Revised: 02/10/2015
What is Unclaimed Property?
Unclaimed property is any financial asset that has been left with a "holder," such as a bank, insurance company or other business or organization, without activity or contact for a specified dormancy period set by state law.
The most common types of unclaimed property are savings or checking accounts, stocks, dividends, checks that have not been cashed, certificates of deposit, unclaimed insurance benefits, expired gift certificates, and items abandoned in safe deposit boxes and held in police department stolen property files. By law, at the end of the dormancy period, holders must transfer abandoned property to the State Treasury Department.
Every state has its own Unclaimed Property laws and procedures for reporting. You may go to www.naupa.org for information and links to every state's laws and procedures. Pennsylvania uses calendar year reporting, other states may use a fiscal year reporting requirement.
For Pennsylvania: The dormancy period for most property, such as stale checks is now three (3) years. Prior to 2015 reporting, the period was 5 years. Any property that became 3 years old and "unclaimed" by December 31, 2014 should be report in 2015. Wages or other compensation for personal services that have remained unclaimed by the owner for more than two (2) years after the wages or other compensation for personal services become payable or are distributed are presumed abandoned and unclaimed.
The report shall be filed on or before April 15 of the year following the year in which the property first became subject to custody and control of the Commonwealth under this article. The State Treasurer may postpone for a period not exceeding six (6) months the reporting date upon written request by any person required to file a report.
For more detail on Pennsylvania law please read:
http://www.patreasury.gov/assets/pdf/UnclaimedPropertyForms/Holder-Reporting-Book.pdf and http://www.patreasury.gov/assets/pdf/UnclaimedPropertyForms/UnclaimedPropertyLaw.pdf
How to process unclaimed checks in Horizon
Review or Setup the Check Book Master
Before processing any unclaimed checks, please review or setup your checkbook for unclaimed checks.
Go to Maintain>>Check Books
Select the Check Book ID that you will be processing unclaimed checks for
Review, enter or select the G/L Number. This should be the GL cash account linked to this check book.
Enter a value in Segment, if appropriate. If balance controls are used, enter the value of the balanced segment. In the example shown below, "1000" is the first segment of the general ledger account's balance control. This value is entered to limit the available accounts to those that begin with 1000. Leave blank if balance controls are not used.
Enter or select a general ledger account number as the UnClaimed G/L. This should be a liability account to the PA Treasury for Unclaimed Property.
Note: If this check book has multiple general ledger cash accounts, select the account for your central office. There is no need to track unclaimed property by the fund or department that was originally liable for payment.
Save and close the Check Book Master
Processing:
Go to Activities>>Unclaimed Property>>Process Unclaimed Property
Select the Check Book ID
The list of outstanding checks will fill the grid
Enter or select an Effective Date on the bottom right.
This is the date the money will be returned to the check book and cash account. Best practice is to use a current date. Do not use an old date, especially do not use a date before your last bank reconciliation.
Checkmark the UP box for each check that is to be sent to Unclaimed Property. The effective date will appear in the Eff Date column beside the UP box.
If a checkmark is entered by mistake, remove it from the UP box and remove the effective date from the EFF Date column.
When you are done checking the boxes for unclaimed checks, press the Create UnClaimed Entries button on the lower left.
Which checks should be selected? For Pennsylvania: Between January and April 15, process the checks that became "unclaimed" in the previous calendar year. Payroll checks and any checks for wages or commissions are unclaimed after 2 years. Most other checks are unclaimed after 3 years.
It is recommended that you try to contact the payee and arrange payment before sending to the treasury.
The checks processed as unclaimed will be cleared in the check reconciliation. In View Checkbook, the Void column will display [P]Unc to indicate that they have been process as unclaimed and the Cleared Date and Void Date will display the effective date used.
A line will be added to the checkbook using the Effective Date to add back the total processed. The following information will be entered for the line:
Ref Number will equal UCP
Description/Memo will display UNCLAIMED PROPERTY OFFSET
Void will display [U]Unc
Cleared Date and Void Date will equal the Effective Date
Reporting:
Go to Activities>>Unclaimed Property>>Unclaimed Property Report
Select the Check Book ID
Enter or select the Start and End Date. This date range is for the effective date used during the Unclaimed Process. These are not check dates.
Select one of the following Sort Orders:
Date/Document Number or Document Number/Date
Leave the Pay Group blank for all Unclaimed Property entries. Enter a Pay Group only to find checks processed as unclaimed from a specific paygroup.
Checkmark the Sort and Break by Pay Group box if the entries are to be subtotaled by pay group otherwise, leave the box unchecked.
Press Preview and/or Print and review the report
The Unclamed Property Check Report will show each check that was processed with an Effective Date in the date range entered. The Check Number, Check Date, Memo, and the Unclaimed Amount will be included on the report. Also reported will be the Unclaimed Property Offsets which is the money put back into your check book balance.
Totals include: Total Unclaimed Withdrawals/Debits, Total Unclaimed Offsets, and Net Unclaimed (Debit). The Net Unclaimed (Debit) amount should be zero (0.00) when all entries are included.
Sending the unclaimed property to the state:
For Pennsylvania go to http://www.patreasury.gov/ look for the Unclaimed Property links.
Use the PDF forms to print completed manual forms to mail to the Treasury Department if you have 9 or fewer claims.
Electronic reporting must be used if you have 10 or more claims. There are 2 free software programs that can create electronic files accepted by 43 states, including Pennsylvania.
ACS HRS Pro http://www.wagers.net/hrs/index.php
NAUPA ETM http://www.byetm.com/index.php/upx
Cut a check to the Treasury Department per the States instructions. If electronic filing is used, the state may pull your payment by ACH. Use a Non-AP voucher to record the payment. When completing the AP voucher, the distribution account should be the same account listed in Check Book Master UnClaimed G/L. Make sure the check amount matches the report total.