United States Department of Agriculture
Research, Education and Economics

ARS * CSREES * ERS * NASS

Bulletin

                            

This bulletin should be used in conjunction with:
Bulletin 02-305, Year-End Closing Dates and Preliminary Closing Guidance and
Bulletin 02-308, Obligation of Appropriations: Fiscal Year Chargeable.

Federal statutes require all agencies, at the end of each fiscal year, to record all of their valid obligations for that fiscal year. These obligations are required to accurately reflect the financial status of the agency relative to its appropriated and nonappropriated funds. Obligations reflected in the records captured in Foundation Financial Information System (FFIS) must be accurate as of September 30. FFIS records will be used to prepare ARS' final official financial reports which are sent to Congress, the Department of the Treasury, and the Office of Management and Budget. To record theses obligations, source documents must be received at NFC in accordance with the cutoff dates. When the source documents cannot be submitted to NFC by the cutoff date, period end estimates must be used to record those documents as well as transactions where individual documents are not used to obligate funds, e.g., travel vouchers, blanket purchase agreements, etc. for all annual, multi-year, and no year activity. During the first accounting period for FY 2003 (accounting period 01 03) all period end estimates are automatically reversed out.

Procedures

All fund holders, Location Administrative Officers/Technician (LAO/T), program managers, contracting officers, purchasing agents, Servicing Budget and Fiscal Officers (SBFO), and all other employees responsible for preparing, reviewing, approving, and submitting obligation documents to NFC should give special attention to these procedures and make a special effort to complete and submit all approved obligating documents by the established cutoff dates.

Dates to Use for Charging Fiscal Year - End Documents

The Financial Management Division (FMD) issues a bulletin every fiscal year-end, entitled “Obligation of Appropriation: Fiscal Year Chargeable,” which provides general guidelines to aid managers and fund holders in deciding spending priorities prior to expiration of the annual appropriation on September 30. Refer to this bulletin for guidance. Please call your SBFO, AAO, or Headquarters Staff if you have any questions.

Establishing Accounting Codes

FY 2003 accounting codes have been manually rolled over by the FFIS Operations Branch (FFISOB), FMD, based on feedback received from the SBFOs. FY 2003 accounting codes that need to be established will have to be manually entered on PGMT, DVAL and ACXT tables by the SBFO. Changes/deletions to DVAL and ACXT must be referred to the Functional Administrator.

Stored Master Field Conversions

The Stored Master Files consist of the Telephone (TELE), Utilities (UTVN), Motor Pool (MPOL) FEDSTRIP (FEDS - Customer Supply Center and Self Service Stores), and Federal Telephone System Payments (FTSP). Each year, the first digit (fiscal year indicator) of the accounting code in the NFC Stored Master Files will be rolled to the next fiscal year. However, to complete this rollover procedure, it is a requirement that the accounting code must reside in the FFIS tables PGMT, DVAL, and ACXT; otherwise, transactions will result in rejecteddocuments on the SUSF table. If changing the first digit of the accounting code in the stored master file does not find a match in the FFIS tables, you are required to submit the necessary form (AD-474 TELE/UTVN, AD-643 MPOL, AD-633 FEDS, or AD-955 FTSP) to change the stored master accounting code or work with your SBFO to update the FFIS tables.

In order for transactions that are processed in FY 2003 to be charged and subsequently reported correctly, you must submit the necessary form, as indicated above, to change/add or delete the codes in these Stored Master files. Under all conditions, these forms must be mailed in time to be received at NFC by the established deadline date.

Budget Documents

All higher level and lower level FY 2002 budget documents (BE and BL) must be entered in FFIS to be included in the final reports. Initial budget levels for FY 2003 activity and remaining prior year funds balances in FFIS, particularly in soft fund and no year accounts, must be established by the SBFOs before FY 2003 spending activity can occur. The SBFO accomplishes this via the BL (Allotment) document and places them in a HELD status until Budget and Program Management Staff (BPMS) processes the higher level budget documents (AA/PA, BE) documents. Refer to Chapter 2, Budget Execution, of the FFIS Reference & Operating Guide (FROG) for additional guidance and procedures.

Purchase Card Management System Activity

PCMS transactions will appear on the TDL if they have been processed in PCMS by the year- end cutoff date. In the event that the current year's transactions are not processed by the year- end cutoff date, cardholders MUST provide accounting personnel a transaction log reflecting purchases made via purchase card after the cutoff date to facilitate direct entry of period end estimate. Accounting personnel and cardholders should follow the guidance found in
Steve M. Helmrich's memorandum dated March 30, 1999, SUBJECT: “Funds Control for Micro Purchase Card Transactions for non-Procurement Cardholders.” Failure to provide a period end estimate for unrecorded PCMS transactions will understate current year obligations and will require submission of prior year funds requests after the new year begins.

