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REGULATIONS OF THE INDIAN OFFICE

Bookkeeping and Accounting

1. The object of the Indian Service system of bookkeeping and accounting is to enable disbursing officers properly to account for all receipts and disbursements by appropriations and funds and to show the location of their balances; that is, whether they are on hand or deposited, and, if the latter, in what depositories. To be effective the system must provide currently the following information relative to each appropriation and fund, except individual Indian money and special deposits, with respect to which it is necessary to show only the amount of disbursing officer's cash under the subtitles and the amount in Indian money depositaries:

(a) Treasury cash.-Balance of allotments which is available for advance to the disbursing officer or for direct settlement of claims by the General Accounting Office.

(b) Disbursing officer's cash.-Amount in hands of disbursing officer or subject to his check, including balances of advances and collections.

(c) Allotments.-Balance of funds which have been allotted and which are still available for encumbrance.

(d) Encumbrances.-Balance of actual or contingent liabilities which remain to be liquidated by payment or cancellation.

(e) Unavailable funds.-Balance of funds in the custody of the disbursing officer which have been collected but which are not available for disbursement.

BOOKS AND RECORDS

For local office records certain books, etc., are provided, which are described as follows: 2. Appropriation ledger (Form 5-616).-To be used for all appropriations and funds (a separate sheet for each) except for individual Indian money and special deposits. All entries in these ledgers will be posted from journal vouchers. Receipts and disbursements should be posted daily. Control sheets on Form 5-689 must be maintained when bookkeeping machines are used.

3. Journal rouchers.-Journal vouchers have been designed to cover all transactions affecting appropriations. With the exception of official receipts, disbursement vouchers, and encumbrance documents, they will be numbered serially from 1 up for each unit and filed in loose-leaf binders.

(a) Journal vouchers which will be entered in the field appropriation ledger fall into two main groups: First, those covering transactions which will be posted by the Indian Office directly from copies of such vouchers; e. g., allotments of funds, deposits of funds, and claim settlements, and second: Those covering transactions which will originate in the field and concerning which the Indian Office will have no knowledge before the submission of the field officer's report; e. g., purchase orders, other encumbrances, collections, and payments.

4. Miscellaneous journal voucher (Form 5-639).-This form will be used to record miscellaneous transactions; for example, interest credits to accounts of individual Indians and corrections of errors made in recording receipts and disbursements.

5. Allotment of funds (Form 5-626).—This is a form received from the Indian Office, advising of allotments of funds that have been made to the unit.

(1)

6. Withdrawal of allotment (Form 5-646).-This is a form received from the Indian Office advising of the withdrawal of allotments previously made.

7. Advance of funds (Form 5–627).—This is a form received from the Indian Office advising of the issuance of a requisition on the Secretary of the Treasury for funds. The entries provided for thereon will be made, not upon the receipt of this notice, but upon advice from the Treasurer that the funds requisitioned have been placed to the official credit of the disbursing officer.

8. Deposit of funds (Form 5-638).-Reports on this form are required for use of the Treasury Department and Indian Office in verifying appropriations and funds to be credited with deposits to the credit of the United States, as designated on certificates of deposit prepared by disbursing agents in accordance with Indian Office Order 345. Reports should be prepared in quadruplicate whenever deposits are made to the credit of the United States; the originals and duplicates to be mailed immediately to the Indian Office in special envelopes marked for Finance Division, the triplicates to be sent to the Treasurer of the United States with checks and certificates of deposit, and the remaining copies to be retained by disbursing agents.

9. Notices of freight and passenger transportation paid (Forms 5-699 and 5-699a).-Notices of settlements will be furnished by the Indian Office on these forms. They will be used by the appropriation ledger clerk in liquidating the encumbrance account, and by the general bookkeeper to debit operating expense and credit disbursement vouchers.

10. Official receipts (Form 5-652).-This form is for use in receipting for collections as required by paragraph 140 hereof, except in the irrigation branch of the service, for which a special form has been provided. Collections will be posted immediately to the appropriation ledger from the retain copies of these receipts.

11. Miscellaneous encumbrance record and journal voucher (Form 5-680).-This is a form for use in setting up journal entries for all encumbrances except those arising from purchase orders. When the exact amount of an encumbrance can not be determined the best estimate that can be made will be used.

