Finance Department Heslington, York, YO10 5DD Financial Accountant I Smallwood Telephone +44-1904-322123 MEMORANDUM To: AJB List, Management Accountants From: Date: Ian Smallwood 15 June 2015 Subject: Financial Year-end arrangements 31st July 2015 The purpose of this memorandum is to make you aware of the University deadlines for finalising 2014/15 departmental accounts, and of the processes for new-year transactions around the 31st July 2015. 1) Purchase requisitioning, ordering, and goods receipting. With effect from 4pm Thursday 6th August 2015, Agresso will automatically be set to Period 1 (August) of 2015/16 for Purchase requisitions, purchase orders, and good receipts. Purchase orders, requisitions and good receipts processed up to and including 4pm on Thursday 6th August 2015 will be included in the old financial year (2014/15). Items ordered using York E-Purchase before 4pm on Thursday 6th August 2015 will be included in the old financial year. Items ordered after this time will be processed in the new financial year. 2) Purchase Invoice matching. Please note that both Period 12 of 2014/15 and Period 1 of 2015/16 will be open at the same time until 4pm on Thursday 6th August 2015. Invoices for work done and services received on/before 31st July 2015 should be posted to period 201412. Invoices for work done and services received on/after 1st August 2015 should be posted to period 201501. Care must be taken in selecting the appropriate period in order to ensure that the correct financial year is charged. Period 201412 will close for invoice matching at 4pm on Thursday 6th August 2015. 3) Purchase Invoice posting. Invoices for work done or goods received on/before 31st July 2015, which are not matched in departments, must be received by the Payments office by 5pm on Friday 31st July 2015, in order to guarantee their inclusion in expenditure for the old financial year. Please mark these invoices “OLD YEAR” to assist in processing the transactions. Invoices received by the Payments office after 5pm on Friday 31st July 2015 will be posted into the NEW financial year and will need to be accrued if they relate to the old financial year. 4) Purchase Card transactions (CHANGED from 2014 process) During 2014 the processing of Purchase Cards has changed. We will extract (and post into Agresso) all transactions dated before 1 August that have been approved in Barclaycard Spend Management by 5pm on Wednesday 5th August 2015. You do not need to accrue these items. 1 If you do not code or approve transactions before 5pm on Wednesday 5th AND the transaction relates to the OLD financial year you will need to accrue the expenditure. A list of these transactions will be sent to your Management Accountant who will distribute it to the department for checking. The department should include the amounts in the accruals spreadsheets where the transactions relate to 2014 15 activity. If the amounts relates to 2015 16 activities then no amount should be accrued. 5) Foreign payments. The last date for receiving foreign payments in the Payments office that will be posted into the OLD financial year is 5pm on Friday 31st July 2015. The next foreign payments run will take place in the week commencing 10th August 2015 and these transactions will be included in 2015/16 financial year. Any invoices that relate to the old financial year that are not received in the Payments office by 5pm on Friday 31st July 2015 deadline will need to be accrued if they relate to the old financial year. 6) Staff and Student Expenses. Claims that relate to trips on/before 31st July 2015 must be received by the Payments office by 5pm on Friday 31st July 2015 and marked “OLD YEAR” to assist in identifying and processing the transactions. These will be posted in to financial year 2014/15. Claims received by the Payments office after 5pm on Friday 31st July 2015 will be posted into the NEW financial year and will need to be accrued if they relate to the old financial year. All outstanding Travel Advances as at 30 June 2015 should have receipts processed against the advance unless the trip is scheduled for August 2015 onwards. NOTE: There is normally an annual rush to process expense claims in the last week of the financial year, which inevitably causes delays in payment. Sending in expense claims promptly will help avoid delays. 7) Payments to Suppliers/ Staff/ Students by BACS. There will be a small payment run to staff and students on Thursday 6th (to be received in the bank on Monday 10th August). The normal supplier payment runs will resume in the week commencing 10th August. 