2023 Montana Code Annotated › Title 17. State Finance › Chapter 1. General Administration › Part 1. General Administration and Fiscal Officers › 17-1-102. Uniform accounting system and expenditure control

17-1-102. Uniform accounting system and expenditure control.
(1) The department shall establish a system of financial control so that the functioning of the various agencies of the state may be improved, duplications of work by different state agencies and employees may be eliminated, public service may be improved, and the cost of government may be reduced.
(2) The department shall prescribe and install a uniform accounting and reporting system for all state agencies and institutions, reporting the receipt, use, and disposition of all public money and property in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
(3) The uniform accounting and reporting system must contain three levels of expenditure. The first level must include general categories, such as personal services, operating expenses, equipment, capital outlay, local assistance, grants, benefits and claims, transfers, and debt service. The second level of expenditure must include specific categories of expenditures within each first-level category. The third level of expenditure must include specific items of expenditure within each category of the second level.
(4) (a) Except as provided in subsection (4)(b), all state agencies, including units of the university system but excluding community colleges, shall input all necessary transactions to the accounting system prescribed in subsection (2) before the accounts are closed at the end of the fiscal year in order to present the receipt, use, and disposition of all money and property for which the agency is accountable in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, except that for budgetary control purposes, encumbrances that are required by generally accepted accounting principles to be reported as a reservation of fund balance must be recorded as expenditures and liabilities on the accounting records in accordance with the following requirements:
(i) Goods and services, grants, and local assistance that are paid for with the general fund, in whole or in part, may be encumbered. The general fund encumbrances must be reviewed by the department, and a specific extension plan must be presented by the encumbering agency to the department prior to the fiscal yearend. If a valid extension plan is not received and approved, the department shall delete the encumbrance at fiscal yearend. The department shall present a fiscal yearend report to the office of budget and program planning and to the legislative fiscal analyst on each general fund encumbrance remaining at fiscal yearend. The report must be provided in an electronic format. The department shall provide a copy of the fiscal yearend report to the legislature in accordance with 5-11-210.
(ii) Nongeneral fund encumbrances also require a valid extension plan approved by the department at the end of each fiscal year. After 3 years, approved extensions must be included by the department in its fiscal yearend report to the office of budget and program planning and to the legislative finance committee.
(b) The state fund provided for in Title 39, chapter 71, part 23, shall report on a calendar year basis.
History: (1)En. Sec. 4, Ch. 194, L. 1951; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 101, L. 1953; amd. Sec. 8, Ch. 158, L. 1959; amd. Sec. 3, Ch. 267, L. 1971; amd. Sec. 45, Ch. 326, L. 1974; 82-109, R.C.M. 1947; (2), (3)En. Sec. 6, Ch. 194, L. 1951; amd. Sec. 9, Ch. 158, L. 1959; amd. Sec. 18, Ch. 249, L. 1967; amd. Sec. 4, Ch. 268, L. 1971; amd. Sec. 50, Ch. 326, L. 1974; Sec. 82-110, R.C.M. 1947; R.C.M. 1947, 82-109(1), 82-110(1), (2); amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 267, L. 1985; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 787, L. 1991; amd. Sec. 3, Ch. 308, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 48, L. 1997; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 569, L. 2001; amd. Sec. 4, Ch. 120, L. 2013; amd. Sec. 3, Ch. 320, L. 2015; amd. Sec. 37, Ch. 261, L. 2021.