Note for next year all documents to be sent via schools finance email
(and hard copy can be sent in as an extra but again has to be full set)
and they have to be all together , as a full set, make sure all
documents are sent in the right format(some doc printing out on
landscape or don’t fit to the page too time consuming to re format our
end, BMR have to be in excel format – documents need to be
numbered and put in that order when sending in? no duplications too
many schools sending in same document twice!!
End of Year Closure
of Accounts
Procedures 2014/15
1
Version 1 – 16th January 2015
INDEX
Background ............................................................................. 3
Bank Statements – Schools using Nat West / RBS ................ 3
Accruals .................................................................................. 4
2014-15 Year End Closedown Timetable………………………5
RM Finance ............................................................................. 7
End Of Year Procedures ......................................................... 7
1) Back up ................................................................................... 7
2) Invoices and Income Receipts ................................................. 7
3) Payroll ..................................................................................... 7
4) Outstanding Orders ................................................................. 8
5) Accruals ................................................................................... 9
6) CFR Checking ........................................................................ 14
7) Bank Reconciliation ............................................................... 14
8) Monthly VAT Return .............................................................. 15
9) Budget v Actual v Committed Report, including Accruals ....... 16
10) Period 12 and Year End Bank / Accounts Reconciliation ..... 18
11) Year End Back-Up ............................................................... 23
12) Year End Roll Over .............................................................. 23
13) Changes to Datafile for New Year........................................ 25
14) Linking your Old Year Datafile ............................................ 25
15) 14-15 CFR Return ............................................................... 26
16) 2015-16 Budget ................................................................... 27
2
Background
The financial year for schools and the Local Authority (LA) runs from 1st April to
31st March, each year. After the end of March, a final financial position for the old
year and a starting position for the new financial year must be determined.
It is essential that the LA can reconcile the school final accounts with the local
authority final accounts. In the past this has been a problem for a number of
reasons.
It is hoped with more stringent monitoring of school monthly returns that
differences at year end will be kept to a minimum.
School Accounting System vs the LA Accounting System
The school accounting system is used to record all income and expenditure that is
processed through the schools bank account.
The LA system is updated each month with this information based on the returns
submitted by the school.
On occasions, the LA system has central charges posted to a schools cost centre.
Schools are now notified of these on a quarterly basis through the cash advance
spreadsheet and schools must post these to the school accounting system in order
that it agrees with the LA system. CS Finance also ensures that central charges
are deducted from the advances made to school bank accounts to ensure that the
bank continues to reconcile.
For schools that use the LBTH payroll service there is another potential reason for
differences to occur between the two systems. When payroll is run the total
payroll charges are made against the school cost centre on the LA system. The
school is notified of the payroll charges via a report on FRONTER and a direct
debit amount is taken from the schools bank account at a later date. On occasions
there are differences between the direct debit amount and the amount charged on
the LA system. This should be identified each month through the school
monitoring processes and then rectified accordingly. If not, then they will be
identified at Year End by CS Finance and adjustments may need to be made in the
following year.
Bank Statements – Schools using Nat West / RBS
With the introduction of Bank Line, it will be possible to access your bank
statement at any time. If you have not registered for bank line then you should do
3
so as soon as possible by contacting Suhal Kadir on 0207 364 4138 or via email
suhal.kadir@towerhamlets.gov.uk
Accruals
Schools are required by the LA to submit their final accounts on an Accruals basis
as opposed to a Cash basis. This means that expenditure and income must be
recorded in the year in which it is incurred, rather than when the payment is made.
Where it has not been possible to process invoices for goods and services
received or income received or due, on or before 31 March 2015 the items
concerned must be processed in your accounting software (e.g. RM
Finance/SIMS FMS) as an Accrual.
Schools using LBTH Payroll
It is preferable that schools post the actual payroll costs into their accounting
system in the normal way and the direct debit which will be taken in April will be
shown as an unpresented item.
It is anticipated that an initial payroll report will be uploaded to FRONTER on 27th
March 2014. All schools should use this information to close accounts on the
31st March 2014.
