Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink/Department of Financial Services Florida from space/NASA Florida beach scene Florida palm tree Florida surf

  

My Florida.com link
DATE: March 19, 1998
TO: Agency Addressed
FROM: Bill Monroe, Director
Division of Accounting & Auditing
Office of Comptroller
 
SUBJECT: TRAVEL AGENCY SURCHARGES

By memorandum dated October 20, 1997, we advised that travel agency surcharges may not be paid by State agencies. Some State agencies and travel agencies have expressed concern that a total prohibition against payment of the surcharges may result in less services or poorer quality services. In order to ensure that State agencies obtain necessary travel agency services while not unnecessarily paying the surcharge, pricing and services information should be obtained from multiple travel agencies. If the State agency finds that the best proposal, from a pricing and services standpoint, requires the payment of the surcharge, the additional charge may be paid. State agencies should be prepared to document that reasonable steps were taken to ensure that the best business case was selected. Some State agencies have requested written proposals of prices and services from travel agencies. If additional information is needed, please contact Cheri Greene at (850) 414-7861 (Suncom 994-7861) or Sharon Schrader at (850) 414-7835 (Suncom 994-7835).

DATE: May 11, 1998
TO: Agency Addressed
FROM: William O. Monroe, Director
Division of Accounting & Auditing
Office of Comptroller
 
SUBJECT: ELECTRONIC AIRLINE TICKETS

With the arrival of electronic commerce, we are starting to see the issuance of electronic airline tickets instead of the traditional paper tickets. In these situations, the documen-tation needed to be included in the voucher should be a copy of the traveler's itinerary identifying the purchase of the airline ticket or a separate paid receipt for the airline ticket. In either case, the supporting documentation should include the following information; name of traveler, dates of travel, origin and destination of travel, class of travel, and amount. If you have any questions regarding this memo, please contact either Cheri Greene at (850) 414-7861 (SUNCOM 994-7861) or Sharon Schrader at (850) 414-7835 (SUNCOM 994-7835).

DATE: May 11, 1998
TO: Agency Addressed
FROM: William O. Monroe, Director
Division of Accounting & Auditing
Office of Comptroller
 
SUBJECT: RECURRING PAYMENTS SYSTEM

This is a reminder to state agencies of the recurring payments system on FLAIR, and to encourage agencies to use this system for payments that are identical or similar in nature. Since an encumbrance is created when a payment is scheduled in the recurring payments system, the beginning of the fiscal year is a good time to begin using the recurring payments process.

For more information on the recurring payments system, see our agency addressed memo dated July 30, 1997. A recurring payments handout is available upon request from the FLAIR Help Desk at (850) 487-2627 (Suncom 277-2627). If additional information is needed, please contact Cheri Greene at (850) 414-7861 (Suncom 994-7861) or Sharon Schrader at (850) 414-7835 (Suncom 994-7835).

DATE: May 15, 1998
TO: Agency Addressed
FROM: William O. Monroe, Director
Division of Accounting & Auditing
Office of Comptroller
 
SUBJECT: ATYPICAL BALANCES OF CASH, BUDGET, AND RECEIPTS

In January, we made available through the Report Distribution System a series of reports which identify over expended release and/or cash balances at the category level. In addition, the reports indicated any negative receipt balances. The reports may be identified as follows:

Report Name Form ID Description
CNPPCSHA XX3E Cash Accounts
CNPPBUDA XX3F Budgetary Accounts
CNPPRECA XX3G Receipt Accounts

It is important to review the reports and take corrective action. We recommended you analyze the entries which caused the atypical balance and take appropriate action to prevent a recurrence. As of May 7, 1998, we had identified the transaction that initiated the negative balance. If it will save you time, please call Beverly Hornbeak at area code 850 414-1857 or Suncom 994-1857 to obtain the document number.

Please assist us by providing the name, telephone number and Internet mailing address of the people we should contact for the following functions, atypical balances for cash, receipts and release/budget, service charge to General Revenue, and Form 1099 vendor information. You may send the information by facsimile to (850) 921-0607, Suncom 291-0607, or E-mail through the Internet to patti_p_calhoun@mail.dbf.state.fl.us or interoffice mail to Room 308, Fletcher Building.

