338.1 - Collection and Deposit
.
Date: 2/25/1991
OPR: Administration/Financial Management
1. Purpose. This Chapter prescribes the forms and procedures to be observed by USGS offices authorized to receive and deposit funds for credit to accounts of the U.S. Treasury.
2. Scope. Included are general guidelines and procedures for safeguarding monies collected; instructions for the preparation and adjustment of Standard Form 215, Deposit Ticket; instructions for presenting or mailing deposits to authorized depositaries or Federal Reserve Banks; and instructions for collections from State and local governments via the Treasury Financial Communications System and Lockbox Depositary Bank.
3. References.
A. SM 338.2 - Accounts Receivable, Sales of Publications and Other Products.
B. SM 338.4 - Collection of Debts.
C. SM 338.5 - Refunds - Publications and Other Products.
D. SM 338.6 - Cash Advances for Change Making.
E. SM 338.8 - Checks Payable Only by Foreign Banks.
4. Authority. Regulations governing deposits are included in I Treasury Fiscal Manual, Part 5 and Part 6, Chapter 8000, Section 8025.
5. Designated Offices and Employees. The offices listed in Appendix A are authorized to receive and deposit monies to the credit of the USGS. Each employee within a listed office who is designated as an accountable collection officer or agent receives written notification thereof from the Chief, Office of Financial Management in accordance with the provisions of SM 335.1.7.
6. Control of Collections. Monies the USGS is authorized to collect must be brought under immediate control and safeguarded in accordance with provisions of SM 335.1.8B. Collections received by any office not included in Appendix A will be transmitted to the Office of Financial Management with a copy of the USGS bill or other documentation identifying the funds received.
A. The following minimum requirements must be observed by all designated offices and employees:
(1) Collections must be recorded immediately upon receipt in order to reflect all undeposited amounts.
(2) Collections must be stored in a locked, fireproof container until deposit or other disposition.
(3) Collections of $1,000 or more must be deposited on the same day received prior to depositary cutoff time. Where same-day deposit is not cost effective, next day deposit of monies must be achieved.
(4) Collections of less than $1,000 may be accumulated and deposited when the total equals $1,000; however, deposits will be made by Friday of each week, regardless of the amount accumulated.
(5) When beneficial to the Government, multiple deposits will be made.
(6) The mailing of deposits (versus hand-carrying) to Federal Reserve banks or commercial banks may be done only when specifically authorized by Treasury. In these cases, the deposit timeframe requirements apply to timely mailing of deposits.
(7) Deposits will be made at a time of day prior to the depositary's specified cutoff time, but as late as possible to maximize daily deposit amounts.
(8) Only the designated collection officer, cashier, or alternate shall handle monies collected or advanced.
(9) Additional safeguards are contained in SM 335.1, 331 DM 1.1 and 331 DM 2.1.
B. Checks Received in Collections.
(1) Conditions of Acceptance. All checks received by any USGS office are accepted subject to collection. If any check cannot be collected or is lost or destroyed before it is credited, the USGS office concerned is responsible for obtaining the proper payment.
(2) Inscription of Checks. All checks for monies due the USGS should be made payable to the Department of the Interior/USGS. However, any remittance payable to the Treasurer of the United States should be accepted and processed, notwithstanding the inscription.
(3) Record of Checks Deposited. Records (or machine copies) of all checks should be kept to relate each check to the applicable Standard Form 215, Deposit Ticket. The record should be in sufficient detail so that if any check included in a deposit is lost, payment may be stopped immediately and a duplicate or substitute check obtained. At a minimum, the record should include the bank name and address (or Treasury check symbol), check or money order number and date, name of remitter, amount, and the date and number of the corresponding deposit.
C. Recording. Every office must maintain a record of each collection in sufficient detail to identify the transaction. Collections must be recorded as described below.
(1) Cash Registers. Ring all collections, including both cash and checks. Cash register tapes should show amounts collected, the date, and purpose of collection (account or object). The Standard Form 215 number on which the collections are deposited must also be shown on the tape (See SM 338.1.4C(3)). The tape is filed with the Agency copy of the Standard Form 215.
(2) Cash Journal. Those offices not having cash registers must record collections in a Cash Journal, Form 9-1196, or equivalent. Cash Journals will be retained in field offices for audit purposes.
(3) Overages and Shortages Unreconcilable with Cash Count at the Close of Business Each Day. A daily diary will be maintained in each collection office and will summarize the results of the day's transactions and balancing as follows:
Journal or Cash Register Tape- 3/10/87, 83.50. Cash Count and Deposit*, 82.90. Cash-Short, .60.
