Latest update includes:

 

FY2012-24: Department Head Annual Approval - Statewide Enterprise Systems Security
CTR Memo FY2012-24 has been posted to the CTR Web Portal.  Approval of transactions to "Final" status in the state financial systems serve as an affidavit from the Department Head to the Comptroller that transactions comply with State Finance Law and the documents are accurate and complete, the expenditure or other obligation is supported by sufficient legislatively authorized funds, is made in accordance with the Department's legislative mandates and funding authority, and complies with all applicable laws, regulations, policies and procedures. Annually, Department Heads are asked to review and confirm employees (1) they have authorized to access, process and approve transactions in enterprise systems on their behalf, as well as (2) any other individual who can approve obligations and expenditures (execute contracts, signoff on payroll, incur obligations, authorize payments, etc.) on behalf of a Department Head even if that person does not access enterprise systems themselves.

FY2012-25: Federal Approval of Allocated and Billed Costs for FY2012
CTR Memo FY2012-25 has been posted to the CTR Web Portal. The Office of the Comptroller is responsible for the development and submission of the Statewide Cost Allocation Plan (SWCAP) required under the provisions of the Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-87.  The SWCAP is a statistical method of allocating central government costs to the state agencies that receive central government supportive services.  The FY2012 SWCAP has been reviewed and approved by the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Cost Allocation (DCA).

The accompanying schedule (Exhibit A) identifies the approved costs that are associated with the general administration of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  State agencies that receive federal grants may claim these costs as an indirect cost of managing federal programs.

Fringe Benefit, Payroll Tax, Indirect Cost Charges for Accounting Period 11
The fringe benefit, payroll tax and indirect cost chargebacks for Accounting Period 11 (May), FY2012 will be run on Saturday, June 9. All eligible expenditures processed during Accounting Period 11 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 for these charges to post without rejecting under object codes D09 (fringe benefits and payroll taxes) and E16 (indirect costs).

Close FY2012/Open FY2013 News

Retained Revenue Accounts - May 31
Accounts that have Legislative designation to "spend in anticipation of receipts" will have edits returned to standard configuration. Exception processing requests should be emailed to Kathy Sheppard by an authorized signatory.

MMARS Processing 6/1-8/31 When Two Fiscal Years and Accounting Periods Are Open

From 6/1-8/31, two fiscal years and accounting periods are open; therefore, departments are required to enter the FY and accounting period on all accounting line(s) when modifying or entering a new transaction in MMARS. If left blank and submitted, the transaction will be directed to the CTR contracts work list and will be rejected in MMARS. The reason for the rejection will be addressed in the document comments field and an e-mail will be sent to the MMARS Liaison, instructing the department to enter the appropriate fiscal year and accounting period.  See the charts below for guidance:

If increasing or decreasing a BFY2012 line(s), the accounting line set up should be:

Reserved Funding Flag

Accounting Line

BFY

Accounting Line

FY

Month

Accounting Line

Accounting Period

NO20122012June12
NO20122012July or August13

If increasing or decreasing BFY2013 line(s), the accounting line set up should be:

Reserved Funding Flag

Accounting Line

BFY

Accounting Line

FY

Month

Accounting Line

Accounting Period

NO20132013June or July1
NO20132013August2

NOTE: The event type is PR05 for the CT, PC and RPO encumbrances. For RQS, the event type is PR02 and for Openorder CT, the event type is PR51.

Encumbrance Suspension in Preparation for the Contract Roll Thursday, May 31 through Sunday, June 3
As outlined in the Close/Open instructions for FY2012/2013, the Contract Roll is scheduled to begin Saturday, June 2. Multi-year encumbrances will systemically have their fiscal year 2013 accounting lines activated in MMARS. The contract roll will impact: RQS, RPO, CT and PC transactions.

To allow CTR time to prepare for the contract roll, encumbrance processing will be suspended Thursday, May 31 through Sunday, June 3. Departments should not enter, edit, validate, or submit RQS, RPO, PC, CT documents until Monday, June 4.

CT and RPO pending transactions received by the CTR Accounts Payable Bureau, Contracts Unit by Wednesday, May 30 will be processed by Friday, June 1 if the paperwork has been forwarded to CTR and has been completed properly. OSD will do the same with PCs. Pending documents will be rejected from CTR and OSD work lists if the paperwork is not received on time or if what has been received cannot be processed.