If there are any questions regarding this request, please call Patti Calhoun area code 850 414-1852 or Suncom 994-1852.

DATE: May 26, 1998
TO: Agency Addressed
FROM: William O. Monroe, Director
Division of Accounting & Auditing
Office of Comptroller
 
SUBJECT: FISCAL YEAR CLOSE-OUT

The following dates have been established for processing transactions affecting the 1997-98 fiscal year:

PAYROLLS:

  1. Monthly paper payroll requisitions must be received by the Bureau of State Payrolls by 12:00 p.m. on June 19.

  2. Biweekly paper payroll requisitions must be received by 12:00 p.m. on June 25.

  3. Supplemental paper payroll requisitions must be received by 12:00 p.m. on June 22.

  4. CJIP paper payroll requisitions must be received by 12:00 p.m. on June 10.

  5. Class C Meals must be entered into the Employee Travel Screens by 5:00 p.m. on June 24.

All payrolls and related transactions submitted in accordance with this schedule will be processed as 1997-98 transactions. Payroll warrants that are issued from accounts with insufficient cash or budget will not be released until such shortages are resolved. We strongly recommend that agencies closely monitor account balances in order to avoid delays in paying employees at the end of the fiscal year.

CASH DISBURSEMENTS

  1. Vouchers presented to the Comptroller's Office for payment by 5:00 p.m. on June 30, 1998 will be processed as 1997-98 disbursements.

  2. Disbursement transactions below the voucher audit threshold must be input into Departmental FLAIR by 6:00 p.m. on June 29, in order to be processed as 1997-98 disburse-ments.

  3. Vouchers input into Departmental FLAIR on or before June 29, but not delivered to the Bureau of Auditing by 5:00 p.m. on June 30, will be deleted from the Comptroller's pre-audit file. These vouchers will have to be corrected in FLAIR and resubmitted as 1998-99 vouchers.

  4. Departmental FLAIR will not process disbursement transactions entered on June 30 because the vouchers would not be available until after the June 30 deadline. Consequently, all disburse-ment transactions entered into Departmental FLAIR on June 30 will have to be backed out and subsequently reentered. FLAIR will purge the voucher print file on the night of June 30 to ensure that no vouchers will print on July 1, 1998.

  5. Batch disbursement transactions processed through Departmental FLAIR must be presented to the Bureau of Production Control by 1:00 p.m. on Monday, June 29, in order for the resulting voucher schedules to be available for printing on the morning of June 30. Batch transactions processed on file transfers by the State University System (SUS) must be received by FLAIR on the night of June 26 in order for the vouchers to be available for printing on June 30.

  6. Expense tape batch input into the Central Accounting system must be delivered to the Bureau of Production Control by 1:00 p.m. on June 30. The supporting documentation must be received by the Bureau of Auditing by 5:00 p.m. on the same day.

  7. No SUS accounting file transfers will be accepted on the night of June 30, 1998. FLAIR will accept only Property update transfers the night of June 30.

CASH RECEIPTS

  1. The Treasurer will receive bank deposit slips that have been validated by 2:00 p.m. on June 30 via facsimile or hand delivery until 4:00 p.m. on June 30. Wire transfers received by the Treasurer on June 30 will be processed if confirmation is received by the Treasurer and the deposit is entered into a 'T' status in FLAIR prior to 4:00 p.m. on June 30. Unverified receipts on the Treasurer's pending file on June 30 will remain on the file for subsequent verification in 1998-99. If ultimately verified, they will be posted to the Treasurer's and Comptroller's records for 1998-99 using 1997-98 Statewide Document numbers. Agencies must then record 1997-98 correcting entries in Departmental FLAIR with a BKI=N in order to reconcile with State Accounts.

  2. Cash refunds which includes Refunds for Overpayment of Salary should be received by the Comptroller's Cashier's Office, Bureau of Budget and Fiscal Services, Room 121 Fletcher Building, by 5:00 p.m. on June 19, 1998. This will allow time for notification and correction of rejected items affecting 1997-98.

