2025-2026 fiscal year-end schedule

Planning for a successful March 31 fiscal year-end close begins now.

The Finance department’s goal of a seamless fiscal year-end process relies on your co-operation and adherence to deadlines. Tuesday, March 31 is the cut-off for the fiscal year.

This information will help you plan deadlines for processing transactions, to ensure the university’s financial records are timely and accurate for all:

• Purchase orders
• Cheques
• Accounts receivable
• Prepaid expenses/subscriptions
• Accounts payable
• Payroll

Purchase orders (PO)

To ensure expenses for goods that are physically received, or services incurred by Tuesday, March 31 are captured as a fiscal 2025-2026 expenditure:

• Any purchase requisitions required after Friday, February 13 for the 2025-2026 fiscal year must be approved by Ben Suter, Director of Financial Operations. The expected delivery date of the goods must be indicated on the requisition to ensure it is properly recorded in the correct fiscal year. All POs issued must have a delivery date of on or before Tuesday, March 31. Purchase orders issued that do not have a March 31 delivery date will not be processed in the current fiscal year, as regulated accounting procedures require that items purchased during the current fiscal year but received after March 31 to be expensed to the next fiscal year and against the 2026-2027 budget.
  
  
• FAST users need to run My Outstanding Purchase Orders and Requisitions report via the FAST Webreq module. This process helps staff identify their outstanding POs, invoices paid and remaining balance on those orders. For instructions, see the My Outstanding Purchase Order Report document.
  
  
• Please execute your report on Friday, February 20. If any of your outstanding POs can be closed, contact Doris Tapp, Buyer, no later than the end of business day Friday, February 27 and reference the PO number and reason for closing (e.g. paid already, invoice already sent to Accounts Payable, vendor no longer supplying goods).

If submitting an invoice to Accounts Payable that is final payment, please indicate this on the invoice so the PO can be fully liquidated and closed.

If your order is scheduled for receipt after March 31, contact Donny Gough, Senior Procurement Officer, to inquire about how to issue an advance PO for fiscal 2026-2027.

All POs as of March 31 will be closed out (no amendments can be made after PO is closed). You will need to re-create requisitions/POs for any recurring payments and goods and services to be received after March 31, ensuring adherence to regular purchasing procedures for the remaining value relating to the next fiscal year.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding POs, contact Kevin Jones, Manager, Procurement.

Cheques

All cheques received up to and including the morning of Tuesday, March 31 should be physically delivered to the Campus Corners building no later than 11 a.m. on March 31. Any cheques received after 11 a.m. on March 31 will be deposited and recorded in fiscal year 2026-2027.

Contact Financial Operations if you require more information.

Accounts receivable

Invoicing external customers 

For goods and services that have been delivered or performed by Tuesday, March 31 and for which the revenues have not yet been collected, you should establish an accounts receivable in fiscal year 2025-2026. This only relates to goods and services provided to external parties. To ensure all revenue earned to March 31 is captured in the proper fiscal period in Banner, forward the invoicing details for services rendered or fees to be charged to external customers to the Accounts Receivable department by Friday, March 6. All invoice details submitted after March 6 and before March 31 for services rendered to March 31 will be accrued in fiscal year 2025-2026 and invoiced in Banner in fiscal year 2026-2027. Billing requests submitted for services beginning April 1 will be invoiced on or after April 1.

The final date and time to process invoices through Banner is Tuesday, March 31 at noon.

If you have any questions, contact Accounts Receivable.

Prepaid expenses

Expenses processed in fiscal year 2025-2026 that relate to the next fiscal year will be set up as a prepaid expense and charged to the 2026-2027 budget. If an expense spans both years, the expense will be prorated over both years. These expenses usually relate to conference registrations, advance seat sale airline tickets, subscriptions, etc.

Contact Financial Operations if you require more information.

Accounts payable

Review all files and ensure any invoices for goods or services received on or before Tuesday, March 31 are properly approved and coded with the appropriate job cost allocation. The deadline for invoice submission is Tuesday, March 31 at noon. Please indicate the purchase order number on the invoice where applicable to ensure purchase orders are completed and closed.  

Only goods and services received on or before Tuesday, March 31 are charged to fiscal year 2025-2026.  Any purchase orders issued on Wednesday, April 1 will be charged to 2026-2027 budgets. If an invoice has not been received but there is sufficient support to accrue an expense to the current fiscal year, provide the supporting documentation by noon on Wednesday, April 1. 

Contact Accounts Payable for additional information.

Corporate MasterCard statements

The following deadlines will ensure the proper recording of purchases made on corporate credit cards:

• March 28: March statements are available in Spend Dynamics for MasterCard card users to reconcile in Concur.
• April 2: The submission deadline for the March MasterCard billing cycle reports at 11:59 p.m.
• April 6: The approval deadline for the March MasterCard billing cycle reports at 4:30 p.m..

If you have any questions or concerns regarding corporate MasterCard expenditures, contact Financial Operations.

Expense reports

Concur submission

Expense reimbursements incurred up to Tuesday, March 31 should be submitted, approved and in Accounts Payable queue through Concur no later than 4 p.m. on March 31 to be included in the current fiscal budget.

Manual claims

Reimbursement of expenses incurred to Tuesday, March 31 through an expense report must be submitted to Accounts Payable no later than noon on Wednesday, April 1 for processing.

Please ensure all supporting receipts are provided and the expense report is properly approved and coded. Claims for expenses incurred after March 31 should be reported on a separate expense form.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding expense report reimbursements, contact Accounts Payable.

Cash/travel advances

Please ensure all cash/travel advances are reconciled, with relevant documents/receipts attached in Concur, by Friday, March 6. You must e-transfer any remaining amounts back to the university. Send your e-transfer to Treasury no later than Friday, March 20. Any requests for cash/travel advance after March 6 and not realized by March 31 will be coded to the fiscal 2026-2027.

Payroll

Deadline for vacation leave reports for the period ending Tuesday, March 31 should be updated in Banner by Thursday, April 6.  

• View payroll submission deadlines.

Research funds

• Faculty members are asked to review each of their external research funds (i.e. provided by external sources) for completeness and accuracy on or before Wednesday, March 4. Please consult with the faculty research analyst for support regarding this review and any subsequent adjustment.
  
  

Summary of key deadline dates for year-end processing:

Contact information:

Have questions about this post? Feel free to reach out to the contact listed above — they’ll be happy to help!