Good afternoon from rainy Virginia -
We recently completed an internal audit review, and one item the auditors brought up was related to our mail/gift log. We have been logging all mailed checks when opened in a 2-person process, utilizing Box and the online version of Excel. We then reconcile the log with the daily committed batches to ensure that everything that is opened and logged is processed and deposited.
Our auditors noted that there was a lack of security around the log itself - that someone could feasibly delete a row from the log, and the check could mysteriously disappear - mainly because we're using the auto-sum function, and the sheet itself isn't locked when logging is complete, because we update it with batch numbers when reconciled. Otherwise they recommend that print the day's log, manually write the reconciled batch numbers it and then scan it. I am not a fan. Our log is very simple, to reduce time spent on it, and we utilize a lot of the drag and fill and autocomplete type functionality. After all, all of those gifts will be entered again into our database, so it seems very redundant.
How is everyone else handling their check/mail logs? I was looking at Smartsheet as an option - it seems like it would do the trick because it has cell-level security (so once it's logged, you can remove it), but I haven't used it extensively. It seems relatively inexpensive for the 3-4 users we would need to have on it.
Thanks!
------------------------------
Aimee Fitzgerald
Executive Director, Advancement Services
William & Mary
asfitzgerald@wm.edu------------------------------