  3. Cash Receipts may be input on June 30, transmitted to the Treasurer, and verified on June 30. Supporting documentation that is validated by 2:00 p.m. on June 30 must be delivered to the Treasurer by 4:00 p.m. on June 30 in order for the deposit to be posted to 1997-98.

  4. Those agencies depositing through the Treasurer's Concentration System must deliver a bank validated deposit slip on deposits made before 2:00 p.m. on June 30 to the Treasurer by 5:00 p.m. on June 30. No deposits, except for wire transfers, made after 2:00 p.m. on June 30 will be receipted by the Treasury in the 1997-98 fiscal year.

  5. Cash receipts transactions for current year refunds must be verified by the Treasurer on June 26 in order for the resulting JT-2 to be available for printing on the morning of June 30 and be delivered to the Bureau of Auditing by 5:00 p.m. on June 30. Expense refunds verified by the Treasurer on June 30 will remain in the Refund account (001800).

  6. Cash refunds in Clearing Accounts must be cleared to the Treasurer by the close of business on June 26 so that they may be transferred to the Treasurer and verified on June 29. Expense refunds cleared from Clearing Accounts after this time will remain in the Refunds account (001800).

  7. Please review all uncleared Clearing Fund deposits by requesting the Immediate Detail of Clearing Fund Deposits report through the CP function. A report of Clearing Funds not cleared is also available in the Standard logon.

  8. The Treasurer's last day of processing debit memorandums for returned checks for agencies will be on June 25 for the 1997-98 fiscal year. The Treasurer's last day of processing debit memorandums for returned EFT transactions will be on June 30, for the 1997-98 fiscal year.

WARRANT CANCELLATIONS

All warrants returned for cancellation that are received by 5:00 p.m. on June 30, will be processed as current year business. Please note that payroll warrants for cancellations are retained by the agencies and must be added and approved online by 5:00 p.m. on June 30. Agencies should review their accounts to ensure that the appropriate prior year cancellation revenue category code, 003700, has been established.

SETTLEMENT VOUCHERS

Proposed or provisional settlement agreements must be received by the Bureau of Auditing, Room 434I, Fletcher Building, not later than 5:00 p.m. on June 12 to allow time for review and approval. Previously approved proposed or provisional settlement agreements attached to payment vouchers received by the Bureau of Auditing by 5:00 p.m. on June 30 will be processed as 1997-98 disbursements.

Timely resolution of settlement agreements is encouraged and recommended; however, settlement agreements must be submitted with sufficient detail and in a form sufficient to enable a prompt pre-audit. Those settlement agreements with voluminous detail that may hinder timely processing of other settlement agreements should be considered for processing as Certified Forward items. All settle-ment agreement payment vouchers not meeting the requirements of Bureau of Auditing, Voucher Processing Handbook, Chapter 1, Page 10, will be returned for rescheduling as charges against FY 1998-99 appropriations or certifications forward, as appropriate. Any questions relating to this process and/or documentation requirements should be directed to the Bureau of Auditing.

OTHER ITEMS

  1. Because of the heavy workload experienced at year-end, it is our intent not to accept manually prepared vouchers from agencies. Requests for exceptions to this policy should be directed to the appropriate Bureau Chief. Your cooperation in minimizing these exception requests will help us to close out the fiscal year in a timely manner.

  2. All functions of FLAIR will be operational for the entire day on June 30. However, please realize that no disbursement transactions entered on that day will produce vouchers. FLAIR will purge the voucher print file on the night of June 30 to ensure that no vouchers will print on July 1, 1998.

  3. Statewide document numbers will be reset to begin with the number x9000000001 on July 1, where x denotes the data base that the number is used on. The number in the first position is incremented each year to avoid duplication of statewide document numbers across fiscal years.

  4. Departmental FLAIR will be available on Saturday, June 27, 1998. However, all work will be processed as Monday input as usual.

CERTIFICATIONS FORWARD AT JUNE 30, 1998

No changes are known for the Certifications Forward process on June 30, 1998. Below is a summary of the Certification Forward information:

  1. As was done in prior years, the CFI (Certified Forward at June 30, 1997) and NCFI (Certified Forward at June 30, 1998) fields will be available in FLAIR. Certifications forward at June 30, 1998 will be processed based on the NCFI. All items marked for certification on or before June 30, 1998, will effectively be marked in both the CFI and NCFI. FLAIR will read all subsidiaries on the night of June 30, 1998, and set the NCFI to a blank.

