State agencies and institutions of higher education must report annual binding encumbrances and payables to the Comptroller’s office per Encumbrance Report and Lapsing of Appropriations (APS 018) (FPP A.019). Because the annual reporting requirement encompasses the fourth quarter of the previous appropriation year, there is no requirement for separate fourth-quarter reporting.

Agencies must enter encumbrances and payables into USAS for AY 2016 and prior years’ appropriations by the due date for their agency type for annual financial reporting:

• Sept. 30 for simplified reporting agencies
• Oct. 30 for full reporting agencies

All agencies must submit the online Annual Certification by Oct. 30.

By Oct. 30 each year, all agencies must lapse appropriation balances that exceed the level necessary to satisfy any outstanding binding encumbrances and/or payables.

The Comptroller’s office is statutorily required to lapse all unencumbered nonconstruction appropriation balances for all prior appropriation years on Nov. 1 of each fiscal year. To facilitate this, an automatic lapse program will run in USAS as early as the Nov. 1 nightly cycle.

Appropriation balances on the USAS Appropriation Record Inquiry (62) screen may require adjustments or corrections before unexpended balance (UB) forward, lapsing or collected cash disposition. All transactions for budget revisions and expenditure transfers for affected years should be completed before processing UB or lapse transactions. Doing so will reduce the number of issues that may arise with the automatic lapse program.

For full details, see APS 018.

Final copies of the fiscal 2016 Annual Report (Statewide Hiring Practices) will be sent to each state agency and institution of higher education via electronic file transfer on Oct. 18.

For more information, including HRIS, SPRS and USPS contacts, see Annual Report (Statewide Hiring Practices for the Fiscal Year) (FPP F.005).

The Fiscal 2016 Fourth Quarter Post-Payment Audit Reports are available for view, print and download. For more audit resources, including Fiscal Policies and Procedures, forms and contact information, see the Audit topic page on FMX.

To receive email notification of each audit report posted, subscribe via GovDelivery.

Security coordinators are required to certify that their records are up to date through a semiannual security verification process that is concurrent for all Fiscal Management applications.

On Oct. 3, Fiscal Management will mail each agency and institution of higher education a printout of those with access to each system. The attestation form PDF must be completed and returned by Monday, Oct. 31, for agency or institution security requests to continue to be accepted.

If you have questions, email sfs.security@cpa.texas.gov, or see Semiannual Verification of Users’ Security Access Levels (FPP K.009) (login required).

Several Fiscal Management applications will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance on Sunday, Sept. 25, from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. For additional details, see the Maintenance page.

How well are we meeting your customer service expectations?

Please let us know by completing the online survey by Friday, Sept. 30. We appreciate your feedback.

If you have any questions about the survey, please email us at fiscal.documentation@cpa.texas.gov.

Preliminary copies of the fiscal 2016 Annual Report (Statewide Hiring Practices) will be sent to each state agency and institution of higher education via electronic file transfer on Sept. 23. Electronic report acknowledgment forms must be submitted by Sept. 30. Agencies and institutions have until Oct. 17 to review the preliminary report and enter or submit changes.

For more information, including detailed instructions and HRIS, SPRS and USPS contacts, see Annual Report (Statewide Hiring Practices for the Fiscal Year) (FPP F.005)

Effective Sept. 23, the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) will implement phase 1 of the Same Day Automated Clearing House (ACH) initiative on an optional basis. For details, see Same Day ACH: Moving Payments Faster on the NACHA website.

The Comptroller’s office has opted out of Same Day ACH processing for state payments. The initiative may be reconsidered in the future after further research and analysis of potential systems changes and associated costs.

Several substantive changes have been made to the Texas Comptroller Manual of Accounts (FPP Q.009). The list of changes includes entries that have been added, deleted or significantly modified.

The manual provides current information on state agencies, appropriated funds and accounts and object codes to be used in properly recording accounting transactions.

The annual State Employee Charitable Campaign (SECC) runs from Sept. 1 through Oct. 31. During the SECC, state employees may elect to deduct contributions to participating charities from their paychecks. Those contributions are sent to the statewide federations or local campaign areas. Payroll/personnel systems must be updated for December 2016 payrolls. Each year, some information for participating local campaign areas and statewide federations is subject to change, including: mailing addresses and contact information, payee codes and Texas Identification Numbers.

See the State Employee Charitable Campaign Participation (FPP F.033) or the SECC website or to access the list of participating statewide federations, local campaign areas and other helpful information.

Fiscal 2017 travel reimbursement rates are available now for:

• In-state or out-of-state meals and lodging
• In-state or out-of-state non-overnight meals
• Automobile mileage
• Aircraft mileage

The 2017 General Services Administration (GSA) rates are effective Oct. 1 and are now available online. Please note that the standard lodging rate for out-of-state locations not listed on the GSA has increased to $91. However, the General Appropriations Act (GAA) limits lodging reimbursement for non-listed in-state locations to $85. The maximum daily meal reimbursement rate for in-state and out-of-state locations not listed on the GSA remains at $51.

For more information, see Textravel, email Expenditure Assistance or call (512) 475-0966.