Year End FAQs for Central Payment and Local Payment Schools

How do I deal with claims? 

Travel Claims – Final Claims (Central Payment Schools only)

Please ensure that all travel claims are made up to 31 March and sent to the payments section by first class post to arrive no later than the published deadline earlier if possible. DO NOT include journeys for 1st April or later.

Claims in relation to all staff will be taken back to the old year.

Claims for Supply Teaching (Central Payment Schools only)

These should be completed up to the last working day of March only and after certification uploaded preferably on the same day to the payroll section.
Manually certified claims should be sent by FIRST CLASS POST.
In all cases claims must arrive by the ·published deadline.

Claims sent after this will need to be entered on creditors returns.

Claims paid in April will be charged to the old year. DO NOT include claims for work done 1st April or later.

Claims for Interview Expenses (Central Payment Schools only)

Claims should be forwarded to the Payments Team in the normal way. These should be marked Old Year on the coding grid.

Any claim for a successful candidate starting employment in the New Year should be added to the creditor schedule and released for payment once the candidate commences work.

How do I deal with claims? (Local Payments Schools only)

All claims for work done in March (payable in April) will need an external creditors journal.

You will find the information about the likely cost on the supply authorisation report.
Please summarize the entries at code level. It is not necessary or desirable to enter amounts at individual employee level.

It is your responsibility to ensure that all old year payroll costs are recorded in the old year.

These will be recognised in the LPS work book.

How do I deal with “Trips” money? (Central Payment Schools only)

Worked Example

During Jan – March £350 is received from pupils parents for a trip to take place in May. Coded to G120 9331.

In Feb the coach firm was paid £100 deposit and the venue £150 deposit. Coded to G120 4331
(Figures exclude VAT).
The income and expenditure should reflect when the activity takes place which is the new year.
Entries required     DR G120 9331 £350.00
CR IRIA £350.00
This reduces the income balance in the old year and when reversed increases new year income.
The spend also needs to move
Entries required     DR PMIA £250.00
CR G120 4331 £250.00
This reduces old year spending and when reversed increases new year spending.

How do I deal with outstanding income?

Cash (Central Payments Schools)

• Ensure that all outstanding non-invoice income has been paid to bank on or before 31st March. This will be the final date on which money can be banked in order to get into Month 12. Money banked after this will be credited to the New Year.
• Any banking up to and including the 31st March should not be entered on debtor schedules.
• If the cash is banked on or after 1st April but relates to the old year it will need to be put on the debtors return.

Debtors (Central Payments Schools)

• Ensure that all CT10/3 (requests for debtors account) forms for inclusion in the old year are sent to the income section to arrive by ·the deadline.
• Any entries that fail to get into month 12 will be processed in the New Year and will need to be included on debtors returns.
• It is your responsibility to ensure that your debtors accounts are in the correct year.

Cash (Local Payments Schools)

• Ensure that all outstanding non-invoice income has been paid to bank on or before 31st March.
• This will be the final date on which money can be banked in order not to upset the bank reconciliation.
• Any banking up to and including the 31st March should not be entered on debtor journals.
• If the cash is banked on or after 1st April but relates to the old year it will need to be treated as a debtor. and journalised.

Debtors (Local Payments Schools)

• Ensure that all debtors accounts that relate to the old year have been raised
• Debtors accounts should be raised prior to the submission of the VAT return on the 31st March. Raising invoices dated 31st March after the VAT period has been closed will result in tax point errors
• Schools will be responsible for any resultant penalties imposed by H.M.Customs & Excise
• If it is not possible to bill before 31st March then a debtor journal must be accrued and the invoice raised in the New Year·A schedule of debtors entries is required to support your debtors totals

How do I deal with month 12?

