AGA Today
Federal
Accounting Corner - Appropriated Earmarked Receipts
by Simcha Kuritzky, CGFM, CPA
For most appropriated funds, the
Treasury warrant provides the cash, which is generally recorded with the
entry:
A104 Record
enactment of appropriations
Debit
1010 Fund Balance with Treasury
4119 Other Appropriations Realized
Credit 3100
Unexpended Appropriations
4450
Unapportioned Authority
However, Congress doesn't just
appropriate cash authority. Congress also appropriates borrowing
authority, contract authority, receipts and other types of authority.
The SGL Board added new accounts to deal with the peculiarities of
appropriated earmarked receipts in 2000.
An example of appropriated earmarked
receipts would be an agency that collects user fees, and Congress
appropriates a specific dollar amount of those user fees for the agency
to use for salaries and expenses (the remainder will be turned over to
the General Fund). The initial entry in the receipt fund for the
receipts are:
C188 Record
the collection of revenue into unavailable special fund receipt fund
Debit
1010 Fund Balance with Treasury
Credit 5200 Revenue from Services Provided
All the funds must be transferred into
the appropriated or expenditure fund. The entry to transfer the fund
balance out of the receipt fund is:
A183 Record
the amount of appropriated receipts in receipt fund
Debit
5745 Appropriated Earmarked Receipts Transferred Out
Credit 1010 Fund Balance with Treasury
The net effect of these postings for
the cash, which is collected and transferred to the appropriated fund,
is to debit 5745 and credit 5200. Both of these accounts close to 3310
Cumulative Results, so the post-close balance is zero in all accounts.
In the appropriated fund, the transfer
in of funding from the receipts fund within the dollar limit set by
Congress is recorded with the entry:
A184 Record
the amount of appropriated receipts in expenditure fund
Debit
1010 Fund Balance with Treasury
4114 Appropriated Special Fund Receipts
Credit 5740
Appropriated Earmarked Receipts Transferred In
4450
Unapportioned Authority
Now, a problem arises when the funds
are expended, since the funds which came from the appropriation would
become a financing source on expenditure (recognized by entry B134 dr.
3107 Unexpended Appropriations - Used cr. 5700 Expended Appropriations),
while the funds which came from the transfer already use 5740 as their
financing source, and so would not post to 5700 (as per SFFAS 7 ¶330).
If it is not feasible to segregate expenditures against the two
different funding sources, then the agency would have to record the
appropriations used on all expenditures, and back out the amount of the
earmarked receipts after the fact. If an agency knows at the time of the
transfer that all the receipt funds will be expended during the year,
they could perform the backout entry with the transfer, which would be
recorded as:
A184v Record
the amount of appropriated receipts in expenditure fund
Debit
1010 Fund Balance with Treasury
5700 Expended Appropriations
4114 Appropriated Special Fund Receipts
Credit 5740
Appropriated Earmarked Receipts Transferred In
3107
Unexpended Appropriations - Used
4450
Unapportioned Authority
Any amount transferred in excess of the
dollar limit set by Congress will be recorded with the entry in the
expenditure fund:
A188v Record
the amount of unavailable appropriated receipts in expenditure fund
Debit
1010 Fund Balance with Treasury
4114 Appropriated Special Fund Receipts
Credit 5740
Appropriated Earmarked Receipts Transferred In
4394
Receipts Unavailable for Obligation Upon Collection
or the agency would keep these amounts
in the receipt fund and record this entry in addition to C188 above:
C142 Record
the collection of revenue into unavailable special fund receipt fund
Debit
5990 Collections for Others
Credit 2980 Custodial Liability
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.