FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Accounts
Can I mass add account codes when creating a new cash account?
Yes, the Mass Add function can be accessed by viewing a current Cash Account record. The Mass Add function may be used to copy all appropriation, expenditure, and revenue accounts in a cash account to a new special cost center within that same fund. This process will also add the new cash account code so the cash account should not be created prior to utilizing Mass Add.
See the Mass Add section on the Accounts page for additional details.
Can account codes be deleted?
NOTE: Expenditure and Revenue accounts imported from Classic will contain an 'initial' and possibly 'gaap inital' budget adjustments with the values imported from Classic. Budget adjustments related to imports cannot be deleted.
If there is no activity against an account (no associated transactions or the account has not been used) then the account can be deleted via the delete icon on the grid.
Otherwise, the account(s) should be inactivated instead of deleted. If all accounts in a specific cash account need to be made inactive then the cash account can be updated to inactive and all associated accounts will not be available to use with transactions. This doesn't change the active flag on the expenditure or revenue accounts so they will still show on reports, however the associated accounts will not show as an option when entering transactions. If it is preferred to also make the expenditure and revenue accounts inactive, a mass change can be used to update accounts associated with any cash accounts that have been made inactive. If the accounts to inactivate aren't all specific to a certain cash account, then they can be individually updated to inactive or via mass change to update the "active" status flag equals false. If you are interested in using the mass change option to update the expenditure and revenue accounts contact your ITC for further assistance.
How is an account considered deletable?
A few things that would prevent deleting the account:
On Core > Account, review the budget adjustments. Even if they total zero, if there are any adjustments, the account can't be deleted unless all adjustments are deleted first.
NOTE: Accounts imported from Classic will contain an 'initial' and possible 'gaap inital' budget adjustments with the values imported from Classic. Budget adjustments related to import cannot be deleted.
On the Activity ledger, add Full Account Code column using More (under Account header) and review for transactions. Any transactions would not allow you to delete
If Account Change was used to change all activity from that account to a different account, the account will still be referenced in Account change so it should remain as inactive
How can budget adjustments be entered?
Budget Adjustments or Anticipated Revenue Adjustments can be made to individual accounts on the expenditure or revenue accounts. Locate the account and click to View to access the Adjustments option.
See the Budget Adjustments section on the Accounts page for additional details.
See the Anticipated Revenue Adjustments section on the Accounts page for additional details.
The Date for the budget adjustment will default to the current date
If an adjustment is posted with the current month date, but the district is still balancing their prior month (prior month is still the Posting Period) then the budget adjustment will not be reflected in the account summary reports until the Posting Period is changed
Adjustments can also be mass updated using a spreadsheet by utilizing the Budgeting Scenarios & Proposed Amounts pages to apply Adjustments.
See the Appendix Useful Procedures section for Budget Scenario Steps for making budget adjustments in the current fiscal year for a walk through of this process.
When entering adjustments for the current fiscal year the header PA-XXXX should reflect the current fiscal year (ex. PA-2020 for fiscal year 2020)
The amount entered in the PA-XXXX column should reflect the desired total Expendable amount. When the Proposed Amounts are applied as adjustments, USAS will calculate the difference between the Initial budget and the amount entered and post an adjustment for the difference.
When entering a transaction, why is a certain account not showing?
USAS will only show accounts available to use for transactions. If the account is inactive or if the transaction date does not fall within the Start/Stop dates entered on the Account then it will not show in the drop down when entering an account on the transaction. This includes Purchase Orders, Requisitions, Receipts, Distributions, Invoices, and Transfer/Advance transactions. When using an Expenditure Account the corresponding Appropriation and Cash Account must also be active and have valid Start/Stop dates. When using a Revenue Account the Cash Account must also be active and have valid Start/Stop dates.
How would I process an Account Change that would cross funds?
Redesign's Account Change behaves the same way as Classic's ACTCHG... it does not allow a change that would cross funds (if the account is a different fund code or a different SCC that is not in the range 0000-8999). Instead, inactivate the accounts associated with the old Fund-SCC and create accounts for them in the new Fund-SCC, create budget adjustments to move the budgeted money from the previous account to the newly created accounts. If Cash also needs to be moved, a fund-to-fund transfer can be processed.
