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Accounting Policy Meeting
Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Agenda

Meeting Handout PDF

Time Topic Speaker
2:00 p.m. Welcome and Introductions Chantell Franks, financial reporting analyst
2:05 – 2:15 p.m. Processing Third-Party Transactions in USAS Lawrence Koonce, expenditure assistance analyst
2:15 – 2:35 p.m. Travel Voucher Requirements & Four-per-Car Rule Vanessa Heckert, expenditure assistance team lead, and Christinia Morton, expenditure assistance analyst
2:35 – 3:00 p.m. Establishing Appropriations Drey Lord, appropriation control assistant supervisor
3:00 – 3:20 p.m. 87th Legislature Bills of Interest Ben Strauser, appropriation control officer
3:20 – 3:40 p.m. GASB Statement No. 87, Leases David Haecker, financial reporting assistant supervisor
3:40 – 3:55 p.m. Upcoming Webinar David Haecker, financial reporting assistant supervisor
Questions Appropriation Control, Expenditure Assistance, and Financial Reporting sections
3:55 – 4:00 p.m. Adjourn Chantell Franks, financial reporting analyst

Registration for Webinar

Register for the July 14 (2:00 p.m. CDT) Accounting Policy Financial Reporting Updates at:

https://txcpa.webex.com/txcpa/onstage/g.php?MTID=e63bd5368a3584cabaada3a91ed7feb51

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Tips to Follow During the Webinar:

  • Use Google Chrome as the internet browser to avoid Webex connectivity issues.
  • If you lose the connection to the webinar while it is in progress, find your registration confirmation email and click the link to join the webinar again. The presentation should resume in progress.
  • If you are using a web browser with multiple tab functionality, open a new window with only a single tab to ensure you do not have multiple sessions open.

To End the Webinar:

At the end of the presentation, the moderator will end the webinar. Close your web browser when the webinar is over.

CPE Credit:

At this time, no CPE Credit is offered.

Contacts

If you have questions about the webinar, email the Financial Reporting section at frs@cpa.texas.gov

Questions and Answers

General

Yes. The meeting handout (PDF) is published at least one day prior to the webinar. The PDF and agenda are located on the FMX’s Accounting Policy Meetings page for that specific meeting date.

Unfortunately, attending the APS meetings does not qualify for CPE training credits.

The option is available for a calendar reminder if your agency utilizes the Cisco Webex Meetings system. Meeting reminders are also sent to registered participants.

Expenditure Assistance: Processing Third-Party Transactions in USAS & Travel Voucher Requirements & Four-per-Car Rule

Yes. You can locate the meeting handout (PDF) on FMX&rsqo;s Accounting Policy Meetings page for that specific meeting date. All the policy/procedure information that was covered in the July 14, 2021 meeting related to Citibank is located in FPP A.043, which offers detailed processing instructions for making payments to Citibank.

Yes. The state of Texas Charge Card Program offers payment cards also referred to as “procurement cards” or “p-cards.” These should not be confused with “Pay Cards,” which is a different program used to issue payroll payments to state employees.

Our next Introduction to Travel/Travel Workshop class will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 21 at 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. If you would like to enroll in the training classes, send an email to expenditure.assistance@cpa.texas.gov stating which classes/dates you want to attend.

If a state agency decides to use a travel reimbursement method other than the official Comptroller Travel Voucher, it must be approved by CPA. Please send an email to expenditure.assistance@cpa.texas.gov and include printouts of the travel system so that all required information can be verified. Your agency will be informed of any required changes.

The login for FPP A.043 is specific to each user. You will enter your “mainframe” credentials to login to this FPP (these are the same credentials you use to login to USAS).

The four-per-car-rule only applies when employees from the same agency travel on the same dates with the same itinerary. If there is a difference in the itinerary between employees, the employees are not required to coordinate travel. However, if employees traveled on the same itinerary and did not coordinate travel, only one out of every four of these employees can be reimbursed. The employee receiving the reimbursement may choose to split the reimbursement with other travelers.

Appropriation Control: Establishing Appropriations and 87th Legislature Bills of Interest

Financial Reporting – GASB 87, Leases

Exact details are not currently available – since we are just beginning the implementation of our software. A template will be provided to agencies for completion.

Each agency/institution of higher education that has secured its own software for GASB 87 are welcome to use its own incremental borrowing rate so long as the agency/institution documents its methodology and provides this information to the Comptroller’s Financial Reporting section.

We have not currently set a threshold for this item, as this is a disclosure issue. Our focus has been on identifying qualifying leases and establishing the accounting requirements. The Financial Reporting section has not completed the reporting requirement disclosures guidelines for GASB 87.

No.

The LNSS and LTLN web apps will not be modified or updated until spring/summer 2022.

Contact your agency’s assigned financial reporting analyst to receive necessary information and request access to the lease software.

LeaseQuery has a very robust help section, as well as videos. The Financial Reporting section plans to host a WebEx meeting to demonstrate the input of lease data and the reporting available.

This software is cloud based. Once your identified users have been set-up by the Financial Reporting section, an email will be sent to those users that includes a link and their log-on process.

The LeaseQuery template should be available by end of August 2021.

No. These disclosures will no longer be required.

Sept. 1, 2021.