What is IPSAS and how is it connected to Umoja?

International Public Sector Accounting Standards (“IPSAS”) is an internationally accepted accounting protocol that the UN Organization will fully comply with by 2014, following the recommendation of the General Assembly in 2006.

Compliance with IPSAS will ensure that UN accounting practices are aligned with industry best practices, enabling enhanced financial transparency and accountability, improved decision making resulting from more detailed financial information, improved consistency and comparability of financial statements across offices and duty stations and full and easy access to more comprehensive information on costs and expenses.

The UN has gradually moved from its own set of accounting standards (UNSAS) towards the adoption of the new internationally accepted standard in order to make its financial and reporting system more effective and transparent.

To read about IPSAS standards and learn how and why the UN is complying with IPSAS, please visit http://ipsas.un.org (UN network only).

The Umoja solution and IPSAS go hand in hand. Using SAP as the new Enterprise Resource Planning software across the UN Secretariat will further ensure that the UN complies with IPSAS standards in all its financial transactions once Umoja has been deployed.

The Umoja team is working closely with the IPSAS implementation team within the UN Office of Programme Planning, Budget and Accounts (OPPBA) in all of its preparatory activities for deployment of the Umoja solution.