Monthly Closing Calendars

The November 2019 period in the general ledger has closed. When running your reports, please keep in mind that the reporting environment has a 24-hour delay in displaying data. The current and future month-end processing deadline schedules are located at Monthly Closing Deadlines.

Florida Sales Tax Rate Decreased to 5.5% on January 1, 2020 for Rental, Lease, or License to Use Real Property

Currently, Florida imposes a 6% sales tax on the sales of most goods and certain services. The tax is also imposed on commercial leases and licenses to use real property. Some examples of real property rentals that are subject to tax include (commercial office or retail space, conference rooms, ballrooms, stadiums, arenas, etc.). In addition, Florida counties can impose a local option surtax on top of the 6% rate that varies by county. Therefore, the sales tax rate is 7% in Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and Pinellas County (due to the additional 1% surtax).

However, the sales tax rate imposed under Florida Statutes on the rent charged for renting, leasing, or granting a license to use real property has decreased for the past two years to 5.8% (1/1/2018) and 5.7% (1/1/2019).

Effective January 1, 2020, the sales tax rate imposed under Florida Statutes on the rent charged for renting, leasing, or granting a license to use real property is further decreased to 5.5%. Therefore, the sales tax rate for any rental activity taking place on or after January 1, 2020 will be 6.5% for Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and Pinellas County (due to the additional 1% surtax).

To accurately collect and remit the sales tax collected by the University, rental related sales tax collections should only be posted to one of the following general ledger accounts shown below.

• Account number 311318 (Sales Tax Liab MD Prop Rental – this account is used to record/deposit sales tax for rental activity taking place in Miami-Dade County, that is subject to the reduced 6.7% (2019) sales tax rate and 6.5% (2020) sales tax rate.
• Account number 311319 (Sales Tax Liab Bwd Prop Rental) – this account is used to record/deposit sales tax for rental activity taking place in Broward County, that is subject to the reduced 6.7% (2019) sales tax rate and 6.5% (2020) sales tax rate.
• Account number 311320 (Sales Tax Liab PIN Prop Rental) – this account is used to record/deposit sales tax for rental activity taking place in Pinellas County, that is subject to the reduced 6.7% (2019) sales tax rate and 6.5% (2020) sales tax rate

However, this reduction does not change the sales tax rate for all other taxable sales. All other sales tax activity (not rental related) should be posted to one of the following general ledger accounts.

• Account number 311315 (Sales Tax Liab MD NOT Rental) – this account is used to record/deposit sales tax for goods or services being sold in Miami-Dade County which are subject to the 7.0% sales tax rate.
• Account number 311317 (Sales Tax Liab BWD NOT Rental) – this account is used to record/deposit sales tax for goods or services being sold in Broward County which are subject to the 7.0% sales tax rate.

Please continue to use Department Number 110401000 and Activity Number 1104120007 for all sales tax deposit regardless of general ledger account used.

If you have questions about this change or any other sales tax questions, please email Tax Compliance Services or call any of the team members. You can also review the Florida Tax Information Publication (TIP) No. 19A01-11, which contains additional information related to the sales tax rate change.

Professional or other Organization Membership Dues

Public funds may be used for the purpose of paying professional institutional/organizational membership dues, provided that the membership is essential to the duties and responsibilities of the institution or organization. Individual memberships are not reimbursable unless there is written certification by the organization stating that it does not accept institutional memberships. Individual memberships also must be essential to the statutory duties and responsibilities of the individual. Do not include departmental/organizational memberships that are paid on an expense report.

Market Place Orders

In September 2019, all myFIUmarket orders will be invoiced electronically. Accounts Payable will receive the invoices through a cXML file.

What has not changed?

• Vouchers will still be created in PeopleSoft.
• Receipts will still need to be created before a payment is issued.

What will change?

• Accounts Payable will receive the invoices electronically through a secure cXML file.
• Invoice copies will not be mailed or e-mailed to FIU. Invoice copies can be requested directly from the vendor if absolutely necessary.

These changes will only effect myFIUmarket orders. All orders placed outside of the marketplace will remain the same.

Creating Travel Authorizations

When creating Travel Authorizations in the Financial System, list all anticipated expenses by the expense type. This includes the expenses that are out-of-pocket and paid with the University Credit Card. Do Not list prepaid expenses in the “Benefit to FIU or Project” area of Travel Authorizations or Expense Reports. Prepaid expenses do not need to be encumbered since they are already paid.

Materials and Supplies

Materials and/or supplies needed for office spaces, classrooms, labs, and other business purposes must be obtained using either the PCard, FIU requisition, or an unencumbered vendor form. Supplies are not individually reimbursed. Items must be purchased by the department. Permanent employees that need to obtain commodities or commodities and food privileges on behalf of the university must obtain a PCard.

Invoice Format

Invoices should have the PO number printed clearly on the first page of the invoice. The Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system used in Accounts Payable does not recognize handwriting. Having the PO printed on the invoice will reduce errors and unnecessary delays. Please work with your vendors to encourage them to include the PO on all invoices.

Travel

Let’s expedite approving Travel Authorizations, Cash Advances, and Expense Reports. Documents that have not been completely finalized and are older than 90 days will be cancelled or deleted by the Travel Department. A list of pending documents is located here. Information regarding report status abbreviations and how to close or cancel Travel Authorizations and/or Expense Reports can be found here.

Departmental Card Deadline

As a reminder, departmental card billing transactions regularly load the first business day of the month; program participants will have 10 days to process this activity in its entirety. This month’s billing statement (dated November 29, 2019) loaded into PantherSoft on December 2, 2019 and must be completely processed by the end of the business day on December 13, 2019.

Any charges not processed by the closing deadline will be automatically charged to the cardholder’s default accounting on file and will not be eligible for a transfer. Cardholders with three unjustified non-approvals in the same fiscal year will have their card temporarily suspended until they complete a retraining session

Entering Receipts in PeopleSoft

The receiving against the PO should be done as soon as the items are received or services are rendered. Please DO NOT WAIT UNTIL AN INVOICE IS RECEIVED.

The receiving date in PeopleSoft should always be the date the product was received or service rendered – not the date that the actual receiving entry is made. This is a mandatory field.

Below is an excerpt from the job aid:

The job aid can be found under the Procure to Pay header at the Controller’s Training website.

Should you have questions regarding this course, please call the Financial Systems and Support Services Help Desk at 7-7200 or email controller@fiu.edu.

If you have completed the receiving entry for an order or an invoice and continue to receive an e-mail requesting a receiving transaction, please contact Accounts Payable at 7-2161 to clear the match exception. Please do not resend the invoice to invoices@fiu.edu.