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Prior Fiscal Year Appointments

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You should process all appointments, including prior fiscal year appointments, via *DEFINE. Use the following instructions to help you process appointments from the previous fiscal year and ensure that employees get paid.

Note: Prior-year appointments can only be processed for the previous fiscal year and must be finally approved by the last business day in December of each year. Some prior-year appointments must be sent to you accounting representative before final approval, even if the appointment is created before the end of December.

Processing Prior Fiscal Year Appointments and Paying Employees

Keep the following pointers in mind when processing prior fiscal year appointments:

  • All prior fiscal year appointments should be processed electronically via *DEFINE, and must gain final approval by the last business day in December
  • Prior year documents will reopen after the August closeout
  • When creating the electronic document, be sure to have the correct fiscal year in the upper right corner of the command line
  • Prior fiscal year appointments do not post to the account, so salaries and fringes are not encumbered
  • Funds must be available in the current fiscal year for the payment to be processed, AND sufficient funds must have been available in the prior fiscal year for a salary transfer to be processed

How to Pay an Employee Who Wasn’t Appointed and Needs to be Paid for Dates in the Prior Fiscal Year

  • Create an appointment in the PRIOR Fiscal Year using the AN* commands in *DEFINE
  • Submit a departmental payroll voucher to Payroll Services, MAI 134, G0200
  • The employee will be paid on the next semi-monthly payday—see the semi-monthly payroll voucher deadlines to figure out when to submit the voucher and when the employee can expect to be paid

How to Pay an Employee Whose Appointment Received Final Approval in the Prior Fiscal Year and Hasn’t Been Paid

How to Make an Appointment Change for the Prior Fiscal Year

  • Create the appropriate AC* document just as you would in the current year, but be sure you are in the prior fiscal year
  • When processing a L/A for the month of August of the prior fiscal year, use the last consecutive dates in the month and make note of actual dates in the remarks
  • Determine actual work days to be placed on L/A, then starting with the last business day in August, count the number of business days backward to determine the beginning L/A date
  • Be sure to end the appointment on August 31; for example, if the employee is absent August 5, and 15 thru 19, place on L/A August 24-31

How to Move Expenses from One Account to Another for the Prior Fiscal Year

  • Process appointment changes via *DEFINE in the prior fiscal year to change accounts
  • Take the following steps to process changes for Contracts and Grants (C&G 26 or ARP/ATP14-9710-XX, 14-9711-XX) accounts:
    • All appointments being processed after the last business day in December must be electronically routed (FYA) to the assigned accountant prior to being routed to HRS
    • If the change requires correction to a previously certified effort, you must contact the assigned accountant and provide written justification supporting the request for prior year salary transfer—you must do this before routing the document to the accountant or HRS
  • You can find the assigned specialist's information on the Contracts and Grants Web site.
  • After the appointments have received final approval, Contracts and Grants will receive notification to process the salary transfer

How to Process Prior Fiscal Year Appointments on 26 Accounts

Consider the following when making adjustments to prior period appointments on 26 accounts:

  • The ability of the university to collect for expenditures related to the appointment adjustment may be affected if the final invoice and/or financial report has already been submitted to the sponsor.
  • If certification has already occurred for the effort being transferred, adjustments to payroll and effort may require recertification because the university has instituted a policy for effort certification on all awards in the 26 account group. You can find additional information about effort certification  on the Office of Accounting Web site.