Due to the fact that trust fund income accounts are not a part of the State of Wisconsin General Fund (Fund 03) but rather a separate appropriation (Fund 76), the processing of cash transfers between trust funds and other funding sources becomes considerably more involved. The transfer is not a paper transaction as in the case with other funds, but rather requires the writing of a check and subsequent deposit as a refund of disbursement to the original funding source. Therefore, the transfer request must be in the form of an auditable invoice document. Inter-fund transfers also require processing by the State Treasurer and Bureau of Financial Operations, resulting in considerable processing costs. Any charge associated with a trust account should be preferably charged to the trust account as a part of the initial processing and the payments be made directly from the trust account to the beneficiary of the trust, rather than a third party as is the case in a transfer. In the event a transfer is deemed necessary, the following procedure should be followed to insure proper processing and adequate documentation.
- The charge must be in accordance with the donor’s wishes, and be for the purpose of correcting a prior transaction and not expressly for the purpose of covering an overdraft.
- The requisition that relates to the charge must be encumbered on the trust account by processing a modification to the original requisition.
- A copy of the vendor’s invoice must be attached to the cash transfer request, and the voucher number from the original charge must be shown. (This information is essential for processing and to insure compliance with donor rules/state statures/opinions of the Attorney General.)
- Suitable documentation should be attached explaining the nature of the error, etc.