Fixed Asset Highlights

There has been a lot going on with Fixed Assets in eMARS in the past couple of months.  Below is a list of highlights and updates regarding Fixed Assets. 

• Inventory Observation – Inventory Observation reports were due May 31, 2008.  If your department has not submitted one, please do so now.  Forms and instructions are available on the Controller’s Office Web site @ http://finance.ky.gov/ourcabinet/caboff/OOC/inventorycontrol.htm.  Please send all forms, reports and a cover letter to the Finance and Administration Cabinet, Statewide Accounting Services (SAS), ATTN: Fixed Assets Branch, Room 484 Capitol Annex as soon as possible.  
• Generated Shell Listing – There is now a weekly spreadsheet posted to the eMARS Web page @ http://finance.ky.gov/internal/eMARS/fixed_assets.htm each Monday to list all Fixed Asset shell documents generated during the previous week.  If you have any questions please contact Jennie Wolfe (jennie.wolfe2@ky.gov or 502-564-6693). 
• Deadline - All fixed asset documents for Fiscal Year 2008 fixed asset transactions, including those paid during July with old year money, need to be processed no later than Sept. 30, 2008.  This includes all fixed asset shell documents.
• Real Property Closing Packages – Real property closing packages will be mailed the week of June 16th and must be returned no later than Aug. 18, 2008.  Please include all real property transactions that occurred during Fiscal Year 2008 including those paid during July with old-year money.  Please send all forms, reports and a cover letter to the Finance and Administration Cabinet, SAS, Room 484 Capitol Annex as soon as possible.  
• Discarding Fixed Asset Acquisition (FA) Documents – You may now discard Fixed Asset Acquisition (FA) documents in eMARS.  This includes FA shell documents and FA documents created from scratch.  SAS will post summary balance sheet account entries annually to eliminate the need for unpending shells.  Please be careful when discarding generated shells (FA documents with User ID = emarsprd) because they include references to the corresponding payment document that may be useful for reports and audits.  Once a shell is discarded, it cannot be recovered. 
• Uploadable Spreadsheets for Mass Changes – There are now uploadable spreadsheets available for FA, FM, FT or FD documents where the number of documents exceeds 200.  If your Cabinet participates in a reorganization or other activity affecting more than 200 of your Fixed Assets, contact SAS for assistance in using the uploadable spreadsheets.  (Because the upload process requires more than one batch job, these generally cannot be set up as interfaces.)   
• Custodian Code Assignments – Custodians for Fixed Assets are maintained on the Custodian (CUSD) table in eMARS.  As described in training, responsibility for maintenance of this table falls to agencies.  Therefore, your Department’s Property Officer needs to identify a procedure for the assignment of new Custodian codes.  A Custodian code may be up to 10 characters long, and the first three digits must be the Department number.  The suggested procedure for assigning new Custodian codes is to take the next sequential number.  Therefore, for Department 758, if the last Custodian code used was 7580000010, the next Custodian code assigned would be 7580000011. 
• Custodian Code Changes - The Custodian code is intended to identify the person responsible for inventory of Fixed Assets.  It may represent an individual or a staff position.  Assigning Custodian codes to a staff position allows for flexibility when a position becomes vacant – instead of processing FM documents to reassign Fixed Assets, the Custodian Name may be changed to a supervisor’s name until the position is filled.  Note that although maintenance of Custodian codes is generally agency responsibility, requests for deletions must still be submitted to SAS. 
• Fixed Asset Transfers and BLNK – Users are now able to clear undesired fields when processing a Fixed Asset Transfer (FT) document to transfer a Fixed Asset from one Department to another.  For example, suppose a Fixed Asset was purchased in Department 721, funded by a federal grant.  Later, when it is transferred to Department 736, the Responsibility Center Fund is changed to the general fund.  Since the federal grant (Program code) does not exist for the New Department, the FT document will reject unless BLNK is entered in the Responsibility Center Program field.  Note also that FT documents no longer require central approval from SAS. 
• Updated Training – The eMARS 901 Fixed Assets training materials have been updated to include this information and other updates.  In particular, several appendices were added to describe error correction and reports design.  Additionally, an exercise was added to provide step-by-step instructions for maintaining the Custodian (CUSD) table.  The updated materials are available on the eMARS Web page @ http://finance.ky.gov/internal/eMARS/manuals.htm.