“What’s New” on FMX

Each state agency (and institution of higher education reporting to SPA) must 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:

• Oct. 20 — Full reporting agencies
• Nov. 1 — Consolidated university systems (applies only to institutions of higher education reporting to SPA)

See SPA Fiscal Year-End Reconciliation and Certification of Fiscal Balances in Chapter 2 of the SPA Process User’s Guide (FPP N.005) for more information.

The Outstanding Warrants Control Report (DAFR8171) is generated on the first Friday of each month. Agencies should monitor their report before warrants become void on Aug. 31.

See USAS Annual Close Process (FPP Q.004) for more information, including details on generating reports via the Report Request Profile, USAS 91 screen.

Contact your appropriation control officer with questions.

Each year, state agency property managers must conduct a physical inventory of the trust, capitalized and controlled personal property in the agency’s possession by Aug. 31. (Libraries, historical arts and treasures are excluded from this requirement.)

Agencies must then submit the Certification of Physical Inventory Conducted by Agency (73-283) form to the Comptroller’s office by Sept. 20 for fiscal 2020 with the signature of the agency head or designee.

The interest rate the state pays on a late payment to a vendor under the state’s prompt payment law will be 4.25 percent for fiscal 2021. The interest calculation is one percentage point higher than the prime rate published in the Wall Street Journal on the first business day of July.

See Interest Rate on eXpendit (FPP I.005) for more information.

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 by Sept. 15.

See Salary Supplements Paid From Sources Other Than Appropriated Funds (FPP F.031) for instructions and the online report form.

Junior/community colleges must certify estimates of state matching contribution funds for employees participating in the Optional Retirement Program (ORP) by Aug. 15.

See Annual Estimate of Optional Retirement Program (ORP) State Contributions (FPP A.003) for complete information including instructions and forms.

USPS agencies must use the fiscal 2020 USPS Fiscal Year-End Close Manual and USPS Year-End Close Schedule to prepare files correctly for the 2020 fiscal year-end close.

See USPS Fiscal Year-End Close Process (FPP R.016) for complete information including the training calendar and links to the manual and schedule.

TINS implemented two application change requests (ACRs) effective July 17:

• ACR 60105 – TINS creates a daily comma separated values (CSV) file of processed, non-processed and dropped transactions due to invalid file layout or other invalid data submissions.
• ACR 60294 – TINS automatically drops transactions submitted via batch due to an invalid file layout, invalid data field values or other reasons that prevent the processing of TINS transactions.

Contact Payment Services with questions.

An accounting policy webinar will be held July 31, 10 a.m.-noon. See the Accounting Policy Meetings page for the agenda and webinar registration.

Also, the June 30 meeting page now includes questions and answers from that webinar.

A CAPPS HR/Payroll user group webinar will be held July 28, 9-11 a.m.

A CAPPS Financials user group webinar will be held July 30, 9-11 a.m.

See CAPPS HR/Payroll User Group Meetings or CAPPS Financials User Group Meetings for agendas and webinar information.

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

The hotel occupancy tax refund for June and July will be available on DAFR reports 8190 and 8200 on Aug. 9.

See Hotel Occupancy Tax Quarterly Refund (FPP B.006) for more information.

CAPPS Central agencies must follow CAPPS HR/Payroll Fiscal Year-End Processing Instructions (FPP T.003) to prepare for the fiscal year-end process.

The system will be unavailable from 5 p.m. Aug. 31 through noon on Sept. 2. Normal activities will resume at noon Sept. 2.

Effective July 19, the web address to the original CAPPS portal (which was replaced in April) will no longer be active. CAPPS users must update all existing bookmarks to the current web address and clear your browser cache.

The current CAPPS web address is https://erphcmprd.cpa.texas.gov/.

Agency Level 1 support staff may contact the CAPPS help desk with questions or concerns.

Institutions of higher education must report certain information about jobs and reappointments at the beginning of each fiscal year. Submit reappointment information via electronic file transfer (EFT) by:

• Sept. 9: EFT #1 — Classifications and carriers
• Sept. 11: EFT #2 — Reappointments for fiscal 2021
• Sept. 16: EFT #3 — Terminations for fiscal 2020

The HRIS September maintenance deadline is Oct. 7. See HRIS Higher Education Reporting Procedures for Reappointments (FPP M.003) for reappointment details and instructions.

All GR consolidated and full reporting agencies must complete and submit every GASB questionnaire by Aug. 15.

The AFR website’s GASB Questionnaires page provides:

• Links to each GASB questionnaire
• Descriptions and PDF previews of each GASB questionnaire
• Links for more information on the AFR website specific to each GASB statement

Contact your financial reporting analyst for questions about any GASB questionnaire.

Financial reporting analysts can help agencies reconcile their 2020 annual financial report (AFR) to USAS either over the phone or during scheduled work sessions. Before scheduling a virtual work session, agencies must attempt to complete the fiscal year-end USAS entries.

If you have problems with USAS entries, contact your agency’s financial reporting analyst, who may request copies of the USAS entries. If the issue cannot be resolved by phone or email, you may then schedule a work session with your agency’s financial reporting analyst.

Fiscal 2020 third quarter post-payment audit and contracting audit reports are available online. See the FMX Audit page for forms, fiscal policies and procedures, and audit contact information.

Subscribe via govDelivery for quarterly email notifications of audit reports posted.

Fiscal 2021 appropriation budgets must be entered into USAS and all required documentation submitted by July 31.

Budget entry and documentation submission must be completed before appropriation control officers can approve a budget setup.

See Establishing Appropriations by Method of Finance, Rider and Capital Budget Schedules (FPP A.020) for more information including schedule spreadsheets, instructions, definitions and samples.

The fiscal 2020 USAS annual cash-basis close occurs on Aug. 31. The instructions, including deadlines for submitting documents, are available in USAS Annual Close Process (FPP Q.004).

See Scheduling Critical Payments at Year-End for more information by appropriation year, including deadlines.

Agencies using CAPPS Financials need to also follow CAPPS Financials Year-End Processing Instructions (FPP T.001).

See the 2020 Master Schedule of Year-End Close Events, which includes:

• Processing deadlines
• System maintenance dates and times
• Support contacts

SPRS agencies must process transactions in the prescribed order for the rollover to fiscal 2021. See SPRS Fiscal Year-End Processing Instructions for the Rollover to Fiscal 2021 (FPP O.002) for details.

Earned federal funds that agencies deposit into Appropriation 70000 in amounts above the level identified in the General Appropriations Act are appropriated, subject to certain conditions and deadlines.

See the Appropriation Authority for Earned Federal Fund Collections Above the Annual Level section of Earned Federal Funds and Indirect Cost Reimbursements to the General Revenue Fund (APS 023) (FPP A.017) for conditions and deadlines.

Contact your agency’s appropriation control officer with any questions.