Closing Out the Year in Skyward: Business Suite Edition

From general prep to module-specific checkboxes, here's how to make sure your rollover process is clean, compliant, and done right the first time.    Please note: This checklist includes only general considerations. It is important to be aware of any specific processes required by your state. You may want to access our online documentation for Financial Management, Account Management, Year-End, and Fiscal Year-End Processes to reference additional items to consider in preparation for year-end and state-specific items.   Jump to the Qmlativ checklist.   Jump to the SMS 2.0 checklist.   Qmlativ Checklist ↪  Download the printable Qmlativ checklist.
	Qmlativ Finance
+ Pre-Year-End Items 0/8   Complete all current year financial processing (processing for journal entries, cash receipts, purchase orders, invoices, accounts payable runs, credit card transactions, and expense reimbursements). Complete all data entry and corrections prior to proceeding with the year-end process.   Verify all invoices are closed or processed through an accounts payable run in the current fiscal year. Go to Menu > Administrative Access > Accounts Payable > Invoice (under Features).   Complete all accounts payable check runs. Go to Menu > Administrative Access > Accounts Payable > Accounts Payable Run (under Features).   Close all purchase orders that will not be used in the next fiscal year and move any POs that will be used. Go to Menu > Administrative Access > Purchasing > Purchase Order (under Features). Use the Purchase Order History Update utility on any purchase orders with a liquidation status of Closed No Longer Receiving or Fully Received.   Complete or delete all cash receipt deposits and accounts receivable cash receipt deposits (if applicable) for the current fiscal year. Go to Menu > Administrative Access > Account > Cash Receipt Deposit (under Features).   Update or delete all journal entries for the current fiscal year. Go to Menu > Administrative Access > Account > Journal Entry (under Features).   Complete or delete all budget amendments. Go to Menu > Administrative Access > Budgeting > Budget Amendment (under Features).   Make sure all payroll runs are completed or deleted for the current fiscal year. Go to Menu > Administrative Access > Payroll > Payroll Run (under Features).       + Year-End Items 0/7   Note: All steps are optional in the system but may be required to complete the year-end process in your district.   Lock the system while running the fiscal year-end process.   Create a new fiscal year to use for the processes that follow.   Run either the Roll Year-End Encumbrances process or the Expense Open Purchase Orders process. Look at your financial or state practices to see which process to use.   Process the Fiscal Year Audit.   Process the Beginning Balances Audit.   Roll Warehouse Requests.   After all corrections have been made and you are ready to close your fiscal year, run the Close Fiscal Year process.       + Post-Year-End Items 0/4   Note: Some steps are optional in the system but may be required to complete the year-end process in your district.   Process the Clear System Lock utility found in the System module to unlock the system. You’ll need to do this in order for users to be able to log in to the system.   Add your next year invoice number for accounts receivable.   Add your next year purchase order number for your purchasing groups.   Verify that all security users and approvers for changes or replacements to financial approval processes are accurate for the upcoming year.
	Qmlativ Human Resources
+ Pre-Year-End Items 0/10   Note: It may be necessary to move on to the year-end processing checklist before you have completed all items on this pre-year-end checklist. For example, if you will be running payroll during the last week of the fiscal year, you may decide to complete the items on the year-end processing checklist before that payroll is complete. By doing so, you’ll leave yourself enough time to prepare for the new year. All steps are optional in the system but may be required according to your district's policies and practices.   Substitute Tracking Verify that there are no uncalculated substitute transactions. In the Substitute Tracking module, go to the Substitute Transaction List. Sort or filter by the Substitute Transaction Status column to identify any uncalculated transactions. If you find any, calculate them and pay the substitutes on a payroll in the current fiscal year, or delete them if appropriate.   Verify that there are no unselected substitute tracking timesheets. In the Substitute Tracking module, go to the Unselected Timesheets List. If there are unselected timesheets, pay the substitutes on a payroll in the current fiscal year, or use options on the substitute transaction to move the transaction to history without payroll, or delete the transaction.   Time Off Verify that there are no time off requests waiting for approval. In the Time Off module, go to Time Off Transaction List. Select the Waiting for Approval filter. Approve, deny, or delete any outstanding requests.    Position Enter appropriate values in the Next Year Intent field on employee assignments. In the Position module, go to the Assignment List. The primary purpose of the Next Year Intent field is to indicate which assignments should not be cloned to the new fiscal year. For example, during the Assignment Clone fiscal year-end process you can create a filter so that assignments with a next year intent of “retired” or “terminated” will not be cloned to the new year.   If you intend to make any HR data corrections, make them before proceeding with the HR fiscal year-end clone processes, if possible. The HR fiscal year-end clone processes will clone dozens of fiscal year-specific HR codes and records from your current fiscal year to the next year. This means if certain errors are corrected after the clone process, you may have to make the change twice, once in the current and once in the future fiscal year. For example, if you discover that one of your Department codes is named "hurman" resources, you should correct that typo in the current fiscal year, so the clone process will clone the corrected code.   Payroll Verify that there are no unselected timesheets. In the Payroll module, go to the Unselected Timesheets List. Select the All Unselected Timesheets filter. If there are unselected timesheets, pay these employees on a payroll in the current fiscal year or delete the unselected timesheets if appropriate.   