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USAS User’s Manual –
Chapter 15 – Month-End Closing/Reconciliation

How to Close a Month in USAS for State Agencies and Institutions of Higher Education

About this Procedure

This procedure explains how state agencies and institutions of higher education perform month-end closing.

Step Action
1 Enter all monthly cash accounting activity by month’s end.
  • Transactions must be entered as early as possible to allow time for review and error correction.
  • Any transaction with an effective date from the previously closed month that is still in error after month-end closing must be changed to reflect an effective date in the current month.
  • Non-cash transactions may be entered until the 25th day after a month is closed.
Note: USAS utilizes a hard cash close after the last calendar day of the month. This means that cash transactions with an effective date after the calendar month’s end cannot post to that month. Instead, these transactions will post to the current (or future) calendar month. Only non-cash transactions (accruals, encumbrances, etc.) can be posted to a month after the last calendar day of that month. For cash transactions, the effective date can be either the current date or the future date. The effective date (if postdated) will default to the current date. In other words, cash transactions cannot be postdated.
2 Execute month-end subsystems.
  • Grant/Project Billing — Agencies verify 29 Grant Control Profile and 27 Project Control Profile maintenance has been recorded for the month and transactions affecting billable budgets have been posted.
  • Cost Allocation — Review Cost Allocation control reports to verify correct processing of indirect cost pools. Clear Cost Allocation transactions from Error File.
Note: Grant/Project Billing and Cost Allocation subsystems may be executed in any order, as dictated by each agency’s use of subsystems.
3 Post final non-cash, month-end adjustments and correct errors.
  • Adjustment entries may be required after subsystems have been executed.
Note: Non-cash adjustments may be recorded until the month is closed statewide by the Comptroller’s office.
4 Close the month.
  • Agency system manager will close a month after transactions for the month have been posted.
  • A month is closed at the agency level by entering the fiscal month to be closed in the Last Month Closed field of the 25 Agency Control Profile. For example, if the current date is October 20 and an agency is prepared to close September, the Last Month Closed Indicator would have a value of 01. Agencies must manually set the Reporting Indicators on the 25 Agency Control Profile to receive monthly and quarterly reports.
  • USAS statewide closing is controlled by the Last Month Closed Indicator on the 97 System Management Profile.
    Note: An agency may open and close a month through the 25 Agency Control Profile until the month is closed on a statewide basis.
  • Agency months are automatically closed when the USAS system manager closes a month statewide. Once a month has been closed statewide, that month cannot be opened or closed by the agencies.
  • A transaction entered with an effective date in a closed month will be placed on the Error File and will not be posted.

    If the effective date is for a closed month, either the effective date of the transactions should be changed to an open month or the batch of transactions should be deleted.
5 Execute month-end reports.
  • The generation of reports with a frequency of monthly on the 91 Report Request Profile is controlled centrally by the 97 System Management Profile and controlled by the agency on the 25 Agency Control Profile.
  • An agency may request monthly reports through the 25 Agency Control Profile by setting the Month-End Reporting Indicator to Y.
Note: Month-end reports may be run before a month is closed, but the reported data may change before month’s end.
6 Perform reconciliations.
  • State agencies are required by TEX. GOVT. CODE ANN. sec. 403.036(c) to keep accounts of applicable appropriations and reconcile all appropriation balances against the similar account kept by the Comptroller of Public Accounts.
Note: In order for an agency to reconcile a month, the month may have to be closed and reopened a number of times to allow for non-cash adjusting entries.

Return to Chapter 15 Table of Contents