A final payroll report will be uploaded after all supplementary payroll adjustments
have been processed (on 6th April 2014). The timing of the Easter Holidays this
year does mean this report will be available when schools return from their break.
Schools using external Payroll providers
Schools must ensure that the full salary costs (including on-costs) are posted to
the school accounting system. If there are still payments relating to the March
payroll to taken from the bank account in April (e.g. Pensions or Inland Revenue
Payments) then you must include these in your unpresented item listing.
If schools are unable to do this because they have not received the information in
time then they must estimate the payroll costs for March and raise them as an
accrual.
Accrual Limits
The minimum limit for accruals is £1,000 per CFR code.
Amounts under £1,000 per CFR code will have to be charged to the following
year’s budget.
4
2014-15 YEAR END PROCEDURE
Due to the timing of the Easter Holidays this year, (27th March-13th April
Inclusive, for most schools) and the deadlines imposed by the Audit Commission
for the Authority to close their accounts by 28th April.
2014-15 Year End Closedown Timetable
Please see below the closedown timetable for this financial year. Please ensure
that you follow these guidelines and that all information is submitted accurately and
on time, so that both the school and Local Authority can close its accounts on time.
Date
Friday 20th February 2015
Action / Documents required
Final Advances/Payments made by CSF Finance (nb
final VAT reimbursement to be made 24th March )
Tuesday 27th March 2015
CSF Finance to upload initial March payroll report to
Grid
Tuesday 31st March 2015
End of Financial Year
Thursday 16th April 2015
Final BMR return to CSF Finance :
schoolsfinance@towerhamlets@gov.uk
Friday 17th April 2015
Deadline for receipt of all returns to CSF Finance
Monday20th
Closure of Accounts (NO FURTHER
April 2015
TRANSACTIONS POSSIBLE).
Friday 15th May 2015
Schools to submit interim CFR return to CSF Finance
for checking.
Friday 22th May 2015
CS Finance to confirm School Carry Forward amount
Friday 22th May 2015**
Schools to submit signed 3-year Budget plans to CS
Finance.
June 3rd June 2015
Final CFR Return to be submitted to Children
Services Finance for upload to DCSF.
** - earlier than customary due to the timing of half term
Every year the Easter holidays cause delays in schools being able to submit
information on time so this is early notification of the timetable in order that you can
plan accordingly.
This year we are also offering a service where if you email your RM Finance data
file to schoolsfinance@towerhamlets@gov.uk then we will run a series of checks,
produce the necessary reports and return your datafile for you to move into period1
on your return from the Easter break. Again if you require this service then please
contact your CS Finance Contact to discuss the arrangements. £250 charge for
any school that does not buy into LA Finance Support service
Any school that expects that they will be unable to closedown within the
timetable should contact a member of the finance team immediately. In
5
these cases it will be necessary to close the school accounts centrally and
the carry forward will be based on estimates rather than actuals.
Remember all documentation must be with the LA by Friday 17th April, 4pm.
6
RM Finance
At the end of period 12, once all year end transactions, reconciliations and
reporting has taken place, a further 'period end' is performed called the ‘year
end’, which then creates a new year datafile, starting in period 1 ready to input
the new financial years accounts.
It is essential that backups are taken and retained at various stages in the
year end process. These backups should not be overwritten.
When beginning a new financial year on the RM Finance system, an opening
balance must be established. It is therefore very important that the monthly
bank/accounts reconciliation procedure is carried out during the year, so that any
discrepancies have been resolved before the end of March.
Following receipt of the March bank statements and reconciliation, we advise
schools to complete a Year End Bank/Accounts Reconciliation of their system. Any
resulting discrepancies should be resolved prior to sending EOY reports to the LA.
End Of Year Procedures
Schools need to complete the following tasks in order to achieve a financial
year end position in their accounts;
1) Back up
BACK UP RM FINANCE BEFORE YOU START!
2) Invoices and Income Receipts
Process any outstanding invoices, petty cash vouchers and income receipts
relating to the 2014/15 financial year.