Verify that there are no incomplete timesheet sets. In the Payroll module, go to the Timesheet Set List. Select the Incomplete filter. If there are incomplete timesheet sets, process the payrolls for those timesheet sets in the current fiscal year or delete them if appropriate.   Verify that there are no incomplete payroll runs. In the Payroll module, go to the Payroll Run List. Select the Payrolls Not in History filter. If you find any, process those payrolls in the current fiscal year or delete them if appropriate.   Update “Locked by HR” on the fiscal year. Go to Menu > Administrative Access > District. Then select the fiscal year and check the “Locked by HR” box. This will lock all fiscal year-specific HR codes for the year, prohibiting adding, deleting, and changing any codes or records for the year (for example, calendars, pay schedules, pay types, matrices, steps, positions, assignment details, etc.).   Benefit Management Clone Benefit Management codes. The workflow will walk you through cloning deduction/benefit schedule details (incrementing existing check dates by one year, with the ability to edit), cloning sub plan rates (incrementing the coverage start date and coverage end date by one year, with the ability to edit), and cloning employee plans (incrementing the coverage start date, coverage end date, payment start date, and payment end date by one year, with the ability to edit).   After the year-end process is complete, you can go back and unlock the fiscal year if you expect to make additional changes. (If you make changes in the current fiscal year, note that you may need to make those changes in the new fiscal year.) Once completely finished with the HR codes for the year, be sure to lock it again.     + Year-End Items 0/10     Note: Unless the following processes indicate a specific location, they can be found in the Year-End module. All steps are optional in the system but may be required to complete the year-end process in your district.   Before you begin, go to the District module and be sure the fiscal year’s Locked by HR box has been checked.   Run the Clone HR Codes process to copy codes to the next fiscal year. You can choose to copy some or all codes.   Clone calendar events and choose the next year date.      Add Positions and Assignments from Staff Planning. The Creating Positions and Assignments from Staff Planning process enables you to use the Plan Positions and Plan Position Pays in your staff plan to generate assignments in the Position module for the upcoming year. Run the Clone Positions process to copy positions to the next fiscal year. Choose the fiscal year and positions you’d like to clone. Filter by Position, Assignment, or Building code, or use Qmlativ’s advanced filter option.  Clone organization charts. The workflow will clone all org charts from the source fiscal year (current fiscal year) to the target fiscal year (next fiscal year). Run the Clone Assignments process to copy assignments to the next fiscal year. Choose the fiscal year and assignments you’d like to clone. Filter by Position, Assignment, or Building code, or use Qmlativ’s advanced filter option.    Clone Substitute Pay Scales. This should be processed after all sub transactions for the previous year have been completed and processed through payroll.  Run the Update Time Off Transactions process to transfer existing time-off requests to employee Assignments in the new fiscal year. The system will associate time-off transactions that have a date in the new fiscal year with the employee assignments that were cloned to the new year. After cloning, perform step increases, allocate time off, process position and assignment changes, etc.      + Post-Year-End Items 0/23   Substitute Tracking Update your software setup to reflect any substitute tracking policy changes for the new fiscal year, such as rate table changes. Time Tracking Update your software setup to reflect any time tracking policy changes for the new year, such as approval setup, Employee Time Tracking Group code setup, or Assignment Time Tracking Groups code setup. Time Off Add new allocation schedules for all time-off allocations to be processed in the new year. If there will be any time-off policy changes, adjust the time-off settings and codes, such as allocation types, time-off types, or time-off reasons, as necessary. If there is an allocation scheduled for the beginning of the fiscal year, process that allocation. Employee Update your software setup to reflect any employee policy changes for the new year, such as a calendar change. If you need to make employee information updates (years of experience, changes in employment status, tax information updates, emergency contacts, etc.) make those modifications in the Employee Profile. Position If there are any policy changes, update the appropriate Position codes and records, such as pay matrices, organization charts, or FTE groups. If employees need to be moved up steps in their matrix en masse, run the Step Increase utility. In the Position List area of the Position module, modify the appropriate positions to make any necessary changes such as start or stop dates, hours per day, or budgeted FTE. If you need to make assignment information updates (pay rate, start or stop dates, hours per day, FTE, assignment schedules, etc.) make these modifications in the Assignment List area of the Position module. Payroll Add new pay schedule details for all payrolls to be processed in the new fiscal year. Adjust the appropriate Payroll codes, such as Benefit or Deduction codes, pay types, or timesheet groups, as necessary. Make changes to pay type and position type defaults in the Deduction List and Benefit List areas of the Payroll module. If necessary, run the Mass Add Employee Benefits or Deductions utility to add deductions or benefits to assignment pay types en masse, based on the pay type and position type defaults set up in the last step. Run the Audit Salary Pay utility. If assignment pay type information updates are necessary (account distributions or deductions/benefits), make those modifications in the Assignment Pay Type List. Verify that all salary pay amounts are correct. In the Payroll module, go to the Assignment Pay Type List area. Create payroll runs and select the pay schedule details for all payroll runs to be processed in the new fiscal year. Benefit Management Update Sub-Plan Rates for the new coverage dates. Use the Mass Update Coverage Months utility to update employees to the new rates. Input employee insurance adds, drops, and coverage changes. After the last payroll from the previous coverage year and prior to the first payroll on the new coverage year, use the Mass Update Employee Payroll Data utility to update employee insurance deduction and benefit amounts.

