• Introduction
• Accessing the Annual Financial Report
• New
• Helpful Hints
• Banner Icons
• The Main Menu
  • Unit Questions
  • Identify Enterprises
  • Departments
  • Schedule of Officials
  • Financial Data by Fund
    • Receipts
    • Disbursements
    • Fund Type
  • Financial Data by Fund- Schools
  • Capital Assets
  • Grants
    • Grant Upload
  • Accounts Payable/Receivable
  • Transfers
  • Interfund Loan Schedule
  • Debt
  • Leases
  • Financial Assistance to Non-Governmental Entities
  • Pensions
  • Other Postemployment Benefits
  • Tax Abatement
  • Upload Public Official Surety Bonds
  • Upload Accrual Financial Statements
  • TA-7 (Townships Only)
  • Disbursements by Vendor (Townships Only)
  • Upload Files
  • Annual Report Outputs
  • Financial Statement/SEFA
  • Review Submission
  • Submit Annual Report
• Getting Help
• Frequently Asked Questions
• TA-7 Detailed Instructions
• Upload - Error Reports and Messages
• Upload - Error Report - Schools

Accessing the Annual Financial Report

Gateway Access Instructions

As an authorized user of the Indiana Gateway for Government Units, you will have a User Name and password to access the Gateway program. Your User Name is the e-mail address on file with DLGF and/or SBOA. You will be responsible for all information entered into Gateway under your User Name and password. For additional information related to computer access and User Names and passwords see the Frequently Asked Questions.

Web Address: https://gateway.ifionline.org/login.aspx

To access the Gateway program, open your internet browser and enter the web address above into the browser, and then press “Enter” on your keyboard. Note that this is a secure website so it begins with https. Please bookmark this web address.

Web Browser Compatibility

Gateway is compatible with Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. Microsoft Internet Explorer is no longer supported.

Beginning with the June 30 and December 31, 2023 years:

We will roll forward the Schedule of Officials information from the prior year.  You will need to review and make any updates, then check off on your review at the bottom to complete the schedule.

There will be an option to document a 2nd party review of the AFR after it is submitted. Anyone with editor or read-only access may document their review. This may be used as evidence this internal control is in place.

There are several new questions on the Unit Questions screen.

There is an upload option now available for the Grant Schedule in addition to the manual method.

There is a new Fund Type schedule where you will review and complete the selection of Fund Types for each of your funds.

The capital assets section has been expanded.  Assets have been divided into depreciable and non-depreciable classes and an accumulated depreciation section has been added.

An Interfund Loan schedule has been added to report the balance of interfund loans at year end.

The Debt Schedule now includes long term and short term sections.

There is a new Tax Abatement Schedule to report abatements that impact your unit.

Submitters can click "User Permissions" on the select unit screen to see all the users with submitter, editor or read-only access to the application for their unit/s.

Townships no longer have to advertise Detailed Receipts and Disbursements by Vendor.

Helpful Hints

Compiling Information: The first thing you will want to do is compile the information needed to work on the Annual Financial Report. For a list of items you’ll need, see Frequently Asked Questions.

Scroll Bars: Some grids contain scroll bars on the bottom and/or right hand side. Some screens also contain scroll bars on the far right hand side and are not associated with a grid. Since not all data is visible without scrolling, it will be necessary to use these scroll bars.

Screen Resolution: Your desktop screen resolution and the size setting in your browser could affect the amount of scrolling that is necessary.

Navigation between Screens: Do not use the back button on your internet browser when navigating between screens. Instead, use the navigation links, called breadcrumbs, found just under the header bar. These breadcrumbs also help to indicate where you are in the application. You can also click on the “Return to AFR Main Menu” button to navigate between sections.

Saving Entered Data: The “Save All Work” button appears at the top and bottom of the data entry screens. You should press “Enter” on your keyboard to save your work. The “Save All Work” button was designed to provide additional assurance that the data is saved, however this button is not working consistently. When pressing “Enter” make sure there are no data validity errors. Any information entered after an error message has been received may not be saved. See the following paragraphs for additional information.  

Error Messages: If the data you enter is not in the proper format, an error message may appear in or near the cell/field containing the error, or the error message may appear at the bottom of the grid. If there is an error message, the data in the affected cell/field will not be saved. In some instances the data in the entire row or entire screen will not be saved. Use the refresh button on your browser or return to the Main Menu and navigate back to the section you were working on to determine if the data was saved. Each data validity error should be corrected before entering additional information.

Confirmation That Data Was Saved: After entering data in a row within a grid, press “Enter” on your keyboard and a “Data Posted” message may appear at the bottom of the grid indicating that the data has been saved. This provides further confirmation that your data did not have formatting errors that prevented your data from being saved. However, it’s possible that previously entered data may not save even if subsequently entered data does post. 

Viewing Data Posted or Error Messages: When entering data, if there is a scroll bar on the far right side, position the scroll bar so that the area below the grid is visible. This will enable you to become aware of any error messages or view the Data Posted message that appears when pressing “Enter” on your keyboard. This is especially important since error messages may disappear when moving to a different row, grid or screen. 

Required Entries: Some blank cells within the grid contain a blue “Required” indicator. Data must be entered in each of these cells. Enter 0 (zero) for any non-applicable cells that require a dollar amount. If valid data is not entered in each of these required cells, nothing in the row will be saved.  

Entering Amounts: When entering dollar amounts, do not enter dollar signs or commas. When entering cents you must use a decimal point, but the decimal point is optional when entering whole dollar amounts. For example, the following are acceptable formats for entering $50,000.00 or ten cents: 
                50000                 .10
                50000.00            .1
                050000                0.10
                                            00.1

Adding Rows: Click on the “Add Row” button at the top right of the grids to add a new row.

Deleting Rows: Click on the red X icon at the beginning of the grid row to delete the row.

Inactivity Indicator: For security purposes and to limit resource usage, after 20 minutes of inactivity the Gateway system will time out. To resume your work, re-enter your User Name and password. A stop watch is located in the top right corner of the screen to notify you of the time remaining.

Navigation within Grids: To navigate within the grids, click on the desired cell, enter values and then press “Tab” on your keyboard, or click on another cell in the grid, just as you would with a spreadsheet. Be sure to press “Enter” on your keyboard at the end of each row of data.

Search Functionality: To more quickly find a fund, receipt classification, disbursement classification, or other data within a screen simultaneously press the "Ctrl" and "F" on your keyboard and it will open up a “Find” box within the browser. Then type in the word or characters you want to find.

Numbering Funds: The report sort order is based upon the beginning digits of your local fund number. Depending upon how many digits are in your largest fund number you may want to add any necessary leading zeros so that your funds are not listed in an unexpected order.

Sorting Data within Grids: You may sort rows within some grids by clicking on the column heading. However, not all columns are enabled for sorting or sort amounts numerically.

Dropdown Lists: Dropdown lists are available for some cells to assist in selecting valid options.

Submission Errors and Warnings: The Submit Annual Report section contains a list of submission errors and warnings. Any errors must be fixed before the Annual Financial Report can be submitted. Warnings may potentially be a problem, but will not prevent you from submitting your Annual Financial Report to SBOA. If you only have Edit rights, you should use the Review Submission section on the Main Menu to check for submission errors and warnings. You can then review and correct the errors before the Submitter actually submits the Annual Financial Report. 

Multiple Users Entering Data: More than one user can enter data on the Annual Financial Report, but they should not enter data on the same sections at the same time. For example, two users should not enter grant data at the same time.

Printed Hard Copy Reports: Do not send any hard copy reports to SBOA, including any of the Annual Financial Report sections, the Township Assistance Statistical Report (TA-7), the Supplemental Annual Financial Reports or a copy of the Proof of Publication.

For more information, see the Frequently Asked Questions.

Unit Questions

The Unit Questions will help determine the specific parts of the Annual Financial Report that are appropriate to your local unit and determine what appears on your Main Menu. Once you have selected Yes or No to each question, click on the “Proceed” button at the bottom of the screen.

Please note the questions related to internal control at the bottom of the screen. You are not required to upload a certification of your internal control. For more information on Internal Control Standards, please see our website.

If any of the Unit Questions are initially answered incorrectly, the answers can be changed by returning to the Unit Questions link located on the Main Menu. Please be aware that changing the answer to a Unit Question after you have entered data for that section may cause data within the corresponding section to be lost.

For more information, see the Frequently Asked Questions.

Identify Enterprises

The Identify Enterprises section will only appear on your menu if you answered Yes to the Unit Question related to enterprises. Examples of enterprises include utilities, public transportation, convention centers, parking garages, airports, and internet services.

When adding enterprise names to the grid, related enterprises should not be combined. For example, the Water and Wastewater utilities should not be combined even if they have common billing and are operated by the same staff from the same office.

Enterprises that are utilities should simply be named Electric, Gas, Solid Waste, Storm Water, Trash, Wastewater, Water, etc. If the enterprise isn’t a utility, the enterprise name should be based upon the actual name (e.g. Rose Garden Cemetery).

Note that there is a dropdown menu for the Enterprise Type. If none of the categories adequately explain your enterprise, select “Other Enterprise”.

The Description cell does not contain a blue “Required” indicator. As a result, this cell is optional.

For those local units utilizing the file upload process, it’s preferable that the enterprises be added before uploading the files. When proceeding from the Unit Questions, you will be automatically directed to the Identify Enterprises section. It is recommended that after the Identify Enterprises section is completed, you should return to the Main Menu and then select Upload Files.

Once the files are uploaded, you will be directed to another screen to link the enterprise funds in the upload files to the previously defined enterprises. If at this point you need to add additional enterprises, there will be an “Add Enterprise” button on the screen to define and link additional enterprises. See the Upload Files section for additional information.

Departments

Counties, cities, towns and townships with a departmentalized general fund can define departments by placing a checkmark in the check box next to the most applicable Standard Department Name. Not all departments appear on the first screen. To navigate to additional Standard Department Names scroll down to the bottom of the screen and use the buttons to advance to additional screens containing Standard Department Names. Your departments should have been pre-populated based on your prior year Annual Financial Report submission. However, if the file upload process is utilized these will be overwritten.

For counties, the departments checked can also be used for the county funds: LIT Special Purpose, LIT-Economic Development, and Rainy Day.

This section uses a “check box” method and the columns can be sorted by clicking on the column heading. If some of your departments can’t be matched with a Standard Department Name, click on one of the Home Rule Departments that appear at the end of the list. Click on the “Add Alias” button to enter the Local Department Name used within your accounting records. If a county uses departments to account for their Township Assessors’ disbursements, the township names should be entered by clicking on the “Add Alias” buttons associated with Department Numbers such as 0013 and Standard Department Names of “_______________Twp Assessor”.

When you have finished selecting all of the applicable departments, click on the “Return to AFR Main Menu” button or the AFR Main Menu breadcrumb at the top of the screen.

Note in the screenshot below that there are generic departments, referred to as “Home-Rule Departments” that appear toward the end of the list. To enter the department name used within your accounting records click the check box on the left and then click on the “Add Alias” button. This will cause the screen to turn gray except for the data entry box.

Schedule of Officials

Enter information regarding officials and contact information. Enter the current year official, which would be the newly elected official or the official at the time the AFR is submitted. The official/director for schools, libraries and special districts is the Treasurer/Controller or Director. There is also space for prior officials if a different individual held this position since the prior audit. The Primary Contact Person is the person that is filling out the Annual Financial Report. This is usually the “Submitter”, however, this could be someone else delegated by the official that has the more limited Editor rights.  The information you entered the prior year will be prepopulated for your convenience.  Please review each item and update where needed before checking the "Mark Complete" box at the bottom.

The fields Primary Contact Person, Office Street Address, Office City, Office Zip, Office Phone and Office Email Address are now required and cannot be left blank.

The official is responsible for submitting a complete and accurate Annual Financial Report regardless of who entered or reviewed the data. For more details on user rights and how to obtain User Names for your staff see: http://www.in.gov/sboa/files/UserAccount.pdf. The contents of this section are dependent upon the type of local unit, so your screen may look slightly different.

Below is an example of the grid for Utility Superintendent. Many units have a Superintendent for each Utility/Enterprise. We have included grids for 7 superintendents. Fill out the appropriate number of grids for your Utility/Enterprise superintendents and leave the rest blank. Be sure to scroll down to fill out the rest of the information on the Schedule of Officials.

There are three fields to enter Unique Entity Identifier(UEI)  numbers and Federal EIN numbers. Most local units will only have one UEI number and Federal EIN so any extra fields should be left blank. Additional UEI and Federal EIN fields were provided for local units that may have multiple numbers. If your unit has not received any Federal Grants, you may not have a  number. If you don’t have a UEI number, just leave this field blank.