It does not matter if the invoice is received or dated after 31st March as long as the
goods or services were received on or before the 31st March 2015 then it should be
entered into the 14/15 accounts and paid. (Cheques, should be dated up to 31st
March only)
3) Payroll
All outstanding payroll costs should be processed in your accounts prior to running
the year end reports and completing final reconciliations. (SEE PAGE4)
However, if the March payroll is not received in time, this will need to be entered as
a Creditor.
7
4) Outstanding Orders
All purchase orders must be checked. To identify outstanding orders, print the
following report from RM Finance;
• Click on Reporting
• Click on Transactions tab
• Click on Purchase Orders
• Click on Full Details
• Select School Bank
• Select Gross Totals
• Click on the Printer icon
The total of the outstanding orders on this report should match the total
commitment figure on the following report. If they do not, please contact CSF
Finance for assistance as you may have a historical error on your datafile.
• Click on Reporting
• Click on Transactions tab
• Click on Commitment Summary
• Click on the Printer icon
8
Orders not received
Firstly check that the orders are still valid. It may be that, in error, you have
already paid for the goods as a non-order invoice and you would therefore need to
cancel the order rather than have a commitment transferred to the new financial
year for an item which will never be received.
Any outstanding orders which are still valid but where goods/services have not
been received prior to 31st March need to be carried forward into the new financial
year datafile as a commitment and should not be entered as Accruals. These
commitments will therefore impact on next financial year’s budget and should be
allowed for when completing the budgeting process.
Received orders
As part of your planning for year end process you should chase up any invoices
that you have been waiting for, for longer than one month. If the invoice is not
received, but the goods have definitely been received, you should raise an accrual
in 13/14 accounts. Please note the minimum amount is £1,000 per CFR code.
5) Accruals
In general terms, Accruals are transactions that should have been processed in the
old financial year but have not been, or any transactions that have been processed
in the old financial year but relate to the new financial year, and therefore need to
be adjusted.
It the exact amount is not known it is ok to estimate an amount although you
should be able to produce, on request by audit, the calculation used.
Accruals fall into the following categories:
a) Debtors - money owed to the school for the old financial year but not
received by 31 March.
Examples - Supply reimbursements, SEN reimbursements, any other
income the school definitely knows is outstanding and has not
been received or banked needs to be included, such as
donations, grants, dinner monies income etc.
b) Creditors (Outstanding Liabilities) - money owed by the school as at 31
March for goods already received but not yet paid for.
Examples – Gas / Electric usage from date of last bill paid to the 31st March.
Supply teachers that worked during March. Catering bills that
have not been received. Service Level Agreements such as a
photocopier hire etc.
9
c) Receipts in Advance - income received before the end of March for a
future purpose.
Examples - Income for school trips taking place in the new financial year
Lettings income received for the new financial year
d) Prepayments - money paid by the school in advance of the due date,
which is in the new financial year.
Examples - Leasing or rental costs for equipment paid in advance. Exam
fees for the following term paid in advance.
The following considerations must be taken when processing accruals:

Only debtors and creditors above £1,000 must be processed; smaller totals
are considered immaterial and are not required to be processed. This total
is on an individual CFR heading basis. To give an example, the invoice for
School Meals relating to March usually comes in during April. If the invoice
total is estimated to be greater than £1,000 then this amount needs to be
accrued for as a creditor. Conversely, any income that is due to the school
must be accrued for as a debtor.

A printout of the Accruals raised should be submitted to the LA along with
March’s end of month reports (see further sections).
The procedure to raise year-end Debtors and Creditors:
Step 1: Select Transactions, Accruals
10
Step 2: In the Accruals options box, select the appropriate transaction type e.g.
Debtors (if you are owed income) or Creditors (if you owe money)
Step 3: Enter data in the required fields. The Value field in RM Finance should
exclude VAT. Reference can be Accrual or any reference that is appropriate.
Analysis code will be the relevant income code in the case of Debtors and
expenditure code in the case of Creditors. Budget is the relevant budget account
that the income should be shown against e.g. Other Income. Account should be
the relevant Debtor or Creditor account, e.g. London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
Click on OK.