 

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SMS 2.0 Checklist 

↪ Download the printable SMS 2.0 checklist.

 

	Finance Checklist
+ Purchase Orders 0/5   In Preparation: Set up next year’s starting purchase order/ requisition number. Doing so will enable your team to create purchase orders and requisitions in the new fiscal year. To expedite this process, a utility can be used to mass establish these starting numbers.   Ensure all purchase orders that should be rolled into the new year are in an open status. Be sure to update any batch status or reversal purchase orders as well as close out any POs that were fully received.   Run a list of open purchase orders you intend to roll forward, and verify the Reserve for Encumbrance balance equals the balance of the remaining encumbrance of the PO.   Year-End Process: Run the Encumbrance Carry Forward or Expense Open Purchase Order processes. The encumbrance carry forward process will roll any remaining encumbrances into the new fiscal year. For the Encumbrance Carry Forward Process, if the amount is included in the budget, it will be reflected in the revised budget and may be reported with the Budget Carry Forward field. The expense open PO process will charge any remaining encumbrances in the old year and roll the purchase order into a new year with (typically) a liability account.   After: If you notice any negative encumbrances in the new fiscal year, run the Encumbrance Carry Forward process with the closure date set to the last day of the old fiscal year. A negative encumbrance could have occurred if a PO that was encumbered in a previous fiscal year got expensed in the new fiscal year.       + Accounts Payable 0/7   In Preparation: Ensure all accounts payable invoices are in an open status and update any batch status or reversal invoices.   Complete check processing for any invoices that should be posted to the old fiscal year.   Set up next year’s wire transfer and accounts payable ACH (automated clearing house) starting number.   Year-End Process: If you are using pending receiving, roll any outstanding invoices into the new fiscal year.   Verify that all open invoices are outstanding.   Run the Open Invoice History Report using the last day of the fiscal year as the report date. Verify that the balance in the Accounts Payable Accrual Liability reconciles the open invoice amount.   Run and review the following from FM\AM\AU\DI\AI: Master/Detail Invoice Activity Audit, Fix AP History Invoices Audit, Credit Card Activity, Check Requests, and Expense Reimbursement. Verify all check runs have been completed and posted for the closing year.       + Inventory 0/1   In Preparation: Complete the Year-End Expense Process, the Year-End Requisition Roll, or Cancel Requisition Quantities using the Inventory Year-End Requisition Roll process. (It's only necessary to run one of these three processes. Consult our online documentation for more details.)       + Fixed Assets 0/3   In Preparation: Tie asset values to the general ledger by batch updating any addition/disposal records.   Year-End Process: Run Depreciation.   After: Add the depreciation schedule for the new fiscal year. Once it is added, you will be able to run Depreciation for the new fiscal year.       + Accounts Management 0/6   In Preparation: Create next year’s starting batch numbers. These numbers will allow staff members to enter journal entries, cash receipts, and make accounts receivable entries during the upcoming fiscal year.   Verify all entries for the fiscal year have been recorded, including entries that may be done annually or infrequently. Reconcile all bank statements, cash accounts, payroll liability accounts, Accounts Payable liability accounts, and inter-fund accounts through the last month of the fiscal year.   Run the Fiscal Year-End verification report. This report ensures there are no pending transactions that will prevent closing the previous fiscal year.   Year-End Process: Complete the Fiscal Year-End process, the final step to closing out the year. Districts have 6 months from the last day of the previous fiscal year to complete this process. (Note - if you choose to run the fiscal year-end close process prior to the completion of the audit, you can use Prior Year Adjustments to enter any audit adjustments.)   Verify all entries for the fiscal year have been recorded, including entries that may be done annually or infrequently.   Reconcile all bank statements, cash accounts, payroll liability accounts, Accounts Payable liability accounts, and inter-fund accounts through the last month of the fiscal year.
	Human Resources Checklist
