Faculty of Arts and Sciences

FY17 Year-End Information

Year End Processing

General Ledger Closing Schedule

Accounts Payable...... 3

HCOM Invoices...... 3

Payment Requests...... 3

Purchase Orders...... 3

Travel & Reimbursements

Purchasing Cards...... 4

AP Adjustment Form...... 4

Internal Billing Journal Vouchers...... 4

Absence Management...... 4

Gift Deposits...... 5

Year End Fund Balances...... 5

Credit Vouchers...... 5

Claiming Incoming Wires...... 6

Accrual Process...... 7

Accounts Payable Accruals...... 7

Prepaid Expenses...... 8

Accounts Receivable Accruals...... 8

Deferred Revenue...... 9

Payroll...... 10

Year-End Reporting...... 12

Whom to Call?...... 13

Appendix A...... 14

Appendix B...... 15

Year End Processing

NOTE: There are no significant changes to the FY17 closing process or deadlines. The key messages are:

Accruals, prepaids, receivables and deferrals are only for external and non-sponsored transactions.

The accrual, prepaid, receivable and deferral threshold is $10,000for non-Construction in Progress and non-equipment invoices. Please refer to pages 6-8 for guidance on each type of accrual and further explanation on how to apply the threshold, either by invoice or in aggregate. We ask that departments adhere to the threshold and do not adjust items less than $10,000 since the additional journals require more work for everyone during a very busy time.

The threshold to accrue for capital equipment (object codes 6801-6816) is $100,000 per invoice.

If you have changes to the coding for capital equipment purchased via AP (object codes 6801 – 6816), they must be processed using the AP Adjustment Form. Refer to the AP Adjustment Form section for further information.

If a department tries to upload a journal voucher after the 3rd close, the journal will NOT post to the GL.

Any compensation-related accruals should be credited to object code 2196 (not 2190). This is a new code in FY17!

Please visit the FAS Office of Finance website for Year-End reference guides at the link below.

General Ledger Closing Schedule

FAS Office of Finance Deadline / Central Deadline
Depts submit to / Depts post directly to Oracle
1st Close / Thursday, July 6, noon / Friday, July 7, 2pm
2nd Close / Thursday, July 13, noon / Friday, July 14, 2pm
AP Accruals / Thursday, July 20, 10am / n/a
3rd Close / Thursday, July 20, noon / Friday, July 21, 2pm
4th Close (FAS tubs only - no depts – to Rebecca Solari) / Wednesday, July 26, 5pm / n/a

Accounts Payable

All paper approved invoices received by Accounts Payable by 12pm on Friday June 23rd will be included in the first close reports. The final deadline for invoices is by 5 pm on Thursday, July6, to be included in FY17.

HCOM Invoices

Payment Requests

HCOM Payment Requestssubmitted by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 6 will be processed for FY17 (June 30 effective date), assuming the invoices are not on hold.

Purchase Orders

Invoice payments for Purchase Orders that have been created on or before June 30 and where the goods or services have been physically received on or before June 30 must be posted to FY17 if the invoice amount is $10,000 or greater. These payments can be posted to FY17 in two ways: automatically by A/P or during the A/P Accrual Process.

To have an invoice payment post automatically to FY17the associated PO invoice needs to be submitted AND received in HCOM (when receiving is required) by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 6.

Purchase orders received in HCOM between July 1and noon on July 10 and matched with an invoice by A/P will be posted to FY17.

Purchase orders with vendors who invoice Harvard electronicallyand transmit invoices July 1st or later will post to FY17 as the GL date is hard coded as the system date for all electronic invoices.

Refer to Appendix A for the list of e-Invoicing Vendors.

Final FY17 AP data will be available in HDW on Tuesday, July 11.

Invoices that remain on hold past the July 10deadline will post to FY18.

Because of the above, between July 1 and July 10, departments, centers, and tubs should only receive in HCOM for FY17purchase orders – those where the goods or services were physically received on or before June 30. They should not receive any FY18purchase orders (where the goods or services are physically received on or after July 1) until July 11 or later.

For invoices that are not posted to FY17 via the AP process, please refer to the section on Accounts Payable Accruals.

