United States Department of Agriculture
Research, Education and Economics

ARS * CSREES * ERS * NASS

Bulletin

Title: Year-End Closing Dates and Closing Guidance
Number: 03-305
Date: June 16, 2003
Originating Office: Financial Management Division
Distribution: Area Administrative Officers
ARS Division Directors
Servicing Budget and Fiscal Officers
Location Administrative Officers/Technicians
Research Leaders
Budget and Program Management Staff
ARS Operations Section, NFC
Expires: October 30, 2003

 

 

 

This bulletin provides guidance for managing year- end activities as well as Timeline/Cutoff Dates and Contact List Enclosures.

 

 


 

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:

1. Review of Unliquidated Obligations

Departmental Regulation 2230-001 requires us to formally review unliquidated obligations semi- annually. It is especially important for us to ensure that all invoices associated with FY 1998 obligations are paid prior to September 30. Properly executed invoices must be received by National Finance Center (NFC) by 4 p.m. (CDT) on September 11, 2003, in order to disburse prior to September 30, 2003. Unless FY 1998 invoices are paid prior to September 30, 2003, the management units will have to pay for these invoices from FY 2004 or other future appropriations.

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

Federal statutes require all agencies, at the end of each fiscal year, to record all of their valid obligations for that fiscal year. These obligations are required to accurately reflect the financial status of the agency relative to its appropriated and non-appropriated funds. Obligations reflected in the records captured in FFIS must be accurate as of September 30. FFIS records will be used to prepare ARS' final official financial reports which are sent to Congress, the Department of the Treasury, and the Office of Management and Budget. To record these obligations, source documents must be received at NFC in accordance with the cutoff dates. When the source documents cannot be submitted to NFC by the cutoff date, year-end estimates must be used to record those documents as well as transactions where individual documents are not used to obligate funds (e.g., travel authorizations, blanket purchase agreements, etc.) for all annual, multi-year, and no year activity.

It is important for accounting personnel to re-familiarize themselves with the entry of year-end estimate (YE) documents before the end of the fiscal year and possibly encountering difficulties. Please practice by entering 2 or 3 different YE documents for nominal amounts during the July 25-31 practice timeframe. These estimates should reflect 11 03 as the reversal period. 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). The ALLT table should be checked both prior to and after processing the YE to see the impact on the account's balance and ensure the YE was processed correctly. Information for preparing YE documents may be found starting on Page 41 of the FFIS Spending Quick Reference Guide. The first point of contact for any difficulties arising during the YE process should be the SBFO. They will contact the FFIS Operations Branch (FFISOB) Help Desk on (301) 504-4429, should it prove necessary. See Enclosure 3 for instructions for using LOTS to prepare the year-end estimates and Enclosure 4 for instructions for entering year- end estimates in FFIS.

For audit purposes, please retain the appropriate documentation for your year-end estimates. This includes documents reflected on the Location Obligation Tracking System (LOTS) reports (i.e., AD-700's, cardholder logs, etc.) and Salary Management System (SAMS) reports.

Payroll for Pay Period 18 will be processed on September 27, 2003, and reflected in the data warehouse on September 28, 2003. Locations will need to enter year-end estimates for Pay Period 19 (7 days) salaries, including any awards and overtime.


Year End Close

In previous years, we have had several weeks to Aclean-up@ our LOTS records, research Aaging@ documents, and reconcile the September ledgers prior to submitting our final year-end estimates. Last year, we had until October 4 to perform these duties. This year, the deadlines are constricted even more. September information must be reconciled and year-end estimates mustbe entered in FFIS no later than September 30, 2003. See the enclosed timeline (Enclosure 1) to assist you in managing your Location=s year-end close out activities.

