LPS Year End Quick Reference Guide

Create Checklist

Create a checklist of tasks to be completed, by whom and by when. It may be useful to paste this list into a new document and add columns for dates and personalities.

Preparing for the Year End

Local payments schools have considerable flexibility in their internal arrangements. The only mandatory dates are those in the DCC timetable.
Schools will need to plan their approach to the work required. The detail will vary from school to school according to the availability of staff resources and the volume of transactions to be dealt with.
Run preliminary closedown of FMS, after FMS period 12 reconciliation by 24 April. This will enable, if required, old year invoices to be paid in the new year.
All transactions must be complete and the returns sent to the Director of Resources, for this years deadline please see the year end ‘Tasks and Deadlines Timetable’ on the year end webpage.

Prior Year Reconciliation Adjustments

Ensure that these have been entered.

As Soon as Possible, Review Outstanding Cheques

If any cheques recorded in FMS are more than six months old and have not been presented, they will need to be cancelled. Replacement cheques may need to be issued or a creditor accrued. For other cheques that were issued more than (say) four months ago it may be appropriate to contact the suppliers to encourage them to cash the cheques. Write back any cheques before 31 March.

Review Outstanding Debtor Accounts

It may be necessary to “chase” debtors to pay their bills. Review outstanding invoices check that the income has not been matched against the wrong debtor or posted direct to revenue. Cancel or seek write off approval as appropriate, If any cancellations are needed, it is better to tackle them before the year-end so that they will be included in the month 12 VAT return.

Bank Reconciliation

Ensure that the bank reconciliation is up to date and that there are no unresolved differences.
Give consideration to making arrangements with the bank so that the maximum information is to hand in time for the month 12 VAT return. If necessary obtain temporary statements. In any event ask for a statement that runs up to the end of March.
Ensure that the bank reconciliation to the 31 March is carried out. This will include all entries in the month 12 VAT return. At this point the balance at bank should agree with the total in FMS. If the figures do not agree, please try to establish why before sending the statements to the Director of Resources but do not delay unduly sending the return. If it is not possible to include all entries to 31 March in the month 12 VAT return these will need to be identified on the reconciliation return.

Month 12 VAT Return

Produce the month 12 VAT return on the deadline day and on the same day check that the balance claimed agrees with balance outstanding as taken from the statement of balances and reserves.
Once this has been completed ensure that no entries are made between the claim being processed and the submittal report being run. Consider using system controls to lock out other FMS users during this time.
At the start of the following day to avoid possible difficulties before running the submittal report rerun the summary report and check it agrees with the one generated at the point of claim. If it does not then there will be transactions that will not be collected in the next VAT return.

Old Year Transactions

Old year transactions may continue to be posted until preliminary closedown is run.
The following may be entered:

• Suppliers invoices relating to the old year (these can be entered in SIMS. The cheques should not be produced until after preliminary closedown in the new year). This will reduce the number of creditors
• Debit entries on bank statements relating to dates before 1 April (direct debits, dishonoured cheques etc.)
• Credit entries on bank statements relating to dates before 1 April (BACS & Standing Orders)
• Reconcile cheques presented up to and including 31 March
• Accounts receivable for services provided prior to 1 April.

New Year Transactions

Do not process any new year entries until the VAT return has been made and the submittal report run. This means that the following entries must be left until that time:

• Invoices relating to the new year
• Raising of debtors invoices relating to the new year.
• Debit entries on bank statements relating to dates after 1 April (direct debits, dishonoured cheques and so on)
• Credit entries on bank statements relating to dates after 1 April (BACS & Standing Order Receipts).

Cash relating to old year debtors received on or after 1 April may not be recorded until after preliminary closedown has been run. Similarly payment of old year invoices will need to be held back until after preliminary closedown.

Unwanted Transactions and CAPSCH Codes

We will liaise directly with schools over the entries needed to deal with unwanted transactions. This will include standards funds.

Non Budget Share Transactions

• Accruals for creditors must make use of the special FMS codes for non budget share creditors (CREDOTHR)
• Ensure that notified allocations for non SBS moneys have been entered as income
• Any transactions with non budget share should be completed by the deadline
• All such transactions must be reflected by invoice
• Journals between SBS and the non SBS fund will result in the year end being incorrectly stated.

Treatment of Budget and Other Adjustments

Budget adjustments will need to be recognised separately. All cash receivable or deducted for budget adjustments notified after 1 April will need to be journalised.
Check that the amounts on codes “9050-9059” agree with the statement provided by the County Treasurer.
The following are not budget adjustments and should be treated as follows:

• Mutual fund reimbursements
• External debtor
• DEBS.

End of Year Returns Needed for Central Purpose

Prompt notification of carry forward depends on the reconciliation of the school cash at bank figure with the LEA figure and agreement of final spending totals.
To assist in this process a number of reports are required. These are detailed on the checklist. Points to note:

• The bank reconciliation statement is to be certified by the headteacher/principal
• A copy of the bank statements for each bank account covering the last week of March certified by the headteacher/principal
• Please ensure that these are supported by the bank reconciliation and are sent by the published deadline – earlier if possible
• Trial balance reports
• Balance and reconcile your SBS spending. This process will prove that all entries relating to SBS have been recognised. The net total of ledger codes 0101 through 9999 less PAYCON should equal the total of the bank and control codes