Deposits

Only cheques made payable to McGill University or The Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning may be deposited to McGill’s bank accounts. The faculty, department or c/o name must not appear on the first line (i.e. “Pay to the order of”), but may appear on subsequent lines in this section of the cheque or in the memo section.

Whenever possible, cheques in Canadian or US funds, drawn on a Canadian or US bank respectively, should be encouraged since the University holds bank accounts in both currencies.

Units having regular cheque deposits should contact the Banking Services staff to arrange for bank deposit slips (with a departmental identifier) so that deposits may be made at the following bank branches:

• Main branch of the Royal Bank of Canada located at 1 Place Ville Marie (PVM)
• Branch located at 1100 Sherbrooke (corner Peel)

Units who receive a high volume of cheques for deposit should send their deposits directly to the bank using the security company service contracted by McGill. Should you decide to request services, contact the supplier directly and send an email to banking [at] mcgill.ca (Banking Services) informing them of your decision.

Departments who do not have bank deposit slips, must deliver (in person or via internal mail) cheques to Financial Services. A “deposit” document must first be created in Banner.

Best Practice

Units who do not have bank deposit slips should deliver cheques to Financial Services within 48 hours of receipt.

Revenue must be recorded in the same fiscal period in which it was received.

Any individual cheque equal to or exceeding $250,000 (CDN/USD) must be deposited on the same day that it is received. If you do not have arrangements with a transportation company to deliver your deposits to the bank, or such a cheque is received on a day that you are not scheduled for a transportation company pick-up, immediately contact the Banking Services Supervisor.

Cheques received in payment of invoices issued by Accounts Receivable, Financial Services, should not be deposited. Forward these cheques to Accounts Receivable, Transaction Services - 680 Sherbrooke Street West, 7th floor, Suite 724, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2M7 for processing.

Processing a "cheque" deposit from beginning to end:

1. Make sure the cheque details are accurate/complete:

• Cheque date - dated within the last 6 months unless otherwise specified as not being stale-dated
• "Pay to the order of" clearly states McGill University or The Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning
• Amount is clearly marked
• Cheque is signed

2. Determine if taxes are applicable (more information) and the appropriate tax group and account code (more information) to use

3. Have the FOAPAL information on hand

4. Create the Deposit document in Banner using the appropriate Banner form based on currency - FGADCSR ( Canadian | Foreign) or FGAJVCD ( US) (view the How To Use Banner page)

5. If your Unit is set-up with bank deposit slips:

• Enter the number in the deposit slip field in Banner
• Record the Banner document number on the back of each cheque

TIP: Deposits to Restricted Funds (i.e. Fund Type = 20) must be approved and deposited by Research Financial Management Services (RFMS). Therefore, originating Units must always leave these deposit documents "In Process" and forward these cheques to RFMS (680 Sherbrooke Street West, 7th floor, Suite 724 Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2M7).

Cheques in Foreign currencies must be deposited by Financial Services. Therefore, originating Units must always leave these deposit documents "In Process" and forward these cheques to Financial Services.

• Complete the document.
• Once completed, bring the cheque(s) to the bank or forward to Financial Services

6. If no deposit slip number is available:

• Leave the deposit slip field blank
• Record the Banner document number on the back of each cheque
• Leave the document “In Process”
• Send the cheque(s) to Financial Services for completion. Once Banking Services has deposited the cheque at the bank, the deposit slip number will be entered in Banner and the document will be completed.

7. Once the document is completed, it is posted to the ledger. The transaction will appear when querying the fund.

Cheques in non-USD foreign currencies will only appear in the desired FOAPAL once successfully converted and deposited to the university’s bank accounts. The amount of time required to process these foreign deposits depends on many factors, the least complicated will take 2-5 days, the most complicated may take several weeks.

Cheques made out in a currency other than the normal currency of the issuing bank (for example, a cheque made out in Canadian dollars and drawn on a German bank) must be sent on collection. These deposits may take two to three months for processing and are subject to large bank processing fees. It is therefore recommended that only items exceeding $300 Canadian are submitted for collection.

To avoid unnecessary fees and delays, foreign currencies should be remitted via wire transfer. Transactions reflecting deposits in other currencies will be posted to the appropriate FOAPAL(s) in the Canadian dollar equivalent.

Deposited cheques may be rejected by the bank for the following reasons:

• Insufficient funds
• Payment stopped
• Post/stale dated
• Account closed
• Change not initialed
• Body and figures differ
• Funds frozen/not cleared
• Signature(s) are irregular/required/illegible/unauthorized
• Other (as communicated by the bank)

Should this occur, the rejected cheque, with a memo of explanation, will be returned to the originating Unit for follow-up with the payee. At the same time, the McGill FOAPAL that was originally credited with the funds will be charged the same amount. These delays can be avoided by ensuring that all cheque information is accurate before accepting a payment.