All NFC feeder systems (TRVL, PRCH, PCMS, etc.) obligation and payment activity must be entered by September 23, 2003, to ensure it is processed in FY 2003. All direct-entered obligation and payment activity (Contracts, Agreements, and RSA Task Orders) processed by ARS Operations Section, NFC, must be received by September 11, 2003, to ensure processing in FY 2003. Locations should continue to mail these documents to ARS Operations through the end of the fiscal year; however, if any are not received by September 11, 2003, they may not get processed in time to be reflected on year-end reports.

Note: Obligation and payment documents must pass through feeder system and FFIS edits to ensure they are successfully captured in FY 2003. These transactions will be reflected in the data warehouse and FFIS on September 25, 2003. In the event documents are rejected, Suspense (SUSF) table managers will attempt to reconcile errors by close of business (COB) September 26, 2003.

All accounting adjustments (B2 documents) should be completed by COB September 24, including those for Indirect Program Support Costs (IPSC). If not, they must be entered as a year-end estimate. The SBFOs should verify that all amounts for IPSC and/or indirect research costs (IRC) are recorded on Form ARS-324, Transmittal for Reimbursable or Trust Fund Agreement, and have appeared on the TDL.

Obligations can continue to be executed against the available funding through September 30. However, the obligation amounts must be captured by accounting personnel using year- end estimates by September 30, 2003. Every effort must be made to provide accounting personnel with the appropriate documentation (PCMS logs, purchase orders, etc.) by COB September 29, 2003.

Year-end estimates must be submitted for all accounts, including annual, multi-year, and no-year funds.


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)

Early July

July 25, 2003 (Friday)

July 25-31, 2003

August 1, 2003 (Friday)

August 15, 2003 (Friday)

August 29, 2003 (Friday)

September 2, 2003 (Tuesday)

September 5, 2003 (Friday)

September 8, 2003 (Monday)

September 11, 2003 (Thursday)

September 18, 2003 (Thursday)

September 23, 2003 (Tuesday)

September 25-30, 2003

September 25, 2003 (Thursday)

September 26-30, 2003

September 28, 2003 (Sunday)

September 30, 3002 (Tuesday)

October 1, 2003 (Wednesday)

October 2, 2003 (Thursday)


Enclosure 2

 



Mail, Telephone and Contact Information

ARS, Operations Section, NFC: Telefax Number (504) 255-5111
     
SUBJECT NAME PHONE NUMBER
Training
Linda Massenburg
(504) 255-5770
General Information, Mailing, New Business Jan Key or Debbie Gordy
-6376 or -5762
Reimbursable Agreements: Brenda Duhe or Regina Delay -5768 or -5769
Interagency Agreements (Outgoing Funds) Regina Delay -5769
Contracts/Agreements Yvonne King
Anitha Anderson
Brenda Duhe
-5766 -5767
-5768
     
ARS, FMD-FFISOB:   Telefax Number
(301) 504-4390
     
ARS, FMD-FOB:   Telefax Number
(301) 504-4302
Chief, Fiscal Operations Branch, FMD Lisa Baldus (301) 504-1300
LOTS/ALRM IT Help Desk (301) 504-1074
FFIS Inquiries FFIS Help Desk (301) 504-4429


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:


Transaction

BOC

YE Transaction Type

Description/Examples

Payroll

1100

DE

Payroll charges for FY 2003
PP 19 (70%), awards, overtime
BOC 6000 IS NO LONGER USED

Travel

2100

DE

Travel Charges (except relocation)

Relocation

2100

UN


PCMS

2670

DE

PCMS charges not recorded

Transportation

2200

DE

Federal Express, Postage, etc.

Rent,
Communication,
Utilities

2300

DE

Estimates are needed from feeder systems such as UVTN, TELE

Printing

2400

UN


Other services

25XX

UN

Budget Object Code 25XX must be reported to the four-digit level. BOC 2554 requires Sub-object Code

Supplies

2600

UN


Equipment

3100

UN


Grants

4200

UN

Must use Sub-object Codes (see Overview Module of Learner's Guide)

Specific Cooperative Agreements

4500

UN

Must use Sub-object Codes (see Overview Module of Learner's Guide)


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.


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.