Processing Closeout Adjustments Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 16:50:26 -0400 To: "AO - All Administrative Officers" From: Kelly Bradley Subject: Processing FY 1998 Closeout Adjustments Cc: "AE - Administrative Employees" In Reply Refer To: Mail Stop 442 MEMORANDUM To: Administrative Officers, WRD From: Kelly L. Bradley Chief, Financial Operations and Reporting Section, WRD Subject: Processing Closeout Adjustments REPLY REQUIRED BY OCTOBER 7, 1998 All offices received specific division policy and procedural guidance on closeout in the memorandum dated August 12, 1998. This memorandum provides additional instructions on processing closing adjustments and has specific instructions for Cost Centers processing their own adjustments versus those processed at Headquarters. All offices will enter adjustment data into the Administrative Information System (AIS) Adjustment Drawdown Report and into the Federal Financial System (FFS). You are reminded that the deadline for the electronic submission of closeout adjustments is tentatively scheduled for close of business Tuesday, October 6, 1998. Copies of documentation to support all adjustments should be express mailed to be received by the Headquarters office no later than noon Wednesday, October 7, 1998. All documents must also be entered into the AIS Adjustment Drawdown Report and transferred electronically. A hard copy of the AIS Adjustment Drawdown Report and supporting documentation must also be mailed to Headquarters. Transactions that are not entered in both FFS and AIS will not be processed. Please make certain to address your closeout adjustment packages to Mail Stop 442, Attn: Kelly Bradley (phone (703) 648-5040). It is recommended that adjustments be transferred to Headquarters daily from the time that cost centers begin to populate entries for the Adjustment Drawdown Report in AIS. Only the last file will be used. Remember that the FFS balances are the official numbers-adjustments MUST be made to correct FFS to agree with your local records (AIS). The following are detailed instructions for entering and transferring closeout adjustments to Headquarters. A. Entering Documents in FFS Offices should be identifying items that require adjustment and entering adjustments into the Federal Financial System via Remote Data Entry. After October 2, 1998, the 4P, 4V, 4I, 4S, and 4J documents will no longer be available for use in fiscal year 1998. All transactions previously recorded using these document types should now be recorded using one of the accrual documents (4A, 4C, 4U, 4B, 4D, 4M, 4O). Obligating documents must reference fiscal year (FY) 1998 funds and have the appropriate approving official's signature. HEADQUARTERS PROCESSING OF ADJUSTMENTS: All documents recorded in FFS after October 2, 1998, must be entered with an "H" in the action field. The "H" applies to a hold in the FFS and will require further approval and processing by the Financial Operations and Reporting Section before it is posted. These document types include 4M, 4O, 4T, 4A, 4C, 4U, 4B, 4D, MO, and TO. COST CENTER PROCESSING OF ADJUSTMENTS: All documents recorded in FFS after October 2, 1998, can be processed with an "A" (Electronic approval in FFS, if needed), a "V" (to verify), and a "W" (to process). These document types include 4M, 4O, 4T, 4A, 4C, 4U, 4B, and 4D. Offices will not have access to MO and TO documents. These documents should be included in your closeout adjustment packages and the Financial Operations and Reporting Section will process these for your office. Please be aware your office is now fully processing documents in FFS this fiscal year, therefore, your office could be receiving Error Messages. If you should encounter an error when processing your documents, your office will be responsible for making the necessary corrections to get the documents processed in FFS. If you are unsure of how to correct the error, you should either use the ERRG Table in FFS or contact the FFS Hotline at (703) 648-7600 for assistance. Please ensure your document has processed. After you process the document with a "W", it should say "DOCUMENT ACCEPTED." Tips on adjustments in FFS: 4A adjustments: Offices should use 03/99 as the Reversal Period. 03 stands for the month of December and the month your accrual will reverse. If the credit appears on your prior year reports prior to December, you can manually liquidate the 4A. 4S/4J adjustments: Since 4S/4J Standard Voucher (SV) documents are not available after October 2, 1998, you will need to accrue the SV using the 4A document, showing the increase and decrease. The 4S/4J and backup documentation should be included with your closeout adjustment package. B. Entering Documents in AIS The preliminary and adjusted balance frame can be accessed via the main window frame by selecting Preliminary Balance from the function list field, by typing Preliminary Balance in the execute entry field or by using the cascading menu bar in the following sequence: expense->closeout->closeout adjustments->preliminary balance. The preliminary and adjusted balance frame should be used to enter account number balances as shown in the net balance available column on the FFS Report 286A (Net Monthly Summary of Project and Customer [FPCA]) for the month ending September. This balance file needs only to be populated at the account level, since we do not fund at the subaccount level in the FFS. For example, if a cost center's preliminary Report 286A shows an ending balance of -2,000.00 for the 00100 account, that is the amount that the user would add to the preliminary balance file. ONLY THE NET BALANCE AVAILABLE SHOULD BE ENTERED. The burden earned will be recomputed after adjustments are processed. These preliminary balances will be used on the Adjustment Drawdown Report and by AIS frames in calculating the adjusted account balance. To enter preliminary balances in AIS: Change mode to insert by using the pull down menu bar, clicking on edit and then clicking on edit/insert or by using the accelerator command Alt-i. After changing the