General Structure of Accounts

Staff

Accounting
Home

Business Affairs
Home

The University of Texas operates on a 12-month fiscal year which runs from September 1 to August 31. Budgets, appointments, and external reporting are all done for this 12-month period. A lot of accounting activity takes place as the old fiscal year ends and the new fiscal year begins.

In July or August, the Director of Accounting will forward a memorandum to Deans, Directors, Department Heads, and other Administrative personnel establishing the year-end deadlines. The fiscal year ends August 31. These deadlines are critical and help to ensure timely processing of the Annual Financial Report.

Normally, departments will ONLY have through the first week of September to process documents relating to the prior fiscal year.
The service date fields in DEFINE are used to determine which fiscal year to record the expenditure and/or income. The Office of Accounting will run programs in DEFINE that will move expenditures and/or income to the appropriate fiscal year based on the service dates of the documents.
Beginning with FY 07-08 fiscal year-end, only expenditures that are greater than $1,000 per item will be accrued.

13th Month
This month will include such documents as VP2, VT5, and VP5 with service dates for the prior fiscal year. this month will also include closing entries created by Accounting Services that move expenditures and/or income to the appropriate fiscal year based on service dates. Closing entries include accruals, prepaids and deferred revenue.

Balance Forward
The Office of Accounting will run programs in DEFINE to roll balances forward from the prior fiscal year to the current fiscal year (September). This activity is recorded in the 14th month of the new fiscal year. Not all fund groups are automatically rolled forward. The Associate Vice President for Financial Affairs and the Assistant Vice President for Budget and Financial Planning determine what fund group will roll.

Last Business Day of the Fiscal Year
The final check run of the year will be on the last business day in August. It will be an early check run before the business day begins. NO DOCUMENTS SHOULD BE CREATED IN DEFINE ON THIS DAY. Any document created on this day will be returned to the creator. The creator will have to re-enter the document in DEFINE the next business day.

Example of a Typical Year-End Schedule

Mid-August	Appointment documents are due. The budget for the fiscal year may be viewed in DEFINE
Last week in August	Deposits, petty cash, inventory transfers and vouchers to be included on final check run for the year
First/second week of September	The month of August is closed. August statements of accounts are mailed. All documents for prior fiscal year are due and are recorded in the 13^th month. Fiscal year is closed.

How Documents are Recorded at Year-End
Documents entered in August, with current fiscal year service dates, will be recorded in August. Documents entered in the first week of September, with current fiscal year service dates, will be recorded in the 13th month.

Documents entered in August, with service dates for the next fiscal year, will be reversed out of the current year in the 13th month resulting in the expenditure actually being recorded in September.

Definitions

Accrual	Recording of an expenditure already incurred by receipt of goods or service, but not yet billed by year-end. Materiality threshold of $1,000 per item.
Prepaid Expenditure	Expenditures invoiced and paid in the current fiscal year that relate to the next fiscal year. (paid in advance). Materiality threshold of $1,000 per item.
Deferred Revenue	Cash payments received in the current fiscal year, but not yet earned by year-end (e.g. student pays fall tuition in August prior to September 1st)