This guide provides a comprehensive resource for understanding, planning, and executing the Fiscal Year-End (FYE) process with Unimarket and Banner.
Each institution has its own unique process at year-end; the goal of this guide is to help you define that process. While understanding how the related systems behave when closing a current fiscal year and preparing for the next.
1. Assumptions for Sample University Fiscal Year Processing
These assumptions form the baseline for the procedures, outlined in this guide:
- Fiscal Cycle: The Fiscal Year runs from July 1 to June 30.
- Dual FY Purchasing: The Finance and Purchasing teams agreeing that purchasing for the upcoming Fiscal Year late in the current year (e.g., June), is a requirement and will be utilized, in Unimarket.
- Budget Loading: Budgets for the upcoming fiscal year are typically not loaded until after July 1 (the start of the new FY).
- Budget Check Behavior: Because budgets are loaded post-July 1, there may be no budget initially available for new transactions. However, the ability to purchase goods and services is still required. The Budget Warning will remain active and can be overwritten by authorized users.
Pro-Tip: Since the new budget is loaded post-July 1, ensure your "Warning" settings are configured correctly. To allow users to proceed with necessary purchases, even when the BBA (Budget Balance Available) shows zero.
2. Fiscal Year Task Timeline
This schedule coordinates activities across Finance, Budget, ITS, and Procurement departments.
| Task Name | Date | Assigned | Key Activities/Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current FY | |||
| Upcoming FY Planning Meeting | March | Controller |
Start initial conversations about year end with the entire campus team. That will be needed for Year End Activities, reviewing calendar/cycles of payments, and campus communication:
|
| Define and Communicate the FY calendar to Campus | April - May | TBD by Campus |
Proactively share the schedule with campus to help ensure everyone understands timing and roll out. Update Unimarket Message. |
| Open a new FY Accounting Period | 05/03-06/01 | Controller | Accounting Period needs to be open in Banner. To place future FY POs or Blankets to the new FY, if you are electing to have dual fiscal years. |
| Receiving Reminders and Daily Digest Tasks Emails | May - June | Purchasing | Update timing to send reminders more often to users to receive their goods on time. During the end of the FY and Accrual periods. |
| Monitor Purchase Orders | May-June | Purchasing |
Monitor whether POs are closing or if they need to be closed before the next fiscal year. Update the Auto Close Completed Orders job, to a smaller window. To get as many PO’s closed, as possible. |
| Enable new FY in Unimarket | 06/01-06/01 or 7/1 | Purchasing | Created or enabled by going to the Administration module > Procurement > Management tab > FY tab, in Unimarket. |
| Create new FY based Blankets | 06/01-06/30 | Users |
Future FY blankets can be created. But should be created with the Valid From Date as 7/1/21 > selected FY 22. Share new PO numbers with suppliers. |
| Roll Open POs to new FY | 06/30 | Controller | Any open POs or Blankets that need to carry over to the next year (e.g. extended Fund based blankets) need to rolled to the new FY. |
| FY End | |||
| Enable Budget Check | 07/01 | IT | Based on loading the Budget after the new Fiscal Year. Change FZREPRF_BBA_NSF from "N" to "W" |
| Edit rolled blankets to add funds per new FY budget | 07/01-TBD | Users | Fund based blanket orders that were extended. Can be edited to increase the amount, to reflect the expected budget for that supplier/project, for the new FY budget. |
| Accrual Period | |||
| Accrual Period 14 Open | 07/01-TBD | Controller | Accrual period opened and processing of invoices for the past FY. Until the last check run of the previous Fiscal Year, is completed. |
| Accrual Period 14 Open | 07/01-TBD | Purchasing | If you are not doing dual fiscal years. Turn off previous FY (in Unimarket), the first day of the fiscal year. |
| Close Accrual Period | TBD | Controller | Determined by your Controller and done in the ERP. |
Sample Timeline
3. Unimarket FY Configurations
Managing Financial Years
Administrators manage financial years in Unimarket, via the Administration module > Procurement > Management > FYs. Refer to help article Managing Financial Years (Fiscal Years) in Unimarket, for additional information.
- Activation Date: The date new orders are assigned to this FY by default (can be earlier than the Start Date to allow for June "Forward Dating").
- Start Date: The legal first day of the fiscal year (July 1).
- End Date: The legal last day of the fiscal year (June 30).
Note: You can setup as many future FYs as you desire. As long as they are not Enabled, until they are ready to be used (i.e. The future FY accounting period and budget have been loaded in Banner).
Editing, Enabling or Disabling a Financial Year
You can modify the Name on a Financial Year, by selecting Edit next to the desired year.
IMPORTANT:
Do Not Change the Code: The Code must remain unchanged, as it is critical for the ERP integration mapping.
Daily Tasks Digest Emails & Receiving Reminders
The Task Digest Email is an automated notification tool designed to help users stay on top of their pending actions.
Unimarket will send the reminders to users, to receive their goods on time (during the end of the FY and Accrual periods). To have the invoices matched and sent to Banner, at the appropriate times based on the Matched Date of the invoice, reliant on the receiving of the goods or services.
