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Contents

Fixing the Budget (2019/20)................................................................................................2

Finalising the Old Year (2018/2019)................................................................................3

Finalising CFR...............................................................................................................................6

Deleting Unused Cost Centres............................................................................................7

Passwords and Security..........................................................................................................9

SIMS FMS6USER BULLETIN No. 224

Fixing the Budget and Finalising 2018/19 Financial Year

Autumn 2019

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Helpline Closure Dates..........................................................................................................12

Tick Box Summary Actions

Fix the budget in the Current Year 19 (2019/20)

Finalise the Old Year 18 (2018/19)

Finalise CFR

Delete unused Cost Centres (optional)

Passwords and Security

Fixing the Budget (2019/20)It is an Audit recommendation that you ‘Fix the Budget’ to enable you to have accurate comparative budget figures on reports. The “Fixed” budget must be the Approved Budget Return (ABR) ratified by the Governing Body and as submitted to Herts Finance.

IMPORTANT. Please check before you click the ‘fix’ button that the CFR report from FMS6 matches the Approved Budget Return submitted to Herts Finance.

To fix the budget:

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In FMSFocus| Budget Management |Cost Centre Allocation

On the top right hand corner of the screen

Click on the ‘Fix the Budget’ Icon

If you receive the following warning message

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Click Ok then click into a Cost Centre line Double Click into a Ledger Code, which will open up the budget details

box. Click on Save Click on Save Click on the Focus button Click on the ‘Fix the Budget’ Icon

You will receive the following message

Click Yes if you are happy to fix the budget as this cannot be undone

Finalising the Old Year (2018/2019)

IMPORTANT. Once the old year (2018/19) is finalised no further transactions can be posted in that year, including Year End Adjusting Journals.

Before finalising it is recommended that your Year End balances agree with the balances held on SOLERO and submitted to HCC. Before submitting your 1st Termly Return for 2019/20 you should have checked that the 2018/19 Year End balances match those held on SOLERO.

IMPORTANT. If they do not agree please contact the Helpline.

It is also recommended that you have a fully restorable backup of the current FMS database prior to finalising the old year.

Tools FMS Transactions Backup. You will see the following message:

Click Yes

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You will see a message similar to this:

Keep a record of this message, as it gives the detail of the location of the backup, and inform your Network Manager so that the backup can be kept.

Closing the Financial Year

Select the 2018 Financial Year then in: Tools Define Financial Years Define/Edit years 2018 will have a status of “Closed – not finalised”

Click on Final Close and follow the on-screen instructions

Say Yes at the CFR Warning Message screen

The system goes through a series of checks. Providing you have all green ticks as per the following example you may continue.

If you do not have all the actions ticked you will need to print the report. This will detail where errors have been found. Any errors will need to be corrected before re-running a final close – please call the Helpline if you require further advice.

The system then runs through a series of final close checks.

All green ticks?

Click Continue

Any red crosses?

Click Report

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Again, once successful, green ticks will appear in the status box.

Click on the Perform Close button

You will see the following message

Click on Yes to continue with the close

Beware – at this point the process is irreversible

The status of the 2018 Financial Year will change from Closed - not finalised to Finalised.

Click on Save

Should you experience any problems or error messages please contact the Helpline.

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Finalising CFR

After running the final close on your accounts you will need to run a final CFR report, however, you do NOT need to submit the CFR return to the LEA.

Reports CFR CFR Report Final Tab 5 Balances. Check again that these figures are accurate Click on the icon

This will commit your balances and you will see the following message

Once satisfied with the contents of the message click on Yes to perform the final CFR closure or No if not satisfied.

Once Yes is clicked the following message details the destination for the newly created xml file (your destination may be different to the one displayed below).

You do not need to submit this file to the LEA.

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In the year 2019 the CFR report Tab 5 the Brought Forward balances column will now be populated.

Reports CFR CFR Report Preliminary Tab 5 Balances – Brought Forward balances are now populated.

Deleting Unused Cost Centres

Once the 2018 year has been finalised and before the new Financial Year of 2020 has been created you have the chance to perform some housekeeping.

You can delete any unused Cost Centres that you no longer require.

(Note: Instructions on how to open the 2020 Financial Year will appear in the Preparing for Year End bulletin to be released in the Spring Term 2020)

Unlink Ledger Codes from Cost Centres

In the Financial year of 2019:

Tools General Ledger Setup Tab 6 C/Centre Ledger Links

Search for the Cost Centre Ledger Link Highlight the line Click on the minus button Click on Save

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If you find that you are unable to unlink the Ledger Code from the Cost Centre, check that:

There are no transactions posted against the Cost Centre/Ledger Code combination. This would include any accruals from the previous year posted as reversing journals

The Cost Centre/Ledger Code combination is not included in a journal template

To check journal templates:

Focus General Ledger Manual Journal Processing

Put a tick against Templates

Double click on each journal and check the lines that have been entered

If a line is included for a Cost Centre you wish to delete, highlight the line.

Click on to delete

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Deleting Cost Centres

In Financial Year 2018:

Tools General Ledger Setup Tab 2 Cost Centres

Highlight the Cost Centre you wish to delete Click on the minus button Click on Save

If you are unable to remove a Cost Centre, check that it is not included in the row set of any User Defined Report.

Passwords and Security

It is good practice to change your password periodically. If you have your own user name for logging into FMS and you forget your password an Administrator can log in as sysman and change it for you. A forgotten sysman password is retrievable; however this is a CHARGEABLE activity and may entail your data being sent to Capita.

If the sysman password is changed write it down and keep it in the school safe; make sure another member of staff e.g. the Headteacher knows where it is kept.

Remember that the user name and password in FMS are NOT case sensitive. For added security use an alphanumeric combination and not recognisable passwords such as birthdays or children’s names.

The ability to force users to change their passwords at the next login of FMS has been added.

The option to only allow passwords that meet the strong password criteria can also be selected.

The strong password criteria consists of a minimum of 8 characters which must include at least one Alpha,Numeric and special character.

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To use this feature in FMS click on :

Tools Manage Users

The Manage Users screen will appear

To request a password change for a user

Highlight the user Click on Change Password options Place a tick in change on next login

Click on Save

Click on Close

The next time the user logs into FMS they will be asked to change their password.

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To request the user for a strong Password for FMS:

Highlight the user Click on Change Password options Place a tick in change on next login

Click on Save

Click on Close

Next time the user logs into FMS they will receive the following message and will be asked to change their password.

Helpline Closure Dates

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The Helpline will be closed from 12:00pm Tuesday 24th December 2019 and re-opens on Thursday 2nd January 2020

Financial Systems Helpline Tel. No.: 01992 555753