United States Department of Agriculture

Research, Education, and Economics

ARS CSREES ERS NASS

Bulletin

Title:	Year-End Closing Dates and Closing Guidance

Number:	02-305 (Revised)

Date:	September 9, 2002	Expiration: September 30, 2003

Originating Office:	Financial Management Division

Distribution:	Area Administrative Officers

ARS Division Directors
Area Budget and Fiscal Officers

Location Administrative Officers/Technicians

ANNUAL CLOSING GUIDANCE

Due to externally imposed accelerated deadlines associated with the preparation and submission of the Department's FY 2002 financial statements, we are amending year-end closing deadlines for various financial operations. The following provides preliminary annual closing guidance.

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 1997 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 13, 2002, in order to disburse prior to September 30, 2002. Unless FY 1997 invoices are paid prior to September 30, 2002, the management units will have to pay for these invoices from FY 2003 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 canceled and the unused budget authority is transferred to the Treasury. Thereafter, payments against canceled years must be funded from current year's direct appropriated funds within the area. There is no central funding source to draw upon. A number of areas had to use FY 2002 funding to pay for FY 1996 and other canceled years' invoices this year.

As part of this process, it is important to review all prior year (FY 1997 - 2001) 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.

2. Period End Estimates (YE) Documents

It is important for accounting personnel to familiarize themselves with the entry of period end estimate (YE) documents at this time rather than waiting until the end of the fiscal year and possibly encountering difficulties. Please practice by entering a YE document for a nominal amount 2 or 3 different times prior to September. Information for preparing YE documents may be found starting on Page 41 of the FFIS Spending Quick Reference Guide. If difficulties are encountered, contact the FFIS Operations Branch (FFISOB) Help Desk on (301) 504-4429.

3. Expenditure of Funds

Fundholders should make every effort to obligate available funding by early September. 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 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, "common" purchases should be completed prior to September.

Year End Close

In previous years, we have had several weeks to "clean-up" our Location Obligation Tracking System (LOTS) records, research "aging" documents, and reconcile the September ledgers prior to submitting our final period end estimates. This year, September information must be reconciled and period end estimates must be entered in FFIS no later than October 3, 2002. See the enclosed timeline to assist you in managing your location's year-end close out activities.

All NFC feeder systems (travel, purchasing, credit cards, etc.) obligation and payment activity must be entered by September 19, 2002, to ensure it is processed in FY 2002. All direct-entered obligation and payment activity by ARS Operations Section, NFC, must be received by September 9 and September 13, 2002, respectively to ensure is processed in FY 2002. Activity processed thereafter will need to be captured in a period end estimate in the event it is rejected.

Note: Obligation and payment documents must pass through feeder system and FFIS edits to ensure they are successfully captured in FY 2002. In the event documents are rejected, SUSF table managers will attempt to reconcile errors prior to the close of FY 2002.

Obligations can continue to be executed against the available funding through September 30. However, the obligation amounts will need to be captured by accounting personnel using period end estimate (YE) documents. Every effort must be made to provide accounting personnel with the appropriate documentation (PCMS logs, purchase orders, etc.) as quickly as possible.

Period end estimates must be submitted for the following:

All 201 accounts

All soft fund accounts expiring on or before September 30, 2002

All 202 Hazardous Waste Clean-up accounts

Final Close Out Activities

In lieu of the FLASH report, certification of Period End Estimates and balances by fund type will be required from the Servicing Budget Fiscal Office (SBFO) by October 4, 2002. 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, certify that it is complete/correct, and fax the information (with certification) to the Chief, Fiscal Operations Branch, FMD, on 301-
504-4302, by October 4, 2002, 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.

Carol I. Shelton, Acting Director
Financial Management Division

2 Enclosures

Enclosure 1

(revised 9/9/02)

TIMELINE/CUTOFF DATES

September 3, 2002

•	Complete review of all remaining open obligations (FY 1997 to present).

•	Complete any adjustments (e.g., deobligations) to open obligations based on review.

September 9, 2002

•	Final day for ARS Operation section, NFC (formerly Reporting Section #1) to receive obligating documents to be processed as FY 2002 business. These obligating documents include research support agreements (RSA's), outgoing interagency agreements, specific cooperative agreements, contracts, grants, etc.

•	Cash awards documentation should be received by Human Resources Division.

