Interfacing with Other Systems

Statewide Interfaces

The following five statewide interfaces will pass data from major statewide systems to the North Carolina Accounting System. These interfaces will require no intervention from agencies. (Note that the first two are budget interfaces.)

• Budget Revision System (BRS) is a nightly interface that will load budget revisions from BRS to North Carolina Accounting System. All budget revisions that have a Function 19 will be passed to the North Carolina Accounting System.

There are four daily  BRS-to-BC interface reports that verify BRS processing. These reports are available whenever data has been interfaced to the BC module from BRS. They can be viewed in Systemware in report series BC305-1 BRS to BC or printed after the nightly production process. The following are the Systemware reports:

- The BC Document Detail report lists totals by accounting rules and document types.

- The Invalid Accounting Distributions Not Processed in NCAS report lists rejected BRS entries with error messages for entries with invalid company/account/center combinations.  These entries do not post to the NCAS.

- The Revisions to the Authorized Budget report lists transfers that were made to the authorized budget.

- The Revisions to the Certified Budget report lists transfers that were made to the certified budget.
 

• Budget Revision System (BRS) Second Year 606 Transactions is a biennial interface that loads the second year's transactions from a two-year 606 into the NCAS.  This interface is run after the BRS interface has posted at the beginning of the second year of each biennium.  An agency must coordinate the posting of these transactions to the NCAS with the OSBM.  The interface posts the transactions to Suspended Batch Master (SBM) with a closed period adjustment error.  The agency must correct the closed period error and any othger accounting distribution errors before releasing the batch.
  

There are two interface reports available in Systemware to assist in verifying that all transactions have been processed by the interface.  These reports are found in the Systemware series FC717-1 2ND YEAR BRS REV. 

• The BRS Second Year Revisions Posting Transactions report lists the budgetary amount by accounting distribution sorted by budget code and BRS Reference number.  Agencies use this report to insure that the interface amounts are correct and that all second year 606 transactions were processed.
• Then Interface Error report lists errors that would prevent an accounting distribution from being added online.  Review the Batch Proof List or run the GLPUBLIC C-U-GL-SBM-NON168-ERRORS report in IE for other invalid and/or inactive accounting distribution errors.  These errors must be corrected before the agnecy tries to release the batch from Suspended Batch Master (SBM).

• Budget Preparation System (BPS) is an annual interface that loads an agencys certified budget. An agency will coordinate the posting of its budget to the North Carolina Accounting System with the OSBM.  The interface posts the transactions to Suspended Batch Master (SBM) with a closed period adjustment error.  The gency must correct the closed period error and any other accounting distribution errors before releasing the batch.
  

There are two BPS-to-FC interface reports that verify BPS processing, which can be viewed after the interface is run through Systemware in series name FC714-1 BPS Interface.  

• The BPS to GL Interface Posting Accounts report lists the budgetary amounts by accounting distribution with subtotals at the company/fund level.  Agencies use this report to compare to BPS reports to insure that the interface budgetary amounts are correct.
• The Interface Error report lists errors that would prevent an accounting distribution from being added online.  Review the Batch Proof List or run the GLPUBLIC C-U-GL-SBM-NON168-ERRORS report in IE for other invalid and/or inactive accounting distribution errors.  These errors must be corrected before the agnecy tries to release the batch from Suspended Batch Master (SBM).
  

Health Benefits Interface is run to record health benefit expenditures on the NCAS. The execution of this interface will be coordinated by OSC. For more information on this interface, see Statewide Health Benefits and Payroll Interfaces.

These five interfaces are maintained by the Office of the State Controller.

Agency Subsystem Interfaces

There are multiple subsystem interfaces that are supported by the North Carolina Accounting System.

• Financial interfaces are used to create valid accounting distributions and to post financial amounts to the North Carolina Accounting System General Ledger. Once a valid accounting distribution (company/account/center) is established, financial transactions can be created to record dollar amounts to these accounting distributions.
• Vendor total interfaces are used to pass payment history for trade vendors to the North Carolina Accounting System. This information will facilitate statewide reporting for vendor payment information. Vendor and total information is established based on the information that has been entered in the interface file.
• Vendor add interfaces are used to pass non-trade vendor set-up information to the North Carolina Accounting System. This interface willrequire an agency to create vendor transactions for each vendor.
• Invoice interfaces are used to pass invoices to the North Carolina Accounting System Accounts Payable module. They will also be used to generate 1099 information for vendors that have been paid externally to the North Carolina Accounting System.
• Check reconciliation interfaces are used by agencies that wish to pass check information from external systems.
• Purchase order interfaces are used to pass purchase orders to the NCAS Purchasing module where they can be updated.

Interface Only Agencies

Some agencies do not use the North Carolina Accounting System (e.g., universities, UNC Hospital, Department of Transportation, and the Employment Security Commission). These interface only agencies perform accounting functions on self-contained systems that are interfaced to the North Carolina Accounting System through a batch process.

Offline Interface Error Processing before the North Carolina Accounting System

If there are any technical problems processing an agency interface file, the interface program will generate descriptive error messages. If errors occur, it will be the responsibility of the agency to correct the problems and re-submit the job. Problems will most likely be handled as follows: 
 

Interface Processing Errors in NCAS

Errors are handled according to company policies established for each interface agency. Three common interface errors can occur during processing:

• Invalid accounting distributions
• Invalid date parameters
• Unbalanced batches

• An invalid distribution is sent to a suspense account
• An entire batch is sent to the Suspended Batch Master
• Some agencies will perform a pre-edit process. In this case, batches with data errors will be rejected and must be regenerated in the source system.

Source System ID

When interface programs are run, an identifier is attached to the document. This identifier, called the source system ID, identifies where the interface originated. The North Carolina Accounting System automatically assigns the predetermined identifier according to the source system (e.g., AP, PS, IN, BC, FA, AR). OSC assigns IDs for all non-NCAS interfaces. These identifiers are helpful when tracing documents to their originating source systems.

Click Here to see a table listing of Source System IDs.

Summary

Interfaces are used to post high volumes of transactions from external systems to the North Carolina Accounting System. Regardless of whether agencies use their own subsystems and the North Carolina Accounting System or external subsystems only, these programs will help to process high volumes of data. This data can then be used to report all agency transactions in the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR).