What's New? on FMX

A list of substantive changes to the online Texas Comptroller Manual of Accounts (FPP Q.009) will be emailed to subscribers this week. Entries that have been added, deleted or significantly modified will be listed by category.

The manual provides current information on state agencies, appropriated funds and accounts and object codes to be used in properly recording accounting transactions. Users can subscribe to receive update notifications of real-time updates made to the Manual of Accounts.

For questions, please contact Samuel.Miller@cpa.texas.gov.

To mark National Direct Deposit Month in May, the Direct Deposit: Bank on It topic page now features:

• Updated Marketing Materials for State Agency Use ready to be customized with your agency contact information, including:
  • Payroll and vendor/payee stuffers in English and Spanish
  • A promotional flyer
• Information on enhanced protections against fraud
• The option of requesting a report that shows how your agency’s direct deposit percentage has been increased over time in addition to the link to Agency Direct Deposit Percentages for the past month

Direct deposit saves time, money and resources. Use the Savings Calculator to see how much increasing direct deposit participation can save your agency.

For more information, please contact Payment Services.

The Direct Deposit Authorization form (74-176) now includes a new section to be completed when a payee requests a change to existing direct deposit account information. State agencies and institutions of higher education should start using the revised form immediately.

The payee is required to provide both the current and new account information when requesting direct deposit changes. This provides custodial agencies with another level of payee authentication and makes direct deposit instructions more secure.

If your agency has its own direct deposit authorization form, you must add the new section to your agency form. Please email updated agency forms to tins.mail@cpa.texas.gov for review and approval by June 1.

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. The confirmation form must be returned by May 2 for agency or institution security requests to continue to be accepted.

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

The CAPPS Financials and HR/Payroll environments will undergo scheduled maintenance on Sunday, April 27, from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m. to add more memory to the IBM AIX Frames.

All scheduled batch jobs will run once the Production application is stable and all frames are rebooted.

The following environments will be accessible, but users may experience issues with posting attachments, running interfaces and running reports until the full maintenance cycle is completed and validated:

Financials

• FSPRD – CAPPS Financials Production
• FSMNT – CAPPS Financials Maintenance
• FSSBX – CAPPS Financials Sandbox
• FSRPT – CAPPS Financials Reports
• STWEPPRD – CAPPS Financials Production Portal
• STWEPUAT – CAPPS Financials Acceptance Testing Portal
• FSUAT – CAPPS Financials User Acceptance Testing

HR/Payroll

• HRPRD – CAPPS HR/Payroll Production
• ELMPRD – CAPPS ELM Production
• EPHRPRD – CAPPS HR/Payroll Portal Production
• HRRPT – CAPPS HR/Payroll Reporting
• HRUAT – CAPPS HR/Payroll User Acceptance Testing
• ELMUAT – CAPPS ELM User Acceptance Testing
• EPHRUAT – CAPPS HR/Payroll Portal User Acceptance Testing
• HRMNT – CAPPS HR/Payroll Maintenance
• ELMNT – CAPPS ELM Maintenance
• HRSBX – CAPPS HR/Payroll Sandbox
• ELSBX – CAPPS ELM Sandbox

The CAPPS Financials Production and Reporting environments underwent scheduled maintenance on April 20 to apply critical Oracle patches to these databases. The change was required to bring our Oracle databases to the most current patch levels.

The following items in the Reference section of the Financial Reporting topic area on FMX have been updated for fiscal 2013:

• Summary of Federal Expenditures by State Agency (includes the Notes to the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards)
• Single Audit Report Package for Texas (completed in conjunction with the State Auditor’s Office)

If you have questions, please contact your financial reporting analyst.

The Veteran Workforce Summary Report acknowledgement form and complaints report must be submitted by April 23.

For more information, please see Veteran Workforce Summary and Veteran Complaint Reports (FPP F.038).

Every two years, the Fiscal Management Division updates the Agency Authorization for Warrant Pickup form (74-189). All authorizations now on file will terminate at 5 p.m. on April 30, and the new forms become effective May 1.

State agencies and institutions of higher education must return their completed authorization forms to the Fiscal Management Division no later than April 22. For more information, see Renewal of Agency Authorization for Warrant Pickup (FPP B.053).

Note: If an agency’s renewal form is not on file by May 1, warrants will not be distributed for that agency.

Although the Comptroller’s office will be closed for business in observance of Good Friday on April 18, Payment Services will distribute warrants from 8 to 10 a.m. for the April 17 processing cycle.

The authorized agency and/or delivery service representative must be included on the Agency Authorization for Warrant Pickup form (74-189) and have photo identification. To gain access to the LBJ building, your agency runner can knock on the main entrance door to notify the guard or call (512) 475-0510 if the guard is not present.

Note: If your agency has warrants for wire transfers on April 18, your agency runner needs to deliver them to the Treasury.

Unless noted otherwise in the Matrix for TINS Payee Number Conversion (Excel), USAS transactions submitted as of April 7 will fail if submitted with TINs that begin with 2.

USAS Coding Instructions (FPP Q.010) now covers the new ORIGINAL VN NO field on the Vendor Profile (34) and notes that any vendor/payee number (1, 2, 3 or 7) can be used for Vendor Transaction Inquiry (85).

For more information, see Payee Number Conversion. Please email payee.conversion@cpa.texas.gov or call the Payment Services Help Desk at (512) 936-8138 if you have any questions.

Every two years, the Fiscal Management Division updates the Agency Authorization for Warrant Pickup form (74-189). All authorizations now on file will terminate at 5 p.m. on April 30, and the new forms become effective May 1.

State agencies and institutions of higher education must return their completed authorization forms to the Fiscal Management Division no later than April 22. For more information, see Renewal of Agency Authorization for Warrant Pickup (FPP B.053).

CAPPS HR/Payroll User Acceptance Testing environments will be taken down for a production refresh from 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 3, through 7 a.m. on Monday, April 7. Please note that ELMSBX and ELMNT have been added to this list. The following environments will be affected:

• EPHRUAT – CAPPS HR/Payroll Portal User Acceptance Testing
• HRUAT – CAPPS HR/Payroll User Acceptance Testing
• ELMUAT – CAPPS ELM User Acceptance Testing
• HRSBX – CAPPS HR/Payroll Sandbox
• HRMNT – CAPPS HR/Payroll Maintenance
• ELMSBX – CAPPS ELM Sandbox
• ELMNT – CAPPS ELM Maintenance

The CAPPS Production environment (HRPRD) will be available during this time.