Travel & Reimbursements

All travel completedas of June 30 should be recorded as an FY17 expense. For travel reimbursements that are not posted to FY17 via the payment process, please refer to the section on Accounts Payable Accruals.

Employee and Non-Employee Reimbursements

Travel expense reimbursements, including corporate card payments, must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, June 23,to be included in FY17.

Travel reimbursements can be submitted to either: 1033 Massachusetts Avenue, 2nd Floor or the Travel & Reimbursement Office drop box at Smith Center 744.

Purchasing Cards

Sweep dates for FY17 charges to the PCard are June 28 at 3 p.m. (for transactions loaded to the settlement system between June 9-15),June 29 at 3 p.m. (for transactions loaded to the settlement system between June 16-22), and July 5 at 3 p.m. (for transactions loaded to the settlement system between June 23-29). All sweeps after July 5 will be posted to FY18.

AP Adjustment Form (for capital equipment purchases in object codes 6801-6816)

For departments that have coding changes to capital equipment purchased via AP– these must be processed using the AP Adjustment Form. They cannot be made via journal entry. The deadline for approving AP Adjustment Forms is noon on Monday, July 10. Any forms approved after this deadlinewill be posted to FY18.

For non-AP transactions that were charged to 68xx, such as PCard and Internal Billings, these can be corrected via journal entry since they were not originally transacted through AP.

For more information, please refer to the FAS Finance AP Adjustment Form Procedures document on the FAS Finance website under Reference Guides. Job aid materials can be found on Eureka under Fixed Assets.

Internal Billing Journal Vouchers

Internal billing entries must be entered into the Oracle general ledger system by the second close deadline, Friday, July 14 @ 2:00 p.m. Internal billing journal vouchers that must be uploaded by the FAS Office of Finance must be received at by Thursday, July 13th @ 12:00 p.m.

After the second close, internal billing journal vouchers can be processed by the FAS Office of Finance, but only with express permission of the department being charged which must be included in the email to

Please keep the following in mind when processing Internal Billing journals:

  • The debit and credit object codes must be in the same Mega Object range
  • FAS INTRA tubs include 110, 310, 325, 340, 355, 370, 385, 400, 415
  • INTER tubs are all others outside of FAS, including tub 420, but excluding non-consolidating tubs
  • Object codes that include ‘INTRA’ or ‘INTER’ in the description can only be used on the credit side of a journal (unless the JV is correcting/reversing a previously posted IB journal). For example, in a Lab Services internal billing, 8100 will be debited and either 8109 or 8110 will be credited.
  • Include your phone # in the line description. (The line description for internal billings should include: originating tub, billing unit contact name, phone ext, description of service or goods, date of service or goods.)

Payroll / Absence Management in PeopleSoft

For all Absence Approvers, Adjusters and Administrators:

All reported paid time off for FY17(July 1, 2016through June 30, 2017) must be entered and approved by 3:00 pm on Thursday, June 29. This will ensure accurate reporting of the University's vacation liability as we close out the year. Please take a moment to review any new or outstanding requests and take the appropriate action. Vacation time taken affects department financial results as the department will receive a credit for the salary and fringe associated with time taken and recorded.

For additional year-end payroll information, please refer to the Year End Reviewfrom 6/9/17 (FY17) located on the FAS Office of Finance website at

Gift Deposits

New Gift Funds

Gifts for which a new gift fund must be established must be received by Linda Kuros in the FAS Office of Finance (1414 Mass Ave, 4th Floor Rm 449)no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, June 23. The following documents are required:

  1. Check with envelope (to indicate postmark date)
  2. Completed FAS New Gift Account Request Form (located on the FAS website)
  3. Fund terms

Existing Gift Funds

Gift deposits to existing funds must be received by Alumni and Donor Services (ADS), formerly the RSO, no later than 3:00p.m. onWednesday, July 19.

For additional gift processing information, please refer to theGift Processing Guidelines document from ADS (Alumni and Donor Services) located on the FAS Office of Finance websiteat

Year-End Fund Balances

Departments are responsible for monitoring balances in their various unrestricted and restricted funds throughout the year. Deficit balances must be corrected by journal by third close deadlines. Exceptions on clearing fund deficits should be discussed with your Budget Analyst in advance of year-end close.