Note in the screenshot below that there is a “Mark Complete” check box at the bottom of the screen. To help ensure that this schedule has been completed, you will not be able to submit the Annual Financial Report unless you have checked the “Mark Complete” check box. By checking this box, you are acknowledging that all applicable fields have been completed and any blank fields are not applicable to your local unit. The Schedule of Officials status that appears on the Main Menu will be shown as “Complete” once this box is checked.

For more information, see the Frequently Asked Questions.

Financial Data by Fund

Note: Schools- See "Financial Data by Fund-Schools" section. Charter Schools, Housing Authorities, and Hospitals will not have this section since your financial data is obtained via an alternative method.

In order to reduce your data entry work, your funds may have been pre-populated with their Beginning Cash and Investment Balances based upon the ending balances per your prior year end Annual Financial Report. 

Please carefully review the fund names, numbers and balances to make sure they match your records. If you had any adjustments that were not entered in Gateway, you will need to enter the corrections. You may need to add missing or new funds. You can correct beginning balance errors by simply typing over the amounts in the Financial Data by Fund section. You will also be able to add and delete funds as well as change fund names and numbers. However, if you upload files, this step will not be necessary as the data in the upload files will overwrite the prepopulated fund names, numbers, and beginning balances.

If you have enterprises, also verify that all enterprises are properly identified and the funds are associated to the correct enterprise. For additional information related to enterprises see the Identify Enterprises section of this User Guide and/or Frequently Asked Questions #52 -56.

The following is an example of how your reports may look before any data has been entered in the Annual Financial Report. Note that fund names, numbers and beginning balances have been prepopulated. You may want to edit the fund numbers via the Financial Data by Fund section by clicking on the “Edit” icon. By adding leading zeros to the fund number, the funds will appear in the desired order. However, if you choose to use the Upload File process any preexisting fund names, numbers and balances will be overwritten so there is no reason to make any corrections prior to running the Upload File process.

Note above that the fund numbers may not appear in numerical order because the leading zeros have not been included as part of the local fund number. Once you add leading zeros to the pre-populated fund number, the reports will list funds in the desired order.

For Counties, Cities, Towns and Townships with Offices/Departments that Hold Outside Funds

Supplemental Annual Reports forms and instructions should be distributed by you to any offices or departments that hold funds outside of your financial records. The forms, instructions and additional information are located at http://www.in.gov/sboa/4847.htm. You must scroll down to the Gateway, Annual Financial Report section. The forms should be completed and returned to you by January 20th so that you have time to include this information into your Annual Financial Report.

For Townships

Each township should utilize the standard fund called “Township Assistance Fund” (or the new Distressed Township standard funds if you qualify as a distressed township) or there will be no mechanism to break down your disbursements by the classifications that are unique to this fund. The Township Assistance Fund has probably rolled forward from the previous year. However, if the Township Assistance Fund does not already exist or has been deleted, you will need to add it. If you need to add this fund, it should be added as a standard fund, not as a custom fund. For additional information on distressed townships see IC 12-20-21-3.2.

Adding Funds - Introduction

Click on the “Add a fund to this grid” link located above the grid to add a fund. A “standard fund” is a pre-defined common or statutory fund that appears in the SBOA fund list when adding a fund. Standard funds provide consistency across local units. For example, many local units use Excess Levy instead of Levy Excess so a standard list provides for uniformity. For common or statutory funds, the local unit should select and use the standard fund even if the standard fund name is different from the local fund name that appears in your accounting system. A few examples include:

Adding a Fund

The first 3 steps when adding a fund are the same regardless of whether it is a standard fund or custom fund.

1. Step 1: “Enter the local name used for this fund.” This name should match your accounting records.
2. Step 2: “Enter the local number used for this fund.” This number should match your accounting records. If your local unit does not number funds, create a number that will be unique to this fund. The report sort order is based upon the beginning digits of your local fund number. Depending upon how many digits are in your fund numbers you may want to add any necessary leading zeros so that your funds are not listed in an unexpected order.
3. Step 3: “Check here if this fund is associated with a federal grant.” For additional information related to grants, see the Grants section of this User Guide and/or Frequently Asked Questions #84 - 89.
4. Step 4:  Choose the appropriate Fund Type from the pull-down menu.

Adding a Standard Fund

To create a standard fund, begin on the Financial Data by Fund section. Click on the “Add a fund to this grid” link. Complete steps 1, 2 and 3 according to the instructions on the screen. In step 4 enter a key word related to the fund you are attempting to add. Select the most appropriate fund name that appears in the search results. If the search results do not generate an appropriate standard fund name, or if the results state “No Matches Found”, you may want to search using another key word. In a hypothetical example below, suppose a local unit needed to set up a fund for a shelter. The local unit named this fund “Pet Port”. To determine if there is an appropriate standard fund that has not been used yet, the best search criteria would be “shelter”. Note below that the search results indicate there is one fund that contains “shelter”. If “Animal Shelter” adequately describes the local unit’s fund, click on this standard fund name within the search results. This standard fund name will then appear in bold and appear on the right hand side of the screen. Step 5 Select the Fund Type. To add this standard fund, click on the “Click here to add this fund” link.

In some instances you may not be able to find a standard fund even though it is commonly used (e.g. payroll, bond and interest). This is because a standard fund can only be used once, but a local unit could have multiple funds with similar purposes. For example, a local unit could have multiple Bond and Interest funds, one for each bond issue, so each fund needs to be added separately as a custom fund.

Adding a Custom Fund

If you can’t find a suitable standard fund, then you need to build a custom fund. To build a custom fund, click on the “Build a Custom Fund” link (shown above) on the initial Add a Fund screen. At that point a similar screen appears, but questions will display to help determine if the custom fund should be added to the Governmental Activities grid or an Enterprise grid.

After answering any questions that appear on the screen, click on the “Proceed to next step” link. If you decide not to add the custom fund at this time, click on the “Return to Standard Fund Entry” link or click on one of the breadcrumbs and the entry will not be saved.

Entering Beginning Cash and Investment Balances

Click on the appropriate cell to enter or modify beginning cash and investment balances. The ending cash and investment balances will be calculated by the system based upon receipt and disbursement entries. The ending investment balances are based upon the purchase and sale of investments as entered in the Receipts and Disbursements screens.

Navigation within the Financial Data by Fund Section

Note in the screenshot below that there are two scroll bars on the right hand side. The scroll bar within the grid allows you to navigate to other funds within the grid. The scroll bar on the far right edge of the screen allows you to navigate to additional grids that may exist if your local unit has one or more enterprises.

Click on the “Add/Edit” links to add receipts and disbursements for the respective fund.

Search Functionality: To more quickly find a fund, receipt classification, disbursement classification, or other data within a screen simultaneously press the "Ctrl" and "F" on your keyboard and it will open up a “Find” box within the browser. Then type in the word or characters you want to find.  

Deleting a Fund

Any funds that have been created in error must be deleted. In addition, if there are any funds within Gateway that have both a beginning and ending cash and investment balance of zero AND do not have any receipts or disbursements entered, this will cause a submission error. These funds must be identified and deleted before the Annual Financial Report can be submitted. A report to help identify these funds is available on the Annual Reports Output Menu called "Cash and Investment Fund Statement, Zero Balance Funds" report. 

At the beginning of each row on the Financial Data by Fund section there is a red “X” to delete the fund. Clicking on the red “X” gives you the option to delete the record. If you delete the fund any previously entered receipts and disbursements for the fund will also be deleted.

Editing Fund Names, Numbers, and/or Grant Check Box Entries

The second column of each row in the Financial Data by Fund section contains an “Edit” icon which allows you to change the local fund name, number and/or check box related to grants (as noted below). To save, click on the “Save Changes” button. If you decide not to save your changes, just click on one of the breadcrumbs to navigate to either the AFR Main Menu or the Financial Data by Fund section, and it will ignore any entries since you didn’t click on the “Save Changes” button.

Receipts

To begin entering receipts, navigate to the desired fund within the Financial Data by Fund section. To more quickly locate the desired fund, simultaneously press the "Ctrl" and "F" on your keyboard, and it will open up a “Find” box in the browser. Then, type in the word or characters you want to find. To access the Receipts screen associated with the fund, click on the appropriate “Add/Edit” link that appears in the Financial Data by Fund section.

This will direct you to the Receipts screen. You will need to scroll down to view all of the classifications.

The classifications were generally determined based upon names used within the statutes, but there are exceptions. For example, one receipt classification is now called “Food and Amusement Licenses and Permits” since some local units may have several receipt classifications related to these types of activities. Match the receipt accounts within your accounting system to the Annual Financial Report receipt classifications as much as possible. If you have multiple receipt accounts that are related to one Annual Financial Report receipt classification, add the amounts and enter the total in the applicable Annual Financial Report receipt classification. Conversely, if you have a receipt account that spans two or more Annual Financial Report receipt classifications, record the receipts in the most applicable Annual Financial Report receipt classification.

A running total appears at both the top and bottom of the Receipts screen (as noted above). To update this total, press “Enter” on your keyboard and click on the “Save All Work” button. When data is saved, a Data Posted message appears at the bottom of the respective grid, as noted above. Be aware that if a data entry error exists, subsequently entered data may not save.

If none of the Annual Financial Report receipt classifications relate to your receipt account, classify the receipts as “Other” in the most applicable high level classification (e.g. Taxes and Intergovernmental, Licenses and Permits, etc.). The “Other” receipts are located in a separate grid below each related high level classification. “Other” receipts can be entered by clicking on the “Add Row” button. When entering data in the “Other” grids if you experience problems with the amount disappearing, it may help to press “Enter” on your keyboard after completing each row and before clicking on the “Add Row” button. The account number is a required field for “Other” classifications, but if your accounting system doesn’t use account numbers for receipt classifications you may enter any number. If you have multiple types of “Other” receipts within the same high level classification you can report the amounts in two ways:

1. Add up multiple “Other” receipts for a given high level classification and enter that amount as a single “Other” line. Since you will be required to enter an account name and number, this should reflect the combined account descriptions as closely as possible or,
2. Enter multiple “Other” lines for a given high level classification. Enter a unique local account name and number on each added “Other” line.

For more specific instructions concerning how to report investment transactions, earnings on investments, rollovers, transfers, interfund loans and repayments, payroll funds, clearing accounts, unappropriated transactions, and total monies on deposit, see Frequently Asked Questions.

To more quickly navigate to the Disbursements screen associated with the same fund click on “Enter Disbursements For This Fund”.

For more information, see the Frequently Asked Questions.

Disbursements

Libraries and special districts (and counties, cities, towns, and townships that choose not to departmentalize) should skip the following paragraph and screenshot.

For Local Units That Departmentalize

If you answered Yes to the Unit Question related to departments and/or you utilized a department file during the Upload Files process, the Department Selection screen will appear before General Fund disbursements can be entered. The departments defined within the Departments section or within the Upload Files process determine the departments that appear on this screen. If you need to modify this list of departments, navigate to the Departments section. To enter the disbursements for a General Fund department, click on the link associated with the desired department. Similarly, departments within the Motor Vehicle Highway fund will also appear for counties that departmentalize, but they are pre-defined and cannot be modified. The “No Department” link is included by default. If you have disbursements that are not allocated to a specific department, then these should be entered via the “No Department” link.

For counties, the same departments that appear for the General Fund will also display for the county funds: LIT-Economic Development, LIT-Special Purpose, and Rainy Day.

Entering Disbursements

Match the disbursement accounts within your accounting system to the Annual Financial Report disbursement classifications as much as possible. If you have multiple disbursement accounts that are related to one Annual Financial Report disbursement classification, add the amounts and enter the total in the applicable Annual Financial Report disbursement classification. Conversely, if you have a disbursement account that spans two or more Annual Financial Report disbursement classifications, record the disbursements in the most applicable Annual Financial Report disbursement classification. If none of the Annual Financial Report disbursement classifications relate to your disbursement account, classify the disbursements as “Other” in the most applicable high level classification (e.g. Personal Services, Supplies, etc.).

Note in the screenshot above that the fund name and number is displayed in the top right corner. If you departmentalize, the department name is also displayed.

A running total appears at both the top and bottom of the Disbursements screen. To update this total, press “Enter” on your keyboard and click on the “Save All Work” button.

To enter disbursements for another department in the General Fund, click on the “Department List” button.

To more quickly navigate to the Receipts screen associated with this fund, click on the “Enter Receipts For This Fund” button.

For more specific instructions concerning how to report investment transactions, rollovers, transfers, interfund loans and repayments, payroll funds, clearing accounts, unappropriated transactions, and total monies on deposit, see Frequently Asked Questions.

Fund Types

You will need to designate the Fund Type for each fund in this schedule by using the pull-down menu.  Fund types from prior years and from the standard funds with one possible fund type will be pre-populated for you.  You can modify them if needed. Definitions for the various fund types are included below.

