September, 2020
Final Fiscal 2020 Annual Report (Statewide Hiring Practices) [posted 09/25/20]
Each state agency and institution of higher education will receive a final copy of the fiscal 2020 Annual Report (Statewide Hiring Practices) via electronic file transfer on Oct. 1.
See Annual Report (Statewide Hiring Practices for the Fiscal Year) (FPP F.005) for more information, including HRIS, SPRS and USPS contacts.
Preliminary EEO Report [posted 09/25/20]
Preliminary copies of the 2020 Equal Employment Opportunity Report (FPP F.016) will arrive at agencies and institutions of higher education via electronic file transfer on Oct. 15 with each agency’s regular daily downloads.
Deadlines:
- Oct. 22 – 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 in the final report issued on Oct. 28.
Annual Encumbrance Reporting Due [posted 09/18/20]
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). This reporting requirement includes the fourth quarter of the previous appropriation year.
All agencies must submit the online Annual Certification form by Oct. 30. (The recommended due date for GR consolidated agencies is Sept. 30.)
Automated Lapse of Unencumbered Balances [posted 09/18/20]
By Oct. 30 each year, all agencies must lapse appropriation balances above the amount needed to satisfy any outstanding binding encumbrances and/or payables. (The recommended due date for GR consolidated 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 do this, an automatic lapse program will run in USAS as early as the Nov. 1 nightly cycle.
Agencies must review appropriation balances for accuracy before the lapse process. See Reviewing Appropriation Balances Prior to UB or Lapsing in APS 018 for full details.
Fourth Quarter Audit Reports [posted 09/18/20]
Fiscal 2020 fourth quarter expenditure audit reports are available for view, print and download. 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.
Reminder — Take the Fiscal Management Customer Service Survey [posted 09/18/20]
How well are we meeting your customer service expectations?
Please let us know by completing the online survey by Friday, Sept. 25. We appreciate your feedback.
If you have any questions about the survey, please email us at fiscal.documentation@cpa.texas.gov.
Reminder — Emergency Leave Reporting Due [posted 09/18/20]
Agencies and institutions must report emergency leave use by Oct. 1 for employees granted more than 32 hours of emergency leave during the prior fiscal year.
See Emergency Leave Reporting Requirements (FPP F.040) for details on the Emergency Leave Reporting web application and the required statement for agencies and institutions not sending a report.
Deferral of Payroll Tax Obligations [posted 09/17/20]
On Aug. 8, 2020, a presidential memorandum was issued regarding the deferral of payroll tax obligations in light of the ongoing COVID-19 disaster.
The Internal Revenue Service published Notice 2020-65 on Aug. 28, 2020, with guidance for implementing the deferral of the employee share of the Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance tax, commonly referred to as Social Security tax, imposed on wages from Sept. 1, 2020, through Dec. 31, 2020.
This guidance:
- Allows employers to defer the withholding and deposit of an employee’s Social Security tax amount on wages paid between Sept. 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2020, if the employees’ taxable wages are less than $4,000 biweekly.
- States that the threshold should be applied for each pay period.
- Requires the amounts deferred under this guidance to become due starting Jan. 1, 2021. They must be fully repaid by April 30, 2021, or the amounts not deposited will begin to accrue penalty and interest.
- Requires employers to withhold the deferred amounts from employees’ wages from Jan. 1, 2021, through April 30, 2021, and remit the total deferred amounts by April 30, 2021.
After careful consideration of the impact and complexity of statewide system changes needed to implement the deferral, the tracking and repayment of the deferred taxes, and the reduced pay periods that would be available given the timeline to implement the system changes, the Comptroller’s office will not implement the deferral of payroll tax obligations for any statewide system maintained by the agency.
Agencies and institutions of higher education that support and maintain their own payroll systems may choose to implement the payroll tax deferral at their discretion in alignment with IRS Notice 2020-65.
If you have any questions:
- USPS agencies can call the USPS help desk at (512) 463-4008 or contact their Comptroller representative;
- CAPPS agencies can call (512) 463-2277 or enter a service ticket into the ASP Solution Center;
- Institutions of higher education can call the HRIS help desk at (512) 463-4008 or contact their Comptroller representative.
Preliminary Fiscal 2020 Annual Report (Statewide Hiring Practices) [posted 09/11/20]
Preliminary copies of the fiscal 2020 Annual Report (Statewide Hiring Practices) will arrive at each state agency and institution of higher education via electronic file transfer on Sept. 17. Agencies and institutions must submit electronic report acknowledgement forms by Sept. 24, and will have until Sept. 29 to review the preliminary report and enter or submit changes.
See Annual Report (Statewide Hiring Practices for the Fiscal Year) (FPP F.005) for more information, including HRIS, SPRS and USPS contacts.
Take the 2020 Fiscal Management Customer Service Survey [posted 09/11/20]
How well are we meeting your customer service expectations?
Please let us know by completing the online survey by Friday, Sept. 25. We appreciate your feedback.