Income can never be moved into or out of restricted funds. To clear deficits in a restricted fund, expenses will need to be moved from the deficit fund to an appropriate fund with an adequate balance. For more details on moving expenses from a restricted gift fund, refer to the document ‘How to Zero-Out a Restricted Gift Fund in Deficit’ posted on the FAS Finance website under Fiscal Year-End.

As described in the guidance on Funds, Fund balances, and Subventions, the carry forward of fund balances from subvention or Dean’s discretionary funds is normally not permitted. Saving of any part of a subvention requires written approval from the FAS Dean.

Credit Vouchers (Cash Receipts) for Depositing Cash and Checks

The deadline for submittingcredit vouchers to the Cash Receipts Office isThursday,June 29 at 4pm. Their office is located at 1033 Massachusetts Avenue, 2ndFloor. As always, cash, U.S. checks and foreign checks must be processed on separate credit vouchers.

There is a Credit Voucher Formand instructions available on the Office of Treasury Management website at

Process for Claiming Incoming Wires on the Unclaimed Wires Report

The Unclaimed Wire Report is located in OBIunder the Cash Management dashboard. This report is used to look for receipts from external parties related to your department. While you may be anticipating a check payment, the vendor may have paid via wire. Please review this report throughout the year and claim wires as funds are received. To claim a wire to post to your dept, email Cash Management at and provide the following information to process the income transfer:

•Receipt number (IW#) and receipt date

•Actual amount of the wire

•Complete 33 digit string of coding

•Description of wire to be recorded on GL

Similar to the Cash Receipts form, you must provide a description for the wire. We recommend that you use the following format for reimbursements, refunds and other misc. income. Please keep the descriptions brief but include enough information that others will know what it is for, like these examples:

Reimb from XXX for J. Smith travel 4/1-4/15 (code to expense)

Refund from XXX for overpmt of invoice XXX (code to expense)

Income from XXX for rent Jan-Mar(code to income)

The deadline for claiming a wire for FY17 is Friday, July 7th at noon.

Accrual Process

In order to recognize revenue and expenses in the proper year, it may be necessary to record entries for accounts payable accruals, prepaid expenses, accounts receivable, and deferred revenue. This requirement complies with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and ensuresthe accuracy and completeness of University and FAS financial statements. The FY17 threshold for mandatory accruals is $10,000 for non-CIP and non-equipment expenses, $100,000 for equipment expenses (object codes 6801-6816) and $1M for CIP (Construction in Progress) expenses.

GAAP adjustments can only be created for external and non-sponsored transactions; i.e.funds paid to external entities (A/P and Prepaid Expenses) or funds received from external parties (A/R and Deferred Revenue). Accrual entries cannot be created for transactions that are internal to Harvard, even if outside of one’s department or tub. For more information on accruals and why they are required, refer to Appendix B.

Please refer to the separate ADI files for examples of what is needed for support as part of the journal submission when you send a Prepaid, Accrued Revenue or Deferred Revenue journal to FAS Finance. The Accounts Payable Accrual is managed through a separate process as explained below.

Accounts PayableAccruals (2191)

The University requires all departments to accrue accounts payable invoices for goods or services received or performed by June 30 but not yet paid. To the extent that invoicesthat exceed the following thresholds do not get captured in the June ledger via AP payments, departments will need record them as A/P accruals.

  • $10,000 or greaterfor FY17-related non-CIP expenses
  • $100,000 or greater for FY17-related equipment
  • $1M or greaterfor CIP expenses which are accrued by OPRP, not by the dept
  • The A/P accrual is processed during the third close. Each department in tubs 370, 385 and 420 will be contacted by FAS Finance and theFAS affiliate tubs will be contacted by theOffice of the Controller with a report of invoices that should potentially be accrued.
  • Departments and tubs will also be asked to provide a list of additional expenses not on this list that must also be accrued. We ask that departments adhere to the thresholds, unless material to their department.
  • Please note that consistent with prior year, the timeframe for this process is extremely tight. The report to departments will be distributed by Tuesday, July 18. The deadline to return is 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 20. Instructions will be noted in the email. FAS Finance will review and upload the file at the end of the 3rd close.
  • FY17 accruals for departments will be reversed in July by FAS Finance. There is no action required by the departments.

