To: FEDLINK Members and FEDLINK Vendors
From: Joe Banks, FEDLINK Business Manager
Subject: FY2000 End-of-Year Schedule
1. End-of-Year Schedule
FEDLINK is pleased to announce that the deadline for adding funds
will be extended to September 15, for the second year in a row. The
September 15 date is only available for transactions that do not
require competition. (For more detailed information, see the chart on
page 4 of this Information Alert.) This extended deadline does,
however, dramatically reduce the amount of time for your agency to
sign its Interagency Agreement (IAG). Be sure your agency coordinates
with your budget office to ensure that the IAG is returned by the date
indicated on the enclosed schedule. To ensure that vendors receive
delivery orders on time and can process these transactions, FEDLINK's
deadlines are firm. Any request received after these deadlines will be
processed as a FY2001 transaction. Contact the FEDLINK Hotline at
(202) 707-4900 for assistance with all your end-of-year transactions.
2. Increasing Funds--Augmenting Existing Accounts or Adding New
Services
You may increase the funding in your accounts or begin new services
by adding new money to your IAG or by moving money between accounts.
You may only increase funding to cover your known or anticipated usage
of FEDLINK services--to cover deficits, rejected invoices, or invoices
that the vendor has not yet submitted. You may begin new services only
if you will be able to receive service from the vendor or place firm
orders/subscriptions before the end of FY2000. All the appropriate
delivery orders must be issued before you can "use" your funding
increases.
Signature on IAG Amendment
If you are adding new funds to your IAG (rather than moving existing
funds), your agency will need to sign an IAG amendment and provide a
funds certification for the new amount. LC will have to complete the
billing for the IAG amendment before the fiscal year closes. This
process can work much faster if you attach a billable funding document
(which has the necessary signature and funds certification) to your
request to add new funds.
For direct pay increases, where additional fees may be necessary,
your agency will need to sign an IAG amendment and provide a funds
certification. To expedite your end-of-year order, you may send in
your direct pay Purchase Order (and any supporting documentation) with
your request form instead of waiting to attach it to your IAG
amendment.
Procurement Thresholds
If your funding increase causes your existing account or new service
account to go over $25,000, your requirement must be synopsized in the
Commerce Business Daily before a delivery order can be issued. If your
increase makes your account cross the $100,000 simplified acquisition
threshold, a contracting officer will have to assist you in a formal
competition. The end-of-year deadlines give LC/C&L enough time to
handle this work for transfer pay customers and to review and
authorize appropriate purchase orders/modifications (P.O.s) from
direct pay customers. If you plan a direct pay action that will cross
the procurement thresholds, you need to give your local contracting
officer enough time to synopsize your requirement and/or conduct
competition for you.
If you anticipate a $100,000 action or any other action that will
require extensive coordination or formal competition, such as a new
serials or technical processing account, please contact FEDLINK right
away.
Forms
Use the New Service/New Funds form to add new money to your IAG for
an existing transfer pay or direct pay service account or for new
accounts of either type. Use the Transfer Pay Account Adjustment form
to move money into an existing or new transfer pay account.
Supporting Documentation
Remember to send in the supporting documentation that LC/C&L needs to
issue your delivery order. This includes: names of ordering officials
for new transfer pay books accounts; direct pay P.O. modification;
direct pay proof of synopsis for new services over $25,000; and
selection documentation for actions over $100,000.
3. Decreasing Funds--Moving Funds Out of Accounts and Requesting
Terminations and Refunds
You may decrease the balances in your accounts and use the
"deobligated" funds to augment other current year accounts or to start
new accounts, or you may have the funds returned to your agency. You
may terminate a service if you need to have all of its passwords
canceled or limit the authority to place orders. You may move or
refund the balance left in a terminated account. Because all delivery
orders expire automatically on September 30, you do not need to
formally terminate a service simply because you do not intend to place
more orders with the vendor, except for OCLC.