11
The procedure to PRINT A LIST of Debtor and Creditor transactions:
Step 4: Select Transactions, click on the Reports icon, then All Transactions
Under “INCLUDE TRANSACTION TYPES” select only Accruals etc. and deselect
the other options. Also ensure that ALL accounts are selected under the heading
“FROM BANK ACCOUNT”. Click on “SIMPLE SEARCH” and enter 12 to 12 in the
Periods box. Next, select Gross Totals and Short Report Format under the
heading “SHOW REPORT WITH”. Select Printer then click on the print icon.
If you have entered an accrual incorrectly then the procedure to correct the
entry is as follows:
Step 1: On the Main Menu select Transactions (As in Step 1). Then select Adjust
/ Correct from the Transactions Choice screen:
12
Step 2: Select Reversal under the heading “Debtors & Creditors”:
Step 3: Select period 12 to 12 and click on OK:
Step 4: Select the relevant transaction (if you have raised an accrual, it will appear
in the box below) to be reversed and click on reverse:
13
6) CFR Checking
Check data for Consistent Financial Reporting and amend any transactions that
are incorrect by processing an internal charge for expenditure transactions, or
reversing income transactions and re-processing with correct analysis
code/budget account. Also make sure all relevant income and expenditure from
your schools private fund has been entered into your official accounts (as an in
and out transaction) e.g. Uniform/Bookbag Sales, School Visits, Swimming,
Music lessons etc. For further assistance, please contact your Finance Support
Provider.
N.B. You will need to ensure that your income postings for I01 – I05 match
the amounts paid by the LA which are shown on the Cash Advance
Spreadsheet.
7) Bank Reconciliation
Unpresented Cheques
The school needs to be sure that all the cheques waiting to be reconciled are valid.
Banks are able to cash cheques up to 6 years old now; therefore all unpresented
items irrespective of their age should be checked for validity before reversing old
transactions. It is best practice for schools to review the validity of cheques that are
older than 6 months. If you have cheques on your bank reconciliation that you are
sure will no longer be cashed, these can be reversed from your accounting
system. If at a later date the cheques are presented, the transactions can be reinput. NB: Please bear in mind that writing back cheques for a large sum of money
that may be presented in a future financial year could seriously affect your new
year budget, therefore please be sure the cheques are not likely to be cashed
before completing this procedure.
If the outstanding cheques that require reversing are carried over from a previous
year, these cannot be simply reversed from the system using the normal reversal
procedure, but require an adjust/correct transaction to amend and write back to the
accounts.
How to write back unreconciled URC transactions to the accounts



Click on Transactions, then Adjustments & Corrections
If the amount to be written back is a Cheque (debit) then click on
Adjust/Correct under the Expenditure heading. If the amount is Income
(credit) then click on Adjust/Correct under the Income heading.
Complete the transaction screen using the original Income Source/Supplier,
Analysis code and Budget Account. If you no longer have the budget
account that the original transaction was posted to, then find a suitable
budget to post the adjustment to instead.
By completing the above, the system will enter the reverse of the transaction into
the accounts re-crediting or amending the income received as necessary.
14
Reconciling Bank & Petty Cash Accounts
Upon receipt of your final March Bank Statements, you will need to reconcile the
school bank up to 31st March. If your statement goes beyond this date, a clear
ruled line must be entered on the bank statement and only transactions up to the
31st March must be reconciled, to keep your accounting years separate. If there
are transactions on your bank statement from 1st April onwards, these will need to
be reconciled in the new financial year datafile as part of your normal monthly bank
reconciliation (this may mean you will need to photocopy your statement and keep
aside for next month).
If you use a Petty Cash Account on RM Finance, this will also need to be
reconciled to your actual petty cash held in school.
For both accounts, a Bank Balance Report must be printed from the system,
signed by the Headteacher and attached to the copy of your EOY bank statement
as at 31st March 2014. For further instructions on how to reconcile your bank/petty
cash, please see the Monthly Reconciliation Guidance Notes held on the GRID.
