United States Department of Agriculture
Research, Education and Economics

ARS * CSREES * ERS * NASS

Bulletin

ANNUAL CLOSING GUIDANCE

Due to externally imposed accelerated deadlines associated with the preparation and submission of the Department=s FY 2003 financial statements, we are providing year-end closing guidance and deadlines for various financial operations. The following provides preliminary annual closing guidance.

All fundholders, Location Administrative Officers/Technicians (LAO/Ts), program managers, contracting officers, purchasing agents, Servicing Budget and Fiscal Officers (SBFOs), and all other employees responsible for preparing, reviewing, approving, and submitting obligation documents to NFC should give special attention to these procedures and make a special effort to meet the established cutoff dates.

Preparing for Year-End Close:

Payments against cancelled appropriations are governed by the statutory provisions of Public Law (PL) 101-510. Briefly, PL 101-510 states that budget authority is canceled after the five-year period of expired authority has ended for an annual (1 year) appropriation. At the end of the five-year period all budget authority, both obligated and unobligated, is cancelled and the unused budget authority is transferred to the Treasury. Thereafter, payments against cancelled years must be funded from current years' direct appropriated funds within the Area. There is no central funding source to draw upon. A number of Areas had to use FY 2003 funding to pay for FY 1997 and other canceled years' invoices this year.

As part of this process, it is important to review all prior year (FY 1998 - 2002) unliquidated obligations and to clear out all invalid obligations so that our financial records provide an accurate picture of our obligated balances and to maximize the availability of prior year budget authority for paying invoices properly chargeable to prior year periods. Please refer to Policy and Procedure 323.7 for additional guidance on reviewing unpaid obligations.

2. Expenditure of Funds

The Status of Funds (SOF) Reports (reconciled with June's Foundation Financial Information System (FFIS) data) issued July 25, 2003, must be as “clean” and up-to-date as possible. This includes all appropriated and non-appropriated (“soft fund”) accounts. Aging documents must be researched and estimates reviewed and updated, as necessary. Beginning in August, SOF Reports should be issued to the fundholders on a weekly basis.

Fundholders should make every effort to identify and obligate available funding for routine purchases by the end of August (August 29). Needs identified after August 29 should be unexpected or unforeseen (emergency) and must be coordinated through the LAO. LAO's should develop internal processes to control and capture these obligations. The SBFOs will provide specific guidance to the Locations on options for maintaining funds control during this period.

The Financial Management Division (FMD) will work with the Budget and Program Management Staff (BPMS) and the National Program Staff (NPS) to ensure that High Priority Requirements List (HPRL) and program funding is released as early as possible. Obviously, business will not come to a halt and there will be occasions where requirements will be unexpectedly identified late in the year or funding will be made available at the last minute. However, these occasions should be kept to a minimum and routine, Acommon@ purchases should be completed prior to August 29.

The Location administrative and accounting personnel will be required to finalize the Location's year-end estimates between September 25 and 30, 2003. All obligations to be made using FY 03 funding must be known by the accounting staff prior to September 29, 2003.

Of equal importance to the direct funds are the reimbursable, “soft” funds. All reimbursable and trust fund accounts must be reconciled and all transactions captured. If any costs are residing on a direct account which belong on the soft fund, they must be transferred prior to September 24, 2003, or captured in a year-end estimate. In order to ensure processing through the accounting system, the last day a trust fund or CRADA check may be accepted for use in FY 2003 is September 5, 2003. FY 2003 Reimbursable Agreements (new or amendments) must be established prior to September 18, 2003, in order for the funds to be available for FY 2003 business. Guidance on developing and reporting carry-over balances for agreements will be provided at a later date.

FMD issues a bulletin every fiscal year end entitled, “Obligation of Appropriation: Fiscal Year Chargeable,” which provides general guidelines to aid managers and fundholders in deciding spending priorities prior to expiration of the annual appropriation on September 30. This bulletin will be updated for FY 2003 and re-published soon. Refer to this bulletin for guidance. Please call your SBFO, AAO, or Headquarters Staff if you have any questions.

3. Year-End Estimates (YE) Documents

Year End Close

Final Close Out Activities

Review of year-end estimates and balances by fund type will be required from the SBFO by October 1, 2003. SBFO's are required to do a screen print from the ALOC table for their division (Area) for all Fund Types (01, 08, 91, 92, 93, 95, 02, etc.), review the information, notate that it is complete/correct to the best of their knowledge, and fax the information to the Chief, FOB, FMD, on 301-504-4302, by October 1, 2003, 3:00 p.m. EST.

The CRIS Activities Module (CAM) will still be required. Additional guidance with due dates will be provided later in the fiscal year.

