SECTION: FISCAL INDEX: B-12

SUBJECT: FISCAL YEAR CLOSING

POLICY

It is the University of Houston-Victoria's policy to conform to and comply with fiscal year end closing requirements established by the National Association of College and University Business Officers, Governmental Accounting Standards Board, State Comptroller's Office, the UH System Administration, and the General Provisions of the Appropriations Act.

PROCEDURE

The procedures for "year-end transactions and closing" follow:

Even though the fiscal year ends on August 31, it is strongly urged that all major expense transactions be in by August 1, with the exceptions that are noted below. Transactions that should be well into the process by August 1 include equipment and supplies and other purchases of material nature.

Service department charges (such as copy machines, telephone long distance, postage, and others) are charged to the fiscal year for which the charge is incurred.

All pay generated by work through and including August 31 will be an expense to the past fiscal year.  This includes pay for hours worked the month of August (8/1 through 8/31).

The institution's auditors require that the accrual process be formalized by the following:

• UHV Finance runs a query (UHS_AP_VOUCHERS_TO_ACCRUE) on September 16 to identify all vouchers posted from September 1 through September 15 with a Goods Received Date prior to September 1.
• Finance will create a journal entry in period 998 of the previous fiscal year to debit the cost center(s) and account(s) on each voucher and credit the same cost center(s) and account 20104 (AP accrual End-of-Year).  However, fund 5 cost centers will not be accrued to avoid early recognition of revenue.
• Finance will create another journal entry in period 1 of the new fiscal year to reverse the period 998 journal entry.
• UHV departments are required to submit all vouchers to Accounts Payable prior to year-end processing deadlines that are ready for payment to avoid unnecessary accruals.  Vouchers with prior-year Goods Received Dates that become ready for payment after the year-end deadlines must be submitted to Accounts Payable by September 14, so they can be accrued.
• UHV Finance may also accrue any other prior-year expenses of significant amount, which are not captured through the voucher process.

At this time of year the designation "Budget Period" on vouchers becomes quite important. Voucher transactions are processed by accounting date.  Budget and General Ledger journal transactions are processed by journal date.  Finance will set the time line for the receipt of all local and state vouchers and notify all UHV faculty and staff of the deadlines for processing vouchers. 

Questions regarding the closing process should be directed to the Comptroller.

Approved by:

Signature obtained              7/27/06
Tim Hudson, Ph.D.            Date 
President

Next review date:  October 2008
Origination: Finance Department