EDUCATION FINANCIAL SERVICES
End of financial year
Timetable
and procedures
January 2018
1
Contents
SectionPage
Timetable3
1Introduction5
2Checking transactions5
3Procedures6
3.1Purchase orders6
3.2Model 1 (Pay Invoice)6
3.3Model 2 (Goods Receipting)6
3.4Service Shop orders7
3.5Outstanding commitments7
3.6Invoicing and internal trading8
3.7Petty cash8
3.8Purchasing card9
3.9Cash income9
3.10School meals (HC3S)10
3.11Debt control10
3.12Community11
3.13Claims for long term sickness supply cover reimbursement11
3.14Payroll11
3.15Payments made centrally (including public utilities)12
3.16Capital contributions to self-funded building projects13
3.17Devolved formula capital (DFC) and internal order commitments13
4Accruals13
4.1Introduction13
4.2Key points14
4.3How to complete the accrual form15
5Local bank account schools16
6Unofficial accounts16
7SIO codes17
Timetable
Note: Period 12 closes on 06 April which falls within the school holiday period. If you are not working during this time please ensure all actions are completed by 29 March.By 6 March 2018
(subject to change, check ) / Payroll deadline for paper notifications and Achieve forms.
It is essential that all leaver actions are processed for staff leaving before 1 April.
By 15 March 2018
(subject to change, check ) / Payroll deadline for eforms, ESS Lite and IBC Portal entryIt is essential that all leaver actions are processed for staff leaving before 1 April.
Final order by 4pm
22 March 2018
23 March 2018
26 March 2018
27 March 2018 / County Supplies orders (to be charged and delivered in 2017/18).
Scheduled delivery day
26 March 2018
27 March 2018
28 March 2018
29 March 2018
By 26 March 2018 / Report County Supplies outstanding commitment queries.
By 27 March 2018 / Raise and submit petty cash claim (if necessary).
By 27 March 2018 / E-mail with accrual forms.
Schools cannot raise accruals for individual amounts less than £10,000.
By 28 March 2018 / Submit claim forms for reimbursement of supply cover.(long-term sickness). Please indicate in the Comments box which financial year you would like to receive reimbursement.
By 29 March 2018 / Banking of cash incometo reach the main account by 31 March.
Bankings up to 31 March must be accounted for in SAP by 6April using the actual banking date as the posting date.
All bankings after 31 March must be posted in the new year, ie. as at the day they were banked.
By 29 March 2018 / Authorise petty cash claim (if necessary) or it will be approved centrally.
By 29 March 2018 / Raise all invoices and credit notes (external).
By 29 March 2018 / Raise all internal trading customer/supplier requests.
SAP will be unavailable from 5.00 pm on29 March to 7.00 am on 3 April.
During this period there will be no access to ESS Lite or the IBC Portal.
1 – 6 April 2018 / When writing to Period 12 you must set the Posting Date to 31.03.2018. The Document Date stays as ‘today’s date’.
By 6 April 2018 / Submission of M1 school meals form up to 31 March.
By 6 April 2018 / Final check/action of work list inbox items.
By 6 April 2018 / Last date for 2017/18internal trading customer/supplier requeststo be actioned or they will be deleted centrally.
By 6 April 2018 / Usecreate journalto action recharges between O, X and Y codes, plus carry out revenue to capital journal if required.
By 6 April 2018 / Model 1: Pay invoices on all orders where goods or services have been received by 31 March 2018.
By 6 April 2018 / Model 2: Goods receipting all orders where goods or services have been received by 31 March 2018.
By 6 April 2018 / Model 2:Reversing goods receipts where goods have been returned by 31 March 2018.
By 6 April 2018 / Model 2: Authorise Service Shop payments received in work list in box prior to 31 March 2018.
By 6 April 2018 / Record all petty cash vouchers for the period up to 31March 2018.
By 6 April 2018 / Complete unofficial accounts form and action journal.
1Introduction
One of the main requirements of the year end process is to ensure that goods and services that have been received or issued during 2017/2018are charged or credited to that year’s accounts regardless of when they were budgeted for or paid for. The requirements are not optional and apply to all schools cost centres. Should you have any queries related to these procedures please contact your local EFS finance adviser.
2 Checking transactions
The GRvIRreport provides you with details of goods receipted but not yet fully invoiced for purchase orders. It is important that Model 2 schools run this report on a regular basis to ensure that the charges are correct and completed orders are closed. Once an order is goods receipted it becomes a charge against the school budget. Please run this on all your cost centre(s).
The Budget vs Forecastreport provides you with outstanding commitments. It is good practice to run the report for ALL cost centresto show all outstanding commitments and to check that any outstanding purchase orders are still valid. To clear commitments (including those relating to County Supplies), please see section 3.5.
The Customer Invoices Outstanding report provides you with a list of outstanding debts (see section 3.11). If ‘display all invoices’ is selected the report will show the customer, amount of invoice raised, any payments made and amount outstanding. To put the report in customer order click on the customer name column heading and then click on subtotals. This will add each customer’s balances up for you. This report should be run regularly on all org units using a start date of 1 April 2011to ensure that all outstanding debts are reported.