Prepaid Expenses (0540)

In situations where a department has paid an invoice in FY17 for goods or services that will not be received or performed until FY18, the expense must be recorded as a prepaid expense. Prepaid expenses must be setup for individual expenses of $10,000 or greater. We ask that departments adhere to the threshold and do not adjust items less than $10,000 since the additional journals require more work for everyone during a very busy time.

A prepaid expense is recorded using a journal voucher. This journal will credit the expense coding used on the original expense transaction. You will debit the following coding using your Tub and Org:

Tub.Org.0540.000000.XXXXXX.XXXX.XXXXX

*Activities, sub activities, and roots may be used but are not required, but fund must remain 000000*

Journal Submission
Please email your journal andsupporting back-up (invoice and Excel calculation to determine the prepaid)no laterthan the third closeto . The deadlines for submitting journals for each close are outlined in the FY17 Year End Calendar. Prepaid expense journals will be reversed by the FAS Office of Finance in July, FY18. For questions regarding prepaid journals, please contact Maria Geovanos at

Accounts Receivable Accruals (0130)

An accounts receivable (A/R) accrual should be recorded in cases where a department has not yet received payment (cash) for goods provided or services performed during FY17. Accounts receivable accruals must be established for all billings, reimbursements, or other outside income of $10,000 or greater in aggregate on a program-wide basis. For example, if you have 10 external customers who as of 6/30 each owe $3,000 in fees for a conference which was held in FY17, you would accrue for $30,000 of A/R. If it was just 2 customers totaling $6,000, then you would not need to accrue. We ask that departments adhere to the threshold and do not adjust items less than $10,000 since the additional journals require more work for everyone during a very busy time.

  • For departments using the Oracle A/R system, the billings may be processed by entering invoices into the A/R system by 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 12, as noted in the FY17 Year End Calendar. *Please note* From July 1st to July 13th, the GL date in Oracle A/R will automatically default to the July date. In order for transactions to be included in FY17 during this time, users will have to enter the date of June 30, 2017 to override the default date. This process applies to invoices and credit memos entered both manually and via feeds.
  • For those not using the Oracle A/R System, or in cases where the deadline to submit an A/R invoice has passed, a journal will need to be prepared to record the revenue in FY17 and set up a receivable on the balance sheet. The journal will credit the department’s coding using the appropriate income object code (or expense object code, if appropriate). You will debit the following coding using your Tub and Org:
    Tub.Org.0130.000000.XXXXXX.XXXX.XXXXX

*Activities, sub activities, and roots may be used but are not required, but fund must remain 000000*

Journal Submission
Please email your journal andsupporting back-up(detail of receivables from sub-system, tracker or Excel calculation)no laterthan the third closeto . The deadlines for submitting journals for each close are outlined in the FY17 Year End Calendar. A/R Accrual journals will be reversed by the FAS Office of Finance in July, FY18. For questions regarding prepaid journals, please contactMiguelina Rodriguez

Deferred Revenue (2606)

Deferred revenue should be recorded whencash has been received in FY17 but the goods or serviceswill not be provided by a department until FY18. This receipt represents unearned income and must be deferred until FY18. Examples include:

  • Summer or fall program income received before year-end
  • Executive and continuing education program revenue received in FY17 for programs offered in FY18
  • Publications/ subscription revenue where subscription revenue has been received in FY17 for months which fall into FY18
  • Conference fees received in FY17 that relate to a conference to be held in FY18

Deferred revenue must be setup for income of $10,000 or greater in aggregate on a program-wide basis. For example, if you have 10 external customers who as of 6/30 have paid $3,000 in fees for a conference which will be held in FY18, you would defer $30,000 in revenue. If it was just 2 customers totaling $6,000, then you would not need to defer. We ask that departments adhere to the threshold and do not adjust items less than $10,000 since the additional journals require more work for everyone during a very busy time.