A2513 DEPOSITORY BANK ACCOUNTS - FINAL 7-8-19.DOCX

MARICOPA COUNTY INTERNAL POLICY
Policy Number: A2513
Policy Title:
Current Adoption
x-x-xxxx
DEPOSITORY BANK ACCOUNTS Date:
Current
x-x-xxxx
Implementation Date:
Board Agenda
Approved by: Number:
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Original Adoption
June 2012
Date:
I. PURPOSE
To establish procedures and guidance for County Departments on the appropriate usage and
reconciliation of Depository Bank Accounts.
II. AUTHORITY
Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) § 11-491 authorizes the County Treasurer to keep all money
belonging to the County. A.R.S. § 11-492 directs all County Departments to submit public
monies to the County Treasurer.
III. APPLICATION
This Policy applies to all Maricopa County elected and appointed departments as well as the
Flood Control District of Maricopa County, the Maricopa County Library District, and the
Maricopa County Stadium District (Special Districts). The Board of Supervisors is authorized
to jointly adopt policies applying to the Special Districts under the Intergovernmental
Agreement, C-06-18-393-6-00, approved on April 11, 2018.
IV. DEFINITIONS
A. Accounting String: Specific accounting codes used by the County’s financial accounting
DRAFT system to identify, process and post transactions to the proper fund, department, unit,
agency, activity, and revenue and/or expense object codes.
B. Agency Web: County Treasurer’s portal which facilitates the revenue processing cycle
and allows users to view Fund account balances, activity and various month-end reports.
Departments upload CRTs directly to this website.
C. Bank Statement: A statement produced by the County’s servicing bank which lists all
financial transactions occurring in the Depository Bank Account over a period of time,
generally one calendar month.
D. Cash Receipt Transmittal (Cash Receipt – CRT): An internal County document utilized
by Departments to record and post Depository Bank Account transactions directly to the
Treasurer’s accounting system and simultaneously subsequently to the County’s financial
accounting system. The CRT is uploaded directly to the Treasurer’s accounting system
while a nightly interface creates a draft of the identical transaction in the County’s financial
accounting system.

Policy Title: Policy Number: A2513
DEPOSITORY BANK ACCOUNTS Current Adoption
xx-xx-xxxx
Date:
E. Department: For the purpose of this policy, “Department” refers to any division of the
County, including elected and judicial branch offices and Special Districts.
F. Treasurer’s Depository Bank Account (Depository Account): A bank account
established for the benefit of a specific Department by the Treasurer with the County’s
servicing bank which allows for deposits of public monies by Departments. While
operational transfers (also known as “sweeps”) are performed periodically by the
Treasurer, Departments have no disbursement or withdrawal authority with this type of
account.
G. Treasurer’s Bank Ledger Account (Bank Ledger Account): One of two accounts on
the Treasurer’s general ledger (e.g., 115XXX-100-XXXX) that records the Depository
Account transactions directly from the bank. A summary of transactions is electronically
remitted to the Treasurer by the servicing bank on a daily basis and recorded to the Bank
Ledger Account with an offsetting entry to the corresponding Clearing Account (defined
below). As this occurs via an electronic interface, the Bank Ledger Account must always
be in agreement with the servicing bank balance.
H. Treasurer’s Clearing Account (Clearing Account): One of two accounts on the
Treasurer’s general ledger (e.g., 210100-100-1000-XXXX-XXXXX) that facilitates the
recording of depository account transactions from the servicing bank to the County’s
account ledgers (on both the Treasurer’s and the County’s financial accounting systems).
Amounts are transferred out of the Clearing Account ledger and posted to the identified
County Fund(s) using a department-created CRT submitted to and processed by the
Treasurer.
DRAFT
I. Treasurer’s Agency Fund Ledger Detail Reports: Month-end reports produced by the
Treasurer reporting all posted transactions for all accounts maintained by their accounting
system, including the Bank Ledger Account and Clearing Account. The reports are
available to authorized users at https://treasurer.maricopa.gov/AgencyWeb.
V. POLICY
A. County Departments experiencing a financial or operational burden in making deposits
directly with the Treasurer’s Office may request approval to open a depository account with
the County’s servicing bank in order to facilitate the deposit process.
B. The County Treasurer is responsible for establishing new depository accounts. Requests
for new depository accounts must receive prior approval from the Department of Finance
and the Treasurer’s Office and must be established with the County’s servicing bank.
C. Departments are required to justify the need for a depository account both when requesting
a new account and on an ongoing basis, once the account is established. Additionally,
Departments must fulfill their fiduciary responsibility with the use of the account as the
account is to be used primarily for revenue processing.
D. The Director (or designee) of each Department is responsible for establishing and adhering
to internal controls that ensure adequate security and segregation of duties for cash
handling, recording, and reconciling the depository account transactions.
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Policy Title: Policy Number: A2513
DEPOSITORY BANK ACCOUNTS Current Adoption
xx-xx-xxxx
Date:
E. Departments are only allowed to make deposit transactions. Departments are not granted
check issuance or other disbursement authority. The servicing bank is allowed to make
deductions from a depository account for returned/dishonored checks, deposit corrections,
credit card processor fees and chargeback transactions. Allowable Department deposit
transactions include, but are not limited to:
1. Cash and checks received for payment of services, fines, fees, etc.,
2. Credit card settlements for payment of services, fines, fees, etc., and
3. Electronic payments received as reimbursements or advances from various
governments (Federal, State, and Local Governments) for grants and for payment of
services, fines, fees, etc., provided by the County.
