Finding 1154225 (2024-001)

Assistance Listing Numbers 93.658 Foster Care Title IV-E 93.667 Social Services Block Grant Federal Agency U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Pass-Through Agency Wisconsin Department of Children and Families Award Numbers / Years Various Criteria: Per 2 CFR §200.430 - Compensation—personal services, charges to Federal awards for salaries and wages must be based on records that accurately reflect the work performed, are properly supported, and are consistent with the entity’s accounting records. Additionally, 2 CFR §200.303 - Internal Controls requires non-Federal entities to establish and maintain effective internal controls that provide reasonable assurance of compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and terms and conditions of Federal awards. Condition/Context: As part of our testing procedures over payroll, we reconciled amounts recorded on the Payroll Ledger to the General Ledger for each payroll sample that we tested. From a sample of 40, we noted two instances where the amounts recorded in the General Ledger did not agree with the corresponding amounts recorded in the Payroll Ledger. Our sample was not statistically valid. Effect: Inaccurate or unsupported recording of payroll costs increases the risk that unallowable or misstated payroll expenses may be charged to Federal awards. If not corrected, this could result in inaccurate financial reporting and potential questioned costs. Questioned Costs: None noted. Cause: Payroll Ledger records are generated from programmatic reports based on timesheet entries in the county’s Dayforce system. While manual adjustments or allocations of programmatic reports to the Payroll Ledger are sometimes made before these records are ultimately posted to the General Ledger, no formal reconciliations are performed to account for these changes. As a result, discrepancies between the programmatic reports and the General Ledger are likely whenever there are adjustments or allocations in the programmatic reports which are not posted on the General Ledger. Recommendation: We recommend that management strengthen internal controls over payroll reconciliations by: • Implementing a system review process to ensure Payroll Ledger amounts reconcile to the General Ledger. • Conducting periodic reconciliations between the programmatic reports, Payroll Ledger and General Ledger and promptly investigating any discrepancies. • Providing training to accounting personnel on proper reconciliation procedures. Views of Responsible Officials: Dayforce is configured to allocate salary expenses to an employee’s home agency and department, regardless of where the employee assigns their hours in the timekeeping system. While the timesheet programmatic reflects the agency and department where hours and dollars are functionally charged, the payroll register aligns with the General Ledger based on home agency coding. As a result, the Payroll Register and General Ledger will reconcile with each other but may not align with programmatic reports, which are based on timesheet-level allocations. This system behavior is consistent with current configuration and financial reporting practices.