Download & Reconciliation (Central Payment Schools)

• Month 12 remains open until the published deadline in April. Download data is available on a daily basis and automatic reconciliation should be run after each download.
• Any queries or items remaining should be raised before your Easter break. (This should be possible if you download and reconcile regularly during March and certainly before the Easter holidays). This is to allow sufficient time for any queries to be looked at before the end of the financial year.
• Any items that are left in suspense need to be looked at promptly so that those that are not recognised are investigated as a matter of urgency. As in all months a trial balance should be undertaken to ensure that FINEST agrees with FMS6. However almost all of the work can be done before the printout arrives.
• Creditors and Debtors details do not get downloaded, as they are already recognised by journals, but do appear on printouts

Creation of creditors and debtors returns (Central Payment Schools)

• It is most important that you do this in conjunction with the notes.
• These are submitted using a computer program. It may be helpful to check your outstanding commitments, (using Reports | Accounts Payable | Purchase Order Reports | Purchase Orders) before creating the return. Allow sufficient time for outstanding suppliers’ invoices to arrive before starting this process.
• Income received in advance can be taken from school records and submitted immediately as can most payments made in advance.
• The processing of your returns for input to FINEST is undertaken against a very tight deadline so it will be helpful if returns could be sent promptly. Additional creditors may be sent as additional files.
• If there are any queries we will use e-mail or fax to raise them; if possible please respond by the same means. We will amend the return if necessary for entries that might result in double counting. If you think a mistake has been made in “bringing them to account” then please phone your usual contact in Finance Services at County Hall.
• Please send the information once only. Written confirmation is not required. Send only an e-mail. Do not fax or post copies of data sent by e- Mail.
• IF ANY CHANGES ARE NECESSARY YOU MUST PUT THE DETAILS IN WRITING. (FAX OR E-MAIL WHERE POSSIBLE). AMENDMENTS WILL NOT BE MADE ON A VERBAL REQUEST ALONE.
• Additional entries may be created using the program. The absolute deadline for these entries is shown on the ·timetable.

Download & Reconciliation (Local Payment Schools)

• Download data is available on a daily basis and automatic reconciliation should be run after each download.
• Any queries or items remaining should be raised before your Easter break. This is to allow sufficient time for any queries to be looked at before the end of the financial year.
• Any items that are left in suspense need to be looked at promptly so that those that are not recognised are investigated as a matter of urgency.
• Creditors and Debtors details do not get downloaded, as they are already recognised by journals, but do appear on printouts

How do I put my creditors and debtors into SIMS?

End of Year Journals in FMS6 (All Schools)

There are two parts to end of year journals:

1. Your journals entered in the Creditor/Debtor return. This informs Finance Services and, when agreed, is used to inform the FINEST system (i.e. the LEA’s record of your transactions).

2. What you do at school/college to ensure that your records are compatible with those of the LEA.
These notes are intended to help the user through part 2.

Example

The Creditor Debtor return included the following entries
The FINEST Financial Reports (assuming your creditor/debtor return is approved)
Any CRED entry on your return will be debited to the appropriate ledger code in the old year and will be credited to the same code in the new year. These should balance out with entries on FINEST when the payments are processed.

Any DEBS or entry on your return will be credited to the appropriate ledger code in the old year and will be debited to the same code in the new year. These should balance out with entries on FINEST when the income is processed.

Any PMIA entries on the Creditor/Debtor return will be credited in the old year and debited in the new year.

Any IRIA entries on the Creditor/Debtor return will be debited in the old year and credited in the new year.

Reversing journals in FMS6 – General Information

In the following notes:
Any reference to the New Year relates to the financial year starting 1st April of the current calendar year
Any reference to the Old Year relates to the financial year starting 1st April of the previous calendar year.

Assuming that the Financial year has been created, switch to the Old Year.

The small window at the bottom right-hand corner confirms which financial year is in view.
Click on the General ledger focus button
Click on Manual Journal processing
Click on Next to add a journal
Notice that you can switch off the Journal wizard if you wish. The notes that follow are split into three sections
A: if you continue to set up the Journal header using the Journal Wizard
B: if you decide to switch off the journal Wizard and then create the Journal Header.
C: whichever option you take, the entry of journal lines is identical.

