Timelines & Cut-offs

  • University Fiscal Year-end is April 30th each year, and Research Year-end is March 31st
  • General Ledger Month-end Close is the 3rd  business day of the month following
  • Journal Entries being sent to Financial Services for posting are required 3 business days before GL Close

2023/24 General Ledger Month-End Schedule

Attention - All Account Holders

The month-end processing schedule for fiscal 2023/24 will be as follows:

Year-Month

Fiscal Accounting Period

General Ledger Closing Date

   

2023-May

202401

2023-June-5

2023-June

202402

2023-July-6

2023-July

202403

2023-August-3

2023-August

202404

2023-September-6

2023-September

202405

2023-October-4

2023-October

202406

2023-November-3

2023-November

202407

2023-December-5

2023-December

202408

2024-January-4

2024-January

202409

2024-February-5

2024-February

202410

2024-March-5

2024-March

202411

2024-April-3

2024-April

202412

2024-May-3

   
 

*Please Note : The General Ledger will be closed between 2 PM and 3 PM EST on the day listed above as the General Ledger Closing Date.

*Please Note : Any paper journals that require processing by Financial Services, must be received in the Financial Services office no later than 3 business days prior to the month-end processing date listed above.

*Please Note: In order for a journal entry to be included in the fiscal period as of the closing date, it must be approved, pass both edit checks (header status edit and budget checking edit where applicable), and be posted in PeopleSoft. Departments that are entering journal entries are responsible to review their journals the next day, after the overnight edit process has taken place, and ensure that the header status is “V” for “Valid”. If the journal entry involves research projects, three business days must be allowed for any budget errors to be corrected, in order for the journal entry to be posted by the closing date.

*Please Note: MONTHLY FINANCIAL REPORTING: Complete financial information will be reflected in financial reports (including research statements) generally 2 days after month-end close.

For further information regarding the above schedule, please contact the Financial Services Main Office at (613) 533-2050.

  • Paycycles are run by Financial Services on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tuesday’s paycycle includes: Cheque, EFT, ACH, and Visa Payables payments. Thursday’s paycycle does not include cheques.
  • Wire transfer payments are processed once a week, on Wednesdays. Wire transfer requests must be received by 4:00 PM on Monday to be processed on Wednesday
  • Vendor payment terms vary by vendor based on the payment method selected. Further details can be found under the Payment Terms subheading on the Accounts Payable webpage
  • All other payments, including Employee Reimbursements and Travel Expense claims, will be processed within 15 business days of the receipt of the documentation in the Financial Services office
  • Claims being paid by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) will require an additional 2-3 business days for the bank(s) to process the transfer

  View Research Year End Schedule document (PDF, 130 KB)

2024 Research Year End Schedule:

Many research granting agencies require the university to prepare financial reports, invoices or claims for the period
ending March 31st. The following is a schedule for various transaction types, in order to ensure research activity is
recorded in the Queen's General Ledger by the cut-off date for the fiscal month of March 2024. Transactions received
after these dates will be posted to the month of April and will not be included in the financial reports submitted to
granting agencies with reporting periods ending March 31, 2024.
If you have questions regarding these details, please contact Research Accounting at  research.accounting@queensu.ca.

Transaction Type: To Be Received in Financial Services/ Strategic Procurement Services By:
Payroll Please visit the Financial Services website for payroll calendars and cutoffs.
Procurement and Travel Cards Please visit the Strategic Procurement Services website for timelines and cutoffs.
Purchase Requisitions (acQuire) March 11, 2024
Employee reimbursements and travel claims (ERS or paper) March 11, 2024
Payment Request Forms, One Time Payment Forms, Research Fund Transfer Forms, Research Payment Forms, Honorarium Payment Forms, Physician Payment Forms, Spreadsheet Upload Payment Forms (acQuire) March 18, 2024
All vendor invoices to be applied against a PO (acQuire or PeopleSoft) March 18, 2024
Deposits (Cash & Cheque) - entered by Financial Services March 28, 2024 before 9:00 AM
Journal Entries - entered by Financial Services March 29, 2024
Journal Entries and Deposits - entered by departments (ensure journal entry is valid by this date; posting will occur in the overnight batch) March 29, 2024