Journal or Cash Register Tape- 3/11/87, 60.30. Cash Count and Deposit*, 60.50. Cash-Over, .20.
* Do not include advance of funds for change-making purposes.
Entries in the cash journal or cash register will be made only for the amount of the sale. Any additional funds, such as change the customer leaves behind, will be deposited in the register, counted with cash, but will not be rung up or recorded in the cash journal.
Tape totals should be reconciled by the amount of overage or shortage to show the amount of deposit. Identifiable errors such as misrung sales should be noted on the tape and footnoted in the daily diary.
When a customer returns to reclaim change they have left behind and that change has already been deposited as part of a previous day's collection, a refund will be vouchered, signed by the customer, and recorded (refund key on cash register, if available) from the current day's receipts.
(4) Split Orders. Where one or more other offices are required to furnish items or products in order to complete an order, the office receiving the order will deposit the entire collection and forward the request with a reference to the deposit number to the office(s) furnishing the balance of the order. Forms 9-1413 and 9-1413a, Transfer of Sales, are used for this purpose (Form 9-1413 for maps and Form 9-1413a for books). Refunds, if necessary, are the responsibility of the office that cannot complete the order. (See SM 338.5.)
(5) Erroneous Orders. Requests received for orders that cannot be filled in the USGS are referred to the appropriate agency; if the disposition cannot be determined, they are returned intact to the remitter.
(6) Courtesy Collections for Other Agencies. Collections received by one office or station which are for credit to the accounts of another agency, office, or station should be avoided.
(7) Collections Resulting from Bills Rendered by USGS Offices. See SM 336.1 & 2.
(a) Collections on accounts from non-Federal sources for maps, publications, etc., are the responsibility of the offices filling the orders.
(b) Accounting copies of all other bills and their remittances are to be directed to the Office of Financial Management which is responsible for their collection and deposit.
(8) Furnishing Receipts. At the time a sale is made, a prenumbered or otherwise identifiable receipt must be issued either on the tear-off portion of a cash register tape or a standard Cash Receipt Form for offices not using cash registers.
7. Depositing.
A. Forms Used for Deposit and Adjustment. Standard Form 215, Deposit Ticket (See Figure 1), is to be used for recording all deposits for credit to the U.S. Treasury. Standard Form 215 is available from usual supply sources. Standard Form 5515, Debit Voucher, is to be used by banks for adjustments of previous deposits.
B. Authorized Depositary Banks. All authorized collecting offices will deposit their collections to the nearest Federal Reserve Bank or designated General Depositary Bank supported by Standard Form(s) 215, Deposit Ticket. If any authorized collection office lacks knowledge of a Federal Depositary in the local area, it should contact the Office of Financial Management where the names and locations of General Depositary Banks may be obtained. Where a justifiable need exists for a local bank to be designated as a Federal Depositary for USGS deposits, USGS field offices must request the Office of Financial Management to make necessary arrangements.
C. Depositing Requirements. Depositing offices must observe the requirements of local depositories as to the sorting and arranging of currency, furnishing tape, and the arrangement of large numbers of checks. Deposits will be made at a time of day prior to the depositary's specified cutoff time, but as late as possible to maximize daily deposit amounts. Any Treasury checks exceeding $5000.00 must be deposited with the nearest Federal Reserve Bank. A separate SF-215 should be prepared and transmitted with these checks.
D. Endorsement of Negotiable Instruments. The following endorsements are required on all negotiable instruments made to the order of the U.S. Geological Survey.
"For credit to the U.S. Treasury."
The agency location code (14-08-0001)
Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey
(Address of Office)
Deposit Ticket Number
(As preprinted on SF 215)
Date Deposited"
8. Preparation and Use of Deposit Ticket, Standard Form 215.
A. General. This form is designed to be processed on optical character recognition equipment; therefore, it is essential that the following regulations be strictly adhered to. Typing in blocks TWO, THREE, FOUR, and FIVE is critical. Entries in these blocks must be single-spaced horizontally and typed with certain fonts. Typeovers, erasures, and other corrections cannot be made to entries in these blocks. All depositors are requested to use American National Standards Institute's Optical Character Recognition A font (ANSI OCR-A) 10-pitch (ten characters to the inch) type when completing these blocks. If ANSI OCR-A is not available, PICA, 10-pitch should be used. An undesirable but acceptable type font is ELITE,12-pitch. Specialty types such as adjutant, advocate, artisan, courier, delegate, gothic, italic, scribe, script, etc., are not acceptable.