Steve Helmrich, Director
Financial Management Division

4 Enclosures

Enclosure 1

TIMELINE/CUTOFF DATES


July 1, 2003 (Tuesday)

• D-700 REQUISITION DEADLINESee footnote¹ - $25,001-100,000. Requests for supplies, services and equipment (including IT, construction with completed design, and A-E design only) between $25,001 and $100,000 must be received by procurement office.

Early July

• Facilities Division will request “wish list” from Areas for year-end funds.

July 25, 2003 (Friday)

• Fscal community provides clean, up-to-date Status of Funds reports to fundholders.

July 25-31, 2003

• YE (year-end estimate) Practice Days: all ARS locations enter a few YE documents with nominal amounts for the month ending July with a reversal date of 11 03.

August 1, 2003 (Friday)

• AD-700 REQUISITION DEADLINE (see footnote) - $2,501 - 25,000. Requests for supplies, services and equipment (including IT, construction with completed design, and A-E design only) between $2,501 and $25,000 must be received by procurement office.
• Facilities Division will distribute unused construction funds.

August 15, 2003 (Friday)

• Lcations, through Areas, provide list of anticipated agreements still to be received during FY 03 to Budget and Program Management Staff (BPMS)
• AD-700 REQUISITION DEADLINE (see footnote). Requests for “Special or additional tasks for major facilities support services contracts” over $100,000 due to procurement office.

August 29, 2003 (Friday)

• AD-700 REQUISITION DEADLINE (see footnote on Page 1 of Enclosure) - $2,500 and under. All “routine” purchases of supplies, services and equipment (includes IT, construction with completed design, and A-E design only) should be procured by this date. Requests for $100,000 and under for “Special or additional tasks for major facilities support services contracts” due to procurement office.
• Final day for “routine” spending.
• Control Spending! Any spending of FY 2003 funds after this date must be coordinated through your LAO.

September 2, 2003 (Tuesday)

• Complete review of all remaining open obligations (FY 1998 to present) and provide certification and documentation through the SBFO to FMD.
• Complete any adjustments (e.g., deobligations) to open prior-year obligations based on review.
• All cardholders must provide complete logs with all orders placed through August 29, 2003, to appropriate accounting personnel.

September 5, 2003 (Friday)

• Last day to accept and send CRADA or Trust Fund checks to the Lock Box to ensure deposit for FY 2003 appropriations.

September 8, 2003 (Monday)

• Cash award documentation to be received by Human Resources Division.

September 11, 2003 (Thursday)

• Invoices chargeable to FY 1998 should be received by to NFC by 4 p.m. (CDT) to ensure that they will be scheduled for payment. Pursuant to the provisions of Public Law 101-510, payments for FY 1998 must be cleared and released by Treasury before the close of FY 2003. Any invoices not received in time to clear Treasury will be processed as FY 2004 business and charged to FY 2004 funds.
• All Contracts, Agreements and RSA Task Orders must be received by ARS Operations Section, NFC, to ensure processing in FY 2003. Locations may continue to send documents to ARS Operations Section; however, if not received by this date, they may not be processed in time to meet the cutoff dates.
• Last day for NFC to receive relocation travel vouchers in order to ensure processing in FY 2003.
• Functional Administrator will roll ACCS tables (PGMT, ACXT & DVAL) forward to FY 2004 based on feedback from SBFO. FY 2003 or FY 2004 accounting codes that need to be established will have to be manually entered on PGMT, DVAL and ACXT tables by the SBFO. Changes/deletions to DVAL and ACXT must be referred to the Functional Administrator.

September 18, 2003 (Thursday)

• BPMS will begin processing allocation (BE) documents on a daily basis through October 1, 2003. The SBFOs will enter financial plans (BL's) and provide plans to LAO's on a daily basis through September 30, 2003.
• Last day to accept incoming FY 2003 reimbursable agreements and post in ARIS.
• Final day for NFC to receive and process updates or corrections to Stored Master files via Forms AD-474 (Telephone/Utilities), AD-643 (Motor Pool), AD-633 (FEDSTRIP), or AD-955 (Federal Telephone System Payments).
• All unliquidated obligations on 801 and 808 accounting codes will be deobligated by NFC as of COB September 18, 2003, for all contracts, agreements, purchase orders, GSA orders, etc.