If you have any questions about the survey, please email us at fiscal.documentation@cpa.texas.gov.
Grant ID Requests [posted 09/11/20]
State agencies must submit new Grant ID requests for the fiscal 2020 State Pass-Through Reporting (SPTR) web application by email to frs@cpa.texas.gov by close of business on Sept. 25, and attach documentation confirming the grant relationship between the grantor and grantee with the official grant name.
Final certification for the SPTR web application is due Sept. 28. See State Grant Pass-Through Reconciliation for more information.
USAS Comptroller Object Information Updated [posted 09/11/20]
CAPPS User Group Webinars [posted 09/11/20]
A CAPPS HR/Payrolluser group webinar will be held Sept. 22, 9-11 a.m.
A CAPPS Financials user group webinar will be held Sept. 24, 9-11 a.m.
See CAPPS HR/Payroll User Group Meetings or CAPPS Financials User Group Meetings for webinar information. The agenda and meeting materials will be posted one day before the meeting.
Accounting Policy Webinar [posted 09/04/20]
An accounting policy webinar will be held Sept. 22, 1-3 p.m. See the Accounting Policy Meetings page for webinar registration.
The agenda and meeting materials will be available the day before the meeting.
Fiscal 2020 CFDA and NSE Additions for SEFA Reporting [posted 09/04/20]
Requests to set up new Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) and Non-State Entity (NSE) entries in the Schedule of Expenditure of Federal Awards (SEFA) web application are due by close of business Oct. 23. Email the request to the Comptroller’s Financial Reporting section at frs@cpa.texas.gov. Include a copy of the agreement or award letter with the request.
Pass-Through Activity Deadlines:
- Sept. 26: Finalize USAS interagency pass-through entries. Since Sept. 26 falls on a weekend, all transactions must be entered by close of business on the prior Friday.
- Sept. 28: Finalize and certify interagency pass-through entries in the SEFA web application.
See the SEFA – Timeline for more information, or contact your agency’s Financial Reporting analyst with questions.
New TINS Payee Update Menu Screen [posted 09/04/20]
TINS ACR 60361 implements a new screen effective Sept. 4. Payee Update Menu (PYMENU) allows users to select and access the TINS online update screens by improved menu navigation to a specific update screen.
Contact Payment Services with questions.
2020 State Employee Charitable Campaign [posted 09/04/20]
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.
USPS and CAPPS will be updated to reflect any changes to the SECC for the December 2020 payrolls, including participating charities’ payee codes, Texas identification numbers and contact information. Agencies and institutions of higher education not using USPS or CAPPS Central must update their payroll/personnel systems accordingly.
See State Employee Charitable Campaign Participation (FPP F.033) or the SECC website for the list of participating statewide federations, local campaign areas and more information.
HRIS Employees Without Reappointments Report [posted 09/04/20]
Institutions of higher education can download the HRIS Employees Without Reappointments Report on Sept. 23.
Make all employee information corrections by close of business Sept. 30. 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.
Higher Ed USAS/ABEST Reconciliation Deadline [posted 09/04/20]
Institutions of higher education hold appropriated funds outside the state’s treasury and must enter fiscal 2020 expenditure activity in USAS by Oct. 30 for reconciliation with the Legislative Budget Board’s Automated Budget and Evaluation System of Texas (ABEST).
See Entering Higher Education Expenditure Activity into USAS for USAS/ABEST Reconciliation (FPP B.011) for additional information.
Note: Community/junior colleges are excluded from these requirements.
Reminder — Certification of Physical Inventory Form Due [posted 09/04/20]
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.
See Certification of Physical Inventory in Chapter 2 of the SPA Process Users Guide for details.
Reminder — Property Transfers Deadline [posted 09/04/20]
Sept. 20 is the deadline to enter property transfers in SPA so GR consolidated agencies can complete their fiscal year-end reconciliations.
See Transferring Property in Chapter 7 of the SPA Process User Guide for complete instructions.
Reminder — Fourth Quarter Veteran Workforce Summary Reports Due [posted 09/04/20]
The online Veteran Workforce Summary Report acknowledgment form (with required complaint reporting included) must be submitted by Sept. 23.
See Veteran Workforce Summary Reports and Veteran Complaint Reporting (FPP F.038) for more information.
Fiscal Resources and Required Actions for Tracking Activity Related to Hurricanes Marco and Laura [posted 09/03/20]
The Comptroller’s office provides accounting guidance and resources to assist agencies and institutions of higher education in disaster relief efforts. See Accounting for Disaster Relief Efforts (FPP K.011) for additional information.
To assess the fiscal impact of hurricane-related activity on state resources, the Comptroller’s office requires agencies and institutions of higher education to track expenditures and revenues directly related to significant disaster relief efforts. See Tracking Expenditures and Revenues Related to Disaster Relief Efforts (FPP K.014) for additional information, or contact your agency’s appropriation control officer.