  2. At the agency's request, FLAIR will reset the NCFI=C on all non-FCO state fund items (except those in SF = 8) on the accounts payable and/or encumbrances subsidiaries at 6:00 P.M. on June 30, 1998 for certifications forward, and agencies must "unmark" those items not to be certified. Receivables and memo encumbrances without a vendor will not be automatically marked.

    Agencies should request automatic marking of subsidiary files in writing by Monday, June 8, 1998. Letters should identify which subsidiaries, if any, should be marked and be mailed to:

    Mr. Raymond B. Marsh, Director
    Division of Information Systems
    P.O. Box 20145
    Tallahassee, Florida 32316

    No subsidiaries will be marked for requests received after June 8, and telephone requests absolutely will not be honored. The letter should also include a request for FLAIR to create an FCO Certifications Forward file from your Project Information file records, if you so desire. Otherwise, these records will have to be built manually as part of the FCO Certification process. FCO Certifications records from last year have been purged from the file and are not available for update.

  3. For those agencies not using the FLAIR automated marking, certifications forward may be manually marked in one of the following ways :

    1. Enter the "C" on the appropriate 60, 80, or 90 transaction (NOT 6S, 8S, or 9S subsidiary updates) as part of the original input. Use this method only after June 30, 1998, because FLAIR will reset the NCFI to a blank on that night and any markings prior to that action will effectively be lost. After June 30, transactions 60, 80, or 90 which carry a "C" will update NCFI (Certified Forward at June 30, 1998) regardless of the PPI. However, to record the balances as of June 30, 1998, the appropriate PPI must be entered.

    2. Call the items up on subsidiary inquiry/ update screens and update them with a blank PPI to carry the "C" in a single update mode. Subsidiary inquiry screens will show both the CFI and NCFI fields.

    3. Call the items up on the 1S-X screen and update them to carry the "C" and the date received for accounts payable in a multiple update mode. 1S-X may only be used for items which have had no 1997-98 activity.

  4. To "unmark" items that will not be certified forward, the item should be retrieved using the appropriate subsidiary update with a BLANK PPI, or the 1S-X screen ( if there has been no current year activity ), and erase the "C" in the CF field. This will remove the "C" from the NCFI. Follow the table above for guidance in subsidiary updates.

  5. Memo Accounts Receivable and Memo Encumbrances without vendors may not be marked for certifications forward.

  6. NCFI will be retrieved from the appropriate subsidiary upon payment/receipt in 1997-98, but may be overridden before processing.

  7. As was done last year, Fixed Capital Outlay will be certified forward through the FLAIR Certified Forward system. Consult the EOG - Office of Planning and Budgeting for instructions in this area. In keeping with the policy of prior years, no FCO accounts will carry a certified forward indicator, but instead, will utilize the year indicator to identify appropriations to a specific year.

  8. Certified Forward processing must run before you close the year and cannot be run on the night of your year end closing. This process is requested through the PE function. Certified forward information will be transferred to EOG upon request to the FLAIR Help Desk by the agency. Requests must be called into the Help Desk by 2:00p.m. on the day that you wish the transfer to occur. Only subsidiary records with positive balances will be processed and reflected on the certified forward reports. The Certified Forward processing and EOG transfers are separate independent processes, and must be scheduled/requested as such. If you close the year without first completing the certified forward processing, the transaction 07's to record GL's 122xx, 131xx, 134xx, 911xx, and 931xx will not be recorded.

  9. You do not have to run certified forward processing before you can pay items to be certified. The prior year, or June 30, 1998, subsidiary file balances are utilized for certified forward processing, but the current year on-line subsidiary function continues with updates to current year balances. Records with prior year balances will not be purged while you are in dual year processing.

SUMMARY

Each agency can assist with closing the 1997-98 fiscal year in the following manner:

  1. Make every effort to submit substantially all of your vouchers to the Bureau of Auditing by Friday, June 19. This will enable us to complete processing of FY 1997-98 transactions by the end of the first week in July.