Next, print off an unreconciled items list from RM Finance and send to Children
Services Finance, along with the signed Bank Balance Reports and copy bank
statements.



Click on Transactions, Reconciliation
Select Bank
Click on the print button
8) Monthly VAT Return
To submit the March VAT return and any other outstanding VAT returns to be
claimed to the LA, you need to print the following report;





Click on Reporting, then the Transactions tab
Click on VAT Reimbursement (Exp)
Enter the period you are printing the VAT report for (i.e. from 12 to 12 for
March)
Click on ‘Include VAT only transactions’
Click on the print button
15
Repeat the above for VAT Reimbursement (Inc) to check if you have processed
any income VAT transactions that month. N.B. Do not tick the “VAT Only
Transactions” box
9) Budget v Actual v Committed Report, including Accruals
To Print the Budget v Actual v Committed Report, including Accruals, follow these
instructions;



Click on Reporting, then the Records tab
Click on Budget v Actual v Committed Report
Click on Printer


Click the radio button to Show Accruals instead of Committed Column
Print and send report to Children Services Finance.
Checking for misposted transactions
IT IS IMPORTANT TO CHECK THAT YOUR NET YTD FIGURES FROM YOUR
16
I&E REPORT MATCH YOUR ACTUAL SPENT RECEIVED TOTAL AT THE
BOTTOM OF THE BvAvC REPORT.
This will ensure that no transactions have been incorrectly posted without a budget
account attached, which the RM system will allow and could have happened
without you knowing, giving the incorrect EOY closedown figures on your Budget v
Actual v Committed report!
To check your system for possible discrepancies;


Click on Reporting, then the Records tab
Click on Income and Expenditure Report, under Income and Expenditure
Analysis

Click on Printer



Leave radio button on Analysis Listing and all other boxes deselected
Click on Print
Deduct the Turnover YTD Income figure from the Turnover YTD
Expenditure figure and check this against the Total Spent/Rec’d figure at the
bottom of the Budget v Actual v Committed report printed in section 9.
Both these figures should match if there have been no mispostings on RM
Finance. If they do not match then this means that transactions have been posted
to the system without attaching to a Budget Account and are therefore not showing
for reporting purposes on the BvAvC report.
17
To investigate which transactions have not posted correctly;







Click on Reporting, then the Transactions tab
Click on Income and Expenditure, under Include Transaction Types
Ensure ALL bank accounts are selected
Select Gross Totals and Short Report Format
Click on Printer
Click on Change Sort Order and type 1 in the Budget sort order box and
tick the sub total box next to it (see below diagram for example)
Click on Close, then Print
The transactions with no budget attached should be showing at the top of the
report. These will need reversing and entering correctly so that they now appear on
the BvAvC report and the reports then match.
10) Period 12 and Year End Bank / Accounts Reconciliation
It is imperative that all schools complete a Bank/System Accounts Year End
Reconciliation, IN ADDITION to the normal period 12 Reconciliation, for their own
peace of mind and self-management so that there are no accounting discrepancies
in year. The yearend reconciliation statement for the current year can be found as
part of the monthly reconciliation spread sheet, completed on a monthly basis. If
you do not have a copy of the following reconciliation spreadsheet, it can be
downloaded from FRONTER (Document named “EOY Reconciliation Statement
2014-15.xls”).
