Latest update includes:

 

FY2013-02: Approved FY2013 Fringe Benefit and Payroll Tax Rates
CTR Memo FY2013-02 has been posted to the CTR Web Portal. The purpose of this memo is to notify departments of the approved fringe benefit and payroll tax rates for FY2013.  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has approved the fringe rate of 25.98% and a payroll tax rate of 1.29%. 

FY2012-27: FY2012 Statutory Receivable Instructions
CTR Memo FY2012-27 has been posted to the CTR Web Portal. The statutory receivable instructions provide guidance to departments on reporting receivables due from a governmental body that are related to expenses incurred on or before June 30 and collected between July 1 and August 31.  The preliminary estimate is due on August 3 and the final report is due on September 7.

MMARS Chargeback
The sixth and final FY2012 billing for the Office of the Comptroller's MMARS chargeback to support the operation of the Financial Accounting and Reporting System for the Commonwealth has been entered.  Billings are sent bi-monthly. This billing is for actual usage based on transaction lines posted to the general ledger for the month of May. May actual usage was used to determine June estimated billing. The document ID is CTRMMARS12CHARMAYJUN.

Payroll User Group Files Posted
The agenda and presentation from the June 7 Payroll User Group Meeting have been posted to the PUG page of the Comptroller’s Web Portal.

MMARS Saturday Hours
MMARS and LCM will be available Saturday, June 16 from 9:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. The Help Desk will not be staffed and any Saturday Help Desk calls will be returned on Monday, June 18.

Statewide Contract for Marketing, New Media, Public Relations, and Event Planning Networking Event
The Operational Services Division is pleased to announce the new Statewide Contract for Marketing, New Media, Public Relations and Event Planning (PRF50) available to all Massachusetts government entities.  The PRF50 Networking Event for the new Statewide Contract will be held from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM on Friday, June 22 at Ashburton Café (Plaza Level, One Ashburton Place, Boston.) 

This Networking Event, designed especially for you, the buyer, will provide an opportunity to meet and network with the newly-awarded vendors. Twenty-one qualified vendors were identified during the bid process. Several of the awarded vendors are certified by the Commonwealth’s Supplier Diversity Office (SDO) and many others are registered as Small Businesses. Learn how this contract can benefit your department or program by fulfilling your Marketing, New Media, PR, and Event Planning needs!

Please RSVP by June 15 to Susan Aalpoel by phone (617-720-3387) or email (Susan.Aalpoel@state.ma.us). If you have any further questions please contact William Funk, Manager Strategic Sourcing by phone (617-720-3329) or email (William.funk@state.ma.us.)

Purge of Rejected Documents over 75 Days Old
Rejected documents in the system accumulate in the document catalog and are removed in a regularly scheduled monthly purge of documents over 75 days old. The next purge will be on June 15 and will delete rejected documents entered before April 1. If you have documents entered before April 1 that you would like to save, please place them on "hold".

To place a document on "hold":

  • Locate the document in the Document Catalog.
  • Check the checkbox to the left of the document (in the Document Catalog).
  • Click "Action Menu", select "Scheduling Actions", select "Mark Document" and choose "Hold".

Close FY2012/Open FY2013 News

Negative Balances
Prior to the end of the fiscal year, departments should review the balances in appropriation accounts types:  1CN, 1CS, 1RN, 1RS, 1IN, 1IS, 2CN, and 3TN. All irregular balances in accounts (negative uncommitted and/or unexpended) must be resolved by June 30. If departments need assistance resolving negative balances, please contact the Comptroller Help Desk at 617-973-2468 or via email Comptroller.Info@State.MA.US.

Contract Roll Complete
The contract roll is complete. RQS, PC, CT and RPO transactions were rolled if they had at least one open BFY2013 accounting line.

There are several rolled transactions in reject status that need department review and correction to submit successfully. All of these transactions will have SA as the UAID. Departments can locate those transactions by searching the Document Catalog by document code, department, create user ID (SA) and document status (rejected).

Most rejected Roll transactions have budget or chart of account errors. Some rejected RPOs have the error message "A3024 - Invalid Service Dates or Schedule". The A3024 error can be corrected by following the workaround (below).

For any rejected transaction that is corrected and goes to pending (or rejects due to the MA Service Date errors A1773, A2891, and/or A2892), departments should send an email to Rita Tucker (CT and RPO) or Elaine LaMonica at OSD (PC).

All email requests must note "Roll Correction" in the email subject and have a completed Contract Transmittal Form doc format of CTR_Encumbrance.doc with Category H checked attached. In Reason for Modification, put "Correction of rolled BFY2013 lines".

As part of preparation for the contract roll, pending transactions were rejected from CTR and OSD (PC) work lists if CTR or OSD did not have the supporting paperwork or if what was submitted was insufficient to bring to final in MMARS. Departments should submit these transactions to pending status and submit the applicable paperwork to CTR or OSD for processing.

Please note that, if the rejected CT/PC/RPO was a modification to an existing transaction and had a BFY2013 line, the rejected version became a Conflict Draft during the Roll process and the new, rolled version did not pick up the modification. Departments need to create a new modification to the rolled encumbrance. The Conflict Draft version can be ignored or deleted.

Please contact the MMARS Help Desk at 617-973-2468 if you have any questions or concerns.

Workaround for the RPO A3024 Invalid Service Dates or Schedule Error

    1. Extend the service end dates on the RPO commodity lines that have the Invalid Service Dates or Schedule error to 06/30/2013 (or a year beyond whatever the current Service To Date is).
    2. Zero out the recurring payment amount on that commodity line.
    3. In the extended description box on that commodity Line, enter an explanation for extending the dates (for audit purposes) "problem line - needed to extend dates on line due to a system issue".
    4. Place the erroneous SIG line on HOLD on SIG.

Re-submit your Draft doc and this error should be gone.

Close/Open Key Dates June 16 – 23

June 22, Friday

    • Reconcile revenue through May using NGA208W
    • Last day to process FY2012 Revenue transactions requiring CTR approval

Upcoming Training Sessions and Meetings

  • Intermediate MMARS Warehouse – Tuesday, June 19, 9:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 9th Floor Training Lab
  • Fraud Awareness and Prevention – Tuesday, June 19, 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 9th Floor Executive  Conference Room
  • Intro to HR/CMS Payroll Warehouse – Thursday, June 21, 9:00 A.M. – 3:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 9th Floor Training Lab
  • Accounts Receivable – Thursday, June 28, 9:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 9th Floor Training Lab
  • HR/CMS Fundamentals – Monday, July 9, 9:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 9th Floor Training Lab
  • Intro to State Finance MMARS Navigation – Tuesday, July 10, 9:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 9th Floor Training Lab
  • Encumbrance Management – Thursday, July 12, 9:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 9th Floor Training Lab
  • Payment Management – Thursday, July 12, 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 9th Floor Training Lab

Register for these sessions via the Comptroller's Training and Meeting Schedule which lists classes scheduled for three months and Payroll User Groups through December 2012.

MMARS Hint of the Week - Ready Payments-Duplicate Invoice Number Error
The Document Description Field in the Header section of the RPO must be unique. The first 22 characters of this description plus the Scheduled Payment Date create the Vendor Invoice Number. If this number is not unique, a payment will not be generated. 

The system looks at the Vendor, Document Description, and Payment Date. So even if two different departments use the same Vendor, Description and Payment Schedule, only one department's payment will be generated. Departments are instructed to begin the Document Description with the Department Alpha Code and if it's a space lease, add an address; a lease for a copier, add a model number; or a Ready Payment, add the program and location.