Denton City staff outline year-end finance and procurement deadlines

Denton City finance and procurement staff on an afternoon meeting reviewed year-end deadlines and procedures staff must follow to record expenses in the current fiscal year, including invoice receiving, purchase order handling, and cutoff dates for requisitions and payments.

City officials said these steps matter because missed receivers or late invoices can shift expenses into the next fiscal year and affect departments' budgets and the city's legal appropriations. “Returning in invoices, we need everything by September 29,” Accounts Payable staff member Ashley Adams said, summarizing the primary receiving cutoff. Controller Becky Pugh added, “You have until 10:00 to go out and receive those,” referring to the JDE receiving action that records expenses to the fiscal year.

Staff emphasized a sequence of deadlines and practices that departments must follow. Invoices should be sent to the Scanman invoice intake (per the presentation), and if a department uses JD Edwards (JDE) they should use the AP Invoice Viewer layout to review invoice images and status. Adams advised using the JDE Q&A for formal communications about invoices. For expense items that require check requests, expense reports or travel advances to be charged to this fiscal year, staff must submit them by September 22.

Accounting staff explained how accrual thresholds affect whether late invoices remain in the current year. Pugh said the office applies thresholds when preparing accruals: from October 1–15 the accrual threshold is $15,000; later year-end thresholds rise (staff noted a $50,000 threshold as the next step). Pugh gave an example that a $5,000 invoice not received by the receiver cutoff might not be accrued into the current year and could therefore be charged to the next fiscal year.

Procurement staff outlined purchase-requisition and purchase-order practices tied to year-end accounting. Purchasing Manager Laurie Huel said departments should not close POs for goods or services they still anticipate receiving; “If you haven't received the good or service and thinking you might or you think you might get it right there at the October and it could be accrued back, please leave that purchase order open.” Huel also set an operating-budget requisition deadline of September 5 for entering ORs (requisition forms) against the current operating budget; ORs for jobs/projects can still be entered after that date.

Huel noted an upcoming change in the city’s procurement quote thresholds: non-contract purchases from $3,000 up to $50,000 are currently processed through quotes/hubs; a recently passed state law will raise that upper limit to $100,000 effective Sept. 1 but the city must update its purchasing manual and policy before the city can apply the higher threshold locally. Staff said the policy update and implemenation timeline are not final and could take about two months.

Other year-end points: per diem rates change Oct. 1 and mileage rates change Jan. 1; vendors that offer early-payment discounts (roughly 2–5 percent for some vendors) should be paid promptly; POs and ORs must be itemized to match quotes or contracts (construction and professional-service contracts may remain lump-sum); and staff recommended using the Excel OR import and JDE queries/grids to streamline multi-line POs. Procurement also flagged a recent vendor price update for Cintas and advised departments to review affected POs.

The presentation materials and a recording will be distributed to city staff. Staff invited departments to contact finance, accounts payable or purchasing teams with questions or for help using JDE, the Q&A tool, the SharePoint guidance, or the contract database.