(a) All original entries raising encumbrances or making changes therein, except liquidations through payment, will be made in that section of the form bearing the caption "Original entries," entries setting up the encumbrances or increasing the amount thereof being made in the credit column, and entries decreasing the amount in the debit column, the new balance being extended after each entry. All such entries will be posted to the appropriation ledger as directed on the form.

(b) Encumbrances may be classified as positive; those representing actual liabilities or obligations which will become actual liabilities upon the delivery of supplies or the rendition of services for which either oral or written contract has been made, and quasi; those representing estimated future expenditures of money which are not based upon any contractual obligations.

(c) Positive encumbrances, if not liquidated meanwhile, should be closed out after being carried for three fiscal years, including the year for which they are set up. Quasi encumbrances, if unliquidated at the close of the fiscal year for which set up, should be closed out before preparation of the June trial balance.

(d) Encumbrances will be set up for all bills of lading executed and payable from funds other than "Purchase and transportation of Indian supplies," either by entering a quasi encumbrance for the estimated amount of such bills of lading for the year, or by setting up an encumbrance for each bill of lading, using one sheet of the "Miscellaneous encumbrance record" for all such bills as may be paid from a single appropriation.

(e) Upon certifying a voucher for transfer of property, the receiving officer will set up an encumbrance to cover the amount thereof. If notified subsequently by the Indian Office that no transfer of funds is required, the encumbrance will be canceled; otherwise it will be liquidated upon payment.

(f) Payments on account of encumbrances carried on the miscellaneous encumbrance record will be posted in detail to that form in the column "Liquidations," and the unliquidated balance will be extended.

(g) Payments on account of purchase orders will not be posted in detail to the journal voucher but the date and number of the disbursement voucher will be noted thereon. Very infrequently such an encumbrance may be in part liquidated, and the amount paid will be noted on the form in addition to the date and number of the voucher, and the unliquidated balance extended. On the disbursement voucher in the "encumbrance" column will be entered the exact amount paid, exactly as when payments are made on other continuing encumbrances. No adjustment of encumbrance will ordinarily be made before the final payment.

(h) When encumbrances are fully liquidated the corresponding documents will be transferred from the current to a liquidated file. Thus, since entries to correspond with those made in detail in the encumbrance record will be simultaneously entered in the encumbrance account in the appropriation ledger, the latter account, under any specified appropriation, will control the section of the encumbrance file devoted to that appropriation. In other words, the aggregate of the balances in the encumbrance file under any appropriation will always agree with the balance of encumbrances on the corresponding page of the appropriation ledger.

(i) Journal vouchers for miscellaneous encumbrances will be given numbers in a series considerably removed from the series used for purchase orders, documents of each class being numbered consecutively.

(5) Original entries on encumbrance documents will be posted immediately to the appropriation ledger, after which the documents will be placed in either a vertical file or, preferably, a loose-leaf binder, where they will be arranged in numerical order behind guides bearing the titles and symbols of the appropriations.

12. Check registers.-For units where bookkeeping machines are not used, two forms of check registers are provided; one (5-687) for accounts with the Treasury of the United States and the other (5–693) for accounts with depositories for individual Indian money and special deposits. If none of the latter accounts are kept at a unit, Form 5-687 will be used exclusively. At units having bookkeeping machines, Form 5–688 will be used for both the Treasury and local depository

accounts.

(a) When preparing a requisition on the Secretary of the Treasury for funds, the Indian Office will make a duplicate thereof, which will serve as a notice to the field officer that the funds are in transit. Upon receipt of advice from the Treasurer that the amount requisitioned has been credited to the account of the disbursing officer, the total of the requisition will be entered in the deposit column of the check register for the United States Treasury, and the amount advanced from each appropriation will be debited to "Disbursing officer's cash" and credited to "Treasury cash" on the proper sheet of the appropriation ledger. Similarly, upon the desposit of cash to the official credit of the officer or the transfer of funds between depositories, postings will be made to the "Deposit" column of the register for the receiving depository. 13. Cash book.-The cash book (Form 5-684) is intended to show only collections and proceeds of checks drawn for cash, and their disposition. Receipts on accountable warrants will not be entered in this book. The balance shown by the cash book will represent the actual cash in possession of the disbursing officer.

(a) A consolidated debit entry will be made daily in the cash book to cover all the collections for the day, the total amount entered being the sum of the official receipts issued during the day. This total will be analyzed under two heads: "Collection vouchers" and "Individual Indian moneys and special deposits." These official receipts will then be assorted by appropriations, and consolidated postings will be made to the debit of "Disbursing officer's cash" on

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