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  5. VII.3 AP Adjustment Voucher Overview

VII. State Revenues and Appropriated Loan Receivables

Guide to Financial Operations

VII.3 AP Adjustment Voucher Overview

VII. State Revenues and Appropriated Loan Receivables
Guide to Financial Operations

This Section explains the appropriate types of transactions and required Vendor ID to be used on each AP Adjustment Voucher.

New York State often receives checks from vendors, recipients, and employees that represent a return of a full or partial payment previously made to them. These returns of payments are called “Refunds of Appropriation” (ROA) and result in a credit to the appropriation expenditures from which the payment was originally made. Specific transactions that are a return of an original payments include:

  • Overpayments or duplicate payments – a full or partial payment made to the original payee is returned from the same payee (including returns of original purchases made on State issued Procurement cards (PCards)).
  • Reductions and/or close out of agency “cash advance” funds – a full or partial amount advanced to an authorized cash advance bank account is being returned. See: Chapter VII, Section 10.C – Reducing a Cash Advance of this Guide.
  • Refunds owed to the State by an Employee due to Travel & Expense adjustments or for other charges made to the State by an employee in error. See: Chapter XIII, Section 10 – Refunds Owed to the State by an Employee of this Guide.
  • Women and Infant Children (WIC) Rebates due to the Federal regulations regarding the State administration of the WIC federal grant program.
  • Fraudulently cashed checks – the original payment was not cashed by the intended recipient and a new payment must be reissued. See: Chapter XII.9.C – Reissuing or Cancelling a Vendor, Employee Expense, or SSI/SSP Check of this Guide.
  • Misapplied payments made from the General Checking Account as notified by DTF – Treasury. Occasionally a check that is deposited by the payee will be misapplied at the depositing bank. The check will show as cashed at the bank and in SFS even though the intended payee did not receive the credit. The depositing bank will recoup the funds from where it was misapplied. DTF – Treasury will notify the agency that an AP Adjustment Voucher must be completed so a new payment can be issued.

An AP Adjustment Voucher is used by agencies to submit a ROA. Generally, an agency receives notice of, or executes an electronic or check deposit to the General Checking Account. Once an agency determines that an AP Adjustment Voucher should be submitted in SFS, any checks should be sent to the Department of Taxation and Finance – Treasury (DTF – Treasury) for deposit, see: Section 3.B - AP Adjustment Voucher Treasury Requirements of this Chapter. Any arrangements to have large dollar electronic or check deposits made to the General Checking Account must be communicated timely to the Bureau of State Accounting Operations – Cash Management Unit by email to [email protected]. See Chapter VII.1 – State Revenues Overview for complete guidance.

Note: An AP Adjustment Voucher is not required when an agency is returning the physical check issued from SFS. These checks are cancelled once they are received by DTF – Treasury. See: Chapter XII, Section 9.C - Reissuing or Cancelling a Vendor, Employee Expense, or SSI/SSP Check of this Guide for more information regarding returned State issued checks.

Transaction coding

State agencies are responsible for initiating the AP Adjustment Voucher and identifying the necessary supporting documents. The original voucher containing the expenditure chartfields that were initially charged is the primary source of information. The original voucher ID must be entered in the “Related Voucher” field in the AP Adjustment Voucher. An AP Adjustment Voucher that is refunding multiple original vouchers is permissible only if the same Vendor ID was used on all the original vouchers. In this case only, the “Related Voucher” field may be left blank and a list of the related voucher IDs must be attached.

All Adjustment Vouchers are subject to review and approval by agency personnel as well as OSC’s Bureau of State Accounting Operations (BSAO) – Budgets and Spending Accounting (Budgets). Since an AP Adjustment Voucher restores the appropriation authorization to spend, it is imperative that these transactions be fully documented and contain appropriate detailed justification in accordance with this guidance.

Active Appropriations

In order for a ROA to be properly credited to the original charged appropriation, the appropriation must be active within SFS.

Lapsed Appropriations

ROA transactions against lapsed appropriations should be submitted on an AP Adjustment Voucher with an Account code of: 32207 Refund – Lapsed Approps, on the credit line.

Federal Grants

ROA transactions that relate to federal grant awards must be refunded to the Federal Government following the procedures outlined in Chapter IX, Section 8 – Federal Grant Refunds.

Cash Advances

For refunds that relate to cash advance accounts, see: Chapter VII, Section 10.C – Reducing a Cash Advance.

Supplier ID/Vendor ID and Documentation

The same vendor ID that was used on the original voucher must be used on the AP Adjustment Voucher to ensure that the vendor gets an accurate 1099. Since the refund relates to a payment that was posted in SFS, a “Related Voucher” must be linked to the transaction and no additional documentation is required. The description field should contain information explaining the reason for the refund.

There are, however, circumstances when the original supplier ID/vendor ID cannot, or should not, be entered on the voucher, therefore a “Related Voucher” cannot be indicated. Depending on the scenario, one of the below vendor ID’s should be used:

  • The original payment was issued using a single payment vendor ID.
    • Use Supplier ID: 0RSNGLPYMT - ROA Single Payment Refunds
  • The refund is from a vendor for items purchased with a procurement card. For example, the original voucher was paid to the Credit Card Supplier but the refund would be from the actual vendor (i.e. Staples). Agencies must include the Credit Card Supplier voucher ID as backup or in comments.
    • Use Supplier ID: 0RPCARDPUR - ROA Vendor Refund of PCard Purchases
  • Expense report corrections, return of travel advances and other refunds from employees for non-state costs (enter expense report ID in the Invoice ID field).
    • Use Supplier ID: 0REMPLYREF - ROA Employee Refunds and Returns
  • Medicaid/HIT/BHP Refunds – specific to DOH transactions.
    • Use Supplier ID: 0RMEDIREFD – ROA Medicaid HIT BHP Refunds
  • Return of payroll correction, original single payment voucher ID MUST be entered in the Invoice Number field
    • Use Supplier ID: 0RPAYREXCP – ROA Payroll Exception Reimbursement

Effective April 1, 2020, legislation was enacted to allow the Refund of Appropriation/AP Adjustment Voucher to be used when a refund does not fit one of the above categories or is not able to be traced back to an original voucher.

When this situation occurs, Supplier ID/Vendor ID: 0RAR000000 must be used. When this supplier ID/vendor ID is used, the system will not allow a related voucher to be linked. For on-line agencies, backup documentation must be uploaded as an attachment via the Invoice Information page. Agencies who bulkload ROA transactions are expected to attach supporting documentation once the transaction is uploaded in SFS from the agency file.

Guide to Financial Operations

REV. 06/11/2024