checks. GAO provides monthly balance sheets, income statement and cash flow reports, and works closely with the Office of Financial Analysis to reconcile these reports. GAO works with external auditors at the close of each fiscal year to support the annual audit of the University financial statements.

In addition to the accounting duties set forth above, GAO accounts for gifts, endowments, plant, property and equipment. The gift analyst works closely with Office of Advancement (OA), recording gift transactions, monitoring gifts in the gift holding account, recording working capital investment activity and coordinating or preparing monthly financial statements related to gifts. The endowment analyst records all financial statement activity relating to the endowed investments. This area also works with OA to ensure gifts received are correctly stated in the endowment reporting system. The endowment analyst also works with UFS to ensure that detail information such as cost, market value and the number of units of each endowment are made available through financial access. Additionally, the endowment analyst prepares and records income distributions, budget projections, foundation and national reports and analyses. The plant analyst records and reports on the University plant fund, asset account and related debt financing. The plant analyst also records interest allocations and interfund transfers. The property analyst assures all of the universities assets are inventoried and recorded on the books.

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