The governmental funds focus on the sources, uses, and balances of current financial resources. The governmental fund types are classified as follows:

General Fund – This fund is used to account for and report all financial resources not accounted for and reported in another fund.

Special Revenue Funds – These funds are used to account for and report the proceeds of specific revenue sources that are restricted or committed to expenditure for specified purposes other than debt service or capital projects.

Capital Projects Funds – These funds are used to account for and report financial resources that are intended for capital outlays, including the acquisition or construction of capital facilities and other capital assets.

Debt Service Funds – These funds are used to account for and report financial resources for principal and interest payments. Debt service funds should be used to report resources if legally mandated. Financial resources that are being accumulated for principal and interest maturing in future years also should be reported in debt service funds.

Permanent Funds – These funds are used to account for and report resources that are restricted to the extent that only earnings, and not principal, may be used for purposes that support the reporting government’s programs that are for the benefit of the government or its citizenry.

Proprietary fund reporting focuses on the determination of income. The proprietary fund types are classified as follows:

Enterprise Funds – These funds are used to report any activity for which a fee is charged to external users for goods or services. Activities are required to be reported as enterprise funds if any one of the following is met:

    a. The activity is financed with debt that is secured solely by a pledge of the net revenues from fees and charges of the activity Debt that is secured by a pledge of net revenues from fees and charges and the full faith and credit of a related primary government or component unit – even if that government is not expected to make any payments – is not payable solely from fees and charges of the activity.

    b. Laws or regulations require that the activity’s costs of providing services, including capital costs (such as depreciation or debt service), be recovered with fees and charges, rather than with taxes or similar revenues.

    c. The pricing policies of the activity establish fees and charges designed to recover its costs, including capital costs (such as debt service).

Internal Service Funds – These funds are used to report any activity that provides goods or services to other funds, departments, or agencies of the primary government and its component units, or to other governments, on a cost reimbursement basis. Internal service funds should be used only if the reporting government is the predominant participant in the activity. Otherwise, the activity should be reported as an enterprise fund.

Fiduciary Funds report assets held in a trustee or agency capacity for others and therefore cannot be used for other purposes. The fiduciary fund types are classified as follows:

Pension (and other employee benefit) Trust Funds are used to report all fiduciary activities for (1) pension plans and OPEB plans that are administered through trusts and (2) other employee benefit plans for which (a) resources are held in a trust where the assets are administered through a trust where the government is not a beneficiary and (b) contributions to the trust and earnings on those contributions are irrevocable.

Investment Trust Funds are used to report fiduciary activities from the external portion of investment pools and individual investment accounts that are held in a trust where the assets are administered through a trust in which the government itself is not a beneficiary.

Private Purpose Trust Funds are used to report all fiduciary activities that (1) are not required to be presorted in pension (and other employee benefit) trust funds, investment trust funds and (2) are held in a trust for the benefit of an organization not a part of the financial reporting entity.

Custodial Funds are used to report fiduciary activities that are not required to be reported in pension (and other employee benefit) trust funds, investment trust funds, or private-purpose trust funds. The external portion of investment pools that are not held in a trust but are for the benefit of an organization other than the reporting entity should be reported in a separate external investment pool fund column, under the custodial funds classification.

Other Funds are used to report funds that do not meet the criteria of the governmental, proprietary, or fiduciary categories but should still be included on the financial statements. The other fund types are classified as follows:

Clearing accounts are used to accumulate resources from withholding of employee payroll deductions and accrued employer payroll taxes. These resources will be submitted to the appropriate taxing bodies when due. The accumulated resources represent a liability of the County.

Financial Data by Fund-Schools

Note: Charter Schools will not have this section since your financial data is obtained via an alternative method.

• a csv file upload option and the ability to manually add, modify or delete data after upload
• copying and pasting the data from a spreadsheet and the ability to manually add, modify, or delete data after copying and pasting
• manually adding, modifying, or deleting data.

The breakdown by Object, School ID and Subcategory that are part of the Form 9 are not used within the Gateway AFR, so the amounts should be combined to determine an annual total amount for each fund/account combination for the Gateway AFR entry. Funds 8000-9999 are not included in the DOE upload but will be included in the Gateway AFR upload.

SBOA Upload Format

Fund Types

The Fund Type field is not part of the upload. It will automatically populate on the Financial Data by Fund section as an additional field. However, some funds do not have defaults as the Fund Types may vary for certain funds, so the school will need to determine and populate the Fund Type for these funds on Gateway.  To populate the missing Fund Types or change existing ones, double click on the cell and select the desired Fund Type. As an alternative the fund type number (not the description) can be copied and pasted into the grid.

The number associated with each Fund Type description is listed below:

1.   General Fund
2.   Special Revenue Fund
3.   Debt Service
4.   Capital Projects
5.   Permanent
6.   Enterprise
7.   Internal Service
8.   Pension Trust
9.   Private Purpose Trust
10.   Investment Trust
11.   Custodial
12.   Other

File Upload Process

1. Click on the “Choose File” button, navigate to the csv file, select it, then verify that the correct file name appears between the “Choose File” button and the “Upload Data” button.
2. Click “Upload Data” button. Once the edit checks are processed, it will be incorporated into the database.
3. Once the uploaded data is in the database, you should review any errors.  First click "Save" to update the error report. You can see certain errors by using the scroll bar on the right and looking for highlighted cells that indicate invalid code numbers. In addition, if there are errors there will be a link to an Interaction Errors spreadsheet that indicate duplicates or invalid combinations of codes and allows you to identify your errors.
4. If there is a need to adjust any individual records, the user will have various options. The best option depends upon the number of errors and user preference. The user can 1) edit the data through the Form Entry/Edit screen, 2) re-upload a replacement file, or 3) copy/paste the data from the Gateway grid to a spreadsheet (best accomplished by selecting all the cells in row 1 and clicking Control-Shift-End) and pasting within a spreadsheet to make any necessary corrections within the spreadsheet using various sort and filter functionality. Then copy the data from the spreadsheet and paste into the grid. If a user chooses to upload a replacement file, all the previously entered data within the grid will be deleted.
5. Navigate from the Main Menu to the Annual Report Outputs section to generate a report to verify the fund amounts and ending balances.

Proper File Formatting - CSV File Format

CSV is a common format widely supported by most computer applications.  This format will allow for the upload to the database.  The records will be divided into fields separated by comma delimiters and every record will have the same sequence of fields. If the fund name contains a comma then it MUST have quotes around the field.  Some systems put quotes around every field which is also acceptable. The filename should end in .csv. The first row of the upload file must NOT contain field names.

Fields Each of the following are required as separate fields within the record:

• Section – Valid values are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7.
• Fund – Valid values range from 101 to 9999 and should be included in the relevant year’s Chart of Accounts.
• Fund Name – Standard Fund Names should match the Chart of Accounts Description unless there are a range of valid fund numbers associated with the Chart of Accounts Description.  The Fund Name should not include the word “Fund” and each word should start with a capital letter (e.g. Debt Service).
• Account – Valid 4 digit numbers for Receipts and 5 digit numbers for Expenditures.
• Amount – Do not include commas or dollar signs.  Include decimal points and two digits after the decimal points even if zeros.  If the amount is negative, include a minus sign to the left of the amount. Selecting the "number" format in Excel is one way to accomplish this. Sections 3, 4, and 7 entries cannot be negative amounts.

(The Fund Type default will populate automatically but can be changed if necessary or added if there is no default Fund Type defined for the Fund Number.)

An example of 6 records in an acceptable CSV format is below:

  

The 6 records shown above would appears as follows within the Financial Data by Fund screen:

Data Errors

Edit checks are used to identify errors with the Financial Data by Fund entries.  Some types of errors can be identified by the system immediately and are highlighted at the time they are first entered.  Other more complex errors like duplicates or invalid combinations of codes require the individual to first click “Save Changes”.  Then an error message will appear in the bottom right corner that states “Please click here to download the error file”. Error messages are not necessarily sorted in a specific order, so if there are multiple errors, you may want to sort or filter them to evaluate the errors and determine how to correct them most efficiently.

Capital Assets

All cells in this section are required. Enter a 0 (zero) in any cell that is not applicable. Capital Assets for Governmental Activities has three tables and there are also three tables for each enterprise. There is a row for each type of asset and columns for Beginning Balance, Additions, Reductions, and Ending Balance.

Your capital asset beginning balances may have been prepopulated from the ending balances per your prior year Annual Financial Report. Review the capital asset beginning balances to make sure they match your records. You can correct beginning balances by typing over the amounts in the Beginning Balance column. 

The Additions and Reductions columns will need to be entered manually.

The Ending Balance column will update as information is entered.

Per IC 5-11-1-2, the State Board of Accounts shall prescribe the forms and system of accounting for governmental units. In the Accounting and Uniform Compliance Guidelines Manual, the State Board of Accounts has prescribed that every governmental unit should have a complete inventory of all capital assets owned which reflect their acquisition value. Such inventory should be recorded in the Capital Assets Ledger form. Within the Unit Questions section, if you answered "No" to the Capital Assets question, you are stating that you either have no assets or you are not in compliance with this requirement and you will still need to complete the AFR Capital Assets schedule.

The governing body should have established a capitalization policy that sets a dollar amount as a threshold to be used in determining which acquisitions should be included in the inventory of capital assets.

Definitions

• Construction in Progress: This category should be used to track construction in progress of capital assets such as constructing a building.
• Books and Other: This category is used by Libraries for their collections of books, periodicals, CDs, etc. This category can also be used by any unit for other types of assets not listed. 
• Improvements Other than Buildings: This category should include all permanent improvements that add value to land, excluding buildings (e.g., fences, landscaping, parking lots, and retaining walls).
• Infrastructure: This category should include property that is stationary in nature and has a long life (e.g., roads, bridges, tunnels, drainage systems, water and sewer systems, dams, and lighting systems).
• Non-Depreciable Assets-Additions: This column should include non-depreciable property that is acquired during the year. 
• Non-Depreciable Assets-Reductions: This column should include non-depreciable property that is sold, reclassified, or otherwise disposed of during the year
• Depreciable Assets-Additions: This column should include depreciable property that is acquired during the year. 
• Depreciable Assets-Reductions: This column should include depreciable property that is sold, reclassified, or otherwise disposed of during the year
• Accumulated Depreciation-Additions: This column should include depreciation for the current year. 
• Accumulated Depreciation-Reductions: This column should include accumulated depreciation for property that was sold, reclassified, or otherwise disposed of during the year

For more information, see the Frequently Asked Questions.

Grants

The amount of Federal funding that is received or disbursed during the year affects the type of engagement that you are required to have performed by the State Board of Accounts as well as the format and content of the Financial Statements.

To determine if you have any federal grants, you may want to review Board minutes for approvals to apply for Federal grants and ask department heads if they have applied for any federal grants. Most Federal grants are passed down from the State of Indiana. If you received grants from the State, it’s likely these funds are associated with a Federal grant. Identify the funds that account for the Federal grants and determine the amounts that have been received or disbursed from those funds. Federal grants can come to you in different forms. Some of the most common forms of grants received by governmental units are: Direct grants from Federal agencies; Amounts passed through from the State; Loan and Loan Guarantee programs; Receipt of Donated property, including donated surplus property; Food Commodities; Interest Subsidies; Insurance; Endowments; and Program income. In addition, some grants are received through reimbursements, in which the unit has disbursed money up front then is reimbursed by the State or Federal Agency at a later time.

The information entered in the Grants section is used to populate the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards within your Audit Report. The amount of federal awards expended is based on when the disbursement related to the award occurs except when the federal award is received on a reimbursement basis. In these instances, the federal awards are considered expended when the reimbursement is received.

For Federal programs included in a cluster of programs, list individual Federal programs within a cluster of programs. For R&D, total Federal awards expended shall be shown either by individual award or by Federal agency and major subdivision within the Federal agency. For example, the National Institutes of Health is a major subdivision in the Department of Health and Human Services.

When a Federal program has multiple award years, you may list the amount of Federal awards expended for each award year separately.

Fill out each row completely. The required cells are the ones that have the word “Required” in the cell. Nothing in the row will save if a required cell is left blank or one or more cells generate a format error. Enter a 0 (zero) in any dollar amount cells that are not applicable to the grant.

You will need to use the bottom scroll bar to navigate to the cells that are not visible.

The Assistance Listing number must be entered in the proper format as displayed in the heading (e.g. 97.067).

Note that the screenshot above shows the first set of cells and the screenshot below shows some of the additional cells that are not initially visible.

Grants - Item Descriptions

Grant Type (Choose From Dropdown):

AFR Grant File Upload

An optional upload is available for Grant Reporting. It is very important to review the file specifications to ensure a successful upload.

