FY14 Year End Best Practices
Christine Benoit, Jen Edmonds,
Stephanie Nasson, Katie Phelan
FAS Office of Finance
May 2014
Chart of Account Review & Cleanup
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Review your department’s chart of accounts for unused chart values
•
To close UD funds, activity, sub activities, roots - email FAS
Applications Security
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To close a gift fund - email Linda Kuros
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Identify funds with zero/low dollar balances and spend down/close
funds
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Write off remaining gift balances via Journal Voucher**
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Review fund balances and move expenses to clear deficits
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Refer to specific instructions to clear a deficit in a gift fund
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Review Centrally-controlled funds to ensure charges are correct
•
000760, 000770, 000775, 000780, 000795, 000800-000802
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Chart of Account Review & Cleanup
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Review Budget to Actuals for current fiscal year
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Budget Variance
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Summaries Actual and Budget
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If you are a Service Center, ensure your Internal Billings are up to date
•
Can be processed through the second close (2pm on Friday 7/11)
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How to Write Off a Gift Balance
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If a restricted gift/current use account is no longer being used and
every effort has been made to spend a positive balance to zero, the
balance can be written off using object code 7765, Fund Balance
Write-Offs.
•
The balance can be a deficit or surplus of $50 or less
•
These balances should be transferred to the 000001 fund. If this fund
is not available, use a general Unrestricted Designated fund. Please
contact Linda Kuros if you believe you have a situation that warrants a
write-off.
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Example of a write-off entry for a fund with a positive balance:
•
•
DR Tub.Org.7765.3XXXXX.600100.*.*
CR Tub.Org.7765.000001.600100.**
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If you have a fund with a negative balance, then your entry will be the
reverse of the example above.
•
AEA will be processed by the FAS Office of Finance.
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How to write off a gift balance
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Once the account has a zero balance, a determination by the
Department or Center should be made to keep the account open or to
close it.
•
If the fund terms are general and there’s a possibility that future gifts
will be received, it’s permissible to keep the account open.
•
If additional gifts will not be received, it’s best to close the account.
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Questions related to this issue can be directed to Linda Kuros.
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How to close a gift fund
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Restricted gift/current use accounts can be closed once the fund
balance is zero. The deadline for closing the account is May 16 at 5:00
p.m.
•
If a determination to close an account is made, please send an email
request to Linda Kuros (l_kuros@harvard.edu) with the following:
•
Tub
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Fund name and number
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Confirmation that the balance is indeed $0.
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If you have cross val’d your fund and transferred monies to other FAS
departments, FAS Schools or other tubs, the balances in their Tub/Org
(within the account) must also be zero.
•
A CSMA chart request will be submitted to disable/close the account
value provided. The request usually takes a few days to complete.
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Unclaimed Wires Report
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Provides a listing of all unclaimed wires for the entire University
•
Review this CREW report to look for receipts from external parties
related to your department. While you may be anticipating a check
payment, the vendor may have paid via wire.
•
We recommend running the report since inception by leaving the Show
Wires field blank
•
To claim a wire to post to your dept, contact Cash Management
(cash_management@harvard.edu) and provide the 33 digit coding to
process the income transfer
•
Please review this report throughout the year and claim wires as funds
are received
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General Reminders
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Submit FY14 payments & reimbursements in a timely manner; contact
ASAP for assistance
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Hold FY15 payments & reimbursements until after FY14 has closed;
less paper for AP to manage
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Transfer all low dollar, high volume transactions to PCard (FedEx,
Data Shredder, Poland Spring)
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When an invoice is not provided, use the FAS Payment Request
template and type the necessary information
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Be mindful of additional PCard sweeps during the year end close
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Review the ‘Receiving’ tab in HCOM to confirm all of your FY14 POs
have been received. FY14 deadline to receive purchases in July 7 at
Noon
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General Reminders
•
The minimum amount for an AP accrual, Prepaid Expenses, Deferred
Revenue and Accrued Revenue is $10k, consistent with FY13
•
Don’t forget accruals for recovery of salary, fringe and awards!
•
Validate coding on ADI journals prior to submission to
finjrnl@fas.harvard.edu. Refer to the Chart of Accounts Validator on
ABLE or the Financial Applications page
•
Option to accept credit cards (one-time or ongoing) is now available
via Cash Management – refer to link under How To… section
•
If your department is a Service Center, please consider using Oracle
A/R to bill recurring customers
• Contact Jen Edmonds for details
•
Save the envelopes for gifts received though the U.S. mail for proof of
receipt of late June gifts. Please include the envelope when sending
gifts to the RSO for processing. Gifts postmarked after June 30, 2014
will be processed as FY15 donations.
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General Reminders
•
All reported paid time off for FY14 through June 21, 2014 must be
approved in PeopleSoft by 5:00 pm on Friday, June 20
•
This will ensure accurate reporting of the University's vacation liability
as we close out the year. Please take a moment to review any new or
outstanding requests and take the appropriate action.
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AP Adjustment Form (for Equipment)
Capital equipment coding corrections
• The purpose of the form is to correct any errors within the 33digit G/L coding for equipment charged to the 68xx series
•
At year-end the priority is getting the object code correct since it
impacts depreciation expense
•
Since the AP Adjustment Form flows through AP, it follows the
AP closing deadlines
• The deadline for approving AP Adjustment Forms is noon
on Monday July 7th and should post to the G/L overnight.
• If you are aware of adjustments now, please start
processing them before July
Questions on how to use the form? Refer to the job aids on Eureka
under the Fixed Assets section
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Committed Funds Report
•
Not just for FY End!
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Unbilled Items (“Quantity Received” > “Quantity Billed”)
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Invoices on hold (“Unposted Amt” > 0)
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Unspent POs/Remaining Balances (“Open Commitment” > 0)
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Payment Requests (PR), Nonemployee Reimbursements (NR),
Employee Reimbursements (WR) – should only appear for a few days
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CFR Tips
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Report DOES NOT show POs where invoices are on hold only for
price
•
Sort and remove the following:
Amounts less than a dollar
MX FedEx App POs
BCD Transactions with minimal amounts remaining
Foreign Wire Transfer balances
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Posted Amount = 0
Nothing was processed (lost in the mail, never turned in,
processed against something else)
•
Marketplace PO Receiving Amount = 0
Nothing was received. If this true, please follow up with vendor
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Email AP customer service to close out POs
ap_customerservice@harvard.edu
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Resources
• FAS Office of Finance - http://finance.fas.harvard.edu
• ASAP – fasasap@fas.harvard.edu, x6-7136
• FAS Applications Security – appsec@fas.harvard.edu
• Christine Benoit – cbenoit@fas.harvard.edu
• Josh Dunn – dunn@fas.harvard.edu
• Jen Edmonds – jenniferedmonds@fas.harvard.edu
• Linda Kuros – l_kuros@harvard.edu
• Joe Mendes – joseph_mendes@harvard.edu
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How to…
• Clear a gift fund deficit :
http://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/fas_finance/files/how_to_clean_up_a_re
stricted_gift_fund_deficit.pdf
• To accept a credit card as payment:
http://otm.finance.harvard.edu/credit-card-merchant-accounts
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