With the University’s fiscal year-end (June 30, 2017) approaching, below are recommended guidelines for efficient and effective year-end processing of purchases.

Accounting for departmental expenses:

In accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, Drake is required to report transactions in the proper fiscal period. For that reason, expenses are recorded in the period when goods are received and/or services are rendered. In short, items expensed to a FY17 budget will need to be received before June 30, 2017.  Factors such as budget allocation, invoice receipt, or payment issuance would not have an impact on the application of expenses within a fiscal period.

Exceptions to this general rule apply when a benefit of service or receipt of item extends into multiple fiscal years. In such cases, the following guidelines will be applied.

• Expenses less than $5,000: will be charged against the fiscal year in which the majority of the expense will be incurred. (For example, if a subscription is purchased for $3,000 and covers the period of 7/1/16 through 12/31/17, the expense would be charged to FY17)
• Expenses greater than or equal to $5,000: will be split into the fiscal years according to the percentage of benefit received during each fiscal period. (For example, if a subscription is purchased for $10,000 that covers a period of 7/1/16 through 6/30/18, $5,000 would be charged to FY17 and $5,000 charged to FY18)

The University’s guidelines for year-end purchases are subject to external audit. As you make purchases during this period leading up to and overlapping our fiscal year end, it is important to note when the goods or services were received so they are expensed according to reporting requirements. If the timing of receipt is not clearly noted on the invoice, it would be beneficial to help call the receipt date to accounting’s attention by clearly marking the appropriate fiscal year for the expense, based on the above guidelines, on the pay request.

Please contact accounting at x2125 or accounting@drake.edu with any questions you might have.

Year-end timeline:

In order to facilitate efficient and effective year-end processing, the following timeline is recommended for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017.

Deadline	Action	Additional Information
June 1	Initiate final FY17 purchase orders	Please contact Caron Findlay at x2424 or caron.findlay@drake.edu with any questions you have regarding purchase orders.   Please contact Monita Jackson at x3918 or itspurchasing@drake.edu for computer order requests.
June 15	Complete FY17 purchases with vendor	All purchases should be completed by this date in order to allow for settlement of the transaction and receipt of the goods or services by June 30.
	Clear outstanding FY17 Travel Advances	Please contact accounting at x2125 or accounting@drake.edu with any questions you have regarding outstanding travel advances.
June 23	Review FY17 account activity through May	All accounts should be reviewed in Banner on a timely basis throughout the fiscal year. Any corrections for July through May activity should be submitted to accounting by this date.
	Submit all FY17 payment requests	All payment requests for FY17 should be submitted to Accounting.
June 30	Review and submit all FY17 purchasing card statements	All FY17 purchasing card statements should be reviewed and submitted to Accounting with required documentation.
July 14	Submit requests for FY17 restricted or endowed spending transfers.	All requests for restricted or endowed spending should be submitted to Kathy Veach at kathy.veach@drake.edu.
	Final review of FY17 account activity	At this point, only June transactions should need to be reviewed. It is highly recommended that prior months’ activity be reviewed as stated above in the timeline. Any corrections should be submitted to accounting by this date.

—Heather Travis, Finance and Administration