AGA Today
Federal Accounting Corner
Imprest Fund and
Cash Reconciliation
New Guidance
Before FY2002,
imprest funds were treated like an advance. They had to be supported by
an obligation and were reported on the budgetary side by account 4802
Undelivered Orders - Obligations, Prepaid/Advance. On the FMS-2108
Year-end Closing Statement, creating an imprest fund reduced the cash at
Treasury (columns 2 and 5) and available funding (column 11). Starting
in FY2002, Treasury guidance required that the balance of the imprest
fund be committed and not obligated. Further, when the funds are
transferred from Treasury to the imprest fund, no advance should be
recorded.
Calculating
Cash
In order for the
Statement of Budgetary Resources (SBR) and the Year-end Closing
Statement (FMS-2108) to add up properly, proprietary and budgetary cash
must agree.
The permanent
budgetary cash accounts are 4201 Total Actual Resources - Collected and
4802 Undelivered Orders - Obligations, Prepaid/Advance. The temporary
accounts that close to 4201 at the end of the year are all
appropriations and other authority accompanied by warrants (4111-19,
4130 and 4138), transfers and adjustments accompanied by rescissions or
unexpended transfers (4125, 4128-29, 4150-52, 4167, 4170, 4173-76,
4190-95, 4290, 4351-56 and 4387-93), actual collections (4146-48, 4212
and 4252-77) and expenditures disbursed (4902, 4972 and 4982). The
accounts that close to 4802 are upward and downward paid obligation
adjustments (4872 and 4882) and paid obligation transfers (4832).
The proprietary
accounts treated as cash are 1010 Fund Balance with Treasury, which is
reported in column 5 of the FMS-2108 Year-end Closing Statement, and
1120 Imprest Funds, 1130 Funds Held by the Public, and investment in
negotiable securities (accounts 1611-13, 1618, 1620-21, 1630-31 and
1638) as shown in column 6 Other Authorizations of the FMS-2108.
In order to keep
these account balances in agreement, whenever a posting is made to one
type of cash (budgetary or proprietary), a posting must be made for the
same amount to the other type.
Imprest Fund
Transactions
The agency is
supposed to reserve the funds for an imprest fund by issuing a
commitment (entry D502 moving funds from account 4610 Allotments -
Realized Resources to 4700 Commitments - Programs Subject to
Apportionment), although this does not affect the SBR or FMS-2108.
Disbursements to create an imprest fund, or a collection to reduce or
close an imprest fund, have no budgetary posting because the transfer
between cash and the imprest fund has no net effect on proprietary cash.
This is an exception to the rule, because practically every other
disbursement of Fund Balance with Treasury in an appropriated fund does
post to budgetary cash as well.
Disbursements to
replenish the imprest fund do post budgetary accounts, because Fund
Balance with Treasury (1010) is changing, while the level of the imprest
fund account (1120) is not. The disbursements are generally recorded as
an advance issuance (entry B308) or a paid expenditure (B107).
Imprest fund cash
is inventoried like any other asset. If the amount of cash in the fund
changes without explanation, an expenditure (or expenditure reduction)
must be recorded for the amount of loss (gain). This entry (B108) is
reversed (by C137) if and when the cashier replenishes the fund. — by
Simcha Kuritzky, CGFM, CPA
This column is provided as part of a
free exchange of ideas in federal accounting, and is not reviewed
substantively before publication. Please send all comments, queries, or
corrections to
Simcha.Kuritzky@CGIFederal.com