What's New? on FMX

State agencies and institutions of higher education are required to ensure payments of benefit costs are proportional to the agency’s or institution’s funding from appropriated funds, unless another legal provision prohibits proportionality.

Benefits Proportional by Fund Reports and related adjustments are due Nov. 19.

Agencies and institutions funded with a single appropriated fund must submit a letter confirming this status by Nov. 19.

For forms and sample letters, see Benefits Proportional by Fund (APS 011) (FPP A.010).

Final copies of the 2015 Equal Employment Opportunity Report (FPP F.016) will be sent to each agency and institution of higher education via electronic file transfer on Nov. 16.

Nov. 12 is the deadline for making data corrections. Corrections entered or submitted after this date will not be reflected in the final report. The Comptroller’s office will send the final report to the Civil Rights Division of the Texas Workforce Commission on Nov. 16.

Entering procurement and travel card transactions into USAS or CAPPS Financials requires special considerations for the timely reconciliation of payments.

Agencies should double-check the procedures for entering credit card information into USAS and CAPPS invoice number fields as detailed in the CBA and CLIBA Numbers section of USAS and CAPPS Financials Invoice Number Field Requirements (FPP E.023).

For more information, see Processing Third-Party Transactions in USAS for Payment/Travel Cards, Direct Bill Payments and Reimbursements (FPP A.043) or phone or email your agency’s Purchase and Travel contact.

State agency officials have until Nov. 13 to nominate candidates for the 2016 Texas Fiscal Officers’ Academy (TFOA), a professional development program for state agency fiscal officers.

The curriculum for the 2016 TFOA is divided into three topics:

• Feb. 22 – 26 — The Art of the Budget Process
• March 28 – April 1 — Fiscal Management
• April 25 – 29 — Accountability and Transparency

Candidates must be nominated by their executive directors or chief fiscal officers.

For details on the three-week course and the nomination process, instructions and form, see the TFOA website.

State agencies that permit eligible employees to level their benefit replacement pay (BRP) must update their payroll/personnel systems for December payrolls paid in calendar year 2016.

While statute determines which state employees and state-paid judges are eligible to receive BRP, individual state agency policy dictates whether employees have the choice of receiving their BRP in equal monthly payments over the course of a calendar year. This choice is called leveling and must be exercised before the beginning of each calendar year.

For more information, see Benefit Replacement Pay (BRP) Leveling Election (FPP F.035).

The CAPPS non-production environments will undergo extended maintenance to conduct Linux and Windows patching beginning Sunday, Nov. 1 at 5 a.m. until Monday, Nov. 2 at 7 a.m.

The following environments will be unavailable during this time:

• FINMNT1 – CAPPS Financials Maintenance
• HCMMNT1 – CAPPS HR/Payroll Central Maintenance
• PIHMNT1 – CAPPS Portal Maintenance
• FINSBX1 – CAPPS Financials Sandbox
• HCMSBX1 – CAPPS HR/Payroll Central Sandbox
• PIHSBX1 – CAPPS Portal Sandbox
• FINUAT1 – CAPPS Financials User Acceptance Test
• HCMUAT1 – CAPPS HR/Payroll Central User Acceptance Test
• PIHUAT1 – CAPPS Portal User Acceptance Test

Texas Administrative Code (TAC), Sections 5.1 and 5.22, have been updated to include transportation network drivers. Agencies may reimburse employees for transportation expenses when a transportation network driver is used while conducting state business. Uber and Lyft are examples of transportation network drivers. Employees must use the most cost effective method of transportation available.

Please complete our online survey to let us know if our automated tools and statewide financial systems are meeting your expectations. The survey is available now until close of business Friday, Oct. 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 2015 Equal Employment Opportunity Report (FPP F.016) will be sent to agencies and institutions of higher education via electronic file transfer on Oct. 30. The files will be available with the agency’s regular daily downloads.

Deadlines:

• Nov. 6 — Preliminary Equal Employment Opportunity Report Acknowledgement Form due
• Nov. 12 — Data corrections due

Data corrections entered or submitted after Nov. 12 will not be reflected on the final report issued on Nov. 16.

Per Encumbrance Report and Lapsing of Appropriations (APS 018), state agencies and institutions of higher education must submit the online Annual Certification by Oct. 30.

An automatic lapse program will run in USAS as early as the Nov. 2 nightly cycle.

The Comptroller’s office operates several financial systems to maintain the central accounting records of the state, perform accounting activities and prepare payroll and other warrants. In addition, the agency has developed several automated tools to help state agencies and institutions of higher education with their accounting and reporting tasks.

Let us know how these automated tools and statewide financial systems are meeting your expectations by taking a few minutes to complete our online survey. The survey is available now until close of business Friday, Oct. 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 2015 Equal Employment Opportunity Report (FPP F.016) will be sent to agencies and institutions of higher education via electronic file transfer on Oct. 30. The files will be available with the agency’s regular daily downloads.

Deadlines:

• Nov. 6 — Preliminary Equal Employment Opportunity Report Acknowledgement Form due
• Nov. 12 — Data corrections due

Data corrections entered or submitted after Nov. 12 will not be reflected on the final report issued on Nov. 16.

