RECONCILIATION/AUDIT SUPPORT

Challenge:

Federal Financial Management systems are being implemented without concern for meeting auditability requirements, which are required.

Solution:

Starry Associates provided Federal financial personnel to take the role of audit support. Starry Associates staff assured sufficient audit trail and reconciliation capability was implemented during the creation of the solution. In support of audits, our staff members:

• Validated functionality of user logon and function tracking
• Researched the data fields which lacked sufficient traceability within the system
• Validated the audit trail
• Assured that all financial requirements were met
• Provided reconcilable reports for audit requests

For the reconciliation efforts, Starry Associates:

• Developed a strategy for application integrity which validated that all processes ran successfully with the expected outcomes
• Developed a strategy for system (data) integrity which validated that all interface files processed successfully with sufficient tracking of errors at all control points
• Developed a strategy for financial integrity that reconciled all records in the subledgers, and from the subledgers to the General Ledger
• Provided operations support to assure the application, system, and financial integrity was maintained each day

Benefit:

Due to the above efforts, the Federal financial management system produced processes and reports that successfully passed the audit and reconciliation requirements of a SAS70 and financial audit. In addition, the legacy systems received a clean audit opinion.

The Starry Associates staff is currently working with the implementation of a new financial management system and is working with the client to achieve the same goal.