B. Entries Required. (See Figures 1 and 2 for illustrations and examples.)
(1) Deposit Number. Block ONE of Standard Form 215 contains a preprinted, six-digit deposit number which will be used by the Treasury Department's central accounting and reporting systems as the basis for generating audit and reconciliation reports for depositor agencies. Although this document is prenumbered, it is not necessary to account to Treasury for voided or spoiled forms.
(2) Date Presented or Mailed to the Bank. The depositor will type in Block TWO the date the document was mailed or presented to the depositary. The date will consist of two-digit, single-spaced groups in month, day, and year order, separated by hyphens, and zero-filled for single-digit dates.
(3) Agency Location Code. Block THREE will be completed using the 8-digit U.S. Treasury Agency Location Code assigned to the USGS "14-08-0001". Entries will be left-justified and single-spaced. Hyphens will be used after second and fourth digit of eight-digit symbol.
(4) Amount of Deposit. Block FOUR will contain the total amount of the deposit, including cents. Normal punctuation will be used, i.e., commas and decimal points; however, dollar and cent signs will be omitted. This amount will always equal the total of items shown in Block SIX.
(5) Date Confirmed by Bank. Blocks FIVE and EIGHT are related. The depositary enters the date of deposit in Block EIGHT of the Confirmed Copy and returns it to the depositor. When the Confirmed Copy is returned, the depositor will transcribe the confirmed date from Block EIGHT of the Confirmed Copy to Block FIVE of the Memorandum Copy. This entry will be of the same type style and spacing as the entries in Blocks TWO, THREE, and FOUR.
(6) Agency Use Area. Block SIX indicates the appropriation(s) to be credited. The appropriations(s) and amount(s) for each appropriation, if more than one appropriation is to be credited for the amount of the deposit, will be listed in Block SIX. Any deposit that includes collections for credit to another agency will show such amount in this block to appropriation 14X6875(08).
(7) The Name and Address of the Depositary will be entered in Block SEVEN.
(8) Date Confirmed. See SM 338.1.8B(5).
(9) Agency and Address of Depositor. Enter the name and address of the depositing office in Block NINE.
C. Deposit Process. Mail or present collections daily, supported by three copies of Deposit Ticket, Standard Form 215: the Original, the Depositary Copy, and the Confirmed Copy. Retain the Memorandum Copy and the Agency Copy. The depositing office will normally prepare only one Deposit Ticket for each Agency Location Code per day. However, when a depositary requires the submission of separate Deposit Tickets for currency and coin, and other types of remittances, separate Deposit Tickets will be prepared to support the total daily collection.
9. Courtesy Collections - General. Except for specific exceptions granted by the Department of the Treasury, Section 3030, Part V, Treasury Fiscal Manual requires that agencies shall make deposits for credit only to their own account; that is, their own Agency Location Code/Agency Accounting Station Code. Collections received for credit to another agency should be deposited by the collecting office, identified in Block THREE of the Standard Form 215 as a credit to the USGS account (14-08-0001), and classified in Block SIX to the USGS suspense account 14X6875(08) so that an interagency transfer (Standard Form 1080 or USGS Form 9-2048) may be prepared and forwarded to the agency for whom the collection was performed. In these instances:
A. Type on the reverse of the Agency Copy of the Standard Form 215 the name and address of the agency for whom the collection was performed and attach a document showing an itemized detail of the collection.
B. Mail the Agency Copy with attachment, the Memorandum Copy with confirmed date inserted in Block FIVE, and the Confirmed Copy to the Office of Financial Management where a Form 9-2048 or Standard Form 1080 will be prepared and a Treasury check drawn. Prepare and retain a photo or machine copy for the records of the collecting office.
If both the paying and receiving agencies report to Treasury on Standard Form 224, Statement of Transactions, the transaction will be accomplished using USGS Form 9-2048, OPAC Billing Request.
10. Adjustment. If an error is discovered after the Deposit Ticket has been released to a depositary, that document may not be recalled nor corrected, nor will the depositor prepare a corrected document. The depositor will contact the depositary and provide correct data.
A. The Depositary will prepare:
(1) An additional deposit Ticket for the difference if the deposit amount is to be increased; or
(2) A Debit Voucher, Standard Form 5515, for the difference if the amount is to be decreased.
B. The Depositor is responsible for obtaining the Memorandum Copy and Confirmed Copy of the adjustment document from the depositary and will transmit them to the Office of Financial Management as required below in SM 338.1.9.
C. Uncollectible Items. Standard Form 5515 is used to process an uncollectible item previously credited to a USGS or other agency account. Federal Reserve Banks and other depositories prepare this form and transmit necessary copies together with the uncollectible item to the depositing office (not the Office of Financial Management) for adjustment of accounts. The depositing office will proceed to collect the amount due, obtain necessary copies of the Debit Voucher, transcribe the deposit number on them, and send them to the Office of Financial Management.
