The May 12, 2002 issue of FAD e-News has published the year-end closing schedule for Harvard's fiscal year 2002. Harvard Medical School will adhere to the University's schedule except for the number of closes:

HMS Departments will ONLY be allowed to make entries in the FIRST AND SECOND closes. Entries in the third close are not permitted.

The third close will be used by the HMS Central Finance office to ensure that they have the final numbers from departments and make any necessary accounting entries. This schedule was followed last year and allowed sufficient time for both departments and the central finance office to perform all year-end entries.

The closing memo is very similar to last year but highlighted below are a few changes (see closing memo for more details):

1) Due to the July 4th holiday they have extended the journal entry deadline to Friday, July 5th at 8AM! Journals entered after 5PM on Wednesday, 7/3 until 8AM on Friday, 7/5 will be posted to the General Ledger on Friday, July 5th and recorded in the Data Warehouse on Saturday, July 6th. They are providing some additional time due to the July 4th holiday

2) They have modified the detailed listing reports so you can't submit all parameters with "ALL". The reports require at least one chart value be entered. You don't want to use your security view to filter your data. For example, if you want to see amounts posted to your tub and org , let's say tub 520 and org 48112. Because your security view is set up to see only org 48112, you will get the same result whether or not the tub and org are entered as parameters or not. However, if you don't include the tub and org the query will take much longer to run. See closing memo for more reporting tips.

3) Travel Authorization Forms deadlines:
a. Paper travel authorization forms to Harvard Travel Center by Thursday May 23rd at 5PM
b. Web Voucher travel authorization forms entered and approved (Thursday, June 20th at 5PM). See May 15th Finance Office Training Announcement for new Web Voucher process for Travel Authorizations.

We encourage all departments to review and submit as many transactions as early in June as possible. This will allow departments sufficient time to review reports and make any necessary changes by the second close. We appreciate your cooperation during this very hectic time!

If you have any questions regarding the fiscal year end closing, please contact your Finance Office Representative. If you have any accounting questions, please contact Sharon Reine at 432-4401or Mike Harty at 432-3289.

Web Voucher vendor payments
Credit vouchers (cash receipts)
Massachusetts taxable sales deposits
Foreign check deposits (credit vouchers)
Voided checks
Stopped and redeposited checks
Foreign currency payments (drafts and wires)
U.S. wire transfers
Purchasing card transactions
Travel authorization forms
Web Voucher expense reimbursements
General Accounts Receivable billings
Manual journal entries
Interdepartmental billings
Cost transfer requests on Sponsored funds

The deadlines provided are the last allowable dates to submit transactions.

Web Voucher Vendor Payments
To be included in AY02, Web Voucher vendor payments must be entered and approved online and the related invoices must be received by the Accounts Payable office by 5 p.m. on Friday, June 28, except for foreign currency drafts and wires and US wire transfers (see below). If you purchase items late in the fiscal year that you want charged in AY02, be sure to request immediate billing from vendors so that you can meet these deadlines.

Petty Cash Fund Settlement
If you maintain a departmental petty cash fund, you must submit your petty cash log for reimbursement to Accounts Payable by 5 p.m. on Friday, June 28 if you want the charges to be included in AY02.

New Vendor Setup
New vendors that need to be set up in the system in order to process June web vouchers will be accepted by the Vendor Hotline (617-495-2000) until Thursday, June 27 at 5p.m. When making a payment to a new University vendor or individual, you must obtain the required vendor information and call the Vendor Hotline at 5-2000 to set up the vendor / individual in the vendor file. To comply with IRS regulations, the Vendor Hotline must have required vendor information. Incomplete vendor information could result in a delay in payment to the vendor. To determine what information is required, refer to the guidelines published on ABLE.

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Credit Vouchers (Cash Receipts)
Credit vouchers accompanied by cash or checks will be accepted by the Cash Receipts office, Holyoke 453, until 12 noon on Thursday, June 27.