Note that it is possible to switch off the wizard at a number of screens. Should the user do this they will have to switch to the appropriate part of the notes.
It is also possible to switch the wizard back on once a journal has been completed (see last page)
There are two ways of processing journals as follows in FMS6:
A. Using the Journal Wizard
Click on the box to make this a Reversing Journal. (Note the radio button for Normal does NOT disappear)  
Click on Next
This screen allows the user to create the Journal Header
Please note that it is important to do the following in the order prescribed below.
1. Change the Reversal Year to be Next Year.
2. Change the Period to be 12 (you can use the browser)
3. Change the Reversal Period to be 1 (you can use the browser)
4. Enter a suitable Narrative for the whole journ
Narratives:
This will depend upon how you are going to handle this. You will already have a printout from your use of the Creditor/Debtor software. This printout splits up the return into sections for each fund. You are therefore advised to make a complete journal in FMS6 for your “Creditors return for Fund 01”. Then when that is completed and posted, make a new journal for “Debtors return for Fund 01 Revenue (SBS) and Fund 02 Capital”. Repeat for any other journal types related to Fund 01. Then repeat for each journal section for other Funds that were included in your return to FSE.
Click on Next and then Click on Finish (or back to edit or check on the Header information)
Without the Journal Wizard
It is possible to switch off the journal wizard at a number of places in the process. The following notes assume that the wizard was turned off at the first screen. If you turn off at a later point you will need to find the appropriate point to start.

Click on box to make it a Reversing Journal.
Then click on Select
Please note that it is important to do the following in the order prescribed below.
1. Change the Reversal Year to be the Next Year.
2. Change the Period for the current year to be 12 (you can use the browser)
3. Change the Reversal Period to be 1 (you can use the browser)
4. Enter a suitable narrative for the whole journal
Narratives:
This will depend upon how you are going to handle this. You will already have a printout from your use of the Creditor/debtor software. This printout splits up the return into sections for each fund. You are therefore advised to make a complete journal in FMS6 for your “Creditors return for Fund 01”. Then when that is completed and posted, make a new journal for “Debtors return for Fund 01”. Repeat for any other journal types related to Fund 01. Then repeat for each journal type for other Funds that were included in your return to FSE.
Journal Entries
Click on the + button.

1. Enter the appropriate ledger code, fund code and cost centre for your creditor/debtor entry.
2. Enter the amount.
3. Choose Debit or Credit as required. Your Creditor/Debtor printout should help you with this
   This would normally be Credit
   For PMIA this would normally be Credit
   For IRIA this would normally be Debit.
4. Enter a narrative (optional) as a reference (eg Blunkett Supplies).
   If you have further entries from your Creditor/Debtor printout for this particular Journal Section/Fund combination, click on Update & Next Line and repeat steps 1 to 4 above.
5. The final line is the balancing entry to the appropriate creditor/debtor code (CREDDEBS etc). Click on Update & Next Line.
6. Enter the appropriate code (eg CRED)
7. Enter the amount (the journal printout should help, or move the current screen sideways and read the Balance total on the main journal screen.)
8. There is no need for a narrative
9. Click on Update and Close

Check that the journal is Balanced. If not edit the appropriate line
Check your entries against the Creditor/Debtor printout and annotate the journal section/fund combination on the printout to indicate that journal entries made in FMS6 for that section.

When you are totally satisfied, click on the tick to save the entries.

Certain aspects of the entries on screen will change background colour to green to indicate that journal is posted and is not able to undergo further editing.
Clicking on the “red-handled browser” will return you to the opening journal screen, where your journals will be summarised.

The user will now need to create more journals for other Journal Section/Fund Combinations as required. You could create a Journal Template for each section or fund and then use this each year to create the year end journals
Switching the Journal Wizard back on
Go to Tools | User Options and click in the box next to Use Wizard for Manual Journal Entry
Reversing journal (recommended)

• This is recommended for most situations. These can be entered in FMS6 before and after running preliminary closedown. This option will save work, as it will create the necessary ‘opposite’ entries in the New Year.
• If an adjustment does prove necessary after preliminary closedown you will be able to enter a further adjustment Journal (Year end adjustment reversing).

Normal journal

• If you want to use normal journals and enter a “mirror image” journal in the New Year then this can be done before running preliminary closedown.
• After running preliminary closedown you will be able to enter year end adjustments in the Old Year and further normal journals in the New Year.
• Normal journals are better suited to circumstances where the cost centre structures may have changed and different codes apply in the new year
• You will not be able to pay old year bills in the New Year until you have run preliminary closedown. However even if you wait a few days you will still be able to meet most suppliers’ payment terms.
• Detailed notes on Journals in FMS6 are provided for the users

Notes on Creditors Schedules (Local Payments Schools ‘CAPSCH’ codes only)

An entry must be made on the return only if it relates to goods or services received up to and including 31 March for which no invoice has been received. Unfulfilled orders are not creditors and must be omitted.

