Complete the Year-End Process Without a Panic Attack! Denise Wolff, Director School Finance CR ESD 113 dwolff@esd113.org 2017 Annual Conference, Spokane WA

Objectives Learn practices to use throughout the school year to increase efficiency for the year-end process Understand issues involved in closing the fiscal year Understand reports and documents that are part of the year-end close process Understand all the requirements needed to complete your year-end Be prepared when the auditors arrive Plus some helpful handouts!!!

Side Affects of Anxiety

To Do List Balance your system to the treasurer Claim all grants Verify staff is coded correctly Verify proper recording of transactions Be aware of Accounting Manual Changes Get items you need from co-workers Rough out the SEFA finances before submitting the F-196 Year-End document

To Do List Balance your system to the county treasurer report - Monthly balancing using the F-197 Balancing Tool will keep your records accurate. Claim all grants - Claim monthly, review time and effort quarterly, adjust for budget revisions as needed. Verify staff is coded correctly - compare to S-275 for adjustments if necessary. Verify proper recording of transactions – If you aren’t familiar with the transaction, check chapter 7 of the Accounting Manual.

To Do List Be aware of Accounting Manual Changes – Review Accounting Manual Revisions before closing your books. Get items you need from co-workers – Remember that lack of planning on your part will not constitute an emergency for them! Let them know, in advance, what items you need i.e. sick/vacation leave report run at the end of August. Rough out the SEFA finances before submitting the F-196 Year-End document – Frequently, errors in grant claiming are detected while working through the Schedule of Federal Awards document. Avoid having to request your F-196 document for correction.

Start a Year-End Binder or File at the Beginning of the School Year Collect any information you will need to record at year-end Use the Fund Balance Reporting Tool (OSPI/Tools) – Year-end F-196 Sick Leave/Vacation Report for compensated absences reporting – Schedule of Long-term Liability F-196 - Include your calculations including Medicare and FICA Legal fees relating to interpretation of WACs and RCWs and board policy (F- 196 Indirect reporting) System support (WESPaC)-do not include student fees (F-196 indirect reporting) Audit costs (F-196 indirect reporting) Documentation for anything that would become a distorting item on the F- 196 (unusual occurrence with financial consequences)

Keep a Year-End Binder or File Values of Commodities Shipped Letter from OSPI (frequently your food service receives this) – Journal entry F-196 Special Education Cooperative – Journal entry for F-196 Capital Leases – Schedule of Long term Liabilities and Notes to Financials Pension Reporting Tool – F-196 and Notes to Financials KCDA Letter – Notes to financial Projected costs from pending legal actions – Notes to Financials Attorney letter for outstanding litigation – Notes to Financials

Keep a Year-End Binder or File conttnud Maintenance of Effort Sheet – Mid year check to verify you are on target (NEW SHEET on OSPI’s Tools) To/From Transportation Spreadsheet – Journal entry costs unrelated to transporting students to and from school to appropriate accounts on a regular basis (Area of Focus for Auditors) Inventory Information requires a journal entry Taxes receivable information requires a journal entry Copy of Fire District Invoice entered in supplemental section F-196 Report of e-rate received entered in supplemental section F-196

Keep a Year-End Binder or File (cont.) Insurance Coverage Letter for Assets – Notes to Financial Amortization Schedules – Schedule of Long-term Liability in the F-196 and Notes to Financials Keep a copy of reports generated for year end SEFA Include back-up documentation Notes to Financials

Keep a Grants Binder or Grant Files Include the Grant Profile Page from OSPI/igrants Keep a copy of each month’s claim and back-up for claims There is a Grant Workbook tool posted on the Business Manager Toolkit at CR ESD113 under Templates and Tools Any journal entries should have supporting documentation attached Federal Grants Time and Effort and certifications

Keep a Journal Entry Binder Include: Month end journal entries Direct Receipts Local Receipts Code corrections/adjustments/accrual entries Include Back-up behind each journal entry Balancing to treasurer reports Initial and have an independent reviewer initial on each journal entry Have monthly tabs for quick look-up

Question to ask in May If any of the ASB account are in the negative, ask to be on the agenda so you can review the items with the student representatives. Do ASB officers want to vote to transfer funds from the ASB general account to offset the negative amounts so that no clubs close with a negative balance Are plans in place to use state & federal funds to avoid recovery? Use the Recovery and Carryover spreadsheet (for state revenue) and review all grants.

Useful Processes or Procedures to do Periodically Crosswalk process – make sure accounts are closing appropriately Verify the payroll log is balanced quarterly Clean up any loose ends Balance & replenish monthly your petty cash and imprest funds When you make your adjusting entries, rerun the trial balances to make sure you still balance!

Useful Sites to Visit - OSPI http://k12.wa.us/ OSPI/Tools – Recovery and Carryover, SPED MOE, Fund Balance Reporting, Transportation To-From, Federal Excess Cost, Pension Reporting spreadsheets OSPI’s ABFR Manual Chapter VI – F-196 with items numbers, explanation of edits, Q & A Section OSPI’s Accounting Manual (Chapter VII) has the sample journal entries you will need to make and the latest Accounting Manual updates Every Year Ramona Garner does a recording on the F-196 Process that is available from the WASBO ABC/SS Committee

Useful Sites to Visit – OSPI continues Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards Chapter XI ABFR Manual Guidance and Sample Template and Notes to the SEFA Q & A The template for your Notes to Financials are in Chapter VI of the ABFR Manual Be sure to download the correct notes: Cash, Modified Accrual, or GAAP Do not simply update last year’s notes-The template is updated yearly Do the notes after the F-196 process while everything in fresh in your mind

Useful Sites – CR ESD113 Business Mgr. Toolkit F-196 Checklist and Tools Grant Monitoring Workbook Template for monitoring Links (ex: recovery and carry over spreadsheet) Instructions F-197 Balancing Workbook Template See the section on Year End Close for additional instruction Sample PowerPoint for School Board Report on Year End Close

When Will I Ever be Done With Year-End? Finalized S-275 Submitted - Due September 30th F-196 Annual Financial Statement Due to your local ESD by October 25th Finalized version to ESD with signature pages November 8th Finalized and signature pages due to OSPI by November 15th (ESD submits) Schedule of Expenditure of Federal Awards – Due November 15th to SAO Notes to Financials due to SAO before audit begins * Note: Dates are adjusted when they fall on the weekend

You’ve Submitted Everything, Yet You Still Feel Tense… It ain’t over ‘til the auditors leave! Your Year End Binder should have most of the answers needed from you Your Grants Files/Binder should have all the grant backup (signatures) Your Journal Entry binder should have back-up for system entries(signatures) Your F-197 Workbook proves that your are balanced (signatures) Remember that there are things that may come out in the audit that you have no control over….These are called “learning opportunities”

Take a moment…you are done!