The Energy Transactional Datareport gives a breakdown of the units and charges for utilities used by a school.
The Incomplete Internal Trading Documents report displays incomplete internal trading documents so that you can follow up where customers/suppliers have not completed their side of the document. It also allows you to delete any documents created in error.
3 Procedures
3.1 Purchase orders
An order must be raised via the IBC Portal eStore for all external orders where goods or services have been received by 31 March.
Where SAP orders have been placed on other parts of the County Council the accounts will be completed by either journal or internal trading, no other action should be necessary. Please do not raise schedules in respect of dealings with other parts of the County Council as this is internal trading and not permitted. Please note that academies are external.
County Supplies orders processed by the final receipt dates and delivered by the last scheduled day shown in the timetable will be charged to the old financial year. Transactions will be included in SAP reports for the month of March.Orders processed or delivered after these dates will be charged to the new financial year.
3.2Model 1 (Pay Invoice)
Model 1 schools should ensure that invoices in respect of external orders where goods or services have been received by 31 March are paid using the ‘Pay invoice’ app within the Schools folder. If entering invoices after 31 March, thedelivery date must be set to 31 March (or previous date if goods received earlier). This process must be completed by 6 April. SAP period 12 will then be closed and no further payments in 2017/18 will be possible.
Timely payment of invoices removes the need to submit a schedule however Model 1 schools must consider if there are any outstanding payments due relating to orders they have raised and accrue as necessary.
3.3Model 2 (Goods Receipting)
For Model 2 schools the receiptfor eStore and Simple Shop orders should be recorded via the ‘Receive goods’ app within the eStore. If entering the goods receipt after 31 March, thedelivery date must be set to 31 March (or previous date if goods received earlier). This process must be completed by 6 April. SAP period 12 will then be closed and no further goods receipting in 2017/18 will be possible.
This process creates the correct accounting entries and therefore no other action is necessary. This is the best practice approach for all Model 2 schools to follow and raising an order and timely goods receipting removes the need to submit a schedule (see section 4).
Conversely, where goods have been returned, the goods receiptmust be reversed. This process must be completed by 6 April. SAP period 12 will then be closed and no further reversals will be possible.
3.4Service Shop orders
Service Shop orders do not require goods receipting, therefore if you have received goods and services prior to the 31 March 2018 and you have not yet authorised the related invoice for payment you will need to consider whether an accrual for the value of the goods and services is necessary. Where estimates are used to enter an accrual, you must be clear on how you have estimated costs and make a record of this as this may be requested for audit.
Please ensure that you keep up to date with authorising invoices sent to your portal inbox relating to Service Shop orders. If an invoice is sent to your inbox on or before 31 March for approval, then the debit posting will be made in 2017/18 financial year providing the payment is approved before period 12 closes on 6 April.
Following that date, approval for any invoices received on or before 31 March will need to be rejected and in your reason for rejection you will need to ask that the charge is made to the new financial year. Depending on the value of the invoice, you may also need to accrue the costs.
Invoices received in your inbox for approval from 1 April will post to the new financial year when approved and, if they relate to goods or services received on or before 31 March, it will be necessary to consider whether an accrual is required.
Once you are sure that all payments have been made against the Service Shop order, you should close down that order as detailed in the outstanding commitments section below.
Schools that raised Service Shop orders for the current financial year are recommended to raise a new order ahead of year end for 2018/19 and the new purchase order number notified to the supplier for them to use on all invoices with effect from 1April onwards.
3.5Outstanding commitments
During February and March a purchase order commitment check should be carried out to ensure all outstanding purchase orders are still valid.
If goods/services have not yet been received but delivery is still expected you don’t need to take any action, regardless of the type of purchase order you have raised. The commitment will be automatically rolled forward into the next financial year.
To cancel unused purchase orders and close partially used purchase orders starting with 90….., schools should use the ‘Close purchase order’ app. Please note that once a purchase order has been closed via this method, it will no longer be possible to make payments against that purchase order number, so before closing the order you must be sure that no further payments are due to made.
If you have any outstanding County Supplies commitments which should have been cleared please e-mail with the purchase order number and line details Users should see commitments cleared within three days of receipt.
3.6Invoicing and internal trading
Invoicing - external customers
The last date for raising 2017/18 invoices will be 31 March. All invoices must be raised in the IBC Portal via the ‘Create invoice’ app. Where a school has not raised an invoice for goods/services supplied or provided up to 31 March within the timetable,and the individual line item amount is above £10,000, a debtors proforma should be completed.
Internal trading - internal customers
All internal trading is accounted for via the IBC Portal ‘Internal trading’ app. The last date for raising ‘Internal customer or internal supplier requests’ for 2017/18 internal services is 31March. These requests must be accepted by 6 April otherwise they will be deleted centrally. Please note that academies are external customers.
