USAS User’s Manual –
Chapter 1 – Introduction (continued)
Accounting Capabilities
The following USAS accounting capabilities monitor, control, and record accounting events:
- Budget accounting
- Revenue cycle
- Expenditure cycle
- General ledger
Budget Accounting
The budget accounting function provides accounting for budgets through the following methods:
- Appropriation control
- Agency budget control
Appropriation Control
The appropriation control function provides methods to:
- Monitor appropriation status as defined by the General Appropriations Act (GAA) to ensure agencies and institutions of higher education do not exceed spending authority or appropriated amounts.
- Accurately reflect the state’s total budget by maintaining information on spending authority related to legislation and not included in the GAA.
- Provide descriptive and control information to enable agencies to analyze data and report appropriation details.
Agency Budget Control
The agency budget control function maintains and monitors Control agencies’ internal operating budgets.
Revenue Cycle
The revenue cycle provides:
- Revenue estimates
- Accounts receivable
- Invoicing
- Revenue accounting
- Cash receipts
Revenue Estimates
The revenue estimate function tracks estimated revenue information for annual financial reporting through general ledger accounts.
Accounts Receivable
The accounts receivable function supplies methods to:
- Support Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) reporting of accrued revenues statewide at a summary level for agencies that do not use USAS as an internal accounting system.
- Provide detailed tracking of accounts receivable for agencies that use USAS as an internal accounting system.
- Maintain agency customer files.
Invoicing
The invoicing function provides invoicing information to agencies that use USAS.
Note: The reporting agency can use the USAS features.
Revenue Accounting
The revenue accounting function allows interfund transactions classified as quasi-external transactions or expenditure reimbursements to be recorded.
Cash Receipts
The cash receipt function supports the revenue cycle by:
- Increasing the state’s working capital through more timely deposits of cash.
- Providing online entry and updates of revenue cycle transactions.
- Converting revenue cycle transactions from other systems, including agency account systems.
- Enabling management to monitor and control revenue cycle data based on reports and online inquiry.
Expenditure Cycle
The following are components of the expenditure cycle:
- Pre-encumbrances
- Encumbrances
- Expenditures and disbursements
- Payment generation/cancellation
Pre-encumbrances
The pre-encumbrance function records, controls, and liquidates each pre-encumbrance document to prevent over-committing of agency funds.
Encumbrances
The encumbrance function provides methods to:
- Safeguard against overspending of funds by recording and monitoring the status of encumbrances.
- Support the post-audit of purchases and supporting documentation to ensure compliance with state laws and the Texas Building and Procurement Commission’s administrative rules and procedures.
- Maintain encumbrance information at the appropriation line level to aid financial reporting and meet state budgeting requirements.
- Control encumbrance documents and liquidate encumbrances at the document level after agencies record expenditures.
- Support general ledger year-end processing related to outstanding encumbrances.
Expenditures and Disbursements
The expenditure and disbursement function supports the expenditure cycle by:
- Preventing unauthorized transactions by tracking and controlling expenditures and vouchers payable.
- Supporting the post-audit of purchases and supporting documentation to ensure compliance with state laws and the Texas Building and Procurement Commission’s administrative rule.
- Recording interfund transactions classified as quai-external transactions and expenditure reimbursements.
- Allowing accrual accounting by recording accrued expenditures and tracking vouchers payable by payee.
Payment Generation/Cancellation
The payment generation/cancellation function provides support for the expenditure cycle by: Producing Warrants.
- Allowing the production of payments in a mid-day cycle to support the warrant expedite process.
- Supporting cash management.
- Monitoring cash balances at the appropriated fund and grant levels to ensure compliance with federal and state laws, regulations, and guidelines.
- Providing an automatic fund cash payback feature to transfer cash between funds to cover short-term cash deficits and to perform reimbursements.
- Supporting the payment reconciliation process at the Treasury and agency levels.
- Providing online entry and expenditure cycle transaction updates.
- Supporting conversion of expenditure cycle transactions from other systems, including agency accounting systems.
- Meeting the state's requirement for withholding payments to payees with outstanding state tax liabilities.
- Enabling management to monitor and control expenditure cycle data by providing reports and online inquiry.
- Helping monitor cash borrowing and payback activities by providing reports and online inquiry.
- Facilitating payee inquiries.
General Ledger
The general ledger function provides the following:
- General ledger accounting
- Journal entries
- Long-term liabilities
General Ledger Accounting
The general ledger accounting function maintains a self-balancing general ledger to accommodate fund group and fund type classifications in the statewide chart of accounts.
Journal Entries
The journal entry function supports the general ledger by:
- Requiring agencies to balance journal entries before posting them to the general ledger.
- Providing automated support for the journal entry process.
Long-Term Liabilities
The long-term liability function allows for tracking long-term liabilities that are defined according to GAAP.