  • Requests for reimbursement should be submitted to the Financial Services Main Office within thirty (30) days following completion of each trip, or the date the expense was incurred, whichever is later. (1)
  • In cases where an advance was received, requests for reimbursement must be submitted within 15 days. (2)
  • Claims will be processed within the standard processing time of 15 business days
  • Claims paid by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT/direct deposit) will require an additional 2-3 business days to allow for the banks to process the transfer

(1) Queen’s Travel and Expense Reimbursement Policy January 12, 2015
Responsibilities & Approvals, General Information, paragraph 4

(2) Queen’s Travel and Expense Reimbursement Policy January 12, 2015
Responsibilities & Approvals, General Information, paragraph 4

Business Officer Communication

In preparation for the upcoming fiscal 2024 year-end, we would like to kindly direct your attention to a number of communications (see below) regarding various requests and deadlines for providing information that we require in completion of the University’s financial statements. Also, we would like to ask that you please refer to our year-end reporting schedule located at the bottom of the Timelines & Cut-offs page of Financial Services website.

We ask that you please review them in detail at your earliest convenience and forward these on as appropriate.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at financial.reporting@queensu.ca

We thank you in advance for your assistance.


Kind Regards,

Queen's Financial Services


Generic Accrual & Deferral Request

Dear Colleagues,

Queen’s year end is a process which requires all revenue and expenses pertaining to the current year to be recorded in the University General Ledger by April 30th. All amounts due to and from the University must be recorded at that point in time. In order to ensure accurate reporting, cooperation between Financial Services and business officers is essential.

Required

For the fiscal year ended April 30, 2024, a materiality threshold of $250,000 has been set. What this means is if total accrued liabilities, total deferred revenue, or total unrecorded receivables is equal to or greater than $250,000, year-end adjustments must be entered in the general ledger. Financial Services asks for all business officers to communicate any accrued liabilities, deferred revenue, or unrecorded receivables they are aware of to Financial Services. This is critical to ensuring the accuracy of the Queen’s financial statements.

Optional

If your total accruals or deferrals are between $25,000 and $250,000, and you do not have a departmental account to record the amount to, please contact Financial Services to discuss the possibility of recording it centrally. Any amounts under $25,000 are to be posted to departmental accounts only and will not to be recorded centrally. Please ensure that reversing journal are set with a reversal date of July 31, 2024.

Please email (refer to list of contacts below) copies of documentation for any accruals or deferrals no later than May 7, 2024. Journal entries for accruals and deferrals will be recorded centrally as of April 30, 2024 with a reversing date, if applicable, of July 31, 2024. If you are not aware of any accruals or deferrals for your area of responsibility, we kindly ask that you confirm this fact by the same date.

If you have any questions about the accounts, please direct them to the contacts below. Definitions are provided below for guidance.

Finance Contacts:

Research unrecorded receivables and accrued liabilities: Louisa Jennings, louisa.jennings@queensu.ca

Non-research unrecorded receivables: Jennifer Waldron, j.waldron@queensu.ca

Non-research accrued liabilities: Tanya Robinson, tanya.robinson@queensu.ca

Deferred revenue: Natalie Ellis, natalie.ellis@queensu.ca

Definitions:

Unrecorded receivables: work or service that has been performed by Queen’s before April 30th but has not been invoiced to a party external to Queen’s until after April 30th. In other words, revenue is expected to be received after year end which relates to the work or service provided before year end. This is not relevant for sales internal to the University.

Accrued liabilities: expenses incurred by the business before April 30th, but the invoice has not been processed. Please refer to our year-end reporting schedule for important year-end cut off dates.

Deferred revenue: revenue has been received and deposited before April 30th but pertains to an event or program after April 30th. Please note that this does not relate to any fees or tuition revenue that would be processed through the Student Financial System – a separate process is run through Financial Services to account for these deferrals.

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Kind Regards,

Queen's Financial Services


Leases Communication

Dear Colleagues,

In preparation for the year-end audit, Financial Services requires information on all new lease arrangements greater than $250,000 arranged during the 2024 fiscal year with a term greater than one year and that were not brokered in collaboration with Strategic Procurement Services or Leasing and Contracts Management office. This pertains to leases entered into between Queen’s and external companies. This information is required for both Operating and Capital Leases. By default, if a lease is not classified as Capital it is Operating.