Adjust the Task Digest Frequency in the Administration module > Settings > Settings tab > Tasks. Refer to help article Enable Task Digest Email, for additional information.
- Recommendation: Set to Daily during May and June. To prompt users to receive goods before the June 30 cut-off.
The Receiving Reminders and Open Order Reminder Days, can be configured in the Administration module > Modules > Procurement > under Receiving header. Refer to help article Procurement Administration Module, for additional information.
- Invoice Reminder Wait Days: The number of days the system waits after the Order Created Date before sending a reminder, if an invoice is processed against the order. Typically, for any supplier that issues an invoice when they ship their goods to the user, the invoice may arrive ahead of the delivery.
- Enable Open Order Reminder: Sends email reminders for orders that remain open and are not fully received (or manually closed) after the specified number of days designated in the Open Order Reminder Days field.
Open Order Reminder Days: The number of days an order must remain open before it triggers a reminder email.
4. Essential Year-End Reports
| Report Name | Description |
| Unimarket Goods Received Not Invoiced | The Goods Received Not Invoiced (GRNI) report is a fundamental accounting tool used to identify financial liabilities. It lists all order line items that have been physically or systematically received by your institution, but have not yet been matched to a supplier invoice. |
| Unimarket GRNI Accruals Reconciliation | The GRNI (Goods Received Not Invoiced) Accruals Reconciliation report is a specialized version of the standard GRNI report. It has been optimized specifically for finance teams to simplify the process of reconciliating accruals at the end of a fiscal period. |
| Unimarket Invoices (All) | The Unimarket Invoices (All) report is the most comprehensive invoicing dataset available, in Unimarket. It provides a line-item level view of every invoice loaded into the system, including its accounting distribution, matching status, and variance approval history. |
| Unimarket Invoices (Matched) | The Unimarket Invoices (Matched) report is a specialized dataset focused on "clean" or finalized transactions. Unlike the "Invoice - All" report, this version only includes invoices that have successfully passed the 3-way match (Invoice vs. Order vs. Receipt) and are moving toward final payment. |
| Invoice Items Pending Receiving | The Invoice Items Pending Receiving report is a critical tool for accounts payable and receiving departments. It identifies potential "bottlenecks" where an invoice has been received from a supplier. But the corresponding items have not yet been marked as "Received" in the system. |
| Spend Screen | The Spend Screen provides a high-level summary of institutional expenditure categorized by your specific Chart of Accounts (COA). This allows Community Administrators to see exactly how specific departments, schools, or projects are utilizing their budgets. |
| Order Exports | The Order Export feature in the Marketplace module is designed for buyers and cost center managers who need to extract data about their purchases without requiring special administrative roles or access to the advanced "Insights" reporting module. |
| ERP Reports |
All reports that will show open and incomplete Purchase Orders and Invoices within the ERP.
|
5. Handling Crossovers (The Matrix)
Use this matrix to determine how to handle orders and invoices that cross the June 30 boundary.
| Best Practice | Order Type & Date | Goods Received/ Matched | Invoice Transaction Date (Date on Actual Invoice) | Examples of what Invoice date is used and how to handle it in Unimarket and Banner |
| Yes | Order Placed in Current FY for Current FY, Received, and Invoiced in Current FY | Prior to June 30 | Prior to June 30 | Unimarket will send the Invoice to Banner and use the Vendor Invoice Date. |
| Yes |
Order Placed in Current FY for Current FY. Received in Current FY, but Invoiced after FY. |
Prior to June 30 | July 1 or later |
Unimarket Settings:
For either settings, error would be: API Error: Purchase Order cannot be invoiced. Encumbrance does not exist in the fiscal year in which the invoice transaction date falls.
Option to Fix:
|
| Yes |
Order Placed in Current FY for Current FY. Received in New FY, Invoice Date in New FY |
After June 30 | Invoice Date in New FY |
The order is in the previous fiscal year, but goods or services are received in the new fiscal year.
|
| Yes | Order Placed in the Current FY for New Fiscal Year (Forward Dating) | After June 30 | After June 30th |
Unimarket Settings: Future Financial Year in Unimarket, must be turned on.
General use: After your cut off date, so PO’s can be submitted prior to June 30th for future fiscal year expenses - USE SPARINGLY
Both the Order and Invoice will be in the New Fiscal Year and no work is needed to manage the matching of dates. |
| No | Order Placed in the Current FY for New Fiscal Year (Forward Dating) | Before June 30th | Before June 30th |
Unimarket Settings: Future Financial Year in Unimarket, must be turned on.
This occurs when:
For either setting error would be: API Error: Purchase Order cannot be invoiced. Encumbrance does not exist in the fiscal year in which the invoice transaction date falls.
Options to correct:
|
| Yes | Order for Previous Fiscal Year placed in the New Fiscal Year (Backdating) | Before June 30th | Invoice in the Old FY |
Unimarket Settings: Prior Financial Year in Unimarket, must be enabled.
The Unimarket configuration table FZREPRF will have FZREPRF_INV_DATE set to Y. Your IT department will need to update this. Must meet the following criteria to be able to backdate:
Invoice Processing: Ensure the Invoice Date is in the prior year, to match the Order. |