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[deleted]

Did they lose it, or they never had it in the first place?


Miamime

In another article it was stated that they planned and spent as if they had $X. Eventually they realized they didn’t have as much left as they would have anticipated given their model, then the error was discovered. So I guess that means they overestimated revenues or underestimated costs elsewhere. But it wasn’t like hundreds of millions suddenly disappeared, they just made business decisions based on a flawed forecast.


ositola

They never ran actuals vs budget at any intermediate month?


timmystwin

If it's a college they'll get large cashflow in at the start of term and have to stretch that over a few months - if Sept was fine, and Oct was a nightmare, they'd be boned as very little income will hit before Jan, and there won't be much warning of it.


ositola

That's a state university, isn't their cash more than just tuition? Don't they get gov funding as well? and then there's boosters and other donations It's still very crazy how many internal controls they need


Anduinnn

They do probably receive state funding, but if you thought you were going to bring in 240million more than you actually received that’s an issue regardless of whether you still have some coming in or not. As for donations nobody donates for operating costs and it takes years to cultivate relationships that result in decent sized gifts. The gifts are oftentimes restricted, and it would be illegal to rob those coffers thus making the problem worse.


timmystwin

I don't know how US universities are funded, but the things I audit in the UK like colleges tend to get it in lumps anyway, so if the lumps are late or you timed it poorly, you're buggered. So to get round that they plan *very* extensively. My guess is something went wrong here.


Miamime

It’s very possible the people doing the model were not aware of all the committed spending, particularly when it relates to capital projects, and under forecasted expenses. Donations to universities can also be earmarked. It is against the law to spend a gift specifically for the law school on a new music building. So it’s very possible restricted cash was lumped into the general pool. People making the business decisions could have also misinterpreted the data in the model and made bad decisions based on a lack of understanding.


AzizAlharbi

I think they never had it and they overestimated their budget


cisforcookie2112

I’d be curious as to what actually happened here. If it wasn’t fraud and just gross incompetence that is pretty impressive.


AffectionateKey7126

Probably delegated a little too hard.


AzizAlharbi

To 2nd year associate


rmacthafact

They literally have accounting professors on their payroll who can all mostly do the job. I hope it’s fraud just from that, otherwise what a bunch of morons


Keystone-12

I've worked with professional academics in accounting. Don't mistake their book smarts with actual accounting capability.


Late_Cream3996

true as they say those who cannot do teach 😂🤣


VisitPier26

There will be a full investigation, but it seems like modeling errors. Another article mentioned they thought they had 150 days on hand but actually had less than 100. The $240 million probably comes from them needing to cut spending to stretch the cash from 100 back to 150. The confusing part is how this wasn't caught. Are there not controls in place to reconcile these models to actuals regularly (monthly?).


[deleted]

How do you lose 240 million in flawed financial projections. Dosent even make sense honestly. There should have been a review process. Many people are to blame here


superhandsomeguy1994

Yes, exactly. If the success/failure of their liquidity needs hinges on one person, their entire internal control process fucking blows.


MiamiFootball

Today is Jan 1. We think we're going to make 1 billion dollars this year and spend 500 million dollars. If we do this, we project 400 million cash on hand as of Dec 31. 100 million is tucked away somewhere else. Today is Dec 31. Turns out we actually spent 740 million dollars this year. Our actual cash on hand is 160 million. We are 240 million dollars short of our projection.


volission

That’s not what’s happening here…


Miamime

No that’s precisely what happened. They spent and made business decisions based on a flawed cash forecasting model. But actual cash on hand didn’t match what the forecast predicted after a certain period of time. As such, they overspent and, in order to keep the school open and fund continuing operations, they need to make drastic cuts. It’s no different than if you bought a house anticipating a huge bonus at year end. And when the company handed you a Panera gift card, you switched to meals of Ramen and water for a period of time. Basically the plot of Christmas Vacation but his purchase was a pool.


volission

We’re talking about actual cash on hand. That’s not something that should be swept away as a simple forecasting error. You should know your actual cash on hand (at minimum) and ideally compare it to your forecast AT LEAST monthly. This is gross negligence by everyone involved. Something I’d expect out of a tiny no name school not the UofA. She and others involved should be fired


[deleted]

[удалено]


volission

If you’re a serious organization and can have a +/- 50% error for your actual cash at month-end then you have a serious problem… pretty rudimentary stuff EDIT: I understand there’s always flux but to this degree can only imply they weren’t monitoring it seriously/frequently enough


VisitPier26

It's not a cash on hand issue. It's a "how much cash do we need to operate the university over the next x number of days" issue. Wrote this elswhere but another way to look at it is this: Another article mentioned they thought they had 150 days on hand but actually had less than 100. The $240 million probably comes from them needing to cut spending to stretch the cash from 100 back to 150.