September 23, 2003 (Tuesday)

• Final day for NFC to receive electronic submission of obligating documents for all administrative processing systems (NFC Feeders Systems), i.e., travel vouchers, purchase orders, blanket purchase agreements (BPA's), etc., processed directly by NFC. This is the last day to enter online or electronically transmit to NFC documents to ensure inclusion in FY 2003 activity. Hold off on transmitting purchase orders or releasing travel vouchers after this date until the system reopens on October 1. If you have invoices, you should continue to send them in; if not paid in 2003, they will be processed beginning October 1. If we hold invoices, we may be subject to interest penalty payments. This includes our Type 45 P.O.'s (formerly BPA's).
• Last day for PCMS cardholders to reconcile open transactions to ensure capture of information in FY 2003 reports.
• Last day for disbursements to be made in FY 2003. After today, no payments will be issued until October 1, 2003.
• Any payment vouchers in REJCT or HELD status in SUSF will not be processed in tonight's final FY 2003 run.
• Last day to enter direct entry disbursing documents (type NO's) in FFIS for which obligations do not already exist in FFIS.
• Last day to direct enter obligating documents for FY 2003. (NFC-ARS Operations, SPA, PWA, FD.)
• Last day to process B2's, including those for IPSC.
• Last day to enter transfers and post in ARIS.

September 25-30, 2003

• Location accounting personnel to run BRIO reports and reconcile September activity to LOTS records. These reports will include all feeder transactions, but will not include SUSF cleanups. SBFOs and ARS Operations must notify Locations of any last minute SUSF cleanups. Unposted transactions (which are not reflected on the BRIO reports) must be year-end estimated.

September 25, 2003 (Thursday)

• Locations run final TDL's for FY 2003 and reconcile activity to LOTS reports.
• Suspense (SUSF) clean-up date. Since the feeder systems closed September 23, SUSF should be checked and cleaned out to clear all documents in REJCT, HELD, or PEND status. Any obligating documents not cleared from SUSF must be captured with a year-end estimate (YE) document.
• All PCMS cardholders provide final purchase logs to accounting personnel.

September 26-30, 2003

• SBFO's enter FY 2004 allotment information (BL's) and place on hold.

September 28, 2003 (Sunday)

• Locations run final PDL's and OCP's for FY 2003 and reconcile activity to LOTS and SAMS reports.

September 30, 3002 (Tuesday)

• Last day to enter period end estimates for FY 2003 business by 10:00 p.m. EST. (See Enclosure 3 for instructions for using LOTS to develop year-end estimates and Enclosure 4 for instructions on entering the year-end estimates into FFIS.)
• ARS units enter year-end documents (YE's) until close of business 9/30/03. NFC-ARS Operations will NOT prepare ANY year-end estimates.
• Accounting personnel must include all unposted items in LOTS and SAMS as estimates.
• IMPORTANT: It will be the responsibility of the ARS Locations to prepare year-end estimates for any pending payroll and utility charges.
• Last day for Areas to firm up FY-03 Financial Plans (BL's).

October 1, 2003 (Wednesday)

• SBFO's screen print the ALOC table for their division (Area) for all Fund Types (01, 08, 91, 92, 93, 95, 02, etc.), review the information, notate that it is complete/correct to the best of their knowledge, and fax the information to the Chief, FOB, FMD, on 301-504-4302 by 3:00 p.m. EST.
• PCMS profile accounting codes will be rolled to FY 2004 accounting codes.
• ABFO's should release held FFIS Allotment Documents (BL's) for FY 2004 business assuming an approved budget.

October 2, 2003 (Thursday)

• Units begin entry of FY 2004 business (accounting period 01 04).
• BPMS will begin entering FY 2004 BE documents to distribute carryover amounts for soft funds to the Area level based on activity in FFIS as of the close of accounting period 12 03. SBFOs will then enter BL documents to distribute carryover amounts back to the accounting code/allotment level.
• Appropriation Level Management Staff (ALMS) and FFIS Operations Branch enter unfilled/unbilled transactions and final Agency adjustments in FFIS.
  

Enclosure 2

Express Mail/Postal Service Information for Document Delivery

The following addresses and telephone numbers are provided to assist you with the use of express mail and postal service:

ARS Operations Section Express Mail Address:

OCFO, COD, ACPRB, ARS Operations Section
13800 Old Gentilly Road
2nd Floor, Post V-45
New Orleans, LA 70129

For documents that are not processed by ARS Operations Section, NFC, such as purchase orders, travel vouchers, and Government Bills of Lading, which need to be expedited to other offices at NFC, the express mail address and phone numbers are:

NFC's Express Mail Address:

USDA, NFC
Addressee*
13800 Old Gentilly Road
New Orleans, LA 70129

*Be specific as to the addressee (i.e., name of section within NFC such as the PRCH unit, and/or designated person)

Phone Number: 504-255-5557 or 5558

NOTE: You should consult with your local or express mail service about the exact mailing time (days) for service to New Orleans, Louisiana.

ARS Operations Section's Regular Mailing Address:
OCFO, COD, ACPRB, ARS Operations Section
P.O. Box 53326
New Orleans, LA, 70153

NFC's Regular Mailing Address:
USDA, NFC
P.O. Box 60000
New Orleans, LA 70160

To expedite the routing and subsequent processing of all documents, please remember to separate documents for mailing as offered in the above instructions. Do not commingle the documents which need to be sent to ARS Operations Section, NFC, with the documents which must be sent to other NFC offices.

