Overview: Month-End Close

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 arrow graphic  Month-End Close Deadlines

 

Month-End Close Defined

Month-End close is performed to finalize a snap shot of transactional activity for a period. Most processes run at month-end are also run on a daily and/or weekly basis. For month-end, these processes are performed for the last time for a particular month to ensure that all transactions are posted and reflected on reports. The month is officially closed when all of the month-end processes are complete (including posting.)

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Month-End Transactions and Processes

The month being closed remains open for six additional business days in the new month in order to process all prior month transactions. Additionally, many iJournals and core journals can only be generated after the last calendar day of the month.

Following is a summary of activities that occur during the 6-day close period:

  • Accounts Payable activity for the prior month is completed by the end of the first day of the new month.
  • End of month payroll data is received by Information Systems and Reporting on the 3rd business day.
  • iJournals (including uploads) are imported daily.
  • Costing and burdening are performed daily in Grants Accounting (GA).
  • General Ledger (GL) journals are also imported and posted daily.
  • The GL Mass Allocation processes for Endowments and Student Loans are run at month-end as they depend on the above items to be done first.
  • Also, in GA, the revenue process is run at month-end primarily to save space in the GL tables (this is an ITSS preference, not a system requirement).

The majority of month-end activity involves cleaning up transactions that are stuck from iJournals and processing incoming transactions.

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Typical Month-End Close Cycle


Day 1
Month-End Close Begins
Who What
  • Sponsored Projects, Fund Accounting, Capital Accounting
  • Beginning 7:00 am, Blackout period for closing PTA's (i.e. change from "Active" to "Closed")
  • Information Systems and Reporting
  • OOD Gift File processed and posted in GL
  • Schools and Departments
  • Accounts Payable Processors
  • 8:00 pm, Oracle AP module closed. No invoice payment transactions allowed.
Day 2
Who What
  • Information Systems and Reporting
  • Contributed capital process generated, journal entry submitted and posted
Day 3
Who What
  • Sponsored Research, Capital Accounting, and Fund Accounting
  • Approved owning organization code change requests due to Information Systems and Reporting from Central Offices
  • Information Systems and Reporting
  • Payroll, PeopleSoft Feeders and Student Commitment Feeder Files processed in Oracle
Day 4
Who What
  • Staff with iJournals Public, Specialist & Central (including Feeders) responsibility
  • 5:00 pm, cutoff for creating or uploading iJournals AP Accruals
  • 6:30 pm, cutoff for creating or uploading Feeders and all other iJournals
  • See iJournals How To instructions
  • Labor Distribution Adjusters
  • Transaction Approvers
  • Information Systems and Reporting
  • All prior month iJournals not approved by the 6:30 pm deadline are swept to the current month.
  • GL Mass Allocation process run for student revenue
  • Central Offices
  • Capital Accounting (fixed assets) journal entries submitted and posted
Day 5
Who What
  • Core Journals Users (Controller's Office and ORA)
  • 3:00 pm, cutoff for creating and approving Core Journals
  • Information Systems and Reporting
  • GL Mass Allocation process run for endowments and student loans
  • Owning organization changes and PTA attributes processed
  • Streamline Billing Program ran previous night; Generate Draft Revenue processed
  • Staff with iJournals Fund Transfers and iBudget responsibility
  • 12:00 pm, cutoff for creating or uploading Fund Transfers or iBudgets
  • Transaction Approvers
  • 3:00 pm, cutoff for approving iJournals Fund Transfers
  • Account Receivable Processors
  • 12:00 pm, cutoff for AR Applied Payments
  • 11:59 pm, Oracle AR Module closed. No receivable transactions allowed
  • Capital Accounting
  • 11:59 pm, Oracle FA Module closed
Day 6
Who What
  • Information Systems and Reporting
  • 11:59 pm, Oracle GA and GL modules closed
Day 7
Who What
  • Sponsored Projects, Fund Accounting, and Capital Accounting
  • Oracle Financials Reporting Users (i.e. ReportMart3)
  • Daily expenditure reports and fund reports available online, reflecting month-end close transactions
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