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Massachusetts Taxable Sales Deposits
All Massachusetts Taxable Sales forms with a validated bank deposit ticket for deposits made in May or June must be delivered to Cash Management, Holyoke 451, by 5 p.m. Friday, June 21. In order to allow for sufficient processing time and to meet the deadline for FY02, the paperwork for all deposits made from June 24 through June 27 must be delivered on a daily basis to Cash Management. Deposit forms and validated bank deposit tickets for deposits made on June 28 must be delivered to Cash Management by 5 p.m. on June 28 in order to recognize the income in AY02. On June 28 Cash Management will not accept or process any deposits that were validated any other day.

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Foreign Check Deposits (credit vouchers)
Credit vouchers accompanied by foreign checks that need to be sent to the bank for collection should be deposited into the Cash Receipts Office, Holyoke 453, by 5 p.m. Friday, June 7. Because each bank and country's collection times and processes are different, we cannot guarantee that we will receive credit from the bank for these checks before June 28. The University has an agreement with Fleet bank to receive provisional credit on most common foreign currencies, and the June 7 deadline may be your best opportunity to collect these funds and recognize the income in AY02. It is extremely important that you deposit these checks with Cash Receipts immediately upon receiving them.

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Voided Checks
All checks that need to be voided and redeposited must be received by Cash Management, Holyoke 451, by 5 p.m. Friday, June 21 in order for the credit to be included in AY02.

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Stopped and Redeposited Checks
All checks that need to be stopped and redeposited must be received by Cash Management by 5p.m. Friday, June 21 in order for the credit to be included in AY02.

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Foreign Currency Drafts and Wires
Web Voucher payments to be made in foreign currency must be entered and approved online and the related invoices must be received by Cash Management, Holyoke 451, no later than Friday, June 21 at 5 p.m. Note that these invoices must have a bank draft authorization form or a wire transfer authorization form attached to the front of the invoice.

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US Wire Transfers
Vendor payments to be wire transferred must be entered and approved online in the Web Voucher system with related invoices received by Cash Management no later than Thursday, June 27 at 5p.m. Note that these invoices must have a wire transfer authorization form attached to the front of the invoice.

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Purchasing Card Transactions
In order to ensure that as many current PCard transactions as possible are swept in this fiscal year, there will be three PCard sweeps the week of June 24. For your convenience, here is a list of AY02 year-end sweeps:

PCard settlement system users will have until 4 p.m. on each sweep date to log onto the system and review transactions scheduled to be swept that day. However, users are encouraged to log onto the system the week of June 17 and early in the week of June 24 (on Monday and Tuesday) to review as many transactions as possible. Users should try to review all transactions to be swept on Wednesday, June 26 and Thursday, June 27 by Monday or Tuesday of that week. Users should also review any transactions to be swept on Friday, June 28 as they appear on the system throughout the week. All transactions to be swept at 4 p.m. will be on the system that Friday morning. Please note that there is no way to determine a final day on which users can make PCard purchases and assure that those transactions will be swept in AY02, since timing is dependent on vendors and other factors. The first sweep in the new fiscal year will occur on Thursday, July 18.

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Travel Authorization Forms
The Harvard Travel Center will discontinue use of the paper Travel Authorization Form as of July 1, 2002. If it is important to your department that air travel expenditures for AY02 get processed in AY02 then you must get the paper TAF to the Harvard Travel Center by 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 23. After this date, the Travel Office recommends the use of the American Express card with the Harvard Travel Center between Friday, May 24 and Friday, June 28 to ensure that charges appear in AY02.

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Web Voucher Travel Authorization Forms
TAFs processed in the Web Voucher system by 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 20 will be included in AY02. Again, the Travel Office recommends the use of the American Express credit card with the Harvard Travel Center between Friday, June 21 and Friday, June 28 to ensure that charges appear in AY02.

