“What’s New” on FMX

Due to new 2018–19 GAA requirements, any state agency that receives, spends or administers revenue held outside the state treasury (local funds) is required to submit financial data on those funds to the Comptroller’s office.

Fiscal 2016–19 report data must be submitted by Nov. 30, 2018, using the new Excel reporting spreadsheet provided in Requirements for Local Operating Funds and Associated Local Funds (FPP S.009).

For more, see “Additional reporting requirements per the GAA (Art. IX, Sec. 17.09)” in Agency Requirements of FPP S.009.

Final copies of the fiscal 2018 Annual Report (Statewide Hiring Practices) will be sent to each state agency and institution of higher education via electronic file transfer on Oct. 4.

For more information, including HRIS, SPRS and USPS contacts, see Annual Report (Statewide Hiring Practices for the Fiscal Year) (FPP F.005).

Preliminary copies of the 2018 Equal Employment Opportunity Report (FPP F.016) will be sent to agencies and institutions of higher education via electronic file transfer on Oct. 16. The files will be available with the agency’s regular daily downloads.

Deadlines:

• Oct. 23 – Preliminary Equal Employment Opportunity Report Acknowledgement form due
• Oct. 26 – Data corrections due

Data corrections entered or submitted after Oct. 26 will not be reflected on the final report issued on Oct. 30.

The fiscal 2018 fourth quarter post-payment audit and desk audit reports are now available for view, print and download. See the Audit topic page for forms, Fiscal Policies and Procedures and audit contact information.

Subscribe via GovDelivery to receive email notifications each quarter for audit reports posted.

The annual State Employee Charitable Campaign (SECC) runs Sept. 1 – Oct. 31. During the SECC, state employees may elect to deduct contributions to participating charities from their paychecks. Local campaign areas or statewide federations receive those contributions.

Payroll/personnel systems must be updated for December 2018 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 State Employee Charitable Campaign Participation (FPP F.033) or the SECC website to access the list of participating statewide federations, local campaign areas and other helpful 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) by certifying SPA fiscal balances and Note 2 using the Capital Asset Note Submission System (CANSS) web application. Due dates are:

• Sept. 28 – Simplified reporting agencies
• Oct. 20 – Full reporting agencies
• Nov. 1 – Consolidated university systems (applies only to institutions of higher education choosing to report to SPA)

See SPA Fiscal Year-End Reconciliation and Certification of Fiscal Balances in Chapter 2 of the SPA Process User’s Guide for more information.

State agencies and institutions of higher education must report annual binding encumbrances and payables to the Comptroller’s office per APS 018. 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 2018 and prior years’ appropriations by the due date for their agency type for annual financial reporting:

• Sept. 30 for simplified reporting agencies
• Oct. 30 for full reporting agencies

All agencies must submit the online Annual Certification by Oct. 30. (The recommended due date for simplified reporting agencies is Sept. 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 recommended due date for simplified reporting agencies is Sept. 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. 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.

Administrative heads must report annually by Oct. 1 specific information for employees granted more than 32 hours of emergency leave during the prior fiscal year.

See Emergency Leave Reporting Requirements (FPP F.040) for more, including information on the new Emergency Leave Reporting web application and the required statement for agencies and institutions not sending a report.

How well are we meeting your customer service expectations?

Please let us know by completing the online survey by Friday, Oct. 12. We appreciate your feedback.

If you have any questions about the survey, please email us at fiscal.documentation@cpa.texas.gov.

A new enhancement in USAS allows for simplified processing of batch headers left behind on the Internal Transaction (IT) file that no longer contain transactions. This enhancement reduces the potential for errors when working to clear these empty batch headers.

For more information, see ACR 60197 – USAS System Change.

USAS Outstanding Warrant Report (DAFR8161) and Outstanding Warrant Control Report (DAFR8171) feature a new field that reports the oldest appropriation year (AY) associated with the funding source used when the warrant was issued. Additionally, the obsolete AGENCY AMOUNT column has been removed from the reports.

See ACR 60279 – USAS System Change for more information.

Institutions of higher education hold appropriated funds outside the state treasury and must enter fiscal 2018 expenditure activity into USAS by Oct. 30 for reconciliation with the Legislative Budget Board’s Automated Budget and Evaluation System of Texas (ABEST).

For more, see Entering Higher Education Expenditure Activity into USAS for USAS/ABEST Reconciliation (FPP B.011).

Note: Community/junior colleges are excluded from these requirements.

Agencies that reimburse employees for state-related hotel stays are due a refund for the associated hotel occupancy taxes. USAS automatically generates the refunds each quarter.

The hotel occupancy tax refund for August will be available on DAFR reports 8190 and 8200 on Sept. 9.

For more information, refer to Hotel Occupancy Tax Quarterly Refund (FPP B.006).

Institutions of higher education can download the HRIS Employees Without Reappointments Report on Sept. 21.

Make any employee information corrections by close of business Sept. 28. 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.

See HRIS Higher Education Reporting Procedures for Reappointments (FPP M.003) or contact your HRIS representative for more information on the reappointment process.

Note: Only institutions that have employees with reappointments will receive reports.

Preliminary copies of the fiscal 2017 Annual Report (Statewide Hiring Practices) will be sent to each state agency and institution of higher education via electronic file transfer on Sept. 21. Electronic report acknowledgment forms must be submitted by Sept. 28. Agencies and institutions have until Oct. 2 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).

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 Transferring Property in Chapter 7 of the SPA Process User Guide for complete instructions.

The online Veteran Workforce Summary Report acknowledgment form (with required complaint reporting included) must be submitted by Sept. 25.

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