Time and Attendance (T&A) Reporting and Other Payroll Costs

The Pay and Leave Staff, Human Resources Division annually issues guidance and instructions to all timekeepers. Look for these instructions to be published in early September to address the final pay period of FY 2002 and beginning pay period of FY 2003. Refer also to NFC's annual Bulletin TNAINST 02-2, Fiscal Year-End Reminder, dated July 24, 2002, issued by NFC or contact your T&A coordinator for additional information. 

ARS has discontinued the estimate feature from all feeder systems, including the payroll system. Therefore, period end estimates should be prepared for activity that is not reflected onthe final PDLs such as (1) cash awards, (2) lump sum leave and severance pay for all separations during September, (3) salary payments for new employees who come on board during the last full pay period of the year [usually Pay Period (PP) 19], and (4) all payroll costs accrued in the first part of PP 19 chargeable to FY 2002. Period end estimates must be entered for these payroll costs to ensure that they are reflected in the final reports. Reference REE annual Bulletin 02- 308, Obligation of Appropriations: Fiscal Year Chargeable, for the appropriate fiscal year to charge for payroll and other salary-related costs.

Feeder System Activity

As noted above, estimates are no longer automatically generated from feeder systems such as PACS, UTVN, and TELE, etc. Therefore, period end estimates (YE/DE documents) need to be entered for expenditures which have accrued from these systems.

The ARS Operations Section, NFC, will notify all applicable parties of all final period end estimates that were processed involving transactions that were reported on the Agency's default accounts for feeder system activity (PACS, GVTS, PCMS). They will reverse transactions posted to the default accounts and notify the Area offices to enter estimates accordingly. They will also advise SBFOs of any Forced Release (FREL) issues that will not be corrected by the end of the fiscal year.

Accounting Adjustments

All accounting adjustments (B2 documents) should be completed by the end of the fiscal year. If not, they must be entered on period end estimates. The SBFOs should verify that all amounts for indirect program support costs (IPSC) and/or indirect research costs (IRC) are recorded on Form ARS-324, Transmittal for Reimbursable or Trust Fund Agreement, and have appeared on the TDL.

Reimbursable Agreements and the VEND Table

For billing purposes, all obligations pertaining to reimbursable and trust fund agreements should be recorded directly to the applicable current year X08, X9X, or X01 accounts. Any transfers of these obligations must be accomplished prior to closeout. Failing to use the appropriate X08 and X9X accounts properly may result in an over obligation of X01 accounts at year-end. Also, when reimbursable/trust fund obligations are not charged properly, NFC's Administrative Billings Unit will not bill cooperators for all revenue due to ARS.

No Year Funds

No year funds such as X91 and X93 will carryover to the new budget fiscal year based on actual collections less obligations and/or estimates at the Treasury Symbol level. BPMS will be entering FY 2003 BE documents to distribute these funds to the Area level based on activity in FFIS as of the close of accounting period 02 12. Thereafter, the SBFOs will enter BL documents to distribute carryover amounts back to the accounting code/allotment level.

Please note that the prior year recovery feature for all FFIS documents will be turned off effective October 1, 2002.

Period End Estimates

All period end estimates (YE documents) must be entered by ARS headquarters offices, Area/NAL offices, and field personnel. NFC personnel are not responsible for generating estimates. TDLs, PDLs, and OCPs should be run promptly following the close of the FY and reconciled to LOTS records. Unposted transactions which are not reflected on the TDL, must be period end estimated. Remember that estimates will no longer be generated by feeder systems. They must be prepared and entered by the Location/Area offices on YE documents.

Using LOTS To Prepare End Estimates

1. Enter all outstanding obligation documents into Location Obligation Tracking System (LOTS).
   
   
2. The Automated LOTS Reporting Module (ALRM) has a period end estimate feature built into the reports. The following procedures, taken from page 19 of the ALRM User Manual, give instructions on how to obtain a period end estimate from the LOTS data:
   
           Period end estimates can be easily accomplished in ALRM by using
           Attachment A, sorted by Budget Object Code. Use the following procedures to
           prepare a period end estimate:
   

        a.    Select the Appropriate MU level report.
        b.    Select <U> (Unposted) for Attachment A options.
        c.    Select <S> (Separate) for how Attachment A is to be presented.
        d.    Select <A> (All) to get all the unposted Attachment A records.
        e.    Select <O> (Object Class) to have the listing sorted by Object Class.
        f.    Select either <A> (Ascending) or <D> (Descending) for sort order.
        g.    Select <H> (History) for obligation entries.