8) Sales Invoices and Credit Notes. The Sales Ledger will close at 4pm on Thursday 6th August 2015. All invoice-raising requests and any credit notes must be in the Fees office by no later than 5pm on Friday 31st July 2015, in order to guarantee their inclusion in revenue for the old financial year. Please mark these requests “OLD YEAR”, and remember that these will have an invoice date of 31st July 2015 and must relate to work completed on/prior to 31st July 2015. 9) Cash and Cheque receipts. The Cash office will accept cheques and cash that are clearly marked “OLD YEAR” up to 4pm on Friday 31st July 2015. 10) General Ledger. The final date for journal postings is 4pm on Thursday 6th August 2015. On Thursday 6th August after 4pm, the normal month-end processes will be run and preliminary financial reports will be available from Friday 7th August 2015. Therefore, please do not post journals between 4pm on Thursday 6th August and 9am on Friday 7th August 2015. 2 11) On-line Journals. These will be processed in the old financial year until Tuesday 4th August 2015. By 4pm on Thursday 6th August 2015, all journals input using the on-line journal system must be approved or rejected. From Friday 7th August 2015, the on-line journals system can only be used for transactions that relate to 2015/16. 12) Accruals and final adjustments. Many departments have specific arrangements to collect and post accruals & prepayments information which should be adhered to. These local arrangements must allow the overall University year-end timetable to be met. 13) Payroll. All staff are paid monthly, therefore Agresso will only include items processed in the July monthly payrolls. This means departments may need to accrue payroll costs relating to the old financial year which remain unpaid as at July 2015. The Payroll office will be processing information for monthly staff received in the Payroll office up to 13th July in the July files. The Payroll office will be processing information for casual and former weekly paid staff received in Payroll office up to 13th July in the July files. Temporary staff costs, overtime and similar payments which do not make these deadlines, will therefore need to be accrued. 14) Accrual deadlines. The Finance Department-based management accountants (Fiona Dale, Ian Holmes) require their departments to return the spreadsheet to Natalie Wood/ Keeley Hyde by 5pm on Tuesday 11th August 2015. If your department has a local management accountant then please check with them for your specific departmental deadlines for accruals & prepayments. 15) International VAT. The international VAT charges should be posted before second close on Friday 14th August. 16) Deadlines. All the above deadlines (dates and times) will be strictly adhered to due to the confusion that results if deadlines are ignored i.e. duplicated or missed accruals. The University’s external auditors, KPMG, will be on site throughout September 2015. They will test transactions and balances in the annual accounts. They tend to focus on transactions around the year-end therefore I request that transactions are captured accurately in the accruals and prepayments process. Please let me know as soon as possible if you need clarification of any of the above arrangements. Ian Smallwood Financial Accountant 3 Appendix - 31 July 2015 Year-end Summary Timetable Date Pre year-end Monday 13 July Notes/ Events Review Management accounts and process any corrections Payroll submission deadline Friday 31 July Year-end Deadline for all expense claims, purchase invoices , foreign payments to be received in the Payments office Deadline for receipts to the Cashiers, sales invoices/ credit notes to the Fees Office Monday 3 August – Thursday 6 August Purchase orders, Requisitions, Goods receipts, On-line journals, GL Journals, York E Purchase all posting to Old financial year Postings of Purchase invoices, sales invoices in both Old and New financial years depending on date of service/ goods receipt. No payment run in w/c 3rd Aug to suppliers Tuesday 4 August Deadline for on line journal input Thursday 6 August 1st Close 4pm At 4pm all systems move to new financial year including Purchase orders, requisitions, goods receipts, On line journals, GL Journals, York E Purchase Please do not post transactions (i.e. includes journals, invoices, goods receipting) after 4pm Thursday 6th Aug until 9am Friday 7th Aug since this affects management reports Friday 7 August – Tuesday 11 August Accruals & prepayments spreadsheets prepared in Departments are submitted to Management Accounts for posting Friday 14 August 2nd Close 4pm Please do not post transactions between 4pm Friday 14th Aug until 9am Monday 17th Aug since this affects management reports Monday 17 August – Thursday 20 August Final postings for Fixed Assets, Capital Grants, HYMNS equalisation, SEIY equalisation Friday 21 August 3rd Close NOON Monday 31 August Bank Holiday 1-25 September External Auditors (KPMG) on site 4