File Format

The file format for upload is a plain text CSV file. When using Microsoft Excel, the file should be saved as the type ‘CSV (MS-DOS) (*.csv)’ for best compatibility. The file must not include a header, and must include the following columns:

Field Name                  Format

Local project name          Text (up to 200 characters)

Grant program title         Text (up to 200 characters)

Agency name                 Text (up to 200 characters)

Pass through agency         Text (up to 200 characters)

Assistance Listing          Formatted Number (##.###)                

Award name                  Text (up to 200 characters)

Award number                Text (up to 30 characters)

Grant type code             Number (1=Advance, 2=Reimbursement)

Fund name                   Text (up to 200 characters)

Receipts                    Number (currency format with 2 decimals, without $ or commas)

Disbursements               Number (currency format with 2 decimals, without $ or commas)

Sub-recipients              Number (currency format with 2 decimals, without $ or commas)

Loans outstanding           Number (currency format with 2 decimals, without $ or commas)

Noncash assistance          Number (currency format with 2 decimals, without $ or commas)

Insurance                   Number (currency format with 2 decimals, without $ or commas)

Upload Process

1. To initiate an upload, click on the Choose File button on the Grants Page. Select the appropriate file from the dialog.
2. Once a CSV file has been selected, start the upload process by clicking on the Upload Data button. This will delete the existing grant records. The system will attempt to load the uploaded file into the database.
3. If the file uploads successfully, the user will get a success status update and the page will reload to show the new records. If the upload is not successful, the page will return an error message and reload. Note: it is possible for some records to load even if others don’t. The page refreshes in either case so that the user can see the current record status in the database.
4. After the page refreshes, the user should review the upload results. In cases where there are format errors, the records could load but still contain errors. Scan the data set for records with red error alerts or required indicators in the field cells. Any remaining errors must be resolved before the entire AFR can be submitted.

Accounts Payable/Receivable

All cells are required in this section. Enter the appropriate amounts in the cells for the Governmental Activities funds and each enterprise as of the end of the year. Since these are required fields, if you don’t have any accounts payable and/or receivables you must enter 0 or you will receive a submission error.

Accounts Payable consists of amounts for goods and services that your local unit received or used during the year, but hasn't paid for by the end of the year. Most units of government will probably have some accounts payable. For example for units on the calendar year, claims submitted in December, but not paid until January would be accounts payable. For schools, it would be claims submitted in June, but not paid until July.

Accounts Receivable are amounts that are owed to your unit that haven't been received by the end of the year. The best example of accounts receivable in a governmental setting are utility fees that have been billed to the customers and are still unpaid at the end of the year. Additional accounts receivable could include grants or property tax distributions that are due, but haven't been received by year end. For schools, the year end is June 30.  For most other units it is December 31.

Units of government that have utilities or other services where the customer is sent a bill rather than paying at the time of service will have accounts receivable. Other units of government may or may not have accounts receivable depending on their situation.

Transfer Schedule

Complete the Transfer Schedule section with all of the transfers made between funds during the year. It should include interfund transfers.  However, transfers within a given fund (intrafund) should not be entered. Please enter interfund loans in that section of the AFR.

To enter the transfer, click the Transfer_From and the Transfer_To cells so that the drop-down appears, then select the appropriate funds. The funds from which you will choose are pulled directly from the funds shown in the Financial Data by Fund section.  If the dropdown list doesn't include the fund you are looking for, you may not have added that fund to the Financial Data by Fund section, which is a prerequisite. Due to this you should complete your uploads or manual entry in the Financial Data by Fund section before completing the transfer schedule.

You must aggregate the transfers in the same direction between the same funds. So for example if you transferred $500 in April and $500 in June to Rainy Day from General, you would show one line for General fund to Rainy Day for $1,000. If you transferred $500 from General and $300 for a LIT fund to Rainy Day, they would need two lines: General to Rainy Day $500 and LIT to Rainy Day $300.

Note that you may need to add new rows in order to record all of the transfers made during the year.

For each transfer that did not occur on a routine basis or was inconsistent with the activities of the fund making the transfer that is identified in the above schedule, provide a general description of the principal purpose of the interfund transfer. One general description can be provided even if multiple funds are impacted or more than one transfer occurred. (An example of a non-routine transfer: a transfer to a wastewater enterprise fund for the local match of a federal pollution control grant, an example of a transfer that is an inconsistent activity of the fund: a transfer from a capital projects fund to the general fund.)

Interfund Loan Schedule

Debt

Complete the Debt section with the activity that occurred during the year. All of the cells are required. Enter a 0 (zero) in any cell that is not applicable. Note that Debt has been separated into short term and long term sections.  For Long Term Debt, show the total additions or reductions in Debt, as well as the ending balance and principal due in the subsequent year of the data being entered. For Short Term Debt, show the total additions or reductions in Debt, as well as the ending balance.

In order to reduce your data entry work, your debt information may have been prepopulated with their Beginning Balances based upon the ending balances per your prior year Annual Financial Report. Please carefully review the debt issuances and balances to make sure they match your records. If you had adjustments that were not entered in Gateway, you will need to enter the corrections. You may need to add missing or new debt issuances. You can correct beginning balance errors by simply typing over the amounts in the Beginning Balance column. 

School Building Corporation Leases should NOT be entered on this screen.  They should be entered on the Leases screen.

To enter the debt class, click the cell so that the dropdown appears, then select the appropriate debt class. The debt classes include General Obligation Bonds, Revenue Bonds, Tax Anticipation Warrants, Notes and Loans Payable, and Claims and Judgements.

Please note that the Ending Principal Balance as of Dec 31 for most units or June 30 for schools is for the remaining life of the debt that remains unpaid at year end.  This does not include any accrued interest that is not yet paid.

Note that you may need to use the scroll bar at the bottom of each table to complete all the columns. Additionally, you may need to use the scroll bar on the far right side if you have multiple enterprises.

For more information, see the Frequently Asked Questions.

Leases

Do not enter leases which were not signed until after year end or leases that expired before the end of the year, only leases that are outstanding at year end. 

Financial Assistance to Non-Governmental Entities

Enter financial assistance provided to entities such as volunteer fire departments, economic development corporations, and senior citizen centers. Do not consider amounts you paid vendors for goods and services.

We believe nonfederal funding arrangements that meet all of the following criteria, should be viewed as a "purchase of goods or service from a vendor" and not "financial assistance":

1. A contract for services exists between the provider and the recipient
2. The goods or services purchased are for the direct benefit of the purchaser and are not considered a "public benefit".
3. The contract stipulates a predetermined amount to be provided, per unit of service performed
4. Claims for payment are submitted by the recipient after the service is performed, with sufficient documentation to evidence the units of service provided
5. The total amount provided during the contract period is not subject to adjustment due to variances between a recipient's estimated and actual cost of providing the service 

You should fill out the cells as completely as possible. However, the only required fields are the Name, County, Description of Funding, Amount, and Type of non-governmental entity. The Description of Funding is now a dropdown box with the following choices: Fee for Service, State or Local Grant and Federal Pass-Thru Grant. If the recipient does not have a Federal Tax ID please leave that field blank.  Do not enter a Social Security number as this information is public.

Note in the screenshots above and below that many of the cells are not visible. You must use the scroll bar at the bottom to access the cells that are otherwise not visible.

In addition, you are also required to notify the entities that were provided financial assistance the following information:

1.  The Entity Annual Report (E-1) filing requirement established by IC 5-11-1-4 and the audit requirement established by IC 5-11-1-9;

2.  The source(s) of the funding provided;

a) Local and/or state funds (in the case of subsidies, contributions or general aid),

b) Federal grants passed through including the formal name of the program and the Assistance Listing number; or

c) Fee for service arrangements.

Any questions that you or an entity may have regarding financial assistance can be answered by emailing the Director of Procured Audits at notforprofit@sboa.in.gov.

For more information, see the Frequently Asked Questions.

Pensions

Per IC 5-11-20, all units are required to complete the Pension section. This does NOT include deferred compensation plans such as Hoosier S.T.A.R.T 457 and 401(a) plans or matching incentive plans that offer public employees a voluntary way to save for their retirement through their own individual accounts.  

Examples of Non Pension Plans which should NOT be included in the Pensions section include: 401Ks, 403Bs, Deferred Comp, IRAs, Annuity Accounts, and OPEB plans.

If your unit has any of the pension plans listed under item 1, click on the check box to select it. You can select more than one plan. If you do not have any other plans, answer NO to the question under item 2. Then click on the check box to mark the form as complete under item 3 and click the “Save This Form” button. Then click on the “Return To the Main Menu” button.

If you have ADDITIONAL pension plans other than those listed under item 1, answer YES to the question under item 2. Click on the “Add a Plan” button to add the pension plan(s).  If you have both a retirement and benefit (supplemental) plan, these should be reported as two separate plans.

Complete all of the fields on the next screen shown below. All of the fields are required and must be entered at the same time. If one or more fields are left blank, none of the entered data will be saved. As a result, make sure all of the answers that appear on the screen are known before entering any data. If you have questions regarding any of these items, please consult your plan administrator.

Type or class of employees covered by the Plan – specify if this is for all employees or limited to a specific type or class of employees.

Type of Pension Plan:

1. Defined Contribution - a plan providing for an individual account for each participant and for benefits based solely on the amount contributed to the account, plus or minus income, gains, expenses and losses allocated to the account.
2. Single Employer Defined Benefit - a plan sponsored by only one employer that promises a specified monthly benefit on retirement that is predetermined based on the employee's earnings history, tenure of service and age, rather than depending directly on individual investment returns
3. Cost-Sharing Multiple-Employer Defined Benefit - a plan sponsored by multiple employers in which the pension obligations to the employees of more than one employer are pooled and pension plan assets can be used to pay the benefits of the employees of any employer that provides pensions through the pension plan. This type of plan promises a specified monthly benefit on retirement that is predetermined by a formula based on the employee's earnings history, tenure of service and age, rather than depending directly on individual investment returns. 
4. Agent Multiple Defined Benefit - a plan sponsored by multiple employers in which pension plan assets are pooled for investment purposes but separate accounts are maintained for each individual employer so that each employer's share of the pooled assets is legally available to pay the benefits of only its employees. This type of plan promises a specified monthly benefit on retirement that is predetermined by a formula based on the employee's earnings history, tenure of service and age, rather than depending directly on individual investment returns. 

Vesting

Vesting refers to the requirements an employee must meet before becoming fully entitled to his or her benefits. This could include a time period or a minimum number of service hours for which the employee must work to become fully vested.

Forfeitures

Forfeitures refers to pensions that an employee can no longer claim. This could include unclaimed survivor's benefits or a policy stating benefits payable to a plan member must be forfeited in the event the member is convicted of a crime. It could also refer to the benefits for a plan member who separates from service before becoming fully vested where the amount that is not vested is forfeited. 

Benefits Provided

Pension benefits include retirement income and postemployment benefits other than retirement income such as death benefits, life insurance, and disability benefits that are provided through a pension plan. 

Any postemployment benefits other than retirement income that are provided separately from a pension plan and postemployment healthcare benefits should be accounted for and reported as other postemployment benefits (OPEB). Pensions do not include postemployment healthcare benefits or termination benefits. 

Plan Administrator

Company Name – Company that handles the administration of the plan for the sponsor. This is not your actuary.

Employer Sponsoring the Plan – typically the local governmental unit.

Current Number of Participants

Active Employees that are Vested – employees entitled to the pension

Active Employees that are Not Vested – employees not yet entitled to the pension

Separated Employees But are Vested – separated employees entitled to the pension

Current Number of Retirees – retirees receiving pensions

If the plan is a Defined Contribution Plan, you are finished so you should click on the “Pensions Main” button and check the box next to “This form is complete”. 

If the plan is a Defined Benefit Plan, you must answer the actuarial valuation questions. If an Actuarial Valuation has been completed, you must complete the next screen shown below. At the bottom of the screen, you will be asked to upload your most recent Actuarial Valuation. All fields except the "Amortization Begin Date" are required and must all be entered before leaving the screen. If any of the required fields are left blank, none of the entered data will be saved. As a result, make sure all of the answers on the screen are known before entering any data. All of this information should be provided by your actuary. If the "Remaining Amortization Period in years" and "Amortization Begin Date" are not applicable, enter 0 for the "Remaining Amortization Period in years" and leave the "Amortization Begin Date" blank.  If you have questions regarding any of these items, consult your actuary.

Reporting Dates

Please report liabilities and asset values as of the valuation date listed below. The Actuarially Determined Contribution (ADC) and employer contribution amounts should be for the plan year ended in the prior fiscal year. For example, if the fiscal year end is December 31, 2020 and the plan year is January 1 - December 31, report the January 1, 2020 - December 31, 2020 ADC and employer contributions. If the fiscal year end is December 31, 2020 and the plan year is November 1 - October 31, report the ADC and employer contributions for the year November 1, 2019 - October 31, 2020.

Contribution Rates

Employer - This should be the minimum employer contribution rate, not the recommended employer contribution rate.