The resulting Attachment A will have all your LOTS unposted records by two- digit budget object code. Review the listing for transactions that should be reported as period end estimates. Review and determine the transactions to be reported with a check mark or some other identifier.

3. Using the attached worksheet (Exhibit 1), group and summarize the transactions by the two-digit budget object code (except for budget object code 25xx) and distinguish between those that are accrued expenditures (YE/DE) versus undelivered orders (YE/UN document).
   
   NOTE: The use of the period end estimates worksheet is optional. Any method used to aggregate the data for direct entry of YE documents must contain detailed information to support the entries. This method will facilitate the reconciliation of the financial reports and must be retained for 3 years for audit purposes.

Generally, the following transaction types should be used when entering estimates on YE documents:

NOTE: Retain all LOTS records created during this FY in the LOTS subdirectory where they currently reside. The CRIS Activities Module (CAM) will be utilizing the current fiscal year records to accumulate and summarize LOTS entries by CRIS. DO NOT delete the current fiscal year.

FFIS Data Entry

Using the step-by-step instructions starting on page 123 in the Spending Module of the FFIS Learner's Guide or page 46 of the Quick Reference Guide (see FMD webpage) the following guidance is provided for entering estimates into FFIS:

1. Print screen ALLT before and after entering YE documents to ensure your estimates are captured appropriately.
   
   
2. When entering the document ID number, use the SEC 1 code applicable for your Area, Location code, plus a sequential number or enter # to enact automatic document numbering.
   
   
3. Use a reversal period of 01 03 (October 2003).
   
   Per the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) Bulletin #2002-001, Elimination of Miscellaneous Vendor Codes, the use of miscellaneous vendor codes as specified in the Learner's Guide and Quick Reference Guide (MISC-G or MISC-N) has been prohibited. Therefore, the following Vendor Codes will be used for your Area/National Agricultural Library/FOB, as applicable:
   
   

    NOTE: The use of Area pseudocodes (9203XXXXX A) is to be used for voluntary collection activity only.

5. Enter YE/DE for accrued expenditures (salaries, utilities, etc.). The result will be reflected in the EXPENDED AMT field on the ALLT and ALOC tables.
   
   
6. Enter YE/UN for undelivered orders (contracts, purchase orders, relocation orders, etc.). The result will be reflected in the UNLIQ OBLG AMT field on the ALLT and ALOC tables.
   
   
7. Since the budget object code 6000 is no longer used, all salary estimates MUST be recorded against budget object code 1000.
   
   
8. Similar to prior years, budget object code 25XX must be reported to the four-digit detail level.
   
   
9. Each line of the YE document represents a different budget object code and/or accounting code.
   
   
10. Enter estimates for feeder system (payroll, utilities, etc.) activity since estimates will not be automatically generated.

In the event that the initial preparer of the period end estimate is unavailable throughout all year- end activities, you should ensure that a knowledgeable person is available to answer any questions/inquiries concerning period end estimates. If you encounter problems in preparing and/or transmitting your period end estimate, contact your Area office or the FFIS Helpdesk.

Express Mail/Postal Service Information for Document Delivery

The following addresses and telephone numbers are provided to assist you with the use of express mail and postal service:

ARS Operations Section Express Mail Address:

NFC, APRB, ARS Operations Section
13800 Old Gentilly Road
2nd Floor, Post V-45
New Orleans, LA 70129
Phone Number: 504-255-5762

For documents that are not processed by ARS Operations Section, NFC, such as purchase orders, travel vouchers, and Government Bills of Lading, which need to be expedited to other offices at NFC, the express mail address and phone numbers are:
    
NFC's Express Mail Address:

USDA, NFC
Addressee*
13800 Old Gentilly Road
New Orleans, LA 70129
Phone Number: 504-255-5557 or 5558

*Be specific as to the addressee (i.e., name of section within NFC such as the PRCH unit, and/or designated person)

NOTE: You should consult with your local or express mail service about the exact mailing time (days) for service to New Orleans, Louisiana.

ARS Operations Branch's Regular Mailing Address:

USDA, NFC, FORB, ARS Operations Branch
P.O. Box 53326
New Orleans, LA, 70153

NFC's Regular Mailing Address:

USDA, NFC
P.O. Box 60000
New Orleans, LA 70160

To expedite the routing and subsequent processing of all documents, please remember to separate documents for mailing as offered in the above instructions. Do not commingle the documents which need to be sent to ARS Operations Section, NFC, with the documents which must be sent to other NFC offices.

Certification of Period End Estimate

SBFOs 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 the certification) to the Chief, Fiscal Operations Branch, FMD on 301-504-4302, by October 4, 2002, 3:00 p.m. EST.

Carol I. Shelton, Acting Director
Financial Management Division

Enclosure: Exhibt 1