Schools should regularly monitor the completion of internal trading documents issued from their cost centres via the incomplete internal trading document report and ensure that the intended recipients are chased for completion throughout the year.
In addition to this report, automated notifications will be sent to users during March who have issued internal trading documents that remain incomplete. These notifications will appear in your My Notifications app.
3.7Petty cash
Recording
All petty cash vouchers for payments made up to 31 March must be recorded via the IBC Portal ‘Petty cash’ catalogue by 6 April.
When posting to Period 12 between 1 – 6 Aprilyou must always set the Posting Date to 31.03.2018. The Document Date stays as ‘today’s date’.
Petty cash vouchers dated 1 April onwards must be recorded in the new financial year.
Reimbursing
It is not necessary for you to submit a final petty cash reimbursement claim as part of the year end procedures. If you need to process a claim please ensure it is raised and authorised by 31 March. Any claim that has not been authorised by 31 March will be automatically authorised centrally on that date to ensure no outstanding claims exist at year end.
3.8Purchasing cards
Purchases made on cards before 28 February will be uploaded to SAP in March (depending on the supplier making the claim to the bank in time). As this will be completed before the end of March this will be accounted for in the current financial year.
Any purchases made on cards after 28 February will not be uploaded into SAP until April and will therefore be attributed to period one of the new financial year.
3.9Cash income
Specific dates apply to banking over a financial year end (see timetable).
When income is banked before 31 March but recorded via the portal in April, there is an issue if the date on the cash receipt form on the portal is input as a March date and the income relates to a customer account or invoice.
This means that to avoid future problems you will need to use the following process for income banked in March but recorded in April.
- Separate any cheque/cash relating to customer accounts or invoices as these will need to be recorded separately to cash/cheques for cost centres/GL codes. You will need to record on separate documents so will need two totals but you can use the same paying in reference if you want to.
- For income not relating to a customer account or invoice, use the date of banking (March date) on the cash receipt form and process as usual. This will ensure your budget is credited in the correct financial year.
- For income relating to customer accounts or invoices, do not enter the March date as the date of banking, but use 1 April as the date of banking. You can use the same paying in reference if you want to.
This also applies to credit/debit card income.
3.10School meals (HC3S)
Your meal charges for the period to March 2018 will be processed against the 2017/18 financial year so you do not need to raise creditors. To enable accurate recharges to be processed in the old financial year it is ESSENTIAL that you ensure PROMPT submission of meal returns for the period up to 30 March2018(together with any returns outstanding from previous weeks). Recharges will be estimated for periods for which no returns have been received and any necessary adjustments will be made in the new financial year.
Meals income collected should be banked in accordance with the timetable.
A recharge schedule for 2018/19 will be circulated to schools separately.
For further advice please contact the HC3S Finance Team on tel. 023 8062 7710 or 7738 or e-mail .
3.11Debt control
When an external invoice is raised using the IBC Portal ‘Create invoice’ app, your budget is automatically credited – even though at this point no income has actually been received.
Once the invoice is paid, it should be matched against the invoice number and this simply clears the outstanding debt in the control accounts. Do not code the income via local banking against a GL code, the invoice number only should be entered on the Portal form.
It is recommended that at the end of each monthyou run a ‘Customer invoices outstanding’ report to show any outstanding debt. If there are items on the report which are shown as outstanding but you know have been paid you will need to establish where and when the income was banked.
If the income has been coded direct to a cost centre then it will be necessary to cancel the outstanding debt by initiating and authorising a credit note via the IBC Portal ‘Request adjustment’ app – do not send this to the debtor – simply file it for your records.
If the income has been coded against the wrong invoice number you need to raise an IBC enquiry selecting ‘Income and Customer’, followed by ‘Banking’, then ‘Matching payment to invoice’.
For further advice on debt control, including debt write offs, please see Part 5 of the Schools’ Manual of Financial Practice and Procedure.
3.12Community
Where schools are used for community purposes and costs cannot be directly charged to T, X, Y etc. cost centres (eg. premised related costs) these costs should be apportioned using the IBC Portal ‘Create journal’ app.
To ensure accuracy of accounts at the end of the financial year please ensure the timetable and procedures outlined in this document are followed. Community education staff should pay particular attention to the above section on debt control. The IBC Portal ‘Customer invoices outstanding’ report should be run in time for you to balance any invoices which have been paid or to collect outstanding payments before the closure of accounts.
3.13Claims for long-term sickness supply cover reimbursement
Outstanding claims to be submitted electronically by 28 March. Please indicate in the comments box the year in which expenditure is borne by the school in order for the credit entry to be posted to the correct financial year. If no indication is made the credit will be posted to 2017/18. For assistance, please contact the Education Financial Services on 01962 847549 or e-mail
3.14Payroll
Where payments arise from the submission of a claim, the charges against your budget will, in general, reflect those arising from claims submitted for work done from March to February provided that claims are submitted in accordance with the published timetable. The accounts will therefore reflect a full year’s expenditure. Claims submitted after these deadlines will be processed as a charge against the new year’s budget.