Ministry: MOE Audit Reports

Funding claim audits and record keeping audits

The purpose of a funding claim audit is to:

• Verify that the service is claiming and receiving the correct amount of funding
• Verify that a service is meeting the record-keeping requirements
• Provide advice and assistance to services about record keeping requirements.

Services of all types will be audited to verify the accuracy of their funded child hour entitlement claims. 

Teacher-led services will also be audited on:

• Certificated and Other Teacher Hour claims (education and care services and all-day kindergartens only)
• Qualifications of certificated teachers (education and care services and all-day kindergartens only)
• Record-keeping requirements for 20 Hours ECE.

Education and care services that attest to paying their certificated teachers at the entry levels of the Early Childhood Education Collective Agreement of Aotearoa New Zealand must hold verification of this attestation. See Section 9-6 for further information.

Documentation Required

The auditors will be looking for the following documents -

• RS7 Return
• Attendance Registers
• Enrolment Records
• Staffing Record and copies of practicing certificates and Early Childhood qualifications (Teacher-Led services only)
• Copies of New Zealand primary teacher qualifications
• Completed EC12 and EC13 Forms
• Audited general purpose financial statements or special purpose financial report.

For the bulk of these, you will likely hold printed/paper copies and Discover offers you the ability to run reports that reflects these.

The main focus of the audit is to verify the accuracy of the RS7 funding claim and a services staff, enrolment and attendance management. Attendance, enrolment and staff records are generally checked as part of the audit. This broadly involves:

• Aampling the funded child hours that were claimed including 20 Hours ECE (using enrolment, 20 Hours ECE attestation and attendance records)
• Verifying the accuracy of the staff hour count (using staff timesheets/records, teacher certification and qualifications)
• Monitoring the absence rules (using monthly attendance registers and attendance information)

The following list is not exhaustive and occasionally an audit may focus only on specific areas, particularly if a previous audit showed that more attention was needed in these areas.

Common SMS Reports Used During Audit

RS7 - with monthly totals

Under Ministry RS7 you can view the data that was submitted (doesn't total) or you can run the Finance Reports > Centre Funding report for the period and it will total per month

Monthly Attendance Reports

Children Reports > Monthly Attendance 

Frequent Absent Reports

Children Reports > Frequent Absences

Centre Funding – hours funded by type for a funding period, including staff hours

Finance Reports > Centre Funding - select the range and select Show Staff Hours + Child Hours Breakdown

Centre Funding for Children – report for one child

Children Reports > Centre Funding of Child - or from the Child Details screen there is a Centre Funding button which will take you to the same report

Children Details

Children Reports > Child Details - you can add fields as desired

Children Starting and Leaving

Children Reports > Starting or Leaving

Staff Details – including certification number, type, expiry, qual details

Staff Reports > Staff Details - select the date range and add the fields as desired

Weekly Staff Roster Details Report – showing actual hours worked by type (contact & non-contact, start, finish, lunch)

Staff Reports > Weekly Staff Roster Details for the required date range, select Split Work into 

Contact/Non Contact Staff Hours by Activity – lists all staff for a funding period and shows total hours worked by each staff member

Staff Reports > Staff Hours by Activity

Daily sign in sheet

These should be physical copies signed by parents, may be weekly if using tablets - but you can reprint (without signatures, obviously) or Children Attendance - Parent Verification if you are using EAV at your centre 

• Charge Adjustments – where you can confirm the type of charges e.g. optional charges
• Set up - view the Charge Adjustment screen or Enrolments that have them applied
• Charged - Finance Reports > Enrolment Income Analysis report can show what Charge Adjustments were made during a period
• Policy - check your Enrolment template and print example Child Enrolment

Additional Reports/Information 

• Ratio reports showing the required ratio based on child attendance and actual staff ratios based on staff attendance/contact for a given period. Please see Staff Reports > Staff Forecast
• The ability to define date ranges e.g. Centre funding for Children would be useful to define date range. Most reports have a date range or will be the Funding Period range
• The ability for services to easily set up auditor log-ins with full access. Centre Administrators have the ability to create users and assign access rights
• A report or pivot table showing all of the children who have their EC12 exemption activated under the Health tab – would save a child by child search. See Children Reports > Absence Exemptions. Specify the date range you want to look at and a full list of children with records in that range. Click on a child's name to jump to their child record for additional review
• Report that has WINZ hours, 20hrs ECE and the 20hrs ECE allocated for each day, more generally 20 Hours ECE breakdown reports for a child, across a week which shows booked 20hrs per child on a particular day spread across a week. Children Reports > Children enrolment will assist with most of this information, however, to view WINZ information, use the Child Details report and specify your date range, adding the following fields: