School Uniform Chart of Accounts (UCOA) – Agreed-Upon Procedures

Legal Requirements

Rhode Island General Law Section 16-2-9.4 required the Office of the Auditor General and the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to promulgate a uniform system of accounting, including a chart of accounts based on the recommendations of the Advisory Council on School Finance.

All accounts of the municipal school districts, regional school districts, state schools, collaboratives and charter schools are required to be kept in accordance with the uniform system of accounting; provided, that in any case in which the uniform system of accounting is not practicable, the Office of Auditor General, in conjunction with the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, shall determine the manner in which the accounts shall be kept.

UCOA Agreed-Upon Procedures

Each school district, state school, collaborative, or charter school, which is required to adopt the Uniform Chart of Accounts (UCOA), shall have additional compliance testing procedures designed to assess compliance with UCOA requirements and the entity’s effectiveness of internal control over compliance with those requirements. The auditors engaged to perform the annual audit of the entity shall also be engaged to report on their tests of compliance with UCOA requirements in an agreed-upon procedures compliance attestation format.

The Office of the Auditor General and the RI Department of Education have worked cooperatively to develop the following agreed-upon procedures to test compliance with UCOA requirements:

Effective for fiscal 2025 engagements:
UCOA Compliance Testing Requirements 2025.pdf
UCOA Compliance Testing Requirements 2025.docx
UCOA Reconciliation Template.xlsx

Effective for fiscal 2024 engagements:
UCOA Compliance Testing Requirements 2024.pdf
UCOA Compliance Testing Requirements 2024.docx
UCOA Reconciliation Template.xlsx

Effective for fiscal 2023 engagements:
UCOA Compliance Testing Requirements 2023.pdf
UCOA Compliance Testing Requirements 2023.docx
UCOA Reconciliation Template.xlsx

Contact the Office of the Auditor General for UCOA Compliance Testing Requirements for fiscal years prior to 2023.

The most recent compliance testing requirements documented above should be included in the entity’s request for proposals for audit services and agreed-upon procedures engagements.

Auditors should have performed the test work necessary to complete the UCOA agreed-upon procedures before issuing the audited financial statements. For school entities with a June 30 fiscal year end, the agreed-upon procedures report and the audited financial statements shall be provided to the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office of the Auditor General at the conclusion of the annual audit – i.e., December 31 unless an extension has been granted.

For school entities which have adopted a fiscal year end other than June 30, the agreed-upon procedures report shall be provided by December 31 for the activity related to the year ended on the preceding June 30.

The Auditor General has provided additional guidance on filing the AUP reports – refer to December 2025 Auditor General Communication – UCOA file and AUP.

For additional information on UCOA, please follow the below link to the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s website: RIDE's Uniform Chart of Accounts