The school year-end software offers a menu leading to screens relating to each type of creditor.

One menu is for creditors external to Devon County Council, such as A. Black & Sons. Members of staff are external creditors too.

There is an option for creditors internal to Devon County Council, providers within Devon will use the internal invoicing system and so must not be included on creditors lists. DO NOT USE THIS OPTION
There should not be many entries in this section. If you do not know the actual costs, please estimate. Exclude VAT
INCLUDE
Claims (external creditor)
Any teacher claims for pay or travel that were not submitted by the deadline for payment in April.

Energy bills if there will not be a full year’s worth of charges recorded against the budget. Estimated energy bills may understate the true position so allow for the extra cost. (external creditor and estimate as required).

Income in advance, i.e. income received in the old year, which relates to goods and services (including courses) which will be supplied in new year e.g. deposits for trips lettings. The amounts to be included may be determined from local records such as trip collection records. Record the FULL amount received even if payment of deposits have been made. (see also Payments made in advance) Any item that was brought to account in last year but where the liability has not been cleared and still remains. For example energy costs which are still significantly understated.

DO NOT INCLUDE
Staffs travel claims that will be paid on the April pay run, submitted by the deadline.
Trading surpluses (e.g. catering) – these form part of the carry forward figure
DO NOT introduce entries in respect of any unspent cost centre balances. These form part of the carry forward figure.

PLEASE SEND NIL RETURNS on the Finance Information Community via SecureNet using No Creditors as the message subject. Do not send NIL returns before 31st March.

Notes on completion of Debtors Schedules (Local Payments Schools CAPSCH’ codes only)

An entry must be made on this list via the software only if it relates to goods or services your establishment has supplied up to and including 31 March for which either no invoice has been raised or no cash has been banked (if this is a cash rather than a credit transaction) on or before 31 March.

NCLUDE

tems which are due in the old year but for which no official invoice has yet been raised.

Items which are due in the old year for which no official invoice has been raised but the cash has been received in the new year.

Payments in advance of exam fees for summer term, where the invoice has been paid from the school budget share in the old year.

Payments of money made in advance in respect of, for example, deposits for trips and events that have not yet occurred. The information for these parts of the return may be established from local records.

PLEASE SEND NIL RETURNS on the Finance Information Community via SecureNet using No Debtors as the message subject. Do not send NIL returns before 31st March.

How do I deal with CFR?

Schools Specific Codes

If for any reason your school has been advised to set up codes on an individual basis the notification will have detailed the CFR mapping.

Again if you are unable to identify the correct mapping then send an email to financeschools-mailbox@devon.gov.uk with the subject CFR Mapping Query.

Removing Non Valid Codes

Now is a good time to tidy the FMS6 system to remove the codes which should no longer be used.

• Tools | General Ledger Set up
• Tab 6 C/Centre Ledger Links

If possible unlink the Non Valid ledger codes from the cost centres. If however these codes have been used and you are unable to remove the links then once Final Close Down has been run and providing nothing is entered on the codes you should be able to remove them in the New Year.

Whole Government Accounts (WGA)

To enable us to comply with government requirements we need to identify transactions with other “government bodies”
This includes other Councils, Health Authorities, and the less obvious such as Remploy, Royal Palaces and The National Gallery.

If you do have debtors and creditors in respect of these please make a separate entry for each in your year end files and put the LEA reference in the first six spaces of the narrative.

Step by Step Guide (Local Payment Schools only)

1. 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. It may be useful to refer to the list you prepared last year.

2. During the approach to end of year run housekeeping routines; aim to have resolved as much as possible before the end of March.

3. During the approach to end of year ensure bank reconciliation is completely up to date.

4. Review any balances remaining on the sundry debtors and creditors codes. (DEBS CREDS ICREDS IDEBS etc). These should be generally zero. If not zero and you don’t know how to clear them please ring the ScoMIS helpline 01392-385300.

5. Download March pay and clear suspense. Run the periodic balances report and agree the balance on payroll suspense to FC01..

6. Accrue a creditor for all work done in March that will be paid in April. Information can be obtained from the authorisation lists produced by the supply software. This includes additional hours for support staff, peripatetic and mentoring payments.

Entries can be summarized at ledger code level. Travel claims should also be accrued.

7. Complete the March VAT return and immediately take a statement of balances & reserves, periodic balances report, creditors listing and sundry debtors accounts.

