Latest update includes:

Fringe Benefit, Payroll Tax, Indirect Cost Charges for Accounting Period 6
The fringe benefit, payroll tax and indirect cost chargebacks for Accounting Period 6 (December), FY2013 will be run on Saturday, January 12. All eligible expenditures processed during Accounting Period 6 will be subject to these assessments.

Departments should ensure that the budget structure tables for appropriated (payroll tax only), federal grants and other non-budgetary accounts are properly established so these charges post without rejecting under object codes D09 (fringe benefits and payroll taxes) and E16 (indirect costs).

MMARS Unavailable Saturday
Due to scheduled system processing, MMARS and LCM will be unavailable on Saturday, January 5.

Comptroller Staff Supports Victims of Hurricane Sandy
As an annual Christmas tradition, the Comptroller staff raises money for charity through the donation and raffle of gift baskets within the office. This year, $1737 was raised and donated to the Red Cross to support the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Weekly Fraud Awareness and Prevention Fact – Distribution of Fraud
Of the three main categories used to classify fraud (Asset Misappropriation, Corruption, and Fraudulent Statements and Reporting) Asset Misappropriation accounts for close to 90% of all cases.

Please visit the Fraud Prevention section of our Internal Controls Page for a link to the Toolkit for Departments to Combat Fraud, Waste and Abuse and the Combat Fraud, Waste and Abuse Brochure. 

If you have any questions regarding this or previous Fraud Awareness and Prevention Facts, please contact the Comptroller Help Desk at 617-973-2468 or via email Comptroller.Info@State.MA.US. To report Fraud, Waste, or Abuse contact one of the Commonwealth’s Whistleblower Hotlines.

Upcoming Training Sessions and Meetings

  • Encumbrance Management – Monday, January 7, 9:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston, 9th Floor Training Lab
  • Payment Management – Friday, January 11, 9:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston, 9th Floor Training Lab
  • Fraud Awareness and Prevention – Tuesday, January 15, 9:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston, 9th Floor Executive Conference Room
  • Intro to MMARS Warehouse – Tuesday, January 15, 9:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston, 9th Floor Training Lab
  • HR/CMS Fundamentals – Thursday, January 17, 9:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston, 9th Floor Training Lab
  • Appropriation Management – Thursday, January 24, 9:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston, 9th Floor Training Lab
  • Intermediate MMARS Warehouse – Friday, January 25, 9:00 A.M. – 1:00 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 2013.

MMARS Hint of the Week – Creating Payments - 2 Methods
There are 2 methods in MMARS that can be used to create payments:

  1. Document Catalog - when using the Document Catalog, you will manually enter in all of the required information for the payment.
  2. Copy/Forward from the Encumbrance - This function enables you to select the relevant commodity lines on the encumbrance, and then copy that information forward to create the payment document.