To complete a Year End Bank Reconciliation as per diagram below, please follow
the notes below;
18
LONDON BOROUGH OF TOWER HAMLETS
YEAR END RECONCILIATION STATEMENT
Reconcilation Statement Balances
SCHOOL
0
RECONCILIATION PERIOD
Bank balance as at:
2014/15 FINANCIAL YEAR
31st March 2015
1
0.00
2
Less Cash due to LA from School
3
Plus Cash owed to school from LA
4
Less unpresented cheques (Please Attach List from RM Finance)
0.00
5
O NL Y UP T O T HE 31S T of M arch DAT E
Less Accrued Creditors (Please Attach List)
6
Add cash in hand
0.00
7
Add unpresented income (Please Attach List from RM Finance)
0.00
8
0.00
9
Add VAT Reimbursements Due
Full Year VAT on Exp
Full Year VAT on Inc
Less VAT Reimbursed
9a
9b
9c
Add Accrued Debtors (Please Attach List)
10
( A ) Reconciled Year End Bank Balance
0.00
Total Nett Income 2014/15
0.00
11
Less Total Nett Expenditure 2014/15
0.00
12
add net accruals 2013/14
0.00
13
Less (Accrued Creditors Less Accrued Debtors 2014/15)
0.00
14
Budget Vs Actual *
In year surplus / (deficit)
0.00
15
0.00
Add Surplus from previous years (enter deficits as a negative amount)
0.00
16
( B ) Reconciled Year End CFR Return
0.00
Difference
0.00
17
0.00
* Inc Accruals
The Reconciled bank balance (A) must equal the reconciled CFR return (B) before your submit your return
Any differences must be corrected on RM Finance
If you have any difficulties producing a reconciliation statement then please contact your Finance Support provider for further assistance
CERTIFICATE
Examined where appropriate as to the quantity, services rendered, quality, price and arithmetical accuracy and certified that
(1) the expenditure is properly payable by the Authority (2) entries have been made in the appropriate stock books for recordable articles
bought and (3) the accounts have not been paid before (4) all Value Added Tax has been shown correctly throughout.
(5) income is appropriate to the bank account in question
Figure 1
Pre-completed as you MUST reconcile to 31st March.
Figure 2
Pre-completed figure taken from your March 2015 reconciliation
statement
Figure 3
Enter any amount of cash owed to the LA shown on your 2013/14
Reconciliation Statement that has not been withdrawn in 2014/15
Figure 4
Enter any amount of cash owed to the school shown on your 2013/14
Reconciliation Statement that has not been paid in 2014/15
Figure 5
Pre-completed figure taken from your March 2015 reconciliation
19
statement
Figure 6
Enter the total amount of your Accrued Creditors. Print list
Figure 7
Pre-completed figure taken from your March 2015 reconciliation
statement
Figure 8
Pre-completed figure taken from your March 2015 reconciliation
statement
Figure 9
Figure 9 is calculated by completing boxes 9a 9b and 9c.
Fig 9a is the total VAT on Expenditure for Periods 1 – 12 (including
VAT only transactions) – N.B. Only Print Last Page of Report
Fig 9b is the total VAT on Income for Periods 1 – 12 (NOT including
VAT only transactions) – N.B. Only Print Last Page of Report
Fig 9c – Enter the amount of VAT Reimbursed in 2014/15 – Do not
include VAT Reimbursements relating to 2013/14
Figure 10
Enter the Total amount of your Accrued Debtors. Print list
Figure 11
Pre-completed figure is total of individual monthly Net Income figures,
taken from the individual monthly reconciliation reports
Figure 12
Pre-completed figure is total of individual monthly Net Expenditure
figures, taken from the individual monthly reconciliation reports
Figure 13
Pre-completed taken from April 2014 reconciliation statement
Figure 14
Calculated from figure 6 and figure 10
Figure 15
Calculated using previously entered figures
Figure 16
Pre-completed taken from April 2014 reconciliation statement
Figure 17
Using the Budget Vs Actual Report (with %spent) Enter the total
(balance for all accounts) in column headed “Actual Spent Received”
In order to check the Net Income and Expenditure Figures, you can print off the
following report from RM Finance
20
Click on the Reporting button on the menu bar
Click on the Transactions tab
Make sure that All Transactions is highlighted in the General Reports
menu
Tick the Income box only in Include Transaction Types
Tick School Bank and Petty Cash (if used)
Click on show report with Totals only
Then Printer
Scroll down to find the Total Income figure on the report and check against the
figure in Box 11 (Total Nett Income 2014/15) on the Year-end Reconciliation
Statement.