F. Deposit transactions to a Depository Account can only be made by the following methods:
1. In person at the Treasurer’s Office,
2. In person at the County’s servicing bank,
3. Via an armored car delivery to the County’s servicing bank,
4. Via an electronic Image Direct Deposit (IDD) check reader,
DRAFT 5. Via an electronic direct deposit made by Automated Clearing House (ACH) or wire
transfer,
6. Via a lockbox service established at the servicing bank for mailed in payments.
G. Departments are encouraged to request electronic payment methods and/or automated
equipment, such as ACH, wire transfers, credit cards, IDD check readers, ATMs and
kiosks, which allow for less check/cash handling by employees, stronger internal controls,
and timely receipting of deposits.
H. To effectively record revenue transactions in the proper accounting period, Departments
must record their depository transactions in a timely and accurate manner in both the
Treasurer’s and County’s financial systems. Transactions not processed within the same
month of the deposit date at the bank will result in timing differences on the month-end
reconciliation.
I. Depository clearing accounts must be reconciled by an employee whose job duties are
independent of cash handling or recording functions within 30 days of month-end close. All
reconciliations and supporting documentation must be retained in accordance with record
retention policies.
J. Fiscal year-end reconciliations for June activity must be submitted to the County Treasurer
and the Department of Finance within 45 days of year-end close.
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Policy Title: Policy Number: A2513
DEPOSITORY BANK ACCOUNTS Current Adoption
xx-xx-xxxx
Date:
K. The depository account is subject to external auditor review and/or read only electronic
access at any time by the Department of Finance, Internal Audit, and the Budget Office.
L. Failure to comply with all requirements listed herein shall result in the closure of the
Department’s depository bank account.
VI. RECORDING TRANSACTIONS
A. Departments must upload a Cash Receipts Transmittal form (CRT) formatted as a .csv file
to the Treasurer’s accounting system (Agency Web) for all depository account transactions
in order to ensure revenues and/or expenditures are recorded in the proper accounting
period and to the proper fund.
B. Delays in submitting CRTs may result in difficulty performing account reconciliations and
research as well as a loss of interest income to the depositing fund.
C. Departments collecting receipts directly should deposit amounts at the bank daily, and
should timely upload the corresponding CRTs. Documentation for all CRT uploads, at a
minimum, should include the following information depending on the type of transaction:
1. Deposits: date, accounting template number, complete Treasurer accounting string,
amount deposited, preparer and approver names (required to be two different
Department or County personnel).
DRAFT 2. Deposit adjustments or deductions (e.g., returned dishonored checks, bank
charges, and/or credit card invoice fees): date, accounting template number, complete
Treasurer accounting string, adjustment amount indicated with a minus sign in front
of the amount “-X.XX” and preparer and approver names (required to be two different
Department or County personnel).
D. Other adjustments and corrections, such as those for monies deposited to the wrong
Treasurer’s fund/account, should be processed as a journal entry (JV) in the financial
accounting system, which will automatically update the Treasurer’s accounting system
during the nightly interface process.
VII. RECONCILIATIONS
A. Departments must obtain the month-end general ledger reports for the Treasurer’s clearing
account corresponding to each depository account in order to reconcile the account on a
monthly basis. The reconciling process will identify missing or incorrect postings of
deposits, unrecorded charges/fees (i.e., deductions), bank errors, departmental input
errors and deposits in transit.
1. Month-end general ledger reports are also known as “Agency Fund Ledger Detail”
reports and are located on Agency Web.
2. CRTs should be prepared and uploaded to Agency Web in a timely manner with
accurate information to ensure the Treasurer’s Clearing Account (210100-100-1000-
XXX-XXXX) maintains a zero ($0.00) balance.
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Policy Title: Policy Number: A2513
DEPOSITORY BANK ACCOUNTS Current Adoption
xx-xx-xxxx
Date:
3. Interest income is not earned on monies which remain in the clearing account until a
CRT is submitted to transfer the monies to the proper Fund.
B. Banking transactions are transmitted electronically by the servicing bank to the Treasurer
and recorded to two (2) separate ledger accounts in the Treasurer’s system. Therefore,
Departments must reconcile the following two accounts in the Treasurer’s general ledger:
1. Bank Ledger Account (115XXX-100-XXXX) – Under normal circumstances, the month-
end servicing bank statement balance and the ending balance on the Treasurer’s
Agency Fund Ledger Detail report should be in agreement. If there is a discrepancy,
the situation must be researched immediately and corrective action taken. In these
instances, Departments should notify the Treasurer’s office immediately.
2. Clearing Account (210100-100-1000-XXX-XXXX) – The Treasurer’s clearing account
is designed to be a pass-through account only. All transactions are cleared (i.e, zeroed
out) when the Department uploads a CRT in .csv format directly to Agency Web for
each depository account transaction occurring during the month.
a. A balance in the clearing account at month-end indicates that there are transactions
remaining for which no corresponding CRT has been uploaded or processed at
month-end. With the exception of timing differences, only a CRT upload will resolve
the discrepancy and bring the balance to zero. The most common reconciling items
consist of the following:
DRAFT i. Deposits without a CRT (i.e., unprocessed by the Treasurer and therefore, not
posted in the Financial accounting system).
ii. Deposit adjustments (i.e., dishonored checks, errors etc.) without CRTs.
iii. Bank deductions (i.e., charges/fees) without CRTs.
iv. Bank/department errors (i.e. keying errors).
C. For further clarification on reconciliation procedures, see the Depository Account
Reconcilation Manual for specific information, detailed procedures and document
examples. The manual is located at https://mymc.maricopa.gov/205/Cash-Management.
The Depository Account Reconciliation Manual is for reference only and not considered
part of the policy. It may be updated, as deemed necessary, to accommodate the effective
administration of this policy.
Revision History
Version Revision Date Description of Revision
1 06-20-2012 Initial version. (C-18-12-044-6-00)
2
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