11. Distribution of Deposit and Adjustment Documents.
A. Routine Transactions. Send the Memorandum Copy with confirmed date transcribed in Block FIVE and the Confirmed Copy to the Office of Financial Management, daily. (Copies sent to Financial Management must be from the original set; reproduced copies are not acceptable.) Retain the Agency Copy in the depositing office.
B. Courtesy Collections. See SM 338.1.7A.
12. Retention of Records. The USGS General Records Disposition Schedule, Item 703-04 provides that records relating to the custody and deposit of funds may be disposed of 3 years after the close of the year in which they originate.
13. Treasury Financial Communications System Deposits.
A. The Treasury Financial Communications System (TFCS) is a computer-to-computer link between Treasury and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) using the Federal Reserve Communications System (FRCS). Banks that maintain an account at a Federal Reserve Bank may send fund transfers to Treasury through the FRCS for credit to the account of the U.S. Treasury at FRBNY. Fund transfers between Treasury and banks that do not maintain an account at a Federal Reserve Bank are processed through correspondent banks.
B. USGS has approval to use TFCS for collections from State and local governments for Joint Funding Agreement (JFA) billings.
Those States or local governments electing to use Treasury Financial Communications System (TFCS) must adhere exactly to the procedures listed in this Section to ensure timely and accurate payments of Joint Funding Agreement Billings.
(1) The State or local government notifies its commercial bank to wire funds to the U.S. Department of Treasury and supplies its bank with the specific information shown in Appendix C. If the State's or local government's commercial bank is an "on-line" member of the Federal Reserve System, the bank prepares the standard funds transfer wire message and enters this message into the Fedwire (Appendix C). If the State's or local government's commercial bank is a member of the Federal Reserve System but "off-line," the bank initiates the funds transfer by contacting its servicing Federal Reserve Bank.
If the commercial bank is not a member of the Federal Reserve System, it can effect the transfer through a correspondent bank that is a member.
(2) The fund transfers flow through the commercial bank's servicing Federal Reserve Bank, to the Fedwire switching terminal and then to the U.S. Treasury Department account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Through a computer-to-computer link, fund transfers are transmitted to the U.S. Treasury's account (from the New York Federal Reserve Bank to the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C.).
(3) As deposit data are received by the Treasury computer, they are categorized and maintained according to the receiving Federal Agency Location Code as indicated on the wire message.
At the end of each day, a computer listing is prepared by Treasury for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) (using the USGS Agency Location Code) which details each deposit message. This listing, along with a confirmed Deposit Ticket, is mailed to USGS the next morning.
(4) Upon receipt of the deposit information, USGS makes entries to accounts receivable records maintained for each Joint Funding Agreement Billing with the State or local government. USGS will not send an acknowledgement of receipt of the wire deposit message since this information can be received from its commercial bank.
(5) Wire deposits should be sent as early in the day as possible. Wire deposits sent early in the day are generally received by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on the same day. As explained in (1) above, the date the Federal Reserve Bank of New York receives the wire deposit message is the date the payment is considered paid.
For further information about TFCS, contact:
U.S. Geological Survey
Office of Financial Management
Debt Management Section
270 National Center
Reston, VA 20192
Telephone: 703/648-7660 or FTS 959-7660
14. Lockbox Collections. Geological Survey has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Treasury and Citizens and Southern National Bank of Atlanta, Georgia, for the latter to provide services as a Lockbox Depositary for payments on Joint Funding Agreements (JFA) from State and local governments.
A. Survey Billing Offices will type the following information on the Bill for Collection Form, DI-1040:
Make Remittance to:
Department of Interior/USGS
Mail Payment to:
U.S. Geological Survey
Joint Funding Agreement
P.O. Box 100706
Atlanta, GA 30384
B. JFA Customers will forward payment and applicable copy of Form DI-1040 to above address (see Appendix B for procedures).
Lockbox Depositary Bank will open all mail in lockbox daily. Checks will be processed, and the total of each day's deposits will be transferred to Treasury via the Federal Reserve Communications System. The following correspondence will be mailed to the Office of Financial Management (OFM)
Photocopies of all checks deposited
Form DI-1040s
Any other correspondence received in
lockbox
Checks not processed
C. Treasury will receive transfer via the Federal Reserve Communications System and credit Geological Survey's agency location code, 14-08-0001. A Deposit Ticket (Standard Form 215) will be prepared for each transfer. A daily listing of transfers and other adjustments with confirmed copies of Standard Form 215 will be forwarded to OFM.