Close/Open Key Dates June 2 – 9

Saturday, June 2 and Sunday, June 3

  • Contract Roll.

June 4, Monday

  • FY2013 MMARS opens for pre-encumbering and encumbering.

June 8, Friday

  • All BGCN/BGCS for transfers submitted to General Accounting Bureau must be authorized by department's enabling legislation or in legislative action.
  • Target date for finalizing routine FY2012 encumbrances and ISAs for all appropriation types.
  • Target date for FY2013 ready payments contracts with start date of July 1 due at CTR.
  • Target date for finalizing FY2013 ISAs with start date of July 1.
  • Target date for processing all customer overpayment returns (RFs).
  • Last day to submit FY2012 write-off requests.
  • Fringe, Indirect & Payroll Tax Accounting Period 11.

Close/Open for Beginners
If the Close/Open procedures are new to you, please register for the Close/Open for Beginners training on Tuesday, June 5,  Thursday, June 7, 10:00 P.M. – 12:00 P.M., 9th Floor Training Lab, One Ashburton Place, Boston.

If you have any questions, please contact the Comptroller Help Desk 617-973-2468 or via email comptroller.info@state.ma.us

Reconciliation of SEFA Report Job Aid Available
A new job aid, Reconciliation of SEFA Report, is now available on the Comptroller Intranet. The Schedule of Expenditure of Federal Awards (SEFA) is an annual report, created by the Federal Grants Cost Allocation Unit of the Comptroller’s Office, submitted to the Federal Government.  The figures presented on the SEFA are a rollup of each CFDA number providing federal funding to the state.  KPMG conducts the Single Audit, providing departments with figures for their portion of each CFDA number. Departments are responsible to reconcile the KPMG figures; this new job aid provides the SQL code and guidance on how to run the reconciliation queries.

LCM Rules Roll
The LCM Rules roll is complete. All current Position Authorized Accounting (POAA) rules have been assigned an end date of 6/30/2012. Draft POAA documents for departmental rules for FY 2013 are available in the LCM Document Catalog for Departmental review and submittal.

In order for CTR to approve rolled rules, Departments must provide the FY13 justification in the Document Comments tab of the POAA transaction. Positions must reside in the account that provides at least 50% of the funding. An authorized signatory of the Department Head must submit the rule.  Departments should retain signed copies of the rules requests on file. 

Departments must reapply for any cross-departmental rules for FY 2013. All cross-departmental rules are assigned an end date of 6/30/2012.

Departments must also reapply for any DEACC and Payroll Alternate Account (PALT) rules for FY 2013.

MMARS Unavailable Saturday
MMARS and LCM will be unavailable on Saturday, June 2 due to scheduled system processing.

Upcoming Training Sessions and Meetings

  • Intro to State Finance MMARS Navigation – Tuesday, June 5, 9:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 9th Floor Training Lab
  • Close/Open for Beginners – Tuesday, June 5, 1:00 P.M. – 3:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 9th Floor Training Lab
  • Encumbrance Management – Wednesday, June 6, 9:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 9th Floor Training Lab
  • Payment Management – Wednesday, June 6, 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 9th Floor Training Lab
  • Payroll User Group Meeting – Thursday, June 7, 9:30 A.M. – 12:30 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 21st Floor Conference Room
  • Webcast Payroll User Group Meeting – Thursday, June 7, 9:30 A.M. – 12:30 P.M. Online Training
  • Close/Open for Beginners – Thursday, June 7, 10:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 9th Floor Training Lab
  • Webcast How to Run a Warehouse Starter Query – Friday, June 8, 10:00 A.M. – 11:00 A.M., Online Training
  • HR/CMS Fundamentals – Tuesday, June 12, 9:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 9th Floor Training Lab
  • Intro to MMARS Warehouse – Thursday, June 14, 9:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M. One Ashburton Place Boston 9th Floor Training Lab
  • 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

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 - Copy a Document ID and Paste it into Another Document
To copy a Document ID number and past it into another document:

  1. Highlight the ID number.
  2. Press the CTRL + C keys at the same time to copy the Doc ID.
  3. Click on the field where you are going to paste the Document ID, i.e. the Doc ID field in the Document Catalog.
  4. Paste the copied Doc ID by pressing the CTRL + V keys at the same time.