8. Run the VAT submittal report and reconcile the VAT personal accounts/codes.

9. Enter transactions to 31st March from the bank statement and complete the bank reconciliation. Ensure that these transactions are dated 31st March or before. Take a further statement of balances & reserves etc.

10. Check that the ledger code balances on the codes that relate to funding agree with the control totals, (Monthly Cash advance and in year spreadsheets), notified by FSDE. Ensure codes 9050-9059agree with notification received from Devon Finance Services.

11. Treat any adjustment to SBS dated April as if they had  happened 31st March.

12. Enter reversing journals for payments made in advance and income received in advance. This task will be required each year so consider setting up a template for this. To save time the template can be prepared before year-end. This accrual should be done as soon as the March bank receipts have been balanced.

13. Enter reversing journals for any amounts needing to be accrued for creditors. As old year invoices are accepted directly into the system the need for these should be minimal. (Where monthly accruals are in place then there will be a higher volume of transactions). These will represent any situation where value has been received but no invoice has been received or the invoice has a new year date. Any new year dated invoices relating to an old year delivery must be entered in the new year and an accrual raised. This is to meet HMCE requirements.

14. Enter reversing journals for any amounts to be accrued for debtors. As old year debtor invoices are accepted into the system until preliminary closedown the need for these should be minimal.

15. Accrue provision for bad and uncertain debt.

16. Carry out gross error checks.

17. Rerun  housekeeping routines

18. Run preliminary closedown.

19. Accrue a creditor for the difference between FC01 and payroll control.

20. Clear the balances on FC01 and payroll suspense.

21. Check there are no outstanding items on your closedown checklist.

22. Run a trial balance and carryout a final check.

23. Re run housekeeping

24. On confirmation that the school information has been accepted by DFS run Final closedown

25. At the end of the process create a fresh copy of the year end checklist and in the light of experience update it ready for next year.

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 31st 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 County Treasurer but do not delay unduly sending the return. If it is not possible to include all entries to 31st March in the month 12 VAT return these will need to be identified on the reconciliation return.

Reversing journal (recommended)

This is recommended for most situations. These can be entered in FMS6 before and after running preliminary closedown. This option will save work, as it will create the necessary ‘opposite’ entries in the New Year. If an adjustment does prove necessary after preliminary closedown you will be able to enter a further adjustment Journal (Year end adjustment reversing).

Do not use this option for standard fund income in advance.

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 1st April (direct debits, dishonoured cheques etc)
• Credit entries on bank statements relating to dates before 1st April. (BACS & Standing Orders)·Reconcile cheques presented up to and including 31st March
• Accounts receivable for services provided prior to 1st April

Gross Error Checks

A gross error check is intended to be a quick review of the final figures.
The process is often intuitive and will rely to some extent on the knowledge of the person producing the figures.

The starting point is whether:-

• the figures look right
• the overall answers are coming out as expected
• there major variances from budget & are they explicable?

If not has some entry gone in the wrong way round?
It may be useful to:-

• check by rough calculation
• check by inspection.

A gross error check is intended to reveal obvious mistakes.

Year End Procedures (Local Payment Schools only)

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 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. Applying the CAKE principle may help.

C Concurrent activity maximised
A Anticipation of tasks
K Knowledge of the local accounting requirements
E Efficient system for the collection & processing of information
Run preliminary closedown of FMS after FMS period 12 reconciliation by 24th 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 31st 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 31st 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 31st 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 1st April (direct debits, dishonoured cheques etc)
• Credit entries on bank statements relating to dates before 1st April. (BACS & Standing Orders)
• Reconcile cheques presented up to and including 31st March
• Accounts receivable for services provided prior to 1st April

New year

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 1st April (direct debits, dishonoured cheques and so on)
• Credit entries on bank statements relating to dates after 1st April. (BACS & Standing Order Receipts)

Cash relating to old year debtors received on or after 1st 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 1st 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.

Clearing FC01 & FC02

This only should be done after the final Monitor has been produced. The process is needed to avoid the balances on 9803 and FC01 & FC02 being carried forward and should be the last job before final closedown. There are a number of steps to be taken

• Check that the totals on PAYCON and FC01 & FC02 agree (but opposite signs)
• Record a direct central credit against PAYROLL CONTROL for this amount. This will reduce FC01 & FC02 to NIL.
• Then clear PAYCON by entering a normal journal crediting the balance of PAYCON and debiting the same amount to PAYROLL CONTROL

How Do I Deal With the Balances on CAPSCH Codes?