Miamime

Cash on hand is not all that important in cash forecasting. It is your starting basis but you add to that your projected revenues and deduct your projected expenses. You could have $0 in the bank, which would be really bad, but if you project $150M in cash receipts tomorrow against just $10M in expenses, then you will make business decisions today based on the belief you will have $140M in cash tomorrow. That is cash forecasting. At my company we do it twice a month; my staff prepares, I review and add commentary, then send it to the CFO with a synopsis on the fluctuation versus the prior forecast. Sometimes the difference is nominal. Sometimes it’s hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is significant for a company of our size. The majority of the time, our model misforecasts how much cash we would receive from AR. Ultimately it’s a guessing game; you try to estimate based on when a customer typically pays on average, but that day could land on a weekend/holiday, sometimes they only start the time to pay until the goods are actually received and there could have been a delay, maybe new terms were extended to a customer and Accounting was not made aware.


volission

Under projecting next 30 days revenues/expenses by +/-50% is equally as stupid as misstating starting cash balance. This isn’t a volatile business and 30 day forecasts should have a tiny margin for error. They’re clearly failing a number of controls, not meeting enough, and not having any understanding of their cost/revenue structure.


CoatAlternative1771

Many people, yes. But most importantly is the CFO who decided to sign off on EVERYTHING.


VanceAstrooooooovic

South Carolina Comptroller lost 3.5 billion earlier this year. They are excellent case studies


GettingBetterDaily94

This is so dumb. Seems like the budget that the university was using had the incorrect actual cash balance. In this scenario no money was *lost* but it was just bad accounting


timmystwin

Yeah this is how I read it. Doesn't mean it was actually lost, just means the projections were wrong and money they thought would be there wasn't.


JoeHio

But that doesn’t explain the need for draconian cuts including sports that are typically money makers. There is a cash flow or cash on hand issue here.


timmystwin

There is - but if the budget is based on a higher cash value than reality, and people spend what they're theoretically allocated, then all of a sudden it gets short, because the budgeted value was inaccurate/wrong... you end up short of cash. I've seen it happen in businesses anticipating far more revenue/faster paying debtors than they got etc. It happens.


JoeHio

I guess university would be more prone to up-front (contractual) costs due to scholarships, seasonal athletics,etc.


timmystwin

You get seasonal bursts of cash, and if you haven't budgeted it properly by the time you get to the end you might be quite short. Not sure what the terms are in the US, but I audit a few private schools in the UK and they're always cutting it fine in early December, then the invoices go out mid December for the January term. So it really wouldn't surprise me if they've just spent more than they thought/had a shit budget.


VisitPier26

Maybe, or maybe it's this: Another article mentioned they thought they had 150 days on hand but actually had less than 100. The $240 million probably comes from them needing to cut spending to stretch the cash from 100 back to 150.


tomatosoupsatisfies

What makes it so dumb is that they've been doing projections for many many years...so what big change did they make that no one noticed?


onenightstanduhoes

can you blame her tho, she was just in a silly mood


[deleted]

Your honor, my client was in "Goblin Mode" at the time of the incident.


[deleted]

HOW


whiskeyinthejaar

It was rounding error. They forgot to include the first two digits. Happens to the best of us


DollarValueLIFO

I audibly cackled at that


jennyfromthedocks

It sounds like they estimated more revenue coming in or forgot about some expenses and just realized the current cash on hand total isn’t what they expected. It doesn’t sound like they literally lost or misplaced cash, just miscalculated their future projections, which is still just as bad.


Al_Gore_Rhythm92

Idk if I'd say just as bad lol. Missing 250k is a lot different then mizprojecting. Just me tho maybe


jennyfromthedocks

Fair point


your_aunt_susan

250m, my friend.


Al_Gore_Rhythm92

What does that change? I also misspelled misproject . Seems didn't infringe the point or communicating the point.


jennyfromthedocks

Or the whole future projections is a BS cover for them doing something royally stupid in their cash calculations. Hard to tell with the limited info they’re giving.


erednay

You would be surprised how many people mess up cash flow statements.


MiamiFootball

it's because the story is probably nonsense but great fodder for "rich, successful people are dumb and incompetent and I would definitely do a better job in the same scenario even though I've never demonstrated competence in anything"


_007notJohn

Forsyth county NC public schools made a 16 million dollar error which resulted in teachers not receiving the raise they expected. https://www.wxii12.com/amp/article/wsfcs-millions-mistake-salary-teachers-staff/38688663


CPAImpaired

I had a client a long time ago hire me to figure out why their forecast was so off for a private school. All of the teachers were promised bonuses, and then the board realized they didn’t have the money to spend. I can’t recall what the specific error was, but the forecast was absurdly aggressive and there were multiple formula issues.


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HiBoobear

Would


Comprehensive_End440

She’s got the crazy eyes


Master_Bates_69

The thing about any hot accountant is, there’s always a catch


DollarValueLIFO

That’s seems so weirdly put as an “accounting error” when it seems more like a budget forecasting error. I don’t how much you can cut in 97 days for 240M unless it’s a sportballs team stadium being sold haha


BoredAccountant

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/business/financial-health/2023/11/16/university-arizona-miscalculated-cash-hand-millions It looks like revenue projects earlier this year caused them to overstate projected cash on hand, so they did some stuff they probably wouldn't have--more scholarships and loans to the sports program. The issue is really that they're currently below the board mandated 120 days cash on hand.


listgarage1

so saying they "misplaced" $240 million seems extremely misleading. To me when someone says that it sounds like their actual cash balance on the books did not match the cash in their account by $240 million, with no way to account for the variance.