Repeat the process for Expenditure and check against the figure in Box 12 (Total
Net Expenditure 2014/15).
If A (Reconciled Year End Bank Balance) does not equal B (Reconciled Year End
CFR Return), then adjustments will need to be made on RM Finance. If you require
assistance with completing the adjustments and balancing your accounts, please
contact your Finance Support Provider.
When both A and B balance, print off the reconciliation statement and this should
be signed by the Headteacher, dated and sent to the LA with the following reports
21
Year End Reports – Check List
(These are in addition to the regular reports for period 12 only)
Year End Reconciliation Spreadsheet
Final Quarter Budget Monitoring return
RM Finance Bank Report
RM Finance Petty Cash Report
RM Finance Unpresented Items listing (Date after the 1st April 2015 is not
allowed.
Schedules (Listings) of internal Creditors
Schedules (Listings) of external Creditors
Schedules (Listings) of internal Debtors
Schedules (Listings) of external Debtors
RM Finance Accrual Listing – by CFR code
RM Finance VAT Report Period 12 Only
RM Finance VAT Income Period 1 – 12 Last Page Only
RM Finance VAT Expenditure Period 1 – 12 Last Page Only
RM Finance Total Nett Income Report Totals Only
RM Finance Total Nett Expenditure Report Totals Only
RM Finance Budget Vs Actual Showing Accruals
Copy of Bank Statement and Deposit Accounts
Contracts Over £50,000 (see FRONTER for form)****
Leases (See FRONTER for form)****
Staff Remuneration over £50,000 (see FRONTER for form)****
Payment to Consultants / Self Employed Persons (See FRONTER for
Form)****
HMRC PAYE Template
13/14 Surplus Balance Return (applies to only those schools above
threshold)
Please send back forms crossed “NIL RETURN”, for those lines marked ****
above, as appropriate
Please note if you cannot get reports signed before the 17th April deadline
then please submit them unsigned, with a view of sending the signed copy at
a later date.
You can email the Year End Reconciliation Spreadsheet
Alternatively you can email your data file (the 14/15 datafile AND 13/14 .lyr
files) and CS Finance will complete the Year End returns and print off the
necessary reports – Please arrange this with your named CS Finance
Contact.
22
11) Year End Back-Up
Ensure that a copy of the final accounts is made prior to rolling forward your year
end data, either on floppy, zip disk, memory stick or on a CD. Any such backup
copies must be retained for audit purposes for a minimum of seven years. Backup
copies should be stored in fireproof containers, preferably off-site. The school
must retain all documents, including computerised accounts, relating to the
2013/14 financial year. This is an audit requirement and must also be retained for a
minimum of seven years.
12) Year End Roll Over
IMPORTANT: Have you taken a Back Up of data?
Check;
 All transactions have been entered for the period
 You have taken a back up of your data
Choose PERIOD END and the following screen will be displayed:
 Click on Run Year End
The system will then display a number of prompts:
 Click on Yes
 If you are not batching your
transactions click on Yes
23
 If you are batching your transactions ensure that all the batches have been
posted to the system before running your year end to ensure that all
transactions are accounted for in the correct year.
The following screen will appear:
 Click on OK
The following screen will appear:
 Click on Yes
The following screen will appear:
 Ensure a full back up of data has been taken before clicking on Yes
The following screen will appear:
 Enter 2014_15 in the File Name box and a description such as the one above
in the Archive Notes box.
 Click on Save
The system will now roll forward your data into a new file for the new financial year.
This process can take up to 10 minutes.
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A message will appear when the process is finished;
Once the year end procedure is complete, the following will have taken place in
RM Finance;
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All Budget Account balances are set to zero
All Supplier turnover figures period and year-to-date are set to zero
All Analysis code turnover figures period and year-to-date are set to zero
VAT Return figures are cleared down and copied into the VAT Return
All Un-reconciled transactions are carried forward and retained and labelled
as transactions of type ‘URC’
All Outstanding Commitments are carried forward and retained
All Accruals will be posted against the relevant budget account
The Carry Forward figures on each of the financial summaries become the
Opening Balance figures for the new year
13) Changes to Datafile for New Year
If you wish to make any changes to the Budget Accounts in your New Year
datafile, you are now able to delete unwanted budgets and create new ones (If
you have outstanding orders that have been brought forward within a specific
budget account, or unpresented transactions you will be unable to delete or edit
it).