Plan Members - This should be the statutory rate which for many types of units is 3.00%.

Remaining Amortization Period in Years - If this amount is not provided by the actuary, enter 0.  For example, the benefit plans for some counties are funded on the aggregate cost method and therefore do not amortize any base and therefore do not have an "Amortization Begin Date".

Amortization Begin Date - This is the only field that is not required.  Enter the date if it is applicable.

Pension Liability

Employer Contributions - dollar amount paid by the employer during the year. Both the Employer Contributions and Actuarially Determined Contribution entries should exclude amounts attributable to employee contributions.

"Total Pension Liability", "Fiduciary Net Position" and "Net Pension Liability" are defined terms within GASB standard number 67. If those values are available as of the valuation date, report them. If those values are not available as of the valuation date, report the Actuarial Accrued Liability, Market Value of Assets and Unfunded Actuarial Accrued Liabilities used for funding the plan as of the valuation date.

The Actuarial Present Value of Projected Benefit Payments should be reported on the basis of the funding assumptions for the plan.

The difference between the Net Pension Liability and the Total Pension Liability is the Plan's Fiduciary Net Position. It is calculated as follows:

If an Actuarial Valuation has not been completed, answer the question below on when you are planning to have a valuation done.

Complete, Review and/or Modify Pension Section

Once you have completed the Pension section, click on the box at the bottom of the screen that states, “This form is complete”.  If you would like to review your Pension section entries, you may generate a report by selecting “Annual Report Outputs” from the Main Menu and then generate the Pension report.  If you need to make changes to any of the Pension entries, but you have already marked the Pension section as complete, click on the “This form is complete” check box to remove the check mark so that data within this section can be modified.

Other Postemployment Benefits

Beginning with the 2019 AFR, any unit that offers other postemployment benefits (OPEB) to its employees will be required to complete this section.

OPEB is other forms of postemployment benefits that are paid in the period after employment.  Examples include death benefits, life insurance, disability, and long-term care. It may be (a) a specified dollar amount; (b) an amount that is calculated based on one or more factors such as age, years of service, and compensation; or (c) a type or level of coverage such as prescription drug coverage or a percentage of health insurance premiums. The payments may be issued to insurance companies on behalf of retirees, or issued directly to retirees for specific purposes such as healthcare.

OPEB does not include pensions, termination benefits or termination payments for sick leave. COBRA benefits are considered a form of healthcare-related termination benefits and are not OPEB.

Please provide the information for the plan year that ends on or within the unit's year end.

1. Defined Contribution - a plan providing for an individual account for each participant and for benefits based solely on the amount contributed to the account, plus or minus income, gains, expenses, and losses allocated to the account. 
2. Single Employer Defined Benefit - A plan sponsored by only one employer that promises a specified monthly benefit on retirement that is predetermined by a formula based on the employee's earnings history, tenure of service and age, rather than depending directly on individual investment returns.
3. Cost-Sharing Multiple-Employer Defined Benefit - a plan sponsored by multiple employers in which the OPEB obligations to the employees of more than one employer are pooled and OPEB assets can be used to pay the benefits of the employees of any employer that provides OPEB through the OPEB plan. This type of plan promises a specified monthly benefit on retirement that is predetermined by a formula based on the employee's earnings history, tenure of service and age, rather than depending directly on individual investment returns.
4. Agent Multiple Defined Benefit - a plan sponsored by multiple employers in which OPEB plan assets are pooled for investment purposes but separate accounts are maintained for each individual employer so that each employer's share of the pooled assets is legally available to pay the benefits of only its employees. This type of plan promises a specified monthly benefit on retirement that is predetermined by a formula based on the employee's earnings history, tenure of service and age, rather than depending directly on individual investment returns. 

Benefits Provided

Company Name – Company that handles the administration of the plan for the sponsor. This is not your actuary.

Employer Sponsoring the Plan – typically the local governmental unit.

Contribution Rates (as a Percentage of Payroll)

Employer Rate – The rate the employer contributes to the plan as a percentage of covered payroll.  You may have to calculate the percentage if this is a set dollar amount.

Plan Members Rate – The rate the employee contributes to the plan as a percentage of covered payroll.  You may have to calculate the percentage if this is a set dollar amount.

Annual Covered Payroll – The payroll on which contributions to the OPEB plan are based upon.

Cost Method for Funding Purposes – Select “Pay as you go” if you aren’t prefunding the plan.  Otherwise the contribution funding policy should be available from the plan administrator or found within the actuarial report or plan documents.

To calculate the contribution rates as a percentage of annual covered payroll consider the following:  The contribution rates should be calculated as the amount the employer contributed during the year to the Plan divided by the covered payroll, which is the payroll on which contributions to the Plan are based.  If only retirees contribute to the OPEB plan, then the percentage of contributions would be zero, as you have no covered payroll.  If both current employees and retirees contribute, then the percentage contributed by plan members would be the amount of the contributions divided by the covered payroll.

Tax Abatement

A tax abatement is an agreement between one or more governments and an individual or entity in which one or more governments promise to forgo tax revenues to which they are otherwise entitled and the individual or entity promises to take a specific action that contributes to economic development or benefits the government or citizens.

Please add all Tax Abatements below under direct or indirect. Complete each cell for each tax abatement.  You may add rows as needed. You should report Tax Abatements in the year your revenue was reduced. For example, you should report abatements in effect for 2020 payable 2021 on the 2021 AFR.

In order to reduce your data entry work, your information may have been prepopulated based on your prior year Annual Financial Report. Please carefully review these fields to make sure they match your records. If you had adjustment, you will need to enter the corrections. You may need to add missing or new abatements.

Upload Public Official Surety Bonds

This section only applies to counties, cities, towns, townships, libraries, solid waste management districts and conservancy districts. IC 5-4-1-5.1 requires copies of bonds from local fiscal officers and other employees or contractors that have access to public funds be uploaded in the Gateway AFR. You must also enter some information about the bond. You should enter the most recent bond information for each position.

The example below is for a county. The positions that are required to have a bond are shown in the box on the right hand side of the screen. If the status has a green check mark, information for that position has been entered. If it has a red X in the status, information for that position has not been entered. You must enter information for all of the required positions before you can mark this form as completed. You will receive a submission error if this form is not completed.

To enter a bond, click on the drop down box for the position and select the job position or title. You must enter something for all of the required positions. If you have other employees or contractors that are bonded, you can enter those by selecting "Other" for the position from the drop down box. The required positions by type of unit are:

County:   Auditor, Treasurer, Recorder, Surveyor, Sheriff, Coroner, Assessor, and Clerk

Township:  Trustee and Assessor

Cities and Towns:  Controller, Clerk/Treasurer, Clerk and Judge

Solid Waste Management District:  Controller

Conservancy District:  Financial Clerk

If a required position, such as Assessor for a township as shown below, does not exist at your governmental unit, check the box next to "This position does not exist for this unit" and click the Save button.

If a required position does not have a bond, check the box next to "This position is not bonded as required by IC 5-4-1-18(a)" and click the Save button.

You should NOT check both of these boxes.

Otherwise, select the Type of Bond from the drop down box. Choose either Individual Bond, Blanket Bond-Name, Blanket Bond-Position or Crime Insurance Policy. If you choose Individual Bond, you will be prompted to enter the First and Last Name of the person that is bonded.

Enter the amount of the bond and the bond start and end dates.

You must have a copy of the bond in one of the following file types on your computer: pdf, png, jpeg, gif, or tif. If there are multiple pages, all pages must be in one file, in order and in the correct orientation so that it is readable.

Your scanner may allow you to scan multiple pages to one file or document. If you need to merge multiple documents and have never done this before, there are many free tools and information available on the internet on how to convert files to PDF or that allow you to combine multiple pages into one document. Search on the internet using a phrase such as “creating pdf files” or “combining pdf files”. For example, http://smallpdf.com/jpg-to-pdf converts a jpg file to PDF. For help in converting a Word document to PDF, see http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-a-Microsoft-Word-Document-to-PDF-Format.

If you still need assistance creating the documents to upload, there are many businesses that provide this service for a small fee such as Staples, Office Depot, Kinko's, etc. You can also ask your local library or another nearby governmental unit for assistance.

Click on the “Browse” button and navigate to the folder in your computer that contains the file you want to upload. Once the appropriate folder appears in the “Look in:” box, click on the file name so that the file name appears in the “File name:” box. Click the “Open” button. The file name will then appear next to the “Browse” button. Click the “Upload” button.

After the file is uploaded, the bond information you entered and the date and time it was uploaded is displayed on the screen along with a link to click to view the file. You should click the link to verify that the correct file was uploaded.

If there is an error with the information that was entered or with the file that was uploaded, click the X next to the bond to delete it, then re-enter the information for the bond and upload the file again.

After all of the required positions have information entered, you will see a check box at the bottom of the screen to verify that all of the positions have been entered and you are finished with this form. You must check this box to show the form is completed or you will receive a submission error and will not be able to submit.

Upload Accrual Financial Statements

All Housing Authorities, Hospitals, and Charter Schools will upload their unaudited accrual financial statements. They will still need to complete the other applicable sections of the Annual Financial Report, such as Debt, Grants, Pensions, etc. Any other units (i.e. a city) that have accrual financial statements will follow the instructions in the Frequently Asked Questions.

The financial statements must be in one file in pdf format named afs.pdf. If there are multiple pages, all pages must be in one file, in order and in the correct orientation so that it is readable.

TA-7 (Townships Only)

All townships are required to fill out the TA-7 section. See the Form TA-7 Instructions for line by line instructions. You will need to scroll down to access the fields that are not visible. All fields must be completed using a number. Enter 0 (zero) in any fields that are not applicable. Totals will be calculated by the system.

Please note that effective for 2021, Townships are required to enter a phone number at the top of the TA-7.

After you have completed the TA-7 section, go to the Annual Report Outputs Menu and click on the Township Assistance (TA7) link to generate the report.  Print the report, sign it and keep it in your office for your records.  Do not send this report to the State Board of Accounts. 

Disbursements by Vendor (Townships Only)

To begin entering detail within the Disbursements by Vendor section, click on the “Enter Detail” link for the desired fund. Note that you will need to use the scroll bar on the right side of the grid to access funds that aren’t visible. In addition, you may need to use the scroll bar on the far right side if you have multiple enterprises.

After entering the detail you should verify the completeness of your entries for each fund by comparing the “Amount of Detailed Disbursements” on this screen with the disbursement total found in the Financial Data by Fund section or on the Detailed Disbursements For All Funds report.

After clicking on the desired “Enter Detail” link, the following screen appears. The fund name and number of the selected fund appears in the top right corner. There is a dropdown list to select the appropriate disbursement classification. All fields are required. Click on the “Click to Select Another Fund” button to return to the screen above to select another fund. To record a transfer of funds, show the disbursement under the “Other Disbursements” classification and enter the payee as “Transferred to XX Fund”.

Upload Files

Before beginning the Upload Files process, make sure that you have answered the enterprise and department questions within the Unit Questions section correctly. If the data within the uploaded files is inconsistent with the way these questions were answered, this may create an error message. To correct these errors, you may need to begin the Upload Files process again after correcting the Unit Questions and/or the data within your upload files. Note that your files may contain department data even though you do not have a dept.txt file to upload. The dept.txt file will only be necessary if you have non-standard departments within your general fund.

File Upload Steps

From the Main Menu select the Upload Files section. Some of the screenshots in the steps below may be different from what you see because of 1) your unit type, 2) the existence of enterprises, and/or 3) the existence of a departments file. For example, only townships will have the Township Vendor Disbursements file that is designed to populate the Disbursements by Vendor section. If your unit does not have enterprises, you will not see the Enterprise Match step. In addition, some types of local units have the option of departmentalizing their general fund and have the option to create unique department names. If your unit type has the option of departmentalizing you will be asked, “Do you have a Departments file to upload?” as noted in the screenshot below. You should answer Yes, if you have a dept.txt file to upload. However, if your unit departmentalizes, but you only use standard department names you will not have a dept.txt file, so you should answer No to the question in the screenshot below even though you may have previously answered Yes to the question “Does your unit departmentalize?” which appears within the Unit Questions section.

There are basically five steps to the Upload Files process: 1) Upload Files, 2) File Review, 3) Enterprise Match, 4) Edit Checks, and 5) Complete Upload. There is a status list at the top of the Upload Files screens that indicates which step you are currently working on. Each step is discussed in the corresponding subsections that follow. If one of the Upload File steps generates an error, skip ahead to the error-related subsection of this User Guide (i.e. Errors Related to File Review, or Errors Related to Enterprise Match) for additional information.

Step 1) Upload Files

Files are uploaded one at a time. This step will need to be repeated for each file. You should have either four or five files (i.e. contact.txt, begbal.txt, receipts.txt, disburse.txt, dept.txt if you have unique departments, and twpdisburse.txt if you are a township). The status column, as noted below, allows you to keep track of which files have been uploaded. When each file is uploaded, the status for the file type will change from blank to Uploaded.

