Objective
To have a full set of unaudited financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2023 made
available to Mazars before they commence their final audit visit in January 2024 and to be available
to upload to the C&AG by their 31 December 2023 deadline.
Background
As part of our compliance regulations on US Federal Aid funding, we are required to submit fully signed
audited financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2023 to the US Authorities in respect
of accounts prepared under FRS 102 format and US GAAP format by 31 March 2024 or risk our future
funding.
The Financial Reporting unit extracts a trial balance from the eFinancials software which is primarily
set up and geared toward facilitating a set of HEA Funding Statements. In order to be GAAP compliant,
approximately 80 journals need to be prepared by various units within the Finance office and uploaded
to a detailed GAAP spreadsheet along with workings for various ancillary and subsidiary operations in
order to produce figures in the format that is required for the University’s consolidated financial
statements.
Several of these journals require extensive analysis based on what transactions are recorded within
eFinancials and can take weeks to prepare. As a result, it is important that all transactions that are
required to be entered to eFinancials are done so promptly in order that the necessary analysis and
reclassification work can be carried out in a timely fashion to meet the required audit deadlines
imposed by the C&AG and Mazars and ultimately, the US Authorities.
Detailed audit files are also prepared in advance of the visit of the external auditors showing the
reconciliation from the extracted trial balance to the figures to be disclosed in the financial
statements.
Main planning/processing issues
The target date for the close off of period 13 for 2023 is roughly the same as in previous years as the
deadlines for the auditors remain very tight with the same volume of complex work to be completed
before their arrival.
Mazars will pay an interim visit at the end of November 2023. This visit will be used to carry out
compliance testing such as enquiry of processes and controls currently in place. They will evaluate
such information and then carry out specific testing on the relevant controls.
In addition, they will review some elements of the year end related work which are complete at the
time of their interim visit. These areas will be agreed with them at an audit planning meeting. It is
imperative that the agreed audit files are complete and accurate as any amendments have to be
carried over for review at the final audit stage, slowing up that process.
It is important that all deadlines are achieved especially as to the completeness of entries posted to
period 13. We will be required to provide Mazars with a trial balance from eFinancials at the beginning
of the interim audit along with a complete datafile of all transactions for the full financial year on
which they can then carry out their data analytics analysis.
Late journals have to be included as new GAAP journals and a reconciliation is needed to show the
external auditors the current eFinancials position versus the original produced to them and the impact
on the GAAP accounts. Late journals also mean that certain GAAP journals from previous years have
to be identified and reversed. In addition, late journals have a significant impact on the GAAP journals
prepared as part of the consolidation workings as these journals need to be reviewed again to assess
and correct the impact of the late journals. All this causes undue delay in getting clearance from the
external auditors as they need to understand and verify what we are processing. Given the tight
deadlines again this year, it’s important we avoid the need to have any of these late journals.
The consolidation process will be substantiated by Mazars when they return for their final visit in
January 2024. In order for the consolidation process to be completed on time all intercompany trading
details for ancillaries and subsidiaries will need to be submitted by 10 November 2023.
A list of files and a list of “prepared by client” points normally generated by the external auditors each
showing the targeted deadline date to facilitate the audit process will be circulated. Again, items
received after the deadline slow up the process and require a review of other known impact areas, so
completion by the deadline is imperative to keep the whole process on track.
Mazars will be required to audit the US GAAP accounts in conjunction with the Irish GAAP accounts
due to the deadlines imposed by the US Department of Education to file audited US GAAP accounts
as well as our own FRS 102 accounts. The draft US GAAP accounts are based on the Irish GAAP version
submitted for audit subject to a number of journals to account for the differing GAAP regulations as
between the two codes. Any subsequent amendments to Irish GAAP figures are mirror imaged in the
US GAAP accounts during the audit clearance process so it’s important to avoid any late adjustments.