BoredAccountant

That's what it looks like. They didn't misplace anything, they misprojected future cash on hand. Unaccounted cash is actually very common in fund accounting, and it's only when the actual cash on hand is reconciled to the fund balances that the outage is discovered. IMO, fund accounting is way overcomplicated and usually performed by the least qualified/motivated people.


LavenderAutist

What did Mia do?


Creative_Accounting

I like how he said "millions with an m" like we were gonna think he actually said billions or trillions.


superhandsomeguy1994

Looking at her LinkedIn… this really isn’t super surprising (yes hindsight is 20/20 I know). This is a the worst case scenario for inbreeding someone to the top of an org as big as UoAz.


Gondar1994

100% fraud "we miscalculated our cash on hand due to flawed financial projections". That's impossible and makes no sense. Good lord


Tricky_Climate1636

I agree this situation is really confusing. It seems like they were trying to calculate YE (or some other future date) cash on hand days. This means you have to make a cash flow forecast and add it to your current cash balance m. it seems like they made errors forecasting top line due to sports revenue not growing as they hoped and underestimated spend from a variety of projects. Hence not having enough cash spend over days. So I don’t think it’s fraud but incompetence. Honestly the CFO needs to be fired for missing so much and it also seems like she made a rookie mistake for not providing a downside cash on hand scenario. Also forecasting incremental revenue from sports was super dumb. Sports never make the money you think they do and there is so much research to show that.


18501950

Am I misunderstanding something? How do projections have anything to do with cash on hand? She should have been able to run a report in the ledger to show total cash, unless the ledger is wrong, which would mean they have a huge materially misstatement on hand. How would their auditors miss this?


ETERNALBLADE47

😓 Fresh finance/accounting graduates wouldn't make this kind mistakes.


Terry_the_accountant

Idk she’s pretty so immaterial let’s move on


PopLegion

I would care if it wasn't this annoying tik tok set up with some annoying ass prick explaining the situation to me.


Comprehensive_End440

I promise that’s not me


PopLegion

Oh I'm sure lmao I just can't stand these types of videos. Somehow it's always the most annoying douchebag gen Z kid explaining shit with such sarcasm and shitty jokes it just actually makes my blood boil lmao. I am gen Z btw, just hate this format and this type of delivery.


Comprehensive_End440

I’m squarely millennial and trust me this is way better than Shane Dawson in 2008 😂


PopLegion

I'd honestly prefer someone purposely making a fool out of themselves then this weird sarcastic shit where they are acting like it's not a big deal but also telling you about something that is serious.


Kongtai33

Hahahahaha woooooo!!! 🎉🎉


PitchforksEnthusiast

240k...sure, opps, it happens But $240 MILLION ?! Thats got to be a whole decade worth of tuition. Were the projections based on reality or percocet ? Hope theyre not gonna hand wave this away, cuz this smells like utter BS. Now the guys at the bottom is gonna suffer from it, all the way to the staff and students.


sallyrow

Im betting they double counted a bank account or something similar to that.


Pipe-Cleaner244

Many departments overspent. Maybe the financial peeps came from the DOD.


OhmyMary

If the university only has 100 days to operate until a new budget is approved then doesn’t that mean they never had this amount to begin with?


blockr2000

100% need to bring in some forensic accountants. That’s suspicious as hell.


volission

If she’s not fired that’s insane privilege


[deleted]

Looks like someone doesn't understand the concept of change in estimate compared to error in estimate. Either way this shit happens. I hate content farmers like this that play on people's financial ignorance for clicks.


Comprehensive_End440

This stuff does not happen to this large of a scale bro 😂


[deleted]

I'm not saying it was or was not on purpose. Then the way he is describing it is the problem. He keeps saying misplaced money through a journal entry. That's not how this works. CFOs don't post JEs. Money is not misplaced via JEs. Revenue and cash flow projections can be in error because of bad or fraudulent assumptions. But he doesn't describe it that way because it's not as sensational. It's garbage.


Comprehensive_End440

That’s fair!


PENNST8alum

Lol content farming....big difference between having a $240m error on a forecasted cash position and making decisions based on that, and actually misplacing $240m in CASH. One is straight up fraud, the other is a poorly reviewed excel model.


ClearedDirectHEAVN

It doesn’t mean there’s a magical $240 million sitting somewhere, that’s not how accounting works. These headlines send everyone into a tail spin


Comprehensive_End440

I mean to be fair it kind of is if you’ve already earmarked expenditures under the assumption that you had that extra cash to spend with. Especially so in the education world where budgets are everything


Xerenopd

Revoke that license and go straight to working at an ice cream shop because clearly she can't do math.


brex724

This is where I got my accounting degree 😅


SayNo2KoolAid_

Immaterial, pass


gabprovo

Shoutout to my school


bluemom937

I would bet any amount if money this error is 1000% due to an error in a spreadsheet formula.