 

 

Click on the dropdown arrow as shown in the screenshot above and select one of the file types that has not been uploaded (e.g. Contact Information). Then click on the “Browse” button and navigate to the folder within your computer that contains the upload files, as shown in the screenshot below. Once the appropriate folder appears in the file path box at the top, click on the file name (e.g. contact.txt) that corresponds to the file type you selected in the dropdown list so that the file name appears in the “File name:” box. Then click on the “Open” button.

 

If you don’t know how to locate the upload files on your computer, contact your vendor, because SBOA and IBRC do not know where the vendor’s process saves these files.

 

 

Once the file type and related file name are displayed in the boxes, as noted below, click on the “Upload File” button to upload the file. If the file type status is blank, it still needs to be uploaded. Once the related file has been uploaded, the file type status changes from blank to “Uploaded”.

 

 

Repeat these procedures for each file type until the status for each file type has changed from blank to “Uploaded”, as noted below. Do not click on the “Reset upload” button unless you have made an error and need to start the upload process all over again.

 

 

Once all of the required files have been uploaded, a “Next Step” button becomes available. Click on the “Next Step” button as shown above to begin the File Review step.

 

Step 2) File Review

The File Review step begins automatically and should take no more than 5 minutes. If it takes longer, close the window and email ibrctech@iupui.edu. While waiting, the following screen appears:

 

 

If no errors are detected during the File Review, a “File transfer complete” message will appear as noted below. Click on the “Next Step” button as shown below to begin the Enterprise Match step. If your local unit does not have any enterprises, the Enterprise Match step will not appear and you will instead advance to the 4) Edit Checks step.

 

 

If you received a message that stated, “There were errors with your files. You will need to fix the errors and upload your files again.”, then skip ahead to the subsection in this User Guide entitled Errors Related to File Review.

 

Step 3) Enterprise Match

The Enterprise Match step begins automatically and you should see groupings of enterprise-related funds that have been uploaded, as noted below. If you previously entered your enterprise names within the Identify Enterprise section of Gateway or if these rolled forward from previous years, these will appear in the “Select An Enterprise” dropdown list. If you did not previously enter all of your enterprises within the Identify Enterprise section of Gateway, click on the words “+Add new enterprise” as noted below.

 

 

If you previously entered all your enterprises within the Identify Enterprises section of Gateway, select the matching enterprise name from the dropdown list for each grouping, as noted below.

 

 

If you need to add a new enterprise, click on the words “+Add new enterprise” as noted below, and a data entry box will appear. Enter the enterprise name, description, and select one of the pre-defined Enterprise Types. If none of the types adequately describe your enterprise, select “Other Enterprise”.

 

 

Once the correct enterprise name has been selected from the dropdown list for each group of funds, click on the “Submit Enterprises” button, as noted below. If the match is successful, there will be an “Enterprise Match Successful!” message and a “Next Step” button will appear.

 

 

 

Click on the “Next Step” button as noted above to begin the Edit Checks step.

 

Step 4) Edit Checks

The Edit Checks step begins automatically. If there are no errors, you will see the screen below.

 

 

Click on the “Next Step” button as shown above to complete the upload.

 

Step 5) Complete Upload

 

Click on the “Post Files” button to complete the Upload Files process. You will see a warning message that states, “This may overwrite data entered through the web interface” This refers to the sections that utilize data from the uploaded files. The Upload Files process does not overwrite any data that may have been entered within unrelated sections of the Annual Financial Report such as the Schedule of Officials, Capital Assets, Grants, Accounts Payable/Receivable, Debt, Leases, Financial Assistance to Non-Governmental Entities, Pensions and, for townships, the TA-7.

 

 

After the files have been posted, you will see a confirmation message that states, “Load to Live tables. Complete!” as noted above. At this point, you should navigate to the Main Menu and select either Financial Data by Fund or Annual Report Outputs to verify that data was uploaded correctly.

 

Errors Related to Enterprise Match

If the data within the uploaded files is inconsistent with the way the enterprise question was answered within the Unit Questions section, you may receive an error message during the Enterprise Match step.

 

 

The message above may appear if you indicated in the Unit Questions section that you had enterprises, but no enterprise data was detected in the uploaded files, or if there were unrelated errors in the files. By clicking on the “Next Step” button, you may receive additional information to help understand the error.

 

The message below may appear if you indicated in the Unit Questions section that you did not have enterprises, but the uploaded files contain enterprise codes.

 

 

If you need to view or change your answer to the enterprise question within the Unit Questions section, click on the AFR Main Menu breadcrumb and then select Unit Questions. If you change the enterprise question to Yes, then add your enterprises within the Identify Enterprise section. If you changed your answer to the enterprise questions (either to Yes or No), then you will need to return to the Upload Files section to upload the files again. Click on the “Reset upload” button to clear out previous data and then upload the files again.

 

Errors Related to File Review

If the File Review step detects errors, review the error report(s) and work with your vendor to make any necessary corrections to files that contain errors. Then return to the Upload Files section and click on the “Reset Upload” button to begin uploading the corrected files. It will be necessary to upload all files even if only one file needed to be corrected.

 

The following screen notifies you of errors. Click on the View Errors button to see the list of files that have errors.

 

 

If errors are detected during the File Review process, you will see the screen below. Click on the links to download the file to review the errors. These same error files can also be accessed by navigating from the Main Menu to the Annual Report Outputs section and scrolling to the bottom of that section.

 

 

When clicking on the links, you will be provided the option to Open, Save or Cancel, as noted below. You may need to look behind the Gateway screen to see this box. Click on the Open button to open the file to review it. The file should open in Excel. If it does not open in Excel, click on the Save button to save the file to your computer. Note and remember where you saved the file. Then open the Excel program. Go to the File Menu and select Open. Navigate to where you saved the file. Highlight the file name and click the Open button. The file will then open in Excel.

 

 

There are two possible error reports.

 

The Unidentified Errors report shows only the rows that had formatting errors and could NOT be loaded into the testing area for further analysis. These errors are usually caused by the record length being incorrect or duplicate records. See the Upload Error Reports and Messages section of this user guide for other possible causes.

 

 

The Detailed Errors report will be generated for each file that contains system-detectable errors. The report will show only the rows within the file that have system-detectable errors. It does not include any rows with unidentified errors. Error fields have been added at the end of the row to show what the problem is with the row. Use the scroll bar at the bottom of the screen to see more columns to the right. No data is actually posted to the AFR until the upload process completes without any errors.

 

 

In the example above, the Receipt file has two rows containing errors. The errors are described in the column headings on the far right. For example, the column heading in cell O1 states “Receipt_code_of_type_other_missing_required fields”. Notice that cells I2, J2, and J3 are blank, but should contain data because the Receipt Code R134 now requires the user to enter an account number and account name for “Other” receipts. Errors are indicated by an X in the row that has the error.

 

The Upload Error Reports and Messages section of this user guide contains more detail descriptions of the errors and possible causes.

 

Any errors in the contact.txt file and/or the begbal.txt file should be reviewed and corrected first, and all files reloaded as this may resolve errors detected in the other files. If the vendor is not able to identify and/or resolve the errors based upon the available error messages, feel free to e-mail the set of txt files to gateway@sboa.in.gov to assist in locating the problem(s).

 

Once the errors on the file(s) have been corrected, the upload process should be started again.

 

Preparing to Re-Start the Upload Files Process

After you have made any corrections to the upload files or changed your response to the Unit Questions concerning enterprises, then navigate to the Upload Files section. Click on the “Reset upload” button to re-start the Upload Files process.

 

 

When clicking on the “Reset upload” button, you will be given the option to "Cancel".

 

 

If you click on the “OK” button, the status for each file type changes from “Uploaded” to blank, as noted below.

 

 

At this point, you may begin following the instructions as shown at the beginning of this section beginning with 1) Upload Files.

For more information, see the Frequently Asked Questions.

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Annual Report Outputs

The Annual Report Outputs section contains links to available reports. Your list of reports may vary, depending upon the type of local unit and how the Unit Questions are answered. The Report Output Format drop down list provides you the option to generate the report in either PDF or Excel format. Click on the report name link to generate the related report. There may be a delay the first time a report is generated, but the next time a report is generated it should not take as long. Depending on what web browser you are using, the report may open in a separate window. If so, close it by clicking on the “X” in the upper right hand corner.

Do not send any of these reports including the advertising to SBOA.

Note: You must use Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox to print the output reports.  For more information on web browser compatibility, see the Accessing the Annual Financial Report section of the user guide.

Report(s) for Advertising

The last section of the Annual Reports Output list contains the report(s) designed specifically for advertising purposes. These reports eliminate unnecessary formatting and blank lines since advertising should use the smallest type of print possible and a minimum of space to affect a cost savings.

IC cites that address advertising requirements are located as follows:

The screenshot below is an example of township reports. The list of reports for all other types of local units will be similar, but will not include township related reports. For example, the advertising section will only include the “Cash & Investment Combined (Advertising)” link because their advertising requirements are different.

You can generate all of the sections of the AFR that are available to the public, by clicking on the option "Full Report" as shown above.

For more information, see the Frequently Asked Questions.

Financial Statement/SEFA

This allows you to download the Financial Statements and Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA). This is not required. These will be provided to you by SBOA prior to the audit so that you can ensure that all federal programs are accurately identified and your financial information is fairly presented.

The download may be helpful if you are updating your AFR in conjunction with audit findings. If you have problems or technical issues with downloading these files, you can email helpdesk. 

Note: Do not use Mozilla Firefox as your browser for this process. You must use Google Chrome. You must also have Microsoft Excel in order to view the Financial Statements and the SEFA.

On the AFR Main Menu, click on the option Financial Statement/SEFA as shown below.

Double click on the zip file if needed:

Click 'Extract All':

Choose the location on your computer you want to extract to or simply extract to current downloads folder.  Do not change the final folder name after the last '\'.  Click 'Extract' button.

Go to the extracted folder and double click the file 'build.bat'.

You will receive this screen:

Click on More Info, then click the Run Anyway button. 

You will see a black screen appear showing the contents of the .bat file.

You will be prompted to answer a question for the SEFA and for the Financial Statements as shown below. Click on One Year to see the Financial Statements for the current year. Click on Two Years if you want to see the Financial Statements for the current year and the prior year for comparison purposes. Only schools should click 'two years for the SEFA.  Click 'OK' on both screens.

There will be two files with your unit name, a financial statement file and a SEFA file if you entered grants. The county name will be included for townships for identification. It will take a couple of minutes for the Financial Statement file to run completely. Double click to open the files.

There will be various tabs in the Financial Statement file as shown below.

Click on the tabs listed below to review the Financial Statements.

ReportS - Statement of Receipts, Disbursements and Cash and Investment Balances.

CombYr1 - Combining Schedule.

PayRec - Schedule of Payables and Receivables.

Debt - Schedule of Leases and Debt.

Assets - Schedule of Capital Assets.

The rest of the tabs are workpapers that are for use by our field staff.

The SEFA file will have a tab named Report that you should review.

If you find any errors, go back to the AFR in Gateway to make any corrections. After making any necessary corrections to the AFR, you can download the Financial Statements and SEFA again. The process will overwrite the previously generated files within the same folder on your computer.

Frequently Asked Questions

General

Why is the Annual Financial Report process on the Gateway?
The goal of this project is to make local government financial data accessible to taxpayers, the media, the legislature, other State agencies, and Federal agencies. We can greatly enhance the way this information is presented to the public by collecting the data online. Collecting and storing data electronically will allow for taxpayer-friendly reports, statewide comparisons, online searchable data, and more. Taxpayers will have innovative research tools at their disposal to better understand the services their local governments provide and the cost of providing them. Access to the data by other government agencies will eliminate the need for local governments to report the same data to multiple agencies. A secondary benefit is that taxpayer money will be saved by eliminating the cost of printing, transporting, storing and photocopying paper documents.

What local units are required to complete an Annual Financial Report?
All counties, cities, towns, libraries, townships, special districts, schools, charter schools, hospitals and housing authorities must complete the Annual Financial Report through the Gateway. The data required to be entered will vary by the type of unit, however.

Is completion of the Annual Financial Report via Gateway mandatory?
Per IC 5-11-1-4 every municipality and local government is required to provide electronically and in a manner prescribed by the state examiner, financial reports for the fiscal year not later than sixty days after the close of the fiscal year. Completion and submission of the Annual Financial Report via Gateway will fulfill this requirement.

