Key Financial Controls

The Departmental Administrator has overall responsibility for ensuring that timely notification to Treasury is made for foreign currency payments requirements, and that the subsequent invoice is paid in accordance with the forward contract.

Identified below are the key financial controls that must be complied with.

  1. Notification of future payments in foreign currency, individually or totalling over £50k, is always sent to Treasury at least 3 months in advance of the payment due date.
  2. Where a forward contract is recommended, a formal request to purchase the foreign currency is sent to Treasury at the time of placing the order for the goods.
  3. An AP Payment Request Form (238kb) is always completed for foreign currency payments made by Treasury, authorised and sent to Treasury, together with the subsequent invoice and other supporting documents before the first payment is due.

Segregation of duties

One of the key financial control principles to be adopted in all University finance processes is the need to ensure no single member of staff completes all stages of any particular process. This principle requires an adequate 'segregation of duties' when designing work flows. As an example in the Foreign Currency Management process:

  • Staff who authorise the AP request form for foreign currency payments must not also complete the AP request form or raise the foreign currency forward contract request.
  • Staff who cancel the PO lines in respect of foreign currency payments must not have completed or authorised the AP request form for the invoices paid by those foreign currency payments.

For further advice on this subject please contact Financial Assurance Services.