14) Linking your Old Year Datafile
If you’re old year datafile has not automatically been linked to the New Year (you
can check this by clicking on System Manager, Last Year Data, Switch to Last
Year) then complete the following on RM Finance;
• Click on System Manager, System Set up, Preferences
• Browse for archive file (probably archived to Keys, Accounts, and Old Data)
• Double click on archive file 2014_15 (the link should then appear in the window)
N.B. the file extension should be .LYR and not .DF1
• Click on OK
If you have successfully opened your last year data, the screen will now show
‘Last Year’s Data’ on the top line in large print.
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Whilst in the Old Year you cannot:
• Create new Budget Accounts
• Add new Suppliers (Expenditure or Income)
• Add new Analysis Codes
• Enter Orders or Process Invoices
• Reconcile the Bank Account
Whilst in the Old Year you can:
• Enter the March VAT reimbursement when received (this transaction will then roll
forward into the New Year datafile to enable the bank to be reconciled)
• View reports
Note: Any amendments made in the Old Year datafile, will automatically
update the financial summary opening balances for the New Year and the
bank reconciliation (i.e. VAT).
REMEMBER TO RETURN TO TH E NEW YEAR DATAFILE WHEN YOU HAVE
FINISHED PROCESSING THE MARCH VAT OR VIEWING DATA!
15) 2014/15 CFR Return
You are now able to complete your annual CFR return using the CFR Assistant.
Full Guidance Notes and Import Maps are available on the GRID.
An interim CFR report should be submitted electronically via email to the LA by
Friday 15th May 2015.
It is imperative that the total for income, expenditure and balances of the interim
CFR return match your EOY balances and reports. Failure to do so will result in the
school having to re-submit a revised interim CFR return to the LA.
If you are have any problems generating an interim CFR return, please contact
your Finance Support Provider so that assistance can be provided.
The purpose of the interim CFR return is to perform a dry-run before the final
return is due. This will identify schools that need further support and allow time for
schools to request assistance in this process.
Upon confirmation and validation of the interim CFR return, the LA will notify
schools that the final CFR return may be submitted. The final CFR return will be
required no later than the Friday 3rd June 2015.
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16) 2015/16 Budget
To enable accurate monitoring of the schools accounts throughout the year, all
schools should have entered their 2015/16 budgets onto RM Finance by the end of
May 2015 at the latest. The budget entered onto RM Finance should match the
schools’ Three Year Budget Plan, authorised by the Governing Body.
There is a facility on RM Finance to ‘fix’ the budget after which any
virements/changes to budget allocations only update the ‘current’ budget, while
retaining the fixed budget set by Governors. Reports can then be produced for
either the Fixed or the Current budget. Using this facility will help schools with
monitoring and year-end projections.
When the budget has been fully entered onto RM Finance and the final
surplus/deficit figure matches your Three Year Budget Plan, you can then
proceed to ‘fix’ the budget.
• Click on System Manager (top menu bar)
• Click on Fix Budgets
• Click on Yes
This must only be done once and can be done as soon as your initial budget is
complete and balanced on RM Finance.
Reports can be produced for either the Fixed or the Current budget. You just need
to select the budget you wish to see on the options box given when producing a
report.
To produce a report that shows the fixed and current budgets together:
• Click on Reporting
• Click on Records tab
• Select Budget vs Actual vs committed report
• When the options box appears instead of selecting ‘% budget spent’ select
‘Comparative Budget vs Actual vs Committed’ this will then give you a report
which gives the fixed budget (and the date fixed), the current budget, the actual
committed against each budget to date and the difference between actual and
current budgets.
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Thank You & Good Luck,
Schools Finance Team
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