Accounts Receivable
Can I restrict USAS receipts from being creating when applying a payment?
The SSDT AR roles, by themselves, do not allow a USAS receipt to be created by default... they must be used in conjunction with the USAS_RECEIPT_CREATE permission (which is included in the USAS_STANDARD and USAS_MANAGER roles or can be granted in a custom role).
How do I cancel the remaining balance on a Billing in order to close it out?
If you do not have any payments against the billing, you can delete the billing. However, if you wish to leave the billing on the system showing the cancelled amounts (or because there have been payments made to it), you may edit the billing, entering additional items with negative amounts to back out the remaining balances. The billing will no longer be outstanding and changed to a 'paid' status.
What if I entered the wrong account or amount on a Billing and I have already applied a payment to it (created a Payment and Receipt). Can I back it out?
You can reverse the receipt in USAS. (the period must be open in order to reverse the receipt). The Payment in AR will no longer have a receipt transaction tied to it so you will then be able to delete the payment. This will re-open the billing and allow you to make changes (i.e. account, amount, etc) to the billing. You can then apply payment to the corrected billing.
How do I change an AR Payment amount that was incorrect but posted with a receipt?
You can delete the receipt generated in USAS wiith the posting period Open. The Payment in AR will no longer have a receipt transaction tied to it which then allows you to be able to delete the incorrect AR Payment. This will reopen the Billing and also allow the user to post a new Payment and receipt with the correct amount.
Requisitions
How can users be restricted to only see certain Requisitions?
Users can be restricted to see only requisitions starting with a specific prefix or specific prefixes. This can be updated on the Users setup by entering a Requisition Prefix and checking the box for Restrict Requisitions. If the box for Restrict Requisitions is not checked on a user, they will be able to see all Requisitions in the grid.
Users can be restricted to see one or multiple Requisition Prefixes. If multiple prefixes are included they should be separated by a comma.
How can users be restricted to only see requisitions for one building?
If they have multiple users in the same building they can give those users access to the other Prefixes
ex. John is JO prefix, Sally is SA prefix, they can both be setup to see JO,SA they will be able to see each other's Requisitions and their own
Alternatively, if they have all users use the same prefix in one building, that can be used on multiple users for the Req Prefix they are restricted to
See the Create a User section on the Users page for additional details to Restrict Requisitions.
How can Requisition Numbers be Auto-assigned by user?
Users can be setup to utilize automatically assigned requisition numbers based on a specific prefix entered for that user. When a Requisition Prefix is entered it will be used to auto-assign requisition numbers when that user leaves the Requisition number blank. This can be updated on the Users setup.
See the Create a User section on the Users page for additional details on Requisition Prefixes.
What is the Template flag for on a Requisition?
This option came over to mimic a Classic option that some districts used by entering a "T" into the type field. That template type then allowed those specific requisitions to be left out of the Remaining Balance calculations and those requisitions cannot be converted. This feature can be utilized to create standard yearly requisition templates that can be cloned each year. The template flag can also be unchecked at a later time if the record is created as a template but there is a need to change it to an active record that can be converted.
Additional description from the Requisitions page: "Template type requisitions can be created by checking the 'Template' box in the header section of the requisition. This signifies that the requisition is a template and is intended to remain on the system for future use. This field can be used to filter Requisitions that are flagged as templates out of the grid or reports. Any dollar amounts associated with template requisitions will not be included in the requisitioned amounts if the pre-encumbrance module is enabled. Template requisitions cannot be converted to Purchase Orders."
When can users enter Requisitions for the new fiscal year?
Users can enter future Requisitions as long as the future posting period is open. When the district is ready to allow the creation of future year Requisitions, the posting period for July of the new fiscal year can be opened on the Posting Period page under the Core menu. The current posting period may still remain as June while the district is still processing June's transactions. When the requisitions are approved and converted, USAS will convert these future requisitions into future purchase orders utilizing the date of the requisition and the encumbrances for the future year. There are four rules that are available in USAS that would allow balance checking for future year Requisitions against the Next Year Proposed amount. These are optional rules that can be enabled to add warnings for users with balance checking. See the FutureReq rules in the Bundled Rules that are not Mandatory section of the Rules page for additional info.