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Web Voucher Reimbursements
Web Voucher reimbursements not requiring tax pre-audit will be accepted by the Holyoke Travel Office until 5 p.m. on Friday, June 28. Reimbursement requests requiring tax pre-audit will be accepted until 5 p.m. on Wednesday, June 26. Web Voucher advance settlements will be accepted by the Holyoke Travel Office until 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 26.

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General Accounts Receivable Billing
Invoices and credit memos processed by the tubs can be entered into the AR system until 10 a.m. on Monday, July 1. Accounts Receivable invoices and credit memos for nonstudent-related billings that are to be data entered into the system by the AR Department will be accepted by that office until 5 p.m. on Wednesday, June 26. As a reminder, the AR Department will process invoices for those departments that process fewer than ten invoices per month. Units that process more than ten per month are responsible for entering the invoices and credit memos themselves. AR feeds to be included in FY2002 need to be entered into the Oracle AR system by 2 p.m. on Friday, June 28.

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Manual Journal Entries

General Ledger journals are now entered directly by users. Please keep in mind the following:

• Based on departmental activity and the reports you run through the month of May, please make any necessary adjustments as early in June as possible.
• The University is closed on Thursday, July 4 for the holiday. Therefore, there will be no journal vouchers posted to the General Ledger or recorded in the Data Warehouse on that day. Because the following day is the first closing, we are extending the journal data entry deadline to Friday, July 5 at 8 a.m. That means that any journals entered into the system after 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 3 until 8 a.m. on Friday, July 5 will be posted to the General Ledger on Friday, July 5 and recorded in the Data Warehouse on Saturday, July 6. Providing this extra time is intended to allow local units to process those entries necessary for the first closing.
• During the week of the first closing, journals for the month of June will be posted to the General Ledger at 5 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and available in the Data Warehouse the next day. Because Thursday, July 4 is a holiday, no journals will be posted on that day. As noted above, the deadline for entering first close journal vouchers is Friday, July 5 at 8 a.m. For the second close, from Monday through Thursday journals for the month of June will be posted to the General Ledger at 5 p.m. Therefore, journals must be entered by 5 p.m. in order to be posted and recorded in the Data Warehouse for the next day. Note that any June journals entered on Friday during the second close will not be posted until the following Monday at 5 p.m.
• During the month of June, the period of July 2002 will also be open. Be careful to select the proper period (JUN-02 vs. JUL-02) when entering a journal.
• Entries may not be posted to account coding owned by another tub after the second closing without authorization from the financial office of the tub being charged. Individuals processing journals have personal responsibility to ensure that they follow this requirement.
• A journal should only be reversed by the person who created the journal, or with the permission of the person who created the journal.

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Interdepartmental Billings

All interdepartmental billings -- whether on a journal or via a feed to the General Ledger -- must be processed by the end of the second closing. (GL billing feeds are generally submitted by service centers such as UIS and UOS.)

As described above under the Manual Journal Entries deadlines, during the first twoclosings, activity for the month of June will be posted to the General Ledger at 5 p.m. from Monday through Thursday. (The one exception is July 4, when the University is closed. Any feeds entered in the system on that day will not be posted until Monday, July 9). Therefore, journals and feeds must be entered by 5 p.m. in order to be posted and recorded in the Data Warehouse for the next day. Note that any June journals or feeds entered on Friday will not be posted until the following Monday at 5 p.m.

A journal should only be reversed by the person who created the journal, or with the permission of the person who created the journal. Interdepartmental billings should provide a name and contact number on the journal for questions or concerns you may have.

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Cost Transfers Requests on Sponsored Funds

These dates apply to ALL requests for cost transfers to sponsored funds (funds in the range from 100000-199999). Note that these requests may require supporting documentation.

Cost transfer requests should be submitted directly to OSR. OSR will review the request and any necessary documentation for appropriateness. OSR will then enter the cost transfer journals into the General Ledger. Note that OSR only enters cost transfer journals during the year-end closing process.

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