New York State accounts for the receipt and disposition of all state resources in the Statewide Financial System (SFS). State laws generally require that all State revenues collected by any State officer, employee, department, institution, commission, board or other agency of the state receiving money for or on behalf of the state from taxes, commissions, fees, penalties, forfeitures, costs, fines, refunds, reimbursements, sale of property, etc. be deposited to the State Treasury and accounted for in a joint custody fund to be paid pursuant to an appropriation as authorized in legislation. There are few exceptions to State laws that govern the disposition of state revenues, such as inmate or client funds which are maintained outside the State Treasury in OSC approved agency sole custody funds.

Agencies receive revenues from a variety of external sources with all, or virtually all, of these revenue sources authorized in State laws, including annual enacted Article VII language bills. All receipts received by an agency must be immediately deposited to an OSC approved agency collection account (see GFO Chapter XIV Section 4.B Establish and Close Agency Bank Accounts) or remitted directly to the Department of Tax and Finance – Division of Treasury (DTF – Treasury) for deposit to the State’s General Checking Account (GCA).

A guiding principle of cash management of State resources is that the State maximizes the investment of state funds.

As such, Section 121 of the State Finance Law requires remittance of these revenues to the State Treasury at least twice a month in accordance with the following schedule:

Agencies who manage infrequent or minimal account deposits must remit revenue collections in accordance with the schedule above. The OSC Bureau of State Accounting Operations’ Cash Management Unit (BSAO CMU) reviews the daily balances of agency accounts with frequent and substantial account deposits, and makes arrangements to transfer (sweep) such balances to the State Treasury for credit to agency funds and accounts. State Agencies are required to notify BSAO CMU by e-mail at [email protected] of any substantial deposits to the State’s General checking account. Prior notification is required as soon as the agency has knowledge of the deposit date. For current day deposits notification is required by 9:30am. This permits these moneys to be invested in the State’s short-term investment pool (STIP) to maximize interest earnings and to fund appropriated payments intended to be supported with agency-derived revenues.

The DTF – Treasury manages the actual deposits of money into the State’s GCA. Transfers of monies from agency revenue collection accounts occur as wire transfers (sweeps) and are originated by OSC BSAO CMU. Additionally, bank wires are sent to the State’s GCA from a variety of sources including, but not limited to, public authorities, municipalities, the federal government and other third parties. It is the agencies’ responsibility to ensure that their AR Deposits transactions are entered into SFS for OSC BSAO approval and posting. BSAO will approve and post the AR Deposit transaction as soon as possible after verifying the deposit with the DTF – Treasury. Agencies can then run the NYGL0400 – Revenue Summary Report to verify that posting is complete.

Most State revenues deposited to the GCA will be recorded as a miscellaneous receipt on an AR Direct Deposit transaction or as a refund to a prior expenditure on an AP Adjustment Voucher transaction. Other receipt transactions have special procedures such as moneys owed to the State by a customer, e.g. Accounts Receivable receipts; or monies returned to the State that were previously made from an appropriation that is currently lapsed. All revenue transactions should be submitted to SFS by the agency responsible for the collection or management of the revenue, for OSC approval. Among several requirements outlined in the following sections, no deposit transaction can be approved by OSC until confirmation from DTF – Treasury is received that a deposit has been made in the GCA.

To facilitate proper agency and statewide reporting, agencies must classify revenue upon deposit or reclassify (utilizing a general ledger journal entry) the initial recorded revenue in a timely manner; e.g. by the end of the month that the revenue was deposited and recorded in SFS. When recording a revenue deposit, a revenue account code is used to denote the particular revenue type and a product code is used to further define the revenue type. Agencies should refer to Chapter IV, Section 3.B – Miscellaneous Receipts of this Guide for a complete list of revenue account codes, product code requirements, titles and descriptions for all miscellaneous receipt types.

The Statewide Financial System (SFS) provides a number of reports for agencies to utilize in order to measure and manage the revenue that they collect. Reports can be accessed within the the Accounts Receivable and General Ledger menu selections. In addition OBIEE Reports can be accessed through Reporting Tools>SFS OBIEE Reports.

Guide to Financial Operations

REV. 09/25/2018