Sufficient Remaining Balances
When you decrease the funds in an account, you must leave sufficient
funds behind to cover rejected invoices, pending invoices, on-order
items, and your August and September usage. The Transfer Pay Account
Adjustment form, which you use for both money moves and refunds,
requires that you certify that you have checked with the vendor and
that funds that remain in the account will be sufficient to cover all
charges against the account. To be sure your accounts are not left in
the red, FFO will double-check with the vendor to be sure all
outstanding charges are accounted for before moving funds out of your
account or refunding money.
Additional Usage
Because no decrease takes effect until a delivery order is issued,
you must be careful that your agency does not "spend" the money you
intend to have moved/refunded by placing orders against it after you
have submitted a request to decrease funds. Similarly, your agency
will be responsible for any usage incurred between the time you submit
a request to terminate a service and the time the final delivery order
is issued.
Refunds
Refund requests may be processed at any time, but in order for your
agency to receive a refund in time to "reobligate" the funds this
fiscal year, your request must be submitted by July 30. You should be
aware of a federal financial procedure that can make your current year
refund available for reobligation before your agency actually receives
the refund check/EFT from LC. After you receive a copy of the LC
delivery order that deobligates your funds from the vendor, your
finance office may "book a receivable" in the exact amount of the
delivery order. This is the exact amount LC will refund to your
agency. With a receivable on the books, your agency may obligate the
funds, even though LC has not yet transferred the cash back into your
agency's account.
Instead of requesting a refund, you may find it useful to move money
into other accounts to cover anticipated expenses. This reduces the
likelihood of having to transfer additional FY99 funds to cover
deficits at some time in the future. For example, you might move funds
into your serials account to cover supplementals or bill-laters, or
into a database account to cover online subscription charges.
Forms and Supporting Documentation
Use the Transfer Pay Account Adjustment form for all transactions
that decrease the funding in your services.
4. Assistance
If you would like to review your accounts with Fiscal staff to help
plan your end-of-year actions, please call the Fiscal Hotline to set
up a meeting or to schedule a conference call. If you have any
questions about end-of-year transactions, please contact the Hotline
at: (202) 707-4900, tty: (202) 707-4998; fax: (202) 707-4999; email:
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FY 2000 End-of-Year Schedule
Transactions and Dates Due in FFO
TRANSACTIONS OVER $100,000
Require formal competition
Requests August 18, 2000
NEW SERIALS SUBSCRIPTIONS SERVICES
Over $2,500
Requests: August 18, 2000
NEW TECHNICAL PROCESSING SERVICES
Over $2,500
Requests: August 18, 2000
REFUND FROM FY 2000 ACCOUNT(S)
Receive funds for your agency before September 30
Requests: July 31, 2000
Use the Transfer Pay Account Adjustment form
NEW SERVICE REQUEST
Add any new service account over $25,000
Requests: August 18, 2000
Add any new service account under $25,000
Requests: September 15, 2000
Use the New Service/New Funds form
NEW FUNDS REQUEST
Add new funds to an existing account that will exceed $25,000
Requests: August 18, 2000
Add new funds to an existing account that exceeds $25,000 and has
been competed
Requests: September 15, 2000
Add new funds to an existing account that will not exceed $25,000
Requests: September 15, 2000
Use the New Service/New Funds form
SIGNED IAGs
For new services or for an existing account that will exceed $25,000
Signed IAG: September 8, 2000
Add new funds to an existing account that exceeds $25,000 and has
been competed
Requests: September 15, 2000
For new services or an existing account that will not exceed $25,000
Signed IAG: September 22, 2000
TERMINATION OF AN FY 2000 SERVICE
End an FY 2000 service before the delivery order expires
Requests: August 31, 2000
Your agency is responsible for your usage between the time you submit
the request and the LC/C&L issues the final delivery order
Use the Transfer Pay Account Adjustment form.
MOVE FUNDS BETWEEN EXISTING ACCOUNT(S)
The account will cross the $25,000 threshold
Requests: August 18, 2000
The account will not cross the $25,000 threshold
Requests: September 20, 2000
Use the Transfer Pay Account Adjustment form
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