FEDLINK Fiscal Operations

TO: FEDLINK Members & FEDLINK Vendors

FROM: Joe Banks, FEDLINK Business Manager

SUBJECT: FY2001 End-of-Year Schedule

1. End-of-Year Schedule

FEDLINK is pleased to announce that the deadline for adding funds will be extended to mid September for the third year in a row. This September 14 deadline 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 FY2002 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 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 FY2001. 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 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. Please contact the FEDLINK OCLC team at askocfno@loc.gov or (202) 707-4846 by August 31 if you are canceling OCLC services at the end of FY2001.

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 31. 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 FY2001 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: fliccffo@loc.gov.

FY 2001 End-of-Year Schedule
Transactions and Dates Due in FFO

TRANSACTIONS OVER $100,000
• Require formal competition
      Requests: August 17, 2001

NEW SERIALS SUBSCRIPTIONS SERVICES
• Over $2,500
      Requests: August 17, 2001

REFUND FROM FY 2001 ACCOUNT(S)
• Receive funds for your agency before September 30
      Requests: July 31, 2001
• Use the Transfer Pay Account Adjustment form

NEW SERVICE REQUEST
• Add any new service account over $25,000
      Requests: August 17, 2001
• Add any new service account under $25,000
      Requests: September 14, 2001
• Use the New Service/New Funds form

NEW FUNDS REQUEST
• Add new funds to an existing account that will exceed $25,000
      Requests: August 17, 2001
• Add new funds to an existing account that exceeds $25,000 and has been competed
      Requests: September 14, 2001
• Add new funds to an existing account that will not exceed $25,000
      Requests: September 14, 2001
• 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 7, 2001
• Add new funds to an existing account that exceeds $25,000 and has been competed
      Requests: September 14, 2001
• For new services or an existing account that will not exceed $25,000
      Signed IAG: September 21, 2001

TERMINATION OF AN FY 2001 SERVICE
• End an FY 2001 service before the delivery order expires
      Requests: August 31, 2001
• 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 17, 2001
• The account will not cross the $25,000 threshold
      Requests: September 21, 2001
• Use the Transfer Pay Account Adjustment form

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