The purpose of this guide is to ensure that year-end is completed on time, and accurately. A year-end is the completion of a 12-month cycle of operations (fiscal year). For Vancouver Island University, this begins on April 1 and ends on March 31.
The timelines noted below are fixed and cannot be adjusted due to the short timeframe that has been given by the Province for submission of VIU financial statements and supplementary reports. Please refer to the Year End Timelines for a chart of the due dates and items.
Please contact the appropriate area in the Financial Services Department if you require assistance.
| Process Description | Email Questions to | |
| 1 | Revenue deferral at year-end allows for the unearned portion of restricted funding to be carried over to the 2024/25 fiscal year. Restricted funding includes special project funding, research grants, contracts and other non-base funded activities that span fiscal year-end. The deferred revenue will be accreted to appropriate accounts during regular accretion processing. Requests to defer revenue must be RECEIVED by Alex Nowak no later than February 9, 2024. | generalaccounting@viu.ca |
| 2 | Work order codes for contracts, which end by March 31, 2024, should be deleted from the 2024/25 fiscal year account code structure. If you have knowledge of work orders that should be closed as of March 31, 2024 please let Alex Nowak know as early as possible, and no later than February 9, 2024. | generalaccounting@viu.ca |
| 3 | Purchase Order Requisitions for the fiscal year 2023/24 budget must be submitted by February 15, 2024. Submission means unparked purchase order requisitions with attached approval and required documentation. Plan your purchases accordingly, this is an earlier deadline than previous years. Any purchase order requisitions submitted after the deadline will be processed as time permits. |
procurementservices@viu.ca |
| 4 | Blanket Purchase Orders (BPO) for the fiscal year 2024/25: Procurement will be contacting BPO Requisitioners in late January 2024 for information by February 16, 2024 for fiscal year 2024/25 BPOs. All fiscal year 2023/24 BPOs will be closed in early April 2024 by Procurement. |
procurementservices@viu.ca |
| 5 | External Billings (Sales Order creation) for supplies and services provided by Vancouver Island University to third parties prior to year-end must be created in FIS by the business area no later than March 1, 2024 to allow sufficient time for review and approval by Treasury. Corrections of Sales Orders by the business area (e.g. those Sales Orders rejected by Treasury in workflow) must be completed no later than 4 pm, March 15, 2024. If funding is due, but billings are not appropriate, the amount due should be set up by means of an accrual. Please contact Trevor Dawydiuk by March 1, 2024 if you require journal entries to set up such accruals. | acctsrec@viu.ca |
| 6 | The Payroll Department is responsible for processing all salary costs and corrections. To ensure that there is enough time to process corrections in the fiscal, the work order changes must be processed through the HRIS Appointment Change Form and requests for manual corrections must be communicated to payroll, by to March 4, 2024. If you miss this date, the Finance Department will not process a journal entry correction or internal transfers to "fix work order balances". Missing the deadline is not sufficient cause to bypass the Payroll Department's responsibilities. Payroll of March 28, 2024 will include working days up to March 22, 2024 and will be posted in period 12, March 31, 2024. |
payroll@viu.ca |
| 7 | Travel, Employee Expense Reports, and Travel Advance Settlements - must be SUBMITTED to Employee.Claims@viu.ca no later than 4pm on March 8, 2024. Therefore, plan your spending accordingly. These claims should always be prepared as soon as the expense is incurred or trip is complete. Continue to submit expenses for these types of claims after the deadline; however, they will be registered in FIS to the fiscal year 2023/24 as time permits. |
Employee.Claims@viu.ca |
| 8 | Petty Cash Funds must be balanced as of March 8, 2024. You will receive a fund confirmation form in early February. Plan your spending accordingly. Replenishment requests and fund confirmations must be SUBMITTED to Accounts.Payable@viu.ca by 4 pm, March 8, 2024. Any petty cash related expenses incurred from March 8 to March 31, 2024 will be recorded to the fiscal year 2024/25. |
Accounts.Payable@viu.ca |
| 9 | Goods and services ordered but NOT received by March 31, 2024 will, without exception, be charged against the fiscal year 2024/25 budget. Procurement will be providing Purchase Order Listings to Departments to help them review all outstanding purchase orders. Purchase orders no longer required or where delivery date is after March 31, 2024 must be closed. Procurement must be informed of such action no later than March 8, 2024. |
procurementservices@viu.ca |
| 10 | Goods and Services received before Mar 31, 2024 and invoices not received by Accounts Payable require accruals which are used to expense the goods and services. Procurement will be working with Departments by providing Purchase Order Listings to help them determine if invoices are missing for goods and services received. Responses to Procurement must be received no later than 4 pm on March 8, 2024. |
procurementservices@viu.ca |
| 11 | Purchases of goods and services must be substantially complete by March 8, 2024 as the deadline to submit Supplier invoices by email to Accounts Payable is 4pm on March 15, 2024. Suppliers should continue to send all invoices to Accounts Payable after the deadline. Invoices submitted after the deadline that are dated March 31, 2024 or earlier will be registered in FIS to the fiscal year 2023/24 as time permits. Note: payment of goods and services that will be received after March 31, 2024 (prepayment) will be charged to the fiscal year 2024/25 budget. |
Accounts.Payable@viu.ca |
| 12 | Purchase Order Amendments to fiscal year 2023/24 purchase orders must be submitted to Procurement by 4pm on March 15, 2024. Existing Purchase order amendments may be required for changes to the following: • Increase in quantity or price • Additional lines for extra charges (i.e. freight) • Change to coding information • Etc. See PROC24 in the following link for more information. https://aurora.viu.ca/procurement |
procurementservices@viu.ca |
| 13 | Corrections and reallocations of transactions by means of journal entries can be accommodated up to March 22, 2024. The financial reports are available online throughout the year so monitoring of accounts for errors should not be left until year-end. March month end will run April 5, 2023. Any major corrections related to Period 12 must be received in Finance by noon April 8, 2024. | generalaccounting@viu.ca |
| 14 | Purchasing Card (PCard) Transactions not included on the March 25th statement (or previous) will be charged to the fiscal year 2024/25 budget. The cut-off date for PCard Statements is midnight on the 24th of each month. Note: some vendors may not post PCard purchases until several days after the purchase is made. Plan your PCard purchases accordingly. PCard Statements must reconciled, approved, and RECEIVED by Employee.Pcards@viu.ca no later than 4 pm on March 26, 2024. |
Employee.Pcards@viu.ca |
| 15 | All revenue deposits must be received at the Cashier’s Office by 4pm, March 28th, 2024 and should indicate fiscal year. | cashier@viu.ca |
We appreciate your assistance in providing information as quickly as possible during this extremely busy time. Thank you.