School “capital” should be much easier as all eligible spending should be on the CAPSCH code.

The closing balance will be dealt with as part of the central close down programme as follows:-
1) If the balance is a net credit this will be carried forward on CAPSCH C999
2) If the school has overspent and it has not already asked then an entry will be made at the centre to debit R001 on school budget share and credit CAPSCH C992.

How do I prepare for Year End?

All schools to prepare for closedown, start by running year-end checks (Reports | Year End | System Checks). It is good practice and helpful to print these reports out. Any potential problems with year-end will be identified for you and enable you to resolve them straightforwardly.

Check invoices (All Schools)

All schools to check that invoices yet to be reconciled (which appear in Central | Manual Reconciliation) are genuinely recent ones.

In Central | Manual Reconciliation use the Sequence button to put the list in “Pay By” order – this may help in spotting the older items. This is useful, as some items might have been reconciled as Direct Central Payments (Central | Central Payments) when they should really have been actioned as reconciliation invoices (Central | Manual Reconciliation). This means the item may appear both as an actual and as a commitment, a double count that the process of checking to FINEST does not reveal.

Corrective action: Identify the entry in the General Ledger | Chart of Accounts Review to determine the ledger code, fund code, cost centre, amount and period. Then make a contra entry with the same details but with a negative amount as a direct central payment (Central | Central Payments). Next reconcile the invoice correctly in Central | Manual Reconciliation, remembering to enter the appropriate period.

Review orders (All Schools)
All schools to review the outstanding orders within the system by using Reports | Accounts Payable | Purchase Order Reports | Purchase Orders and select Outstanding Orders and after printing, checking to see which orders appear to have commitments outstanding against them

• Have they been completely invoiced?
• Has the invoice been inadvertently cleared through the non-order invoice process?
• Check any free text orders; if the order is complete cancel any outstanding commitment.
• Have the goods been included on another invoice? If so you should cancel the commitment.
• Are the goods still required? If not cancel the order (through Accounts Payable | Purchase Order Processing) and tell the supplier.
• Are the goods going to be supplied in the future? (E.g. are they no longer made or out of print). If they will not be supplied cancel the remaining part of the order. Confirm this with the supplier.

Clearing Salary Commitments – including unwanted (All Schools)

Year End – Clearing Salary Commitments
Ideally there will be no outstanding salary commitments, but for many reasons this is not always the case.

FMS6 is insistent that all salary commitments are cleared before Final Closedown can be undertaken.

• Use Personnel Links | Salary Projections
• Highlight All Cost Centres
• Click on View Details
• Examine the column headed Commit
• For each month that you have reconciled there should be a ZERO difference.
• If any entries are significant they may need further investigation.
• You may wish to print the report for reference.
• Close the report window.

Click on Clear Commitment.
Change the period that required, where an outstanding commitment exists (edit or use the browser)
The screen will show any outstanding commitments for that month.
If you wish to examine in more detail why a commitment still exists, click on cancel and return to salary projections for checking.

Otherwise, to cancel the commitment:
Either click on Tag All or, click in the left-hand column to tag the required records.
Click on Clear Commitment and confirm.

After a brief while the data will be cleared, and you can change month to do more clearing of commitments or Save to finish.

HOW DO I REVIEW AND CLEAR UNWANTED STAFFING COMMITMENTS?

Regular action should be taken to review and clear any outstanding staffing commitments. To do this, use Salary Projections, highlight each cost centre and use view details to determine if there are any outstanding commitments for that cost centre. If any commitments need cancelling use the Clear Commitments icon to select the month and then clear any outstanding commitments. Although you are strongly recommended to ensure that outstanding commitments are cleared, it is possible to close the old year without clearing every one.

Checking invoices (All Schools)

Check that invoices yet to be reconciled (which appear in Central | Manual Reconciliation) are genuinely recent ones.

In Central | Manual Reconciliation use the Sequence button to put the list in “Pay By” order – this may help in spotting the older items. This is useful, as some items might have been reconciled as Direct Central Payments (Central | Central Payments) when they should really have been actioned as reconciliation invoices (Central | Manual Reconciliation). This means the item may appear both as an actual and as a commitment, a double count that the process of checking to FINEST does not reveal.