mode, the balances for each account number should be entered. Key in fiscal year, account number and preliminary balance (which is the net ending balance as shown on the September FFS Report 286A). The adjustment balance is a system calculated value. If the auto-save is on, the data will be saved when the user tabs or enters past the last data entry field. If auto-save is not on, the data should be saved after each account number balance entry is completed. After preliminary balances are entered for all accounts, review the data in the table field for accuracy. The preliminary balances should be compared to the FFS Report 286A net available balance. Change the mode to edit, query the account numbers that are inaccurate, make changes, and save the data. After ensuring accurate entry, close the frame or iconify it for later use. ***If the net amount authorized on the Report 286A does not agree with the AIS assessment report, a funding adjustment must be processed. Most cost centers reported that it is easier to recalculate the net balance available prior to populating the preliminary balance file. This is done by subtracting the total encumbrances shown on the report 286A from the correct net amount authorized (taken from the AIS assessment report) to yield a corrected net balance available. Enter the corrected total in the preliminary balance file and report the funding adjustment as shown below. If a corrected preliminary balance is calculated, please highlight or asterisk the balance on the hard copy Adjustment Drawdown Report submitted to Headquarters and submit the adjustment in the format provided in the August 12, 1998, memorandum. Be sure to note the change in format and include the supporting AIS reports with your funding adjustment.*** For example: AIS shows your net amount authorized for the 00100 account as $100,000, but FFS shows the net amount authorized as $90,000. Take the net amount authorized from AIS ($100,000) and subtract the total encumbrances from the Report 286A ($99,800) to yield the corrected net balance available ($120). Enter this corrected amount in the preliminary balance file. The Account Balance Report is a summarized Adjustment Drawdown Report without the adjusted transactions. It shows the account and cost center preliminary and ending balances. Both reports can be run at any time during the adjustment process. Transferring the Adjustments to Headquarters After all adjustments have been entered into FFS and AIS (not later than close of business Wednesday, October 7, 1998), the AIS entries should be transferred to Headquarters. To transfer records, click on the TRANSFER TO HQ button or use the pull down menu bar under Special and click on TRANSFER TO HQ. After clicking on the button, a pop-up window will appear asking the user if it is ok to transfer adjustments for cost center XXXX and fiscal year 1998 (XXXX equals your cost center). Click on OK. In order to transfer, data must be shown in the header entry fields on the frame. After clicking on OK, the records are queued for transfer and the system message will read, "Records sent." For ease of data entry, we have left the descriptions used for the nature of adjustment last year unchanged. This will allow offices to use the AIS pull down to populate the data in this field. Offices may choose to key in the descriptions and not use the pull down examples at their discretion, but data entry must follow the examples shown below (two character code followed by a space, -, space, narrative explanation). Sample of adjustment descriptions: AE - an accrual adjustment or forgotten accrual; enter document number MO - purchase order, contract or other obligating document was not processed MO - purchase order needs to be deobligated TO - relocation travel authorization or amendment was not obligated SV - SV adjustment within the same cost center SV2 - SV adjustment involving another cost center within WRD SV3 - SV adjustment involving other Survey Division, (i.e., Geologic Division, National Mapping Division, etc.) OF - adjustments between funds PY - SV adjustment involving more than one fiscal year (i.e., a standard voucher that is correcting OFM error causing an expenditure to be charged to FY 1997 instead of the correct fiscal year) All SV (4S and 4J) adjustments must have an offsetting entry, i.e., for every debit, there must also be a credit. You should make every effort to contact the affected cost center or division to alert them to the fact that you are processing an adjustment that will affect their cost center and consequently their closing balance. It is the responsibility of the cost center receiving the credit to coordinate the adjustment with the cost center receiving the debit. Please ensure all accrual documents which do not require back up documentation have the FFS document number recorded in the description field on the AIS Drawdown Report. FY 1999 Payments and Obligations: >From October 5, 1998, through October 13, 1998, FY 1999 Remote Data Entry (RDE) payment and obligation transactions (4P, 4V, 4R, 4B, 4D, 4M, 4O, 4T, and 4I) can be entered and placed on "H" (on hold) in FFS. (Please note: when entering FY 1999 transactions, the receipt date field for Bankcard accruals (4B) must have an October date and the draft date field for Third part draft must have an October date, otherwise FFS will post it to FY 1998.) From October 14, 1998, through October 18, 1998, offices will not be able to process documents. Starting approximately October 19, 1998, documents can be entered and processed in FFS. Notification via email will be sent to all Administrative employees officially announcing when FY 1999's processing can begin. For further information, please refer to Attachment 6 in the Fiscal Year 1998 Close-Out Procedures, from Jack Blickley, OFM, dated July 27, 1998. If you need additional information regarding the processing of closeout adjustments, please contact your Regional Administrative Officer, or Michele O'Meara of the Financial Operations and Reporting Section. Michele can be reached at (703) 648-5042.