Enclosure 3

Instructions For Using LOTS To Prepare Year-End Estimates

1.    Enter all outstanding obligation documents into Location Obligation Tracking System (LOTS).

2.    The Automated LOTS Reporting Module (ALRM) has a year-end estimate feature built into the reports. The following procedures, taken from Page 19 of the ALRM User Manual, give instructions on how to obtain a year-end estimate from the LOTS data:

Year-end estimates can be easily accomplished in ALRM by using Attachment A, sorted by Budget Object Code. Use the following procedures to prepare a year- end estimate:

a.    Select the appropriate MU level report.
b.    Select <U> (Unposted) for Attachment A options.
c.    Select <A> (All) to get all the unposted Attachment A records.
d.    Select <O> (Object Class) to have the listing sorted by Object Class.
e.    Select either <A> (Ascending) or <D> (Descending) for sort order.
f.    Select <H> (History) for obligation entries.

The resulting Attachment A will have all your LOTS unposted records by two-
digit budget object code. Review the listing for transactions that should be reported as year-end estimates. Review and determine the transactions to be reported with a check mark or some other identifier.

3.    Group and summarize the transactions by the two-digit budget object code (except for budget object code 25xx) and distinguish between those that are accrued expenditures (YE/DE) versus undelivered orders (YE/UN document).

NOTE: Any method used to aggregate the data for direct entry of YE documents must contain detailed information to support the entries. This method will facilitate the reconciliation of the financial reports and must be retained for 3 years for audit purposes.

Generally, the following transaction types should be used when entering estimates on YE documents:

NOTE: Retain all LOTS records created during this FY in the LOTS subdirectory where they currently reside. The CRIS Activities Module (CAM) will be utilizing the current fiscal year records to accumulate and summarize LOTS entries by CRIS. DO NOT delete the current fiscal year.

Enclosure 4

Instructions for Entering Year-End Estimates in FFIS

Using the step-by-step instructions starting on Page 123 in the Spending Module of the FFIS Learner's Guide or Page 46 of the Quick Reference Guide (see FMD webpage) the following guidance is provided for entering estimates into FFIS:

1.    Print screen ALLT before and after entering YE documents to ensure your estimates are captured appropriately.

2.    When entering the document ID number, use the SEC 1 code applicable for your Area, Location code, plus a sequential number or enter # to enact automatic document numbering.

3.    Use a reversal period of 01 04 (October 2003).

4.    Per the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) Bulletin #2002-001, Elimination of Miscellaneous Vendor Codes, the use of miscellaneous vendor codes as specified in the Learner's Guide and Quick Reference Guide (MISC-G or MISC-N) has been prohibited. Therefore, the following Vendor Codes will be used for your Area/National Agricultural Library/FOB, as applicable:

FOB/Headquarters	12400300F C
Beltsville	12400300F D
North Atlantic	12400300F E
Midwest	12400300F F
Pacific West	12400300F G
Northern Plains	12400300F H
Southern Plains	12400300F J
Mid South	12400300F K
South Atlantic	12400300F L
National Agricultural Library	12400300F N

 

NOTE: The use of Area pseudocodes (9203XXXXX A) is to be used for voluntary collection activity only.

5.    Enter YE/DE for accrued expenditures (salaries, utilities, etc.). The result will be reflected in the EXPENDED AMT field on the ALLT and ALOC tables.

Remember, using the “I” indicator increases the account's obligation amount (decreasing the available balance) and the “D” indicator decreases the account's obligation amount (increasing the available balance).

6.    Enter YE/UN for undelivered orders (contracts, purchase orders, relocation orders, etc.). The result will be reflected in the UNLIQ OBLG AMT field on the ALLT and ALOC tables.

7.    Since the budget object code 6000 is no longer used, all salary estimates MUST be recorded against budget object code 1100.

8.    Similar to prior years, budget object code 25XX must be reported to the four-digit detail level. (Note: BOC 2554 requires a Sub-object code.)

9.    Each line of the YE document represents a different budget object code and/or accounting code.

10.    Enter estimates for feeder system (payroll, utilities, etc.) activity since estimates will not be automatically generated.

In the event that the initial preparer of the year-end estimate is unavailable throughout all year- end activities, you should ensure that a knowledgeable person is available to answer any questions/inquiries concerning year-end estimates. If you encounter problems in preparing and/or transmitting your year-end estimate, contact your SBFO.

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Footnote: 1¹ Receiving the AD-700 Procurement Request by this date provides reasonable assurance that the request will be completed prior to the end of the Fiscal Year. AD-700s received after this deadline will be handled on an “if- possible” basis and will not be assured completion prior to the close of the Fiscal Year.