What is Gateway? And what happens if I fail to submit the Annual Financial Report via Gateway?
Gateway is the name of the web-based system developed for use by local units to submit required information to the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) and/or the State Board of Accounts (SBOA) electronically. SBOA will only recognize submission of the Annual Financial Reports through Gateway. SBOA will not accept the Annual Financial Report in paper form or in any other format. If a local unit fails to submit as prescribed, it will result in a comment in the local unit’s audit report and the local unit will face consequences up to and including denial of the proposed budget by DLGF. Per IC 5-11-1-10, the official commits a Class B infraction and forfeits their office if they do not file the proper reports with the State Examiner.

Who is responsible for submitting the completed report?
The official that is responsible for submission of the Annual Financial Report is the fiscal officer. This is the official that is responsible for the management of the local unit's financial affairs and accounting. The fiscal officer for various types of units is shown below.

Unit Type	Fiscal Officer
Counties	Auditor
Cities	Clerk Treasurer or Controller
Towns	Clerk Treasurer
Townships	Trustee
Libraries	Treasurer
Special Districts	Treasurer or Controller
Schools	Treasurer or Controller

If there is a change in officials, which official is responsible for submitting the Annual Financial Report?
The new official that takes office in January is responsible for submitting the Annual Financial Report.

When is the Annual Financial Report submission deadline?
Per IC 5-11-1-4 the Annual Financial Report is due sixty days after the end of the fiscal year. For calendar year units, this means March 1st and February 29th on a leap year. The Annual Financial Report for schools and charter schools is due August 29th.  

Do I still need to advertise certain financial data? If so, what needs to be advertised and when?
For your convenience, the Annual Report Outputs menu within the system includes the reports that must be advertised.  They are designed specifically for advertising purposes. These reports eliminate unnecessary formatting and blank lines since advertising should use the smallest type of print possible and a minimum of space to affect a cost savings.
IC codes that address advertising requirements are located as follows:


1. Townships should see IC 36-6-4-13.
2. All other local units should see IC 5-3-1. Some items to note are: IC 5-3-1-4(a) and IC 5-3-1-4(c) specifies the number of newspapers required to publish, IC 5-3-1-3(a) specifies cities and towns publish 60 days after the end of the calendar year and IC 5-3-1-3(f) specifies to only publish one time. IC 5-3-1-3.5 specifies libraries and special districts must publish 60 days after the end of the calendar year, if they have a budget of at least $300,000 and the power to levy taxes.

Do I need to submit proof of advertising to SBOA or enter the proof somewhere within Gateway?
No. The proof of advertising only needs to be maintained on file at your office.

The Annual Financial Report that was advertised has errors. Do I need to re-advertise after I correct the errors on Gateway?
You will need to review IC 5-3-1-2.3 and determine if the report as advertised would be misleading to a reasonable person. If so, then you should re-advertise.

If I have problems or questions concerning the Annual Financial Report who should I contact?
For technical problems (e.g. server error messages or problems saving data) contact Indiana Business Research Center (IBRC) at ibrctech@iu.edu. For accounting related questions, such as how to classify receipts or disbursements, advertise, or complete the various sections within the Annual Financial Report, contact the appropriate SBOA office supervisor for your local unit type. For a list of office directors and their contact information, see the SBOA web site at: http://www.in.gov/sboa/4442.htm. For other Annual Financial Report questions contact gateway@sboa.in.gov.
For Budget and Debt Management questions contact DLGF gateway@dlgf.in.gov.


Computer Access

Will I need to purchase or install any computer software?
No, the Gateway application is accessed through the internet. All you will need to access the application is an internet browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. A web browser is already installed on most computers. You should be able to use the same web browser that you used to enter your budget for DLGF.

Do I need to have internet access?
Yes, you must have internet access to use the Gateway.  

What if I don’t have a computer or internet access?
Government entities without computers or internet access can find free internet service at any campus of Indiana University or Ivy Tech, which are partnering with the State to provide temporary access to government officials without computers. In addition, most libraries will have public access computer terminals.

How do I access Gateway to start working on the Annual Financial Report?
The web address is https://gateway.ifionline.org/login.aspx.


User Name and Password

How do I obtain a User Name and password to login?
You will use the same User Name and password that you used for submitting your budget to DLGF. If there has been a change in the responsible official since the budget was submitted or the local unit does not submit a budget to DLGF, request a User Name and password by sending your name, title, e-mail address, local unit name, and county to gateway@sboa.in.gov.

Can my User Name and password be shared with others in my office so that they can enter and review data? If not, what do I need to do to obtain access for them?
Each person that needs access to Gateway should have their own User Name and password. Each local unit will have one official that is responsible for submitting the Annual Financial Report. This responsible official may request that additional User Names be created with either Edit rights or Review rights. These additional User Names will not have submission rights but can be used by others to enter or review data (e.g. office staff, consultants, vendors and/or board members). The official is responsible for submitting a complete and accurate Annual Financial Report regardless of who entered or reviewed the data. For more details on user rights and User Names see User Account Information. If you want to add a new user with Edit or Review rights to the Annual Report or delete a user’s access, fill out the Limited Delegation of Authority form. Please note that deleting a user’s access to the Annual Financial Report will not affect their access to the Budget system. Contact DLGF at gateway@dlgf.in.gov to delete a user’s access to the Budget system. Only the responsible official is authorized to sign the Limited Delegation of Authority form. Since the User Name is based upon the e-mail address, each form must contain a unique and legible e-mail address.

What is my password?
Your password is the same one you use when accessing Gateway to submit your budgets, debt management forms and/or property files to DLGF. If you recently requested access, your new User Name and password should have been communicated to you. If not, see the following FAQ.

My password will not work and the "forgot password" function will not recognize my User Name. How can I get my password reset?
Any user that incorrectly enters a password 5 times will be locked out of the Gateway system and will need to contact gateway@sboa.in.gov to have their User Name unlocked and/or their password reset. In addition, there could be a mismatch between the e-mail address you are attempting to use for your User Name and the e-mail address that has been setup in Gateway. Be sure to include the name and county of the unit in your e-mail.

How do I change my password?
To change your password, you must first login in with your current User Name and password. Click on “Account Settings” which is located under the Gateway heading. Scroll to the bottom of the Account Settings screen and click on the Change Password link.

What are the password requirements?
Passwords must be at least seven characters long.

How long can I be inactive before being timed out of the Gateway system?
For security purposes and to limit resource usage, after 20 minutes of inactivity the Gateway system will time out. To resume work you will need to re-enter your User Name and password.


Preparing To Enter Data

Can I upload the data from my financial accounting system into the Annual Financial Report?
If your software vendor has developed a process for this, contact them for information on how to download the data from your financial accounting system. Information to assist vendors in developing this process is available at: https://www.in.gov/sboa/political-subdivisions/general-overview/. Click on your political subdivision at the top of the screen, scroll down to Gateway, click the arrow next to Gateway, then click the arrow next to Annual Financial Report.  Look for Upload Specifications.

What type of information should I begin to obtain and organize in order to work on my Annual Financial Report?
a. Before you begin working on the Annual Financial Report you should make sure all transactions for the year have been posted to your accounting system.
b. Summarize the receipts by fund for each classification such as General Property Taxes, Cigarette Tax Distribution, Park and Recreation Receipts, Earnings on Investments and Deposits, Sale of Capital Assets, etc.
c. Summarize the disbursements by fund for each classification such as Salaries and Wages, Communication and Transportation, Insurance, Repairs and Maintenance, Purchase of Investments, etc. If you do not record disbursements at this level of detail, then you may summarize them by high level classifications such as Personal Services, Supplies, Services and Charges and enter the total in the “Other” line item available within each high level classification.
d. If you want to download Excel spreadsheets that contain of all the receipt and disbursement classifications, go to https://www.in.gov/sboa/political-subdivisions/general-overview/. Click on your political subdivision at the top of the screen, scroll down to Gateway, click the arrow next to Gateway, then click the arrow next to Annual Financial Report.  Look for Code Tables for the Annual Financial Report to see the links related to the Receipt Codes and Disbursement Codes. Note that this list is for all local unit types. Not all classifications will apply to all local unit types.
e. If you want to use the file upload process, you will need to create/obtain these files per instructions provided by your vendor.
f. Obtain contact information for officials (e.g. name, term, address, e-mail) and the local unit’s UEI and Federal EIN.
g. Obtain the beginning cash balance, beginning investment balance, total receipts, total disbursements, ending cash balance and ending investment balance for each of your funds.
h. Obtain amounts transferred between funds. Make sure that the transfers in equal the transfers out. See FAQ #65 for additional information.
i. Obtain capital asset totals at year-end by categories (e.g. land, infrastructure, and building).
j. Obtain Federal grant information (e.g. Assistance Listing number, grant amount, project name, Federal program title, Federal agency, pass-thru agency, amount awarded to sub recipients).
k. Obtain accounts payable and accounts receivable balances at year-end.
l. Obtain debt information (e.g. principal balance at year-end and principal due the following year).
m. Obtain lease information (e.g. name of the lessor, description of lease, beginning and ending dates of the lease, and the lease payments due the following year).
n. Obtain information related to financial assistance you provided to nongovernmental entities (e.g. name and contact information of the entity, and the amount of financial assistance).
o. Townships will need information to complete the Township Assistance Statistical Report (TA-7).
p. Townships will need disbursements by vendor and disbursement classification.
q. For Cities, Towns, Counties and Townships that have outside offices that hold funds that are not maintained within your records, you will need to have a completed Supplemental Annual Report from those offices or departments so that you can enter that information. See Frequently Asked Question 28 below for additional information.
r. Obtain information related to pension plans from your actuary, such as the most recent actuarial valuation.
s. Obtain information related to the public official surety bonds that you have for your officials, such as the name of the person that is bonded, the amount of the bond and the term of the bond. Put a copy of the bonds into a computer format such as pdf, png, gif, tif or jpg so they can be uploaded. 
Do we need to use code numbers? If so, where are they located and have there been any changes?
The codes are only necessary for receipts and disbursements if the local unit is using the file upload process. The codes are available on our website. See item d. above for the link to the website. 
Are the fund and account codes the same ones that are used by DLGF for the Budget process?
The account codes for receipts and disbursements are the same ones used by DLGF for the Budget process. The fund codes are still different than the budget.
Can I get a blank template to use as an input form before I start data entry on the computer?
There are not any blank forms available.  You can download the prior year reports on the Outputs Menu in Excel and use those as a template or data entry form.
Do we need to use the Supplemental Annual Report? If so, where can we obtain this form?
A Supplemental Annual Report is only used by counties, cities, towns and townships that have offices or departments that hold funds outside of your financial records. For townships, this applies to small claims courts. The forms with the Instructions should be distributed by you to these offices or departments and the forms should be completed and returned to you by January 20. To enter the data from these forms into the Annual Financial Report, go to the Financial Data by Fund section and add the fund and then enter the beginning cash balance, receipts and disbursements for these funds, the same as you entered all of your other funds. Do NOT send the completed supplemental forms to SBOA. You should keep these forms on file for audit at your local unit after you enter the information in the Annual Financial Report. If you do not enter the data for these funds, your Annual Financial Report will not be complete.