Corrective action: Identify the entry in the General Ledger | Chart of Accounts Review to determine the ledger code, fund code, cost centre, amount and period. Then make a contra entry with the same details but with a negative amount as a direct central payment (Central | Central Payments). Next reconcile the invoice correctly in Central | Manual Reconciliation, remembering to enter the appropriate period.

How do I ensure all payments are cleared?

(All Schools – Local Payments Schools ‘CAPSCH’ codes only)

Outstanding invoices (All Schools – Local Payment Schools CAPSCH codes only)

Warning: From the moment you create the New Financial Year you will be asked to select the financial year to work on when running the software. It is then possible to change financial years within the software.

These need to be cleared; you may find it useful to check through the route Central | Manual Reconciliation that all items that have been invoiced have been authorised.

Please ensure that all invoices for goods received are entered into SIMS, and sent using SCRAPS for payment, but remember to take advantage of the suppliers’ settlement terms, this means even if settlement is not due until later on, the transaction will get into the old year. Please process any Devon County Council external type invoices in the same way but do not defer payment. If you defer payment, this will cause problems with the interface to the sundry debtors system and may lead to problems over reminders etc. When paying DCC bills, enter today’s date.

Final old year payment of Bills CAPSCH Codes (All Schools – Local Payment Schools CAPSCH codes only)

Warning: From the moment you create the New Financial Year you will be asked to select the financial year to work on when running the software. It is then possible to change financial years from within the software.
The last day that invoices can be authorised in the old year appears in the timetable.

These payments must be transmitted to County Hall by the published time. Make sure that you allow time for your transmission to go through.
If the published timetable permits the transmitting of payments for the old year during early April, it is essential that the correct year is chosen.

Where you are paying a new creditor and you do not have the Creditor number (LEA reference) you can obtain this as normal otherwise please FAX a copy of the invoice to the SCRAPS team on Exeter 382926 by the published deadline.

It is your responsibility to make sure you allow time for your transmission to go through. If payments are authorised and sent after this time they will be paid and appear in FINEST in the NEW YEAR.

* If any bills are processed in SIMS after this in the old year problems will occur. This will involve you in additional work to correct matters.

If any transmissions include items that payments are unable to process they will delete them. If they are unable to resolve the difficulty they will notify you but you will need to cancel the old year entries and add the item to your creditor returns.
Bills relating to the old year and not paid by the SCRAPS deadline should only be processed in the New Year after preliminary closedown has been run. These should only relate to goods received in the old year but where the invoice was received after the SCRAPS deadline. Remember to include these on your Creditor schedule.
REMEMBER THAT CREATING CREDITORS ENTRIES DOES NOT INVOLVE ANY CASH BEING PAID TO SUPPLIERS. INVOICES SET UP AS CREDITORS IN THE OLD YEAR STILL NEED TO BE ENTERED AND PAID IN THE NEW YEAR

How do I deal with internal bills/invoices?

• Particular care needs to be taken with internal invoices.
• It is good practice to process and authorise internal invoices in FMS6 when they are received.
• Take care to check the Financial Year to which they relate before processing. This appears next to the code to be charged.
• Make sure you have entered and authorised the bill before running the preliminary closedown routine.
• Old year internal bills will appear in FINEST “period 12” regardless of the posting date shown on the printed copy.

What should I do if after authorising payment I miss the deadline? (Central Payment Schools only)

• All is not lost but you will be involved in extra work. You should include these items on your creditor return.
• You will need to credit the transactions in the new year and re-send.
• Refer to ScoMIS for advice regarding batch numbers and how to delete the batch

How do I deal with bills relating to the New Year?

• You will need to enter these in the New Year
• Check you are working in the correct year before starting
• You are advised not to process Invoices for New Year items before the ·published date.

How do I deal with petty cash?

• This needs to be balanced and all entries to 31st March brought to account.
• Transmit your claim to the payments section by the ·published deadline, but by 31st March at the latest.
• Ensure that cash in hand and at bank agrees with the FMS6 cash in hand figure.

If having sent your claim you have to make any late payments relating to the last days of March or if you have any vouchers not entered to FMS6 hold them over and enter these in the New year.