To assist in determining if you have entered into a Capital Lease, the following definition of a Capital Lease is provided:

A Capital Lease is a lease that transfers substantially all of the benefits and risks of ownership related to the leased property from the lessor to the lessee. From the point of view of a lessee, a lease would normally transfer substantially all of the benefits and risks of ownership to the lessee when, at the inception of the lease, one or more of the following conditions are present:

 (a) There is reasonable assurance that the lessee will obtain ownership of the leased property by the end of the lease term. Reasonable assurance that the lessee will obtain ownership of the leased property is present when the terms of the lease result in ownership being transferred to the lessee by the end of the lease term or when the lease provides for a bargain purchase option.

 (b) The lease term is of such a duration that the lessee will receive substantially all of the economic benefits expected to be derived from the use of the leased property over its life span. Although the lease term may not be equal to the economic life of the leased property in terms of years, the lessee is normally expected to receive substantially all of the economic benefits to be derived from the leased property when the lease term is equal to a major portion (usually 75 percent or more) of the economic life of the leased property. This is due to the fact that new equipment, reflecting later technology and in prime condition, may be assumed to be more efficient than old equipment that has been subject to obsolescence and wear.

 (c) The lessor is assured of recovering the investment in the leased property and of earning a return on the investment as a result of the lease agreement. This condition exists if the present value, at the beginning of the lease term, of the minimum lease payments, excluding any portion thereof relating to executory costs, is equal to substantially all (usually 90 percent or more) of the fair value of the leased property at the inception of the lease. In determining the present value, the discount rate used by the lessee is the lower of the lessee's rate for incremental borrowing and the interest rate implicit in the lease, if known.

Please respond by end of day April 17th, 2024 as to whether or not your business area has entered into a capital or operating lease. If you have entered into a new lease that was not brokered with Strategic Procurement Services or Leasing and Contracts Management office, please complete the Lease Information Template, which will capture the information required to aid in the formulation of note disclosure for Queen’s financial statements.

If have any questions or would like to discuss further, please email Daniel Epp at daniel.epp@queensu.ca

Thank you in advance for your assistance with this matter.

Kind Regards,

Queen's Financial Services

University Fiscal Year Ending April 30, 2024

To ensure all transactions applicable to fiscal 2024 (May 1, 2023 – April 30, 2024) are posted to the correct fiscal year in PeopleSoft, please adhere to the following cut-off dates.

Please note: Achieving an accurate cut-off is critical in order to complete the University financial statement audit process.

Transaction Type:

To Be Received in
Financial Services/Procurement by...

Procurement and Travel Cards

Please visit the Strategic Procurement Services website for timelines and cut-offs

All payment requests regarding any employee reimbursements and/or travel claims, through the ERS or through paper process

April 10, 2024

Purchase Requisitions through acQuire

Payment Request Forms, One Time Payment Forms, Research Fund Transfer Forms, Research Payment Forms, Honorarium Payment Forms, Physician Payment Forms or Spreadsheet Upload Payment Forms through acQuire

All vendor invoices to be applied against a PO

Operating Blackout: April 22, 2024 – May 1, 2024

Research Blackout: April 22, 2024 - May 10, 2024

Operating Blackout: April 22, 2024 – May 1, 2024

Research Blackout: April 22, 2024 - May 10, 2024

April 30, 2024

Interac e-Transfer Requests – requests for payment by e-transfer (payroll services excluded)

April 22, 2024

Deposits – Cash & Cheque

April 26, 2024 before 11:00 AM

Journal entries – to be entered by Financial Services

April 30, 2024

Journal entries related to research - entered by departments (ensure journal entry is valid by this date; posting will occur in the overnight batch)

April 30, 2024

Journal entries unrelated to research - entered by departments (ensure journal entry is valid by this date as it will be posted before close is completed)

May 3, 2024 by 1:00 PM

Payroll

Please visit the Financial Services website Payroll Services section for timelines and cut-offs under Payroll Calendars and Cut-Off Rules.

December Timelines (doc, 21KB)