Unit Questions
What should I do if I answered a Unit Question wrong?
When beginning the Annual Financial Report, the first screen includes a series of Unit Questions. The answers to these questions determine the items that appear on the Main Menu and any unnecessary menu items are removed. If any of these questions are initially answered incorrectly, the answers can be changed by returning to the Unit Questions link located on the Main Menu. If you change an answer from No to Yes, the related link will appear on the Main Menu. If you change an answer from Yes to No, the related link will be removed from your Main Menu and any previously entered data related to that topic will no longer be accessible. However, if you later decide to change the answer back to Yes again, the related link will return to your Main Menu and any previously entered data related to that topic may OR may NOT return. Depending upon the situation, you may need to either re-enter the data or delete any inappropriate data related to the question that was changed from Yes to No and back to Yes again.
Question 15 “Do you participate in any joint ventures?  
A joint venture is a legal entity or other organization that results from a contractual arrangement and that is owned, operated, or governed by two or more participants as a separate and specific activity subject to joint control, in which the participants retain (a) an ongoing financial interest or (b) an ongoing financial responsibility. Generally, the purpose of a joint venture is to pool resources and share the costs, risks, and rewards of providing goods or services to the venture participants directly, or for the benefit of the general public or specific service recipients. Joint control means that no single participant has the ability to unilaterally control the financial or operating policies of the joint venture. If the organization is jointly controlled but the participants do not have an ongoing financial interest or ongoing financial responsibility, as defined in paragraphs 70 and 71, it is a jointly governed organization, rather than a joint venture.
Question 16. “Are there related party transactions?"
A related party is one that either: 1.Can significantly influence the management or operating policies of the transacting parties (for example, through imposition of will) or 2. Has an ownership interest in one of the transacting parties and can significantly influence the other to the extent that one or more of the transacting parties might be prevented from fully pursuing its own separate interests.
Question 17. “Is your unit affected by tax abatements through direct or indirect agreements?"
A tax abatement is an agreement between one or more governments and an individual or entity in which one or more governments promise to forgo tax revenues to which they are otherwise entitled and the individual or entity promises to take a specific action that contributes to economic development or benefits the government or citizens.
Schools and townships will not have any direct tax abatements because they do not have the authority in statute to do so. However, a school or township could be affected by a tax abatement given by a city/town or county indirectly if the entity receiving the tax abatement is in the taxing district. They will need to contact the County auditor for tax abatements affecting their tax revenues. In Indiana, a the most common tax abatement is a reduction in the assessed value of either real property or personal property (specific type of tax abated) in return for economic development benefits (purpose of abatement) provided to the political subdivision by the entity granting the abatement. Abatements can be direct or indirect.  Direct abatements are the abatements approved by your governing board.  Only Counties, Cities and Towns can approve abatements, so they would be the only units with direct abatements.  Indirect abatements are those approved by another unit’s governing board that affect your taxes.  If the entity receiving the abatement is in your taxing district, the abatement affects your tax revenue. In completing the disclosure note for abatements you need to determine the amount of taxes forgone.  This can be calculated by multiplying the reduction in the assessed value (the amount abated) by the tax rate (as a percentage per $100 of value) to arrive at an estimate of the amount of tax revenue reduced due to the abatement.  As an example, to illustrate this, assume a reduction of $100,000 of personal property and a tax rate of .72.  $100,000 X .0072 = $720 taxes forgone. A receivable is any amount to be paid to your political subdivision agreed upon in the abatement agreement.  This would be an abatement fee.  If no abatement fee is in the agreement or the fee is not paid to your political subdivision, your receivable will be zero.
Question 18. “Did your unit have Interfund Loans (Due to-Due from) during the year?"
An interfund loan is a transfer that moves money from one fund to another fund.
Question 19.  "Do you have conduit debt?"  
Conduit debt is a debt instrument issued in the name of a state or local government that is for the benefit of a third party that is primarily liable for the repayment of the debt instrument. If the reporting entity has any conduit debt, the text box should include: a, general description of the conduit debt transactions, the aggregate amount of all conduit debt obligations outstanding at the financial statement date, and a clear indication that the issuer has no obligation for the debt beyond the resources provided by related leases or loans
Question 22. "Do you have a disaster recovery plan?"  
All transactions that occur in the accounting system must be recorded and accessible upon proper request. Transactions maintained electronically should include proper backups, whether saved on a server, microfilmed, or printed on hardcopy. These transactions include, but are not limited to, all input transactions, transactions that generate receipts, transactions that generate checks, master file updates, and all transactions that affect the ledgers in any way. A disaster recovery plan includes procedures to back up financial data frequently, if not daily, and to store those back ups in a secure location that is not connected to the main server.  It also includes procedures to test this data regularly to ensure that the system is working.  Storage of back-ups may be on an isolated server, in the cloud or on a server maintained by your software vendor.  If you have a separate server or use the cloud, your disaster recovery plan would be “yes-in house”.  If you rely on your software vendor to maintain your back-ups, you will choose “yes- through vendor”.  If you do not have a disaster recovery plan, you will choose "No".
Question 24. "Are electronic fund transfers (EFT) permitted for cash?"  
If your credit or debit cards can be used to obtain cash then answer yes.  If not, answer no. 
Identify Enterprises
Should related enterprises be combined or separated?
Each enterprise should be entered as a separate enterprise. In the past, some local units have combined their enterprises on the Annual Financial Report when they operate two or more utilities. This may have been due to both utilities using a common bill and operated by the same staff from the same office. Navigate to the Identify Enterprises menu to add each enterprise associated with the local unit.
What names and descriptions should be used when identifying enterprises?
Enterprises that are utilities should simply be named Electric, Gas, Solid Waste, Storm Water, Trash, Wastewater, Water, etc. If the enterprise isn’t a utility, the enterprise name should be based upon the actual name (e.g. Rose Garden Cemetery, Wilson Convention Center, AJ Smith Golf Course, and North Street Parking Garage). The description cell is optional and will not appear on any reports.
If we plan to use the file upload process, do we have to complete the “Identify Enterprises” section first before uploading the data?
It’s preferable that the enterprises be defined before the upload. When proceeding from the Unit Questions, you will be automatically directed to the Identify Enterprises section. It is recommended that after this section is completed, you return to the Main Menu and then select Upload Files. Once the files are uploaded, the user will go to another screen to link the enterprise numbers in the upload files to the previously defined enterprises. If at this point the local unit needs to add additional enterprises, there will be an “Add Enterprise” button on the screen so the local unit can define and link additional enterprises.
 


Upload Files
For the file upload process, does it matter what fund number is used for custom funds?
No. If the local unit is utilizing the file upload process, the custom fund must start with a 9 and then any unique 5 digit number. You may use last year’s Annual Financial Report fund code or the fund code from your system. However, each fund code must be unique.
Can the local unit upload or add additional receipt/disbursement accounts/names that do not appear in the standard code tables?
No, the local unit cannot add receipt or disbursement accounts. They should use the existing receipt/disbursement classification that is most applicable. The classifications are grouped by high level categories such as Taxes, Licenses and Permits, Charges for Services, etc. to assist in selecting an appropriate classification. Using “Beer Cart Receipts” as an example, it would seem that “Park and Recreation Receipts” under “Charges for Services” would be an appropriate classification. If no classification applies, then use an “other” classification. For this example, “Other Charges for Services”. If you use an “other” receipt category, you must enter a local unit account number and local unit account name for each of those. If your accounting system doesn’t use account numbers, you may enter any number.
Why do Townships have a second disbursement file? Are both files required?
Both disbursement files (disburse.txt and twpdisburse.txt) are required for townships that upload vendor files.  The Township Disbursements file has the codes needed for the upload. Note, that the codes for the Township Disbursements file start with the letters DT.
Can I use the file upload process even if I already started adding funds, beginning balances, receipts and/or disbursements into the Annual Financial Report? If so, what happens to the previously entered data?
If you initially answered No when asked if you have data files from your accounting system to upload, you may return to the Unit Questions and change your answer. However, any time files are uploaded all previously entered or uploaded funds, beginning balances, receipts, and disbursements are cleared out and cannot be restored. If applicable, the departments or township Disbursements by Vendor entries are also cleared out and cannot be restored.
Is there a way to verify that the entire file was uploaded?
Prior to submitting the Annual Financial Report, you should review the data (both on-line and by generating the available reports) to verify the accuracy and completeness of the data.
If I need to upload the vendor files again, does that delete all of the prior data loaded or entered by the user?
Each new upload will delete all previously uploaded data as well as any manually entered data associated with these screens (i.e. fund names, balances, receipts and disbursements from the Financial Data by Fund section, any departments selected in the Departments section, and for townships, any entries within the Disbursements by Vendor section). However, it will not delete data from sections not related to the upload files (i.e. Schedule of Officials, Capital Assets, Grants, Accounts Payable/Receivable, Debt, Leases, Financial Assistance to Non Governmental Entities, and for townships, the TA-7).
If problems are isolated to just one file such as receipts, can just that one file be reloaded?
No, all of the files required for the upload must be reloaded for the user to continue with the upload process. If one file needs to be reloaded, all files must be reloaded.
If the files are reloaded, does the user have to match the funds that go with each enterprise again?
Yes, when the files are reloaded the entire process starts over.
I plan to use the file upload process, but the files aren’t ready yet. Are there some sections of the Annual Financial Report that I can start working on before uploading these files?
Some sections of the Annual Financial Report are dependent upon having the enterprises and/or funds added to the system, but others are not.

The following sections CAN be started prior to the file upload:
a. Unit Questions
b. Identify Enterprises
c. Schedule of Officials
d. Debt
e. Leases
f. Financial Assistance to Non Governmental Entities
g. TA-7 (for townships only)
h. Pensions
i. Grants
j. Public Official Surety Bond

The following sections CAN be started, but any applicable enterprises must first be added before they will appear on the screen:
a. Capital Assets
b. Accounts Payable/Receivable

The following sections should NOT be started because the file upload will overwrite entries:
a. Departments
b. Financial Data by Fund
c. Disbursements by Vendor (for townships only)
d. Transfer Schedule
e. Interfund Loan Activity
 
The Transfer Schedule and Interfund Loan Activity sections require you to select a “Local Fund Number/Name” from a drop down list of previously added funds. Since your funds will not appear in the drop down list until after the upload data is processed, no data can be saved unless a fund is selected.

Departments
How should I answer the question, “Does your unit departmentalize?”
Within the Financial Data by Fund section, only counties, cities, towns, and townships are provided the option to report their General Fund disbursements by department. In addition, for counties, departments are automatically created for the Motor Vehicle Highway fund when choosing to departmentalize. If you choose to departmentalize, then a Departments menu will become available and you should select the appropriate General Fund departments based upon how disbursements are categorized within your accounting records. If some of your departments can’t be matched with the pre-defined list you may click on one of the Home-Rule Departments. Click on the “Add Alias” button to enter the local department name used within your accounting records. You may need to scroll up to locate the data entry box. If you initially answer this question wrong you may return to the Unit Questions and change your response. However, if you have entered disbursements for departments and later change your answer to No you will receive a warning message that states, “This unit has departments. Selecting ‘No’ will delete all saved departments and departmental disbursements.” You should click OK to accept. However, if you don’t want to accept you should click the X in the top right corner of warning message to escape and then change your answer to Yes. Since the General Fund is a standard fund you should not create a custom fund and name it “General” because custom funds cannot be departmentalized and because standard funds should be used whenever possible. Likewise, counties should always use the standard fund for Motor Vehicle Highway even if they don’t departmentalize.

Schedule of Officials
What is the purpose of the “Mark Complete” check box at the bottom of the Schedule of Officials?
The Schedule of Officials has predefined fields depending upon the type of local unit. However, some of these fields may not apply to all local units of a similar type. To help ensure that this schedule has been completed you will not be able to submit the Annual Financial Report unless you have checked this check box. By checking this box you are acknowledging that all applicable fields have been completed and any blank fields are not applicable to your local unit. The Schedule of Officials status that appears on the Main Menu will be shown as “Complete” once this box is checked.
Why does the Schedule of Officials include 3 fields for the Federal EIN and UEI number?
Most local units will only have one Federal EIN and one UEI (Unique Entity Identifier) so any extra fields should be left blank. Additional UEI number and Federal EIN fields were provided for local units that may have multiple numbers.

If your unit has not received any Federal Grants, you may not have an UEI number. If you don’t have a UEI number, just leave it blank.

Financial Data by Fund
How do I add a fund? When adding a fund how do I know whether it should be added as a standard fund or as a custom fund?
The Financial Data by Fund section contains a grid for Governmental Activities and a grid for each enterprise that was defined via the Identify Enterprises section. There is an “Add a fund to this grid” link at the top of each grid. When clicking on this link, you are brought to the screen that allows you to add a fund. Step 4 allows you to associate the local fund name and number with one of the available standard funds. To find the matching standard funds, you may either type key words or click on the “Show All Funds”. The list of Governmental Activities standard funds is different than the list of Enterprise standard funds. After locating the most appropriate matching standard fund from the list, click on it. This will cause the selected standard fund name to become enlarged. Then click on the link entitled “Click here to add this fund”.  A standard fund can only be used once per grid. As a result, once a standard fund has been selected and added it will no longer appear within the list. If there are no standard funds that adequately describe your local fund, then click on the “Build a Custom Fund” link, answer any questions that appear and then click on the “Add This Fund” link.
If my local fund name doesn’t match one of the SBOA standard funds in the list, but it’s similar, should I use the related SBOA standard fund or create a custom fund?
For common or statutory funds, the local unit should select and use the standard fund even if the standard fund name is different from the local fund name that appears in their accounting system. Some common examples applicable to some unit types are listed below:
 
Local Fund Name	Use this SBOA Standard Fund Name
Nonmotorized Vehicle	Buggy License
MVH	Motor Vehicle Highway
Poor Relief	Township Assistance
LRS	Local Road and Street
Water Operating	Enterprise Operating
911	Emergency Telephone System

When using an SBOA standard fund name, you should also enter the local fund name and number as it is defined within your computerized accounting system.
What fund numbers should I use since the funds within my accounting system aren’t numbered?
If you have manual records or your computerized accounting system doesn’t number the funds, use sequential numbers starting with 1. You may want to add one or more leading zeros to the fund number so that funds are listed on the reports in the order you would like.
I can’t find a payroll fund in the SBOA Fund List when attempting to add this fund. Is there a standard payroll fund?
There are several different standard funds available for payroll, but if you cannot find the one you need you can create a custom fund. 
Should enterprise funds such as Bond and Interest be entered as custom funds?
Yes, these funds are not on the SBOA standard fund list as there may be more than one for each enterprise. For example, you could have multiple Bