1. Financial Management Internal Control
Monthly Financial Reconciliation
When we talk about Financial Internal Management Control, we think of financial reconciliation.

2. Financial Reconciliation
Required by BUMED Financial Reconciliation Reporting policy/guidance posted on the BFGD, DQ section.
Specific procedures are outlined in the Financial Reconciliation SOP, also posted on the BFGD
GAO Audits require supporting documentation
MEPRS/EAS financial information must be reconciled to SMART financial information
Civilian labor doesn’t match exactly
Military labor should match exactly
All other financial information should match exactly
Financial Reconciliation monthly reporting began with the Side-by-Side in Since then, enhancements have been made to the process to provide centrally managed, automated data load. Future enhancements include the ability to enter comments on the fin recon website directly.

3. Financial Reconciliation
MTF Monthly reports are provided to BUMED M84 MEPRS & DQ Program Support Office by the respective Region POC.
Region POCs are expected to review and approve the reports to ensure they comply with policy and requirements as outlined in the Financial Reconciliation SOP
Compliance is tracked
Status of program is that compliance is improving and data quality is improving. However, neither are perfect (YET!)
We will review the program and talk about approaches to take to ensure painless financial reconciliation. We started with the fiscal year prep, and later will talk about best practices and data quality checks to improve your financial reconciliation data even more.

4. Financial Reconciliation
Color Coding
Yellow – late reporting – requires explanation, effective now.
If no report and no TT or other mitigating reason is received, red color will be used.
Orange – extension. Not automatically granted; must be requested.
Source: FY 10 Financial Reconciliation Compliance Matrix

5. Financial Reconciliation
Note that beginning in FY 10, the Financial Reconciliation website is updated twice per month to accommodate retransmissions. Be reminded that if your data is retransmitted, you must submit a revised financial reconciliation report to show the most current data.
Why? (audits)
Source: Systems Processing Schedule
BFGD, Tables Section, MEPRS/EASi Folder

6. Financial Reconciliation Source Systems
(SMART)
Fin Recon W/S
MEPRS/EAS Financial File
Personnel (DMHRSi)
EAS
Workload (CHCS WAM)
EAS Central Repository M2
Several sources of data for Fin Recon website include MEPRS/EAS financial data, including personnel costs. The systems or inputs shown in green provide information
To the financial reconciliation website.
Note that SMART provides the same data to the MEPRS/EAS financial file and to the financial reconciliation website. There should be no differences in the totals between these two (except bypass file amounts that are not included in the fin file).
Manual (Financial & Workload)
MEWACS
DENCAS
DMLSS Square Footage
Bypass File
Other Manual Data

7. Financial Reconciliation
The source system for MEPRS/EAS financial data is STARS/FL/SMART. For GAO audit purposes, we must reconcile MEPRS/EAS financials to the source system. This is why it is imperative that we ensure that our MEPRS/EAS financial totals are the same as the source system data as contained in the Financial Pure File.
If there are discrepancies in your financial reconciliation, you must look in your own EAS processing for the explanation, not in the financial systems. You will not find explanations in the financial source systems to discrepancies that came from your processing of the data.
Source: Financial Reconciliation SOP

8. Financial Reconciliation
Would you like to report this data?
Financial reconciliation is reconciliation of SMART and MEPRS/EAS financial and military labor expenses and obligations provided centrally at the eDQ financial reconciliation page. Reports must be submitted in compliance with the requirements of the SOP.
SMART is the source for MEPRS/EAS financials and military labor
DMHRSi creates military labor file and sends to SMART monthly.
Monthly reporting required per the Systems Processing Schedule
Provides a tracking of corrective actions
Reporting requires comments to be provided on all differences. This report does not provide comments.
And now…the REST of the story: after some research by the regional POC for this activity, it was found that JUNE EAS data was loaded to MAY for this activity.
In years past, many activities’ data looked like this.
Source: Financial Reconciliation Website

9. Financial Reconciliation
This is a clean report. All differences are explained.
Note that some very large MTFs have few to no differences. Why is this?
(source systems and tables alignments, or correct adjustments)
Source: Site Financial Reconciliation Report

10. Financial Reconciliation
For painless financial reconciliation of military labor:
Ensure you have transmitted your DMHRSi SMART military labor file on time
Transmission matrix
Ensure you review the DMHRSi Mismatched JON weekly and correct any mismatched JONs
Military labor tab on Financial Reconciliation Report must address all differences
Reference dollar amount of mismatched JONs
Reference transmissions matrix if DMHRSi SMART military labor file was sent late or a retransmission was made
Reconciliation of military labor is required! You must not leave any little bit of difference unexplained. Don’t wait until the last minute to do your fin recon reports, and use the tools provided, as well as keeping track of your DMHRSi processings and SMART transmissions.

11. Financial Reconciliation
Step 1 for painless military labor processing and reconciliation – ensure you have transmitted your military labor file on time and that you track differences in any retransmissions. Check the transmissions matrix 24 hours after you transmit a file to ensure it was received and is logged on the report.
Keep track of the total expense on the transmission and any changes. This will help you with reconciliation.
Source: DMHRSi Transmission Matrix
BFGD, Download Directory

12. Financial Reconciliation
Step 2 for painless military labor reconciliation:
Ensure your DMHRSi JONs are in FASTDATA. You can easily verify this and not wait until the file is transmitted and the Mismatched JON list is published. 4F JONs on the mismatched JON list are due to incorrect recording of loaned personnel loaned from another activity. These must be addressed and not ignored.
The DMHRSi mismatched JON list is published weekly. WORK that file each week.
Source: DMHRSi Mismatched JON List
BFGD, Download Directory

13. Financial Reconciliation
Military labor difference is fully explained. Mismatched JON list shows the same amount for the BJON noted.
Must address entire expense difference. Not acceptable to “come close.” Report will be returned if entire amount is not explained.
Use correct tracking process and keep records so that when you need to explain, you will have the information. Be proactive with transmissions matrix, mismatched JONs and DMHRSi Tasks and Orgs.
Source: Site Fin Recon Military Labor Tab

14. Financial Reconciliation
Perfect Military Labor Reconciliation is possible!
This data is from one of our largest teaching hospitals.
Source: Site Fin Recon Military Labor Tab

15. Financial Reconciliation
As much information as possible on the civilian labor is very useful. We may be audited two years after the data is processed. Note that SEEC 11.5F entries must be explained, including the name of the person(s) and circumstances. Failure to provide will result in report being returned.
Note: compliance with the financial reconciliation reporting deadline is considered complete when a correct report is submitted that includes correct explanations, full explanation of military and civilian labor differences, correct format, etc.
Source: Site Fin Recon Civilian Labor Tab

16. Financial Reconciliation
For painless non-labor reconciliation
Compare Financial Pure File and Financial and Manual Direct Expense Accepted Report (DEAR) prior to final allocation to ensure both sets of cumulative expense and obligation are the same
Do not transmit if the totals are not the same
Include the report on a tab on the fin recon report beginning in June
Delete manual adjustments as shown on DEAR prior to re-importing a financial file
When making adjustments or transfers, make comments to remind you of where you moved the expense or obligation and why
For example: BHAA clinic closed for the month of May so no workload; moved expenses and obligations to BGAA.
Enter Bypass file entries every month
Use sensible, easy to understand comments on your financial reconciliation report
Comments explain the differences in a sensible, easy to understand way so that we can use them to explain to auditors when audited two or more years after the report is submitted.
DEAR/Pure File – do not try to run this report when you do the financial reconciliation report. As with the financial audit report, these must be run as part of your MEPRS/EAS financial processing and saved for use on the financial reconciliation report.

17. Financial Reconciliation
Compare the DEAR and Pure Financial File prior to transmission. Cumulative
totals should match in each file.
Must include as tab on financial reconciliation reports beginning in JUNE.
Source: Site DEAR/Pure File Comparison

18. Financial Reconciliation
New requirement to add DEAR/Pure file analysis tab to Fin Recon Report. This requirement begins with the June report.
Run DEAR/Pure file before transmission. If allocation errors are corrected, run again, before transmission. Do not transmit until the Difference is zero, or the same as the Bypass file total.
New Requirement to add DEAR/Pure analysis tab to Fin Recon report

19. Financial Reconciliation
Use sensible, easy to understand comments to explain differences
Comments must explain the difference. Accounting system or FASTDATA will not give you the answers. All differences will be explained by adjustments made during processing of fin file in MEPRS/EAS, including bypass file.
Be very careful of how you handle the E011 error. If you say the expenses are valid, EAS will bring them into your fin file. This is not the correct action to take. The fin file is considered the correct information. We will explore this issue later.
Source: Site Fin Recon Parent and Child DMIS ID Tabs

20. Financial Reconciliation
Make Bypass File entries monthly and comment correctly on the report.
If data was reprocessed, please include in comment when the data was reprocessed. If it is to be reprocessed, indicate what month will be reprocessed. After reprocessing, resubmit updated fin recon report with the corrected data. This is critical to ensure that we have accurate information/reporting for audit purposes.
Source: Site Fin Recon DMIS ID Tab

21. Financial Reconciliation
Know the contents of the Financial Reconciliation SOP. Check back frequently for updates. Refer to this document for help and guidelines about how to do financial reconciliation and how to prepare reports. Avoid having your report returned for non-compliance.
Know the contents of the Financial Reconciliation policy.

22. Fin Recon Website Parent DMIS ID summary screen.

23. We will do some research on SEEC 25.50.

24. SEEC summary screen shows differences in BEDA and BBAA.

25. As noted in the fin recon report shown a few slides ago, this expense was moved to a branch clinic from the core due to the closure of the Chiropractic Clinic at the core and its movement to the branch clinic.

27. Points of Contact Government POC
Colleen Rees,
CAI Team
Nicole Meyers,
ext. 601
Randy Van Nostrand,
ext. 602
Kate Burchess,
ext 104
Bonnie Rehbein,
ext. 603

28. Questions