Processing NCAS Accounts Payable in June

Accounts payable liabilities are carried forward to the next fiscal year automatically.  In some cases, an agency may be required to liquidate and pay obligations before the fiscal year is closed to ensure the payments are charged against the current fiscal year’s appropriation.  Because budgetary control of annual appropriations is exercised at the agency, departmental, community college and university level, responsibility for payments of funds committed must also be maintained at this level. Certain processing functions in the NCAS AP module will require extra attention to ensure committed funds are paid by the current year's appropriation, where appropriate.

Payment Terms and Payment Due Date

Each invoice is generally paid within terms agreed upon with the vendor or stated on the face of the invoice. Payment terms will default to all invoices from the vendor file, but must be overridden during the month of June to ensure payment from the current year appropriations, where appropriate..

Two alternatives currently exist. First, the AP clerk can override the stated terms by using 'NET' in the Payment Terms field on each document as it is entered. Alternatively, the AP clerk may enter the current date in the Payment Due Date field. Either alternative will ensure the cash is disbursed in the appropriate fiscal year. In either case, June 29, is the latest effective date an agency may use in any AP transaction to be paid from current year appropriations.

To monitor payment due dates, agencies may review Reports AP-I003D and AP-I003T, Aged Unpaid Invoice Registers, which are located in the XPTR report bundle MM122-8 AP Document Entry. You may elect to run IE report C-U-AP-PREPAYMENT-RUN which includes all open document found online. You may also use AP screen PDL, Payment Due Date List, to monitor the most current status online.

Setting Screen PCC for the Final Check Run

As previously stated, June 29 is the last day to post any cash transactions from AP. This will require that you request a check run on the last working day of this fiscal year.

The key field with which you must be concerned is the 'Payment Date' field on screen PCC. It is vital that this date is no later than June 29 to ensure that general ledger postings for cash disbursements are posted in the correct period. Do NOT use June 30 in this field. Physically printing the checks in July will not alter or hinder this posting process as the check print file is created with the June 29 date.

Monitoring Held Documents

To ensure all documents are paid in a timely fashion, your agency must monitor the payment status of documents. Screen HDR, Held Document Release, should be monitored on a daily basis. Any documents appearing on this screen must be released to produce checks. You may view this status by entering your agency's paying entities in the 'Pay Entity' field. If no documents appear, you have no held documents for entity.

Zero Dollar Checks

When a credit memo is entered that offsets an invoice or other expense documents, the amount due to a vendor or employee is zero. About two weeks prior to the end of the fiscal year, OSC will switch the policy to print zero dollar checks, which will process the credit memo and documents and mark them as paid. During this two-week period, agencies should look over the printed checks and set aside the zero dollar checks before mailing.