State agencies that permit eligible employees to level their benefit replacement pay (BRP) must update their payroll/personnel systems for December payrolls paid in calendar year 2016.

While statute determines which state employees and state-paid judges are eligible to receive BRP, individual state agency policy dictates whether employees have the choice of receiving their BRP in equal monthly payments over the course of a calendar year. This choice is called leveling and must be exercised before the beginning of each calendar year.

For more information, see Benefit Replacement Pay (BRP) Leveling Election (FPP F.035).

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 form must be returned by Friday, Oct. 30, for agency or institution security requests to continue to be accepted.

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

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

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

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. 2 nightly cycle.

For full details, see Encumbrance Report and Lapsing of Appropriations (APS 018).

The Contracts and State Employees tabs were updated in eXpendit per the 84th Legislature, Regular Session. Highlighted changes include:

Contracts tab — Senate Bill 20

• Restrictions on employment with vendors (new)
• Contract documentation (new)

Contracts tab — House Bill 3014

• Success contracts (new)

State Employees tab — House Bill 3337

• Training and continuing education (updated)

The CAPPS support team is pleased to announce the CAPPS HR/Payroll transition to the Managed Services datacenter was successful, and the new CAPPS Enterprise Portal is now available.

The CAPPS Enterprise Portal is available through the following URL: https://entprtlprd.cpa.texas.gov

Passwords

• Password hints will have expired and need to be set up when you first log in.
• If you access both applications (Financials and HR/Payroll), your HR/Payroll Production password at 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9 will be your password for the new Enterprise Production Portal where you will access both applications.

It is recommended that you:

1. Clear your cache
2. Delete any CAPPS bookmarks saved via your Internet Browser

The CAPPS Production Portals for Financials and HR/Payroll will be unavailable at 5 p.m. today, Friday, Oct. 9.

The Non-Production Portals for Financials and HR/Payroll (Sandbox, Maintenance and User Acceptance Testing) will be unavailable at 6 p.m.

On Monday, Oct. 12 at 8 a.m., you will be able to log into the new CAPPS Enterprise Portal using the new URL (to be provided Monday).

As a reminder, the following will be changing for the agencies:

• Production Portal URL
• Bookmarks saved via your Internet Brower to CAPPS Pages

Passwords

• Password hints will be expired and need to be set up when you first log in.
• If you access both applications (Financials and HR/Payroll), your HR/Payroll Production password at 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9, will be your password for the new Enterprise Production Portal where you will access both applications on Monday, Oct. 12 at 8 a.m.

State agency officials have until Nov. 13 to nominate candidates for the 2016 Texas Fiscal Officers’ Academy (TFOA), a professional development program for state agency fiscal officers.

The curriculum for the 2016 TFOA is divided into three topics:

• Feb. 22 – 26 — The Art of the Budget Process
• March 28 – April 1 — Fiscal Management
• April 25 – 29 — Accountability and Transparency

Candidates must be nominated by their executive directors or chief fiscal officers.

For details on the three-week course and the nomination process, instructions and form, see the TFOA website.

The transaction entry screens in USAS and CAPPS allow state agencies and institutions of higher education to enter payment-related information in the invoice number and description fields. Review your agency’s procedures to ensure compliance with USAS and CAPPS Financials Invoice Number Field Requirements (FPP E.023).

Under no circumstances should agencies and institutions enter confidential or sensitive information such as complete or partial Social Security numbers or information covered by the Protected Health Information Prohibition.

Data items described in Business and Commerce Code, Section 521.002 must not be entered into a field not specifically created for that information unless explicitly allowed by Comptroller policy. Disallowed data includes:

• Social Security number
• Date of birth
• Driver’s license number
• Credit card number
• Direct deposit or bank routing information
• Medical information
• Any other sensitive information

Each state agency (and institution of higher education choosing to report to SPA) is required to annually reconcile SPA ending balances with its annual financial report (AFR) and submit a certification form and other documents. The due dates are as follows:

• Simplified reporting agencies electing to submit early — deadline was Sept. 28
• Simplified reporting agencies not electing to submit early — Oct. 20
• Full reporting agencies — Oct. 20
• Consolidated university systems — Nov. 1 (Applies only to institutions of higher education choosing to report to SPA for fiscal 2015)

See State Property Accounting System/Annual Financial Report Reconciliation (FPP C.015) for more information.

State agencies and institutions of higher education that award a state grant in an amount greater than $25,000 from funds appropriated through the General Appropriations Act are required to publish the purpose for which the grant was awarded on the agency’s public website.

Will your agency or institution award new grants that fall under this requirement? If you have not already done so, email state.grants@cpa.texas.gov your agency’s single link to a Web page that provides the purposes of all applicable grants. The State Grant Listing of links to the agency grant information is available on TexasTransparency.org.

Note: If your agency is already reporting, the Comptroller’s office does not need to be notified of new applicable grants. However, if the URL of the agency Web page changes, notify the Comptroller’s office at state.grants@cpa.texas.gov.

Please see Requirement to Publish Purpose of State Grants (FPP S.010) for more information.