General Accounting

General Accounting is located in the Tyler Hall building Room 407 E, F and L. This office is responsible for controlling and reporting the financial status of the University to internal and external parties.

To assist the departments in various tasks, the General Accounting staff is available to assist department heads, administrative assistants, and other appropriate University personnel to handle the following functions:

1. Verify the accuracy of their budgets and the transactions that are being posting to their cost centers.
2. Post requisitions to Banner Finance.
3. Approve requisitions on a timely basis. We recommend the various approvers to log in to Banner Finance at least daily for this task.

Please note that department heads, administrative assistants, and other appropriate University personnel should have a thorough understanding and knowledge of their departmental finances.

General Accounting staff is available to assist whenever possible but specifically will handle the following functions:

1. Banner Finance Activity
2. Out of State Travel Approval
3. Encumbering 'Request for Emergency Disbursement' and 'Petty Cash Forms'

While the General Accounting staff works constantly with the University’s departments in getting financial information posted on a timely basis and accurately to Banner Finance, they also work with the university community regularly on other functions such as:

1. Processing Requests for Contractual Employment
2. Processing Requests for Overtime

Banner Finance Activity

The General Accounting staff is available to assist persons in interpreting the financial screens, questions on specific transactions and, if needed, effectuate the adjusting entries when needed in Banner Finance. For individuals requiring "first time" access to Banner Finance and/ or departmental changes to existing access, visit the Banner Finance Access web page for detailed information and authorization forms. Banner Finance training information and materials can be found here.

Out of State Travel Approval

The General Accounting staff assigns and encumbers the travel approval number into Banner Finance after receiving the original, approved Out of State Travel Approval form. See the University Travel section for more specific information on travel approvals and expense accounts processing.

Payment Reimbursement and Check/ Payment Requests

The General Accounting staff assists with processing and encumbering the following form requests into Banner Finance:

• Expense Reimbursements for In-State / Out-of-State Travel
• Working Fund / Student Exchange Check Requests
• Petty Cash Reimbursements
• Student Group/ Organization Payment Requests
• Reimbursements for Non-Travel Related Expenses

Once the completed and signed form is forwarded to the Comptroller's Office, the General Accounting staff processes the request. Please note that forms including Working Fund Disbursements, Student Group/ Organization Disbursements and Reimbursements for Non-Travel Related Expenses are to be submitted in a timely manner; preferably 30 days in advance to have payments available by the preferred or requested due date. Please remember that all checks are now distributed by the Bursar's Office, Cashiering section and to verify check availability visit bursar.morgan.edu.

Working Fund / Student Exchange check requests are granted in cases where a purchase order number or department’s PCARD are not acceptable forms of payment and are based upon fund availability. To avoid last minute requests, please verify whether the vendor will or will not accept a purchase order number or the department’s PCARD for the expenditure. If you are requesting funds for a student group/ organization expenditure, verify your balance prior to making the request to ensure fund availability. Reimbursements for non-travel related expenses must follow the University's guideline on expenditures on behalf of Morgan State University.

To access forms and form infomation currently available online, click on the highlighted options above.

Processing Requests for Contractual Employment

Before the paperwork is forwarded to the Human Resources office, the General Accounting staff must verify the request has the appropriate signatures, financial forms, and funding.

Processing Requests for Overtime

Before the paperwork is forwarded to the Vice President for Finance & Management office, the General Accounting staff must verify the request has the appropriate signatures and funding.