  2. Carefully check cash and appropriation balances in all accounts to ensure that sufficient amounts are available. This will eliminate delays or rejections of payments due to funds shortages.

  3. Agencies using selected operating accounts for consolidating salary payments must adjust these accounts to reflect the correct salary disbursements before the close of the fiscal year. Transfers of salary charges must be made to the applicable accounts to eliminate year-to-date negative disbursement balances.

  4. Carefully review year-to-date disbursement balances in all accounts to ensure that appropriations are not over-expended and that negative disbursement balances do not exist. Generally, accounts must not be closed out showing negative year-to-date disbursement balances.

For additional information, please contact the following:

Bureau of Accounting 488-1951 278-1951
Bureau of Auditing 488-4098 278-4098
Bureau of State Payrolls 488-7762 278-7762

Your assistance and cooperation is appreciated.

DATE: June 19, 1998
TO: Agency Addressed
FROM: William Monroe, Director
Division of Accounting and Auditing
Office of Comptroller
 
SUBJECT: EFT AND NO PAPER REMITTANCE

The following vendors are set up to be paid by EFT and have specifically requested that they not be sent paper remittance information. The remittance information is provided to them electronically in the form of an addenda record and therefore, no paper remittance information is needed.
The vendors are:

Dell Marketing L.P. Vendor No. (Tax ID. No.) 742616805
Pride Enterprises Vendor No. (Tax ID. No.) 592167018

It is important to remember to use the correct name and vendor number in order for the payment to be sent by EFT. Please distribute this information to the appropriate staff in your organization. If you have any questions, please call Mike Crowley or Steve Smith at 488-2922 or Suncom 278-2922. Thank you for you assistance in this matter.

NOTE:   AT THE LAST FLAIR USER MEETING, IT WAS REQUESTED THAT WE NUMBER THE AGENCY ADDRESSED MEMORANDUMS. WE WILL COMMENCE NUMBERING THEM WITH THE NEW FISCAL YEAR.

DATE: June 25, 1998
TO: Agency Addressed
FROM: Allen Reams, Chief
Bureau of State Payrolls
Office of Comptroller
 
SUBJECT: CLARIFICATION OF DEFERRED RETIREMENT OPTION PROGRAM (DROP) ISSUES

The Bureau of State Payrolls (BOSP) communicated in our memorandum, DBFBP 98-10 dated June 8, 1998, that Agencies with their own rule writing authority could operate under the Department of Management Services (DMS) rules regarding implementing the provisions of Chapter 98-18, Laws of Florida. It has been brought to our attention that it may be inappropriate for BOSP to advise agencies to operate in a manner that may be inconsistent with the intent of the rule-making authority for those agencies. Therefore, each agency with authority to establish their own personnel/payroll rules will be expected to comply with their own rules unless there is a conflict with Chapter 98-18, Laws of Florida, in which case, the law will prevail.

In our memorandum, DBFBP 98-10, we indicated that agencies should make sure that eligibility determination can been made prior to the payment of leave. We also indicated that each agency should obtain verification of the Division of Retirement's determination of each employee's eligibility for DROP prior to the payment of leave. We have been advised by the Division of Retirement that they do not provide agencies with verification of eligibility; however, they will notify agencies if they determine that a person is not eligible. Therefore, receipt of DROP eligibility determination from the Division of Retirement is not a prerequisite to payment for the leave.

To facilitate submission of payment requests for Annual Leave and Special Compensatory in Lieu of Overtime please note that our WEB page address is:

http://www.dbf.state.fl.us/bosp/handbook/v1s1.html

This address takes you directly to the index for our Payroll Manual and the files to download are at the bottom of the index. Keep in mind that this PC application is only for payments that you would normally submit directly to the Bureau of State Payrolls by paper on Form DBF-BP-33.

We hope that this clarifies some of the concerns you may have regarding the DROP program and hope that it does not cause too much difficulty. If you have any questions or concerns please contact Zadok Coxwell at (850)414-1872 or SUNCOM 994-1872.