+ Payroll 0/5   Year-End Process: Complete the Fiscal Year-End process to capture benefits. You will not be able to run any payrolls two months after the start of the new fiscal year until this procedure is completed.   Verify payroll processes are complete, including payroll runs, retirement system processes, and on-behalf expense batch journal entries, as necessary.   Post Payroll Accruals as appropriate. If you post monthly accruals or use the payroll encumbrance process, reverse all accruals or liquidate all encumbrances.   Reverse any prior month salary accruals in the system or liquidate any prior Payroll Encumbrance processes.   Process Payroll Payables in accordance with your fiscal year start (July or September).       + Employee Management / Salary Negotiations 0/4     In Preparation: Create calendars and matrices for the new year. Use the same calendar code from year to year (the calendar description, however, can be unique). Using the same code will be helpful when rolling calendars in employee management and substitute tracking. It will also allow employees to request time off in the next fiscal year.   Add a unique identifier to any assignments that should not be rolled into the next fiscal year. For example, a job code called ‘temporary’ could be created and tagged to any assignments that should not be rolled into the new fiscal year. During the roll process, these temporary assignments can easily be excluded.   Refer to our online documentation for further details on either closing the year in Employee Management or starting the New Year in Salary Negotiations. The module used is typically dictated based on your state residence.   After: Use Employee Letters to create salary notices or contract letters. These forms can be displayed within Employee Access for employees to verify electronically.     + Time Off 0/1   Year-End Process: Allocate time off for the new fiscal year. Allocation amounts are determined by the setup on an employee’s time off code. Be sure to check whether your state has any additional items to consider.     + Insurance Tracking 0/4   Year-End Process: Run the Insurance Tracking Roll process if necessary. This process may or may not need to be run, depending on your district’s insurance year.   Verify that all cash receipts have been entered and updated in the system.   Verify that all Estimates and/or Billings have been run and updated in the system.   Run the Insurance Tracking Roll process if necessary.       + Sub Tracking 0/1   Year-End Process: Roll calendars and reset each substitute’s counter for the upcoming year.     + Employee Access 0/1   Year-End Process: Update employees’ calendars attached to the Time Off tab in Profile. Updated calendars will allow employees to request date ranges of time off. Use either Mass Assign Profile Calendars (found under Time Off Date Range Entry Set Up within Employee Access) or the Calendar Codes Mass Change process (found within the time off utilities).       + TrueTime 0/1   Year-End Process: Update calendars on timekeeping rule groups. Doing so will assign any paid holidays or non-working days in the new year to employees’ time sheets.       + Fast Track 0/1   Year-End Process: Roll posted positions to the new employee management plan. (This process could also be handled when running the year-end processes within Employee Management.)       + Accounts Receivable 0/7   In Preparation: Clear all batch activity by updating or deleting. If any batch activity exists, the year-end process cannot proceed.   Verify that reversal records have been updated for all fiscal years.   Update all batch payments.   Run the Open to History update to verify that all fully paid, open invoices have been moved to history status.   Verify that all Accounts Receivable refunds have been processed for the fiscal year.   Run the Accounts Receivable Aging report through the last day of the fiscal year with a sort by accrual account and a page break on accrual account.   Verify the total due vs. Accounts Receivable asset accrual account balance.       + General Inputs 0/3   In Preparation: Verify that there are no WIP and batch activity entries in the following areas: Journal Entries, Cash Receipts, Accounts Receivable, Student Billing, and Previous Year Adjustments.   Approve or deny any submitted journal entries.   Delete or update any WIP or batch activity, as appropriate.       + Budget Management 0/3   In Preparation: Verify that there is no WIP and batch activity in the Budget Revisions or Budget Transfers area.   Approve or deny any submitted transfers.   Delete or update any WIP or Batch activity, as appropriate.

We hope these checklists will help you simplify your year-end processing. If you need further assistance, we're more than happy to help. Need a refresher on all the different support options available to you? Check out Know Your Skyward Support Options today!