AGA Today
Federal
Accounting Corner
Financial Data Conversion
Moving to a new system presents all sorts
of challenges, not the least of which is how to represent data from the
old system. Some agencies convert old-year data into an old fiscal year
which is then closed, while others load them in as beginning balances to
the new year. Loading into an old year more faithfully replicates what
had been done in the old system, but having two years open at once may
cause confusion and usually taxes the system (i.e., two sets of
year-to-date reports have to be run and there may not be any beginning
balances in the new year until the old year is closed).
Posting Documents in the Beginning Balance
If documents are loaded as beginning
balances, care must be taken that no temporal accounts (such as expenses
or appropriations used) are posted and no spending adjustments recorded.
This special posting logic must be changed to the regular model before
recording any activity in the current year (such as cancellations,
modifications, or liquidations). Below are a handful of examples of
document postings for converting documents into beginning balances:
|
|
Normal posting
logic |
Beginning balance
posting logic |
|
Appropriation
(Expired) [1] |
1010 Cash
4119 Approp'n
|
3101 App Cap
4450 Available |
1010 Cash
4201 Resources |
3100 App Cap
4650 Available |
|
Expired Fund
Obligation [2] |
4650 Exp Auth |
4881 Up Adj Obl |
4650 Exp Auth |
4801 Undel Ord |
|
Accrual of
Appropriated Obligation |
6100 Expense
4801 Undel Ord
3107 A/C Used |
2190 Accr Liab
4901 Unpd Expd
5700 Expd Appr |
3100 Appr Cap
4801 Undel Ord |
2190 Accr Liab
4901 Unpd Expd |
|
Vendor Billing |
1310 Acct Recv |
6790 Unfnd Exp |
1310 Acct Recv |
3310 Cum Res |
|
Reimbursement
Billing [3] |
1310 Acct Recv
4251 Reim Recv |
5200 Servc Rev
4221 Reim Agr |
1310 Acct Recv
4251 Reim Recv |
3310 Cum Res
4650 Exp Auth |
|
Advance Issued |
1410 Advances
4801 Undel Ord |
1010 Cash
4802 Pd Und Ord |
1410 Advances
4801 Undel Ord |
1010 Cash
4802 Pd Und Ord |
[1] assumes no lower-level
budgets will post in old years; for unexpired funds use 4610 (if
apportioned) or 4620 (not subject to apportionment) instead of 4650.
[2] if fund is unexpired,
post 4610 or 4620 instead of 4650.
[3] assumes no
reimbursable agreements will post in old years.
Normally, one would never
post to accounts like 4201 Total Actual Resources - Collected, 3100
Unexpended Appropriations - Cumulative, or 3310 Cumulative Results of
Operations. However, conversion does not record new transactions. It
only tries to replicate the balances in the old system, so these
postings are proper. Of course, steps must be taken to ensure that these
postings are made only to beginning balances.
If converting systems in
mid-year, try to post as much of the activity as possible in the correct
period. At a minimum, the beginning balances for the year should be
posted to period 00 or to a prior fiscal year, and all pre-conversion
activity should post to 01 or the latest month prior to conversion. New
activity or adjustments that have yet to be reported to OMB or Treasury
should not be posted to a conversion fiscal period. —Simcha Kuritzky,
CGFM, CPA
This column is provided as
part of a free exchange of ideas in federal accounting, and is not
reviewed substantively before publication. Please send all comments,
queries, or corrections to Simcha.Kuritzky@CGIFederal.com