The CAPPS Production environments will undergo maintenance to the Linux file server cluster on Sunday, Oct. 2, from 5 a.m. to 12 p.m. (noon).
During this time, the following environments will be unavailable:
Recently, Microsoft released and updated Internet Explorer (IE) to version 11.0.35. The new IE version was incompatible with the BlueZone Web-to-Host Windows-based terminal emulation application.
Microsoft has released a fix (KB3192665) that will eliminate the compatibility issue. It can be downloaded from their Update Catalog.
BlueZone can be used to access the Comptroller’s mainframe through online applications, such as the Uniform Statewide Accounting System (USAS) or the Uniform Statewide Payroll/Personnel System (USPS).
For more information, see Requirements for Transmitting Comptroller Information Over Public Networks (FPP N.007) (login required).
Please complete our online survey to let us know if we are meeting your customer service expectations. Your responses help us improve the services we provide.
The survey is extended to until close of business Friday, Oct. 7.
If you have questions about this survey, please email us at fiscal.documentation@cpa.texas.gov. Thank you in advance for your help.
State and federal holidays listed on the System Outages and Holidays Calendar with no scheduled USAS cycle are excluded when determining the direct deposit effective settlement date of a payment.
When financial institutions are closed, no direct deposit activity occurs on those days. Agencies must exclude these dates when determining when to process their payments to ensure prompt payment and avoid late payment interest. This includes Columbus Day (Oct. 10).
The fiscal policy and procedure (FPP) detailing default processing for USAS deposits has been updated to reflect current procedures, including information on how to clear the deposit default fund.
For complete details, see USAS Deposit Default Processing (FPP Q.006).
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.
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.
For complete information and to review your agency’s procedures for compliance with field requirements, see USAS and CAPPS Financials Invoice Number Field Requirements (FPP E.023).
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:
See SPA Fiscal Year-End Reconciliation and Certification of Fiscal Balances in Chapter 2 of the SPA Process User’s Guide for more information.
The CAPPS HR/Payroll and Financials Production environments will undergo scheduled maintenance on Sunday, Sept. 25, from 4 to 11 a.m. in order to perform Windows/RDS patching.
During this window, the CAPPS HR/Payroll and Financials Production environments will remain available during this time; however, the search feature in the Financials Production will not be available.
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:
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).
The Veteran Workforce Summary Report ran on Sept. 15, 2016. The Veteran Acknowledgement Form is now available for your completion on FMX.
The Veteran Acknowledgement Form is due by Friday, Sept. 23, 2016.
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:
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.
The following Annual Financial Report (AFR) Web applications will not be available on Sunday, Sept. 25 from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. due to system maintenance:
The deadline submission date will remain the same as shown on the Deadlines page.
The CAPPS Financials User Acceptance Test (FINUAT1) environment will be refreshed from CAPPS Production from Friday, Sept. 9 at 5 p.m. until Saturday, Sept. 10 at 5 p.m.
The following environment will be unavailable during this time:
The Production environments will remain available during this time.
Institutions of higher education hold appropriated funds outside the State Treasury and must enter fiscal 2016 expenditure activity into USAS by Oct. 14 for reconciliation with the Legislative Budget Board’s Automated Budget and Evaluation System of Texas (ABEST).
For complete information, see Entering Higher Education Expenditure Activity into USAS for USAS/ABEST Reconciliation (FPP B.011).
Note: Community/junior colleges are excluded from these requirements.
The HRIS Employees Without Reappointments Report for institutions of higher education will be available to download on Thursday, Sept. 22.
For each employee listed on the report, one of the following needs to be added in HRIS:
All employee information listed on the report must be corrected by close of business Thursday, Sept. 29. It is important to reconcile the report information against your institution’s records to ensure the information in HRIS is accurate. HRIS uses this information to generate the Equal Employment Opportunity Report, Annual Report (Statewide Hiring Practices for the Fiscal Year) and Veteran Workforce Summary Report.
Fiscal Management will rerun the report weekly until all necessary corrections have been made.
For more information on the reappointment process, please see HRIS Higher Education Reporting Procedures for Reappointments (FPP M.003) or contact your HRIS representative.
Note: Institutions that do not have employees without reappointments will not receive a report.
The online Veteran Workforce Summary Report acknowledgment form (with required complaint reporting included) must be submitted by Sept. 23.
For more information, please see Veteran Workforce Summary Reports and Veteran Complaint Reporting (FPP F.038).
Per Texas Government Code, Section 403.273, the property manager of each state agency must conduct an annual physical inventory of the trust, capitalized and controlled personal property (excluding libraries and historical arts and treasures) in the agency’s possession.
State agencies must submit the Certification of Physical Inventory Conducted by Agency (73-283) form for fiscal 2016 with the signature of the agency head or designee to the Comptroller’s office by Sept. 20. For more information, see Certification of Physical Inventory in Chapter 2 of the SPA Process User’s Guide.
Sept. 20 is the deadline to enter all property transfers between external and internal agencies in SPA so simplified reporting agencies can complete their fiscal year-end reconciliations
See Chapter 7 “Transferring Property” of the SPA Process User’s Guide (FPP N.005) for complete instructions.
The CAPPS Non-Production environments will undergo maintenance to conduct Oracle PSU patching on Sunday, Sept. 4 from 12 a.m. (midnight) until 12 p.m. (noon).
The following environments will be unavailable during these times:
As reminder, the CAPPS HR/Payroll Production and Financials environments will be available during this time.
The Employees Retirement System (ERS) offers employees a Consumer Directed HealthSelect Plan, Limited Flexible Spending Account and vision plan effective Sept. 1.
USPS, SPRS and CAPPS HR/Payroll (Central Agencies) now include the new deductions:
Note: If you do not have access to the CAPPS Application Service Provider (ASP) Solution Center, please contact your agency’s CAPPS support staff for more information.
The Appropriations and Appropriation Year Determination sections under the Fiscal Matters tab were updated to better convey current policies.
Additionally, the Employee Uniforms and Clothing Allowances section was added to the State Employees tab.
Agencies that reimburse employees for state-related hotel stays are due a refund for the associated hotel occupancy taxes. The refunds are generated automatically through USAS each quarter.
The hotel occupancy tax refund for August will be available on the DAFR8190 and DAFR8200 reports on Sept. 9.
For more information, see Hotel Occupancy Tax Quarterly Refund (FPP B.006).
Sept. 20 is the deadline to enter all property transfers between external and internal agencies in SPA so simplified reporting agencies can complete their fiscal year-end reconciliations.
Transfers between two external agencies cannot be entered into SPA. If your institution made any applicable transfers, please submit the fiscal year-end External to External Agency Transfers In and Out Excel spreadsheet to spa@cpa.texas.gov by:
See Chapter 7 “Transferring Property” of the SPA Process User’s Guide (FPP N.005) for complete instructions.
State agencies and institutions of higher education must report certain salary supplements to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, the State Auditor’s Office and the Secretary of State no later than Sept. 15.
For complete information including instructions and online report form, see Salary Supplements Paid From Sources Other Than Appropriated Funds (FPP F.031).
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:
See SPA Fiscal Year-End Reconciliation and Certification of Fiscal Balances in Chapter 2 of the SPA Process User’s Guide for more information.