In This Issue:
- Costing Improvements for Retro Periods in Workday
- The Annual Financial Report Process Explained
- In Case You Missed It: Financial Systems Training for October
- Submit Newsletter Feedback and Article Suggestions to AFM@austin.utexas.edu
Costing Improvements for Retro Periods in Workday
In September 2020, Workday, Inc. released improvements to how costing is handled for retroactive HCM transactions. This functionality was moved into production on Wednesday, October 28. Now, when an HCM transaction is processed for a prior period in Workday, Workday will use the costing allocation that is in place at the time of the prior period. A cost transfer integration is no longer needed for retroactive HCM transactions, so there will no longer be a delay in charges being accurately reflected in *DEFINE.
This new functionality only impacts how costing allocations are applied to retroactive HCM transaction being processed in payroll and has no impact on how retroactive costing allocations changes are handled. The cost transfer integration will continue to operate as it does now, with no changes to the current schedule.
Additional Resources:
https://payroll.utexas.edu/cost-transfer-information
https://payroll.utexas.edu/cost-transfer-integration-schedule
The Annual Financial Report Process Explained
Accounting and Financial Management (AFM) is responsible for the preparation of the Annual Financial Report (AFR) every year as mandated by the State of Texas. UT Austin’s AFR is consolidated into UT System’s report along with the other UT institutions. It is prepared in according with GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) and GASB (Governmental Accounting Standards Board). The AFR is comprised of many schedules including a Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Statement of Cash Flows as well as many other supporting and supplemental schedules.
It takes many different groups within AFM and campus to accurately report the financial data for the University. Payroll, Student Accounts Receivable, Plant Accounting, Inventory, Cash Management, Federal Costing and Financial Accounting and Reporting all have a hand in preparing the AFR as well as Office of Sponsored Projects and the Budget Office. Work typically begins in the summer months leading up to our fiscal year end date of August 31 with integrity checks, validation of data, and testing of year-end tie outs. Once the month of August closes, around the third or fourth business day of September, the thirteenth month is open and year end processing begins. Many year-end entries are required to put financial data in compliance. These entries are processed within the first couple of weeks of September. The AFM team begins work on Balance Forwards. Payroll completes the final payment cycles. SAR is typically the first group to complete their AFR process. Plant and Inventory work on their schedules around the middle of September. Office of Sponsored Projects and Federal Costing work together to close out grants. These are some of the many dependencies that affect the overall timeline of the AFR process. Once all dependencies are completed, Cash Management will finalize the cash position and AFM will begin to consolidate the data and finalize all of the remaining schedules.
In addition to reporting to UT System, considerations have to be made with reporting tied to other institutions, the Texas Comptroller’s office, and the federal government. The Final AFR reporting package is typically due to UT System around October 5 each year and is available for publication on our website around April of the following year.
In Case You Missed It: Financial Systems Training for October
A new series of Financial Systems Training was scheduled for October. All sessions were held virtually. Read the previous newsletter to learn more about this.
Submit Newsletter Feedback and Article Suggestions to AFM@austin.utexas.edu
Many thanks to the readers who have written in with suggestions and feedback about the newsletter. Please continue to write in with any suggestions for improvements or comments to the AFM@austin.utexas.edu email address.