September 13, 2002

•	Final day for ARS Operation Section, NFC to receive disbursing documents to process as FY 2002 business. These disbursing documents include both payments against previously obligated transactions and also those transactions that are obligated and paid simultaneously; i.e., honoraria, tort claims, etc. Disbursing documents received after September 13 will most likely be processed in October.

•	Invoices chargeable to FY 1997 should be forwarded to NFC by 4 p.m. (CDT) to ensure that they will be received and scheduled for payment. Pursuant to the provisions of Public Law 101-510, payments for FY 1997 must be cleared and released by Treasury before the close of FY 2002. Any invoices not received in time to clear Treasury will be processed as FY 2003 business and charged to FY 2003 funds in accordance with Public Law 101-510.

•	Last day for NFC to receive relocation travel vouchers in order for payment by September 30, 2002.

September 19, 2002

•	Final day for NFC to receive electronic submission of obligating documents for all feeder systems, except PCMS.

Documents can continue to be entered into their respective feeder systems after this date, but ensure that copies of the document are forwarded to your SBFO to be included in the year end estimates.

TRVL documents entered online after September 19, 2002, must be included in year end estimates. They can be printed and signatures obtained, but do not release for processing until October 4, 2002.

September 20, 2002

•	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).

September 23, 2002

•	BPMS will begin processing allocation (BE) documents on a daily basis through October 1, 2002.

•	All unliquidated obligations on 701 and 708 accounting codes will be deobligated by NFC as of COB September 23, 2002, for all contracts, agreements, PRCH, FEDS, salaries, etc.

•	Last day to correct/run payment vouchers in REJCT or HELD status in SUSF.

September 24, 2002

•	Last day for Southern Plains Area (SPA), Pacific West Area (PWA), or FMD to enter payment vouchers in FFIS to ensure payment in FY 2002.

•	Any payment vouchers in REJCT or HELD status in SUSF will not be processed in tonight's final FY 2002 run.

•	Last day to enter direct entry disbursing documents in FFIS.

September 25, 2002

•	Last day for PCMS cardholders to reconcile open transactions to ensure capture of information in FY 2002 reports.

•	SUSF clean-up date. Since the feeder systems closed September 24, 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 period end estimate (YE) document.

September 26-30, 2002

•	Area Budget and Fiscal Office's (ABFO) enter FY 2003 allotment information (BL's) and place on hold.

September 30, 2002

•	Last day to direct enter obligating documents for FY 2002. (ARS Operations Section, NFC, SPA, PWA, and FD)

•	PCMS cardholders provide final purchase logs to accounting personnel by COB September 30, 2002.

October 1, 2002

•	ARS units enter period end documents (YE's) until close of business

October 3, 2002. ARS Operations Section, NFC, will NOT prepare ANY

period end estimates, as done in prior years. Accounting personnel must include

all unposted items in LOTS as estimates.

•	Units begin entry of FY 2003 documents.

•	ABFO's should release "held" FFIS Allotment Documents (BL's) for FY 2003 business.

October 3, 2002

•	Last day to enter period end estimates for FY 2002 business.

October 4, 2002

•	PCMS profile accounting codes will be rolled to FY 2003 accounting codes.

•	Adjustment period 13 opens. Only NFC may enter documents into FFIS.

•	Locations run final reports (PDL, TDL, OCP) for FY 2002, view ALLT and report discrepancies to ABFO. ABFO reviews information on ALOC table and certifies balances. ABFO reports discrepancies and faxes certification to Chief, FOB, FMD by 3:00 p.m. EST.

•	Resume electronic transmissions through the feeder systems (TRVL, PRCH, etc.)

October 9, 2002

•	Adjustment period 13 closes by close of business this date (NFC only).

October 15, 2002

•	FY 2002 Annual reports run (NFC only).

Enclosure 2

(revised 9/9/02)

LIST OF CONTACTS

ARS, Operations Section, NFC:	Telefax Number
(504) 255-5111
SUBJECT	NAME	PHONE NUMBER
Training	Linda Massenburg	(504) 255-5770
General Information, Mailing, New Business	Debbie Gordy	-5762
Reimbursable Agreements:	Jan Key
-5772
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	ITD Help Desk	(301) 504-1074
FFIS Inquiries	FFIS Help Desk	(301) 504-4429