Date:    July 18, 2025

To:        EFR Report Users

From:   Accounting and Financial Reporting

Accounting and Financial Reporting (AFR) is pleased to announce the impending implementation on August 4 of the new Monthly Account Statement (MAS) report. The report will be accessed through the Self-Service portal under Business & Financial Systems – Data, Reports & Dashboards – Electronic Financial Reports (EFR) Portal – Transaction Reports.

Developing a Comprehensive General Ledger Report to Replace the SA3 and TDR

AFR led a multi-year, cross-functional committee comprised of individuals representing the Vice President for Finance and Operations, Office of the Provost, Health Care Finance, and key collegiate and auxiliary units to develop a new comprehensive report that integrates general ledger transaction and balance data. It was designed to replace the Statement of Account (SA3) and Transaction Detail Report (TDR), while ensuring reconciliation compliance requirements are met as well as to support units in their ability to make data-driven informed financial decisions. The first phase of this project resulted in the release of an enhanced TDR in November 2024 that served as the initial transition away from the SA3 and TDR to a single comprehensive report. Many of the features and functionality from the enhanced TDR served as the backbone for the development of the MAS, while many features were also added.

Key Features of the MAS

  • Header improvements:
    • The header now includes only the account (WhoKey) value and description, further reducing the vertical length of the report and removing the need to scroll before the information for the body of the report is visible. The header text remains fixed at the top of the page.
  • Reconciliation Status:
    • Report-level reconciliation status and associated buttons remain visible at the top right of the page during scrolling.
  • Data Presentation:
    • New tabular presentation is used that allows the user to quickly access the various sub-reports and sections of the MAS, including: Income Statement Transactions, Account Balance, Revenue Iact Recap, Expense Iact Recap, Balance Sheet Transactions, and Balance Sheet.
    • Income Statement and Balance Sheet Transactions tabs: category section filter buttons (E.g., General Expense, Revenue, Asset, etc.) are displayed and will remain fixed at the top of the page. This allows the user to quickly filter on the categories as well as adding visibility to category totals.
    • Revenue and Expense Iact Recap tabs: these originate from the SA3 and provide Iact/Oact/Dact level totals, Iact totals, and the Revenue and Expense grand totals. There is flexibility to allow for collapsing/expanding on the details as needed.
    • Balance Sheet Transactions tab: originates from the SA3 and includes all balance sheet transactions except for Iacts 1000 (Cash) and 2000 (Accounts Payable). This information provides a method for those with balance sheet review responsibility to obtain balance sheet transaction details.
    • Balance Sheet tab: originates from the SA3. It includes the beginning balance and life-to-date balances for all balance sheet Iacts (assets, liabilities, and fund balance) based on the WhoKey.
  • User Interface Enhancements:
    • A new User Preferences option is available that allows the user to show/hide certain columns of data, or the ability to expand/collapse the information shown in the sidebar.
    • When switching between the different tabs of the report, your placement on the page is maintained when scrolling.
  • Sorting/Filtering Options:
    • Added the ability to filter and sort by report categories (E.g., salary/fringe, general expense, etc.), chartfields, and reference fields (E.g., User ID, Voucher, PO, etc.).
  • Printing and PDF Options:
    • Browser printing is not supported, and instead users are prompted to use the Excel download option. Further instructions are included in the MAS FAQ’s & Tips, which is linked and located in the sidebar.

Further information can be found in the MAS User Manual on the Resources tab of the EFR application and the MAS FAQs & Tips section of the sidebar when the report is available.

EFR Inbox

The EFR Inbox for each account provides both the Income Statement and Balance Sheet transaction counts. The Balance Sheet transaction count is only available for the FY26 reports and forward. While the historical (FY11 – FY25) reports include balance sheet activities in the report itself, the count in the EFR Inbox is reflected as “N/A”.

Income Statement activity continues to determine whether an account is required to be reconciled per the Monthly Review and Reconciliation of Transactions and Accounts policy. The display of the Income Statement transaction count in the Inbox continues to provide a convenient way to see if an account is required to be reconciled or not.

Monthly Review and Reconciliation of Transactions and Accounts policy

Updates were made to the Monthly Review and Reconciliation of Transactions and Accounts policy to recognize the use of the MAS for meeting reconciliation compliance, as well as ensuring the responsibilities of the Account Owner and Reviewers are outlined clearly. A link to this policy will be displayed in the header of each MAS on the Resources tab within the EFR application.

Balance Sheet report available through GL Reports in EFR

The current stand-alone balance sheet report, available through the GL Reports tab of the EFR application, was updated to be in-line with the format of the Balance Sheet tab of the MAS report. The report is at the Iact level for assets, liabilities, and fund balance for beginning balance and life-to-date balance and includes totals for each Iact and category. 

Who to contact with questions

If you experience any issues with the application or have questions, please first contact your unit’s financial person, Department Administrator or Org-level Business Officer. If there are still questions, please contact the as-efr@uiowa.edu email account and include “MAS” in the subject line.

August 4th timeline

The MAS report will go-live on August 4th when the July Prd 1 FY26 reports are distributed. The following will occur that morning:

  1. The EFR application will be taken offline to accommodate the tasks related to this transition and the various verifications necessary to ensure all is working as expected. Email notification will be sent once it is available again. In advance, we appreciate your patience.
  2. The July Prd 1 FY26 reports will be the first period to use the new MAS. It will be used for all regular and adjustment periods going forward.
  3. Historical TDRs, which includes FY2011 – FY2025 reports, will be replaced with the MAS format. The term “TDR” will no longer be used.
    • All line and report-level comments and reconciliation statuses will be migrated from the TDR to the MAS for these historical reports.
    • All historical reports will include the Income Statement and Balance Sheet activity, and balances as required for reconciliation.
  4. The SA3 will remain available as a view-only report for historical data that includes FY1994 – FY2010.