Incoming wire transfers are received by Banking Services in Financial Services on a daily basis. It is important to educate payers to provide details to reduce delays of receipt and to make payments easily identifiable. The details section of the wire must include, at minimum:

• Contact person at McGill University with their telephone number
• Purpose of the payment

Once the wire is received, Banking Services will communicate with the identified contact person at McGill to request the following information:

• FOAPAL to credit
• Are there any taxes included in the payment?
• Supporting documentation, if the payment is to be credited to a non-research grant or contract fund.

Whenever possible, payments in Canadian or U.S. funds should be encouraged, as the University holds bank accounts in both of these currencies.

Incoming wire transfers are deposited and recorded by Financial Services. Once recorded, they will appear on financial statements. Transactions reflecting deposits in other currencies will be posted to the appropriate FOAPAL(s) in the Canadian dollar equivalent. Canadian and US clients should be encouraged to send ACH (i.e. Direct Deposit) payments whenever possible, as there are no associated bank fees with this type of payment and we will receive the full amount sent to McGill. Please note: if Wire Transfers (international or national) are sent to McGill, bank fees may be deducted from the amount sent to McGill. Only the amount received in our bank account will be credited to your FOAPAL. 

Any Unit setting up an operation to receive payments (for goods or services rendered) must be given an approved University MERCHANT account. Financial Services is the only administrative body entitled to create merchants. In order to request a merchant account, you must complete The Merchant Questionnaire. For more information about accepting credit card and debit card payments, consult the Merchant Tool Kit.

Units set-up to receive credit card and debit card payments must routinely process deposit documents in Banner to record this revenue. Revenue must be recorded in the same fiscal period in which it was received.

• In order to know how much to book for each card type (MasterCard, Visa, Amex), you will need to gain access to Merchant Direct, the online Moneris Solutions reporting tool. Banking Services will set you up with an account and send you the login credentials. If you need help on running the report, send a request for help to banking [at] mcgill.ca (Banking Services).
• E‐commerce: To determine who signed up for the conference/seminar/workshop, you must contact your e‐commerce store developer, who will be able to provide you with the details of each registrant (the information they filled out online when they registered) – this information is not available from Moneris.

Best Practice

Best practice is to record credit card and debit card payments on a daily or, at minimum, a weekly basis.

All merchants receive clear instructions from Financial Services on whether or not taxes are to be charged for the goods/services being sold – you must follow these instructions and you are responsible for properly remitting the appropriate taxes by indicating the appropriate Tax Group Code in the deposit document sequence.

Processing “credit card and debit card payment” deposits from beginning to end:

1. Make sure you know the amount to book for each card type (MasterCard, Visa, Amex) and that you have registrant details on hand (if applicable)
2. Have the FOAPAL information on hand and the appropriate tax group and account code to use
3. Create the Deposit document in Banner using the FGADCSR Banner form (view the How To Use Banner page)

• Be sure to select the appropriate radio button to reflect the card type
• In the sequence description field, enter information in the following format: 1110 xxxxxxxxx [where 1110 is the date that the transactions were processed in MMDD format, and xxxxxxxxx is the last 9 digits of your Moneris (or Amex) merchant number]
• Complete the document

4. Once the document is completed, it is posted to the ledger. The transaction will appear when querying the fund.

Cash should only be accepted by Units equipped to do so (i.e. with a safe and other security equipment). Large amounts of cash should never be accumulated. If overnight storage is unavoidable, funds should be kept in a safe. Cash should be delivered to the university’s bank by the university’s contracted secure transportation company. Should you decide to request services, contact the supplier directly and send an email to Banking Services informing them of your decision.

Best Practice

Best practice is to make deposits, at minimum, once a week or even twice a week depending upon the volume received.

Revenue must be recorded in the same fiscal period in which it was received.

If you have received a one time payment in cash, please contact the Banking Services Supervisor for instructions on how to get the money deposited. Necessary precautions should be taken with respect to personal security. No person should walk on campus or to the bank with sums of cash in excess of $1,000.

To reduce cash handling, alternate methods of payment such as cheque or credit card/debit card payment should be offered to the University's customers.

Processing “cash” deposits from beginning to end:

1. Determine if taxes are applicable (more information) and the appropriate tax group and account code (more information) to use
2. Have the FOAPAL information on hand
3. Create the Deposit document in Banner using the appropriate Banner form based on currency - FGADCSR (Canadian) or FGAJVCD (US)  (view the How To Use Banner page).
4. If your Dept. is set-up with bank deposit slips:

• Enter the number in the deposit slip field in Banner
• Complete the document
• Once completed, ensure that the cash is brought to the bank as soon as possible

5. If no deposit slip number is available:

• Leave the deposit slip field blank
• Leave the document “In Process”
• Contact the Banking Services Supervisor for instructions on how to get the money deposited. Once a bank deposit slip number has been entered in Banner, the document will be completed.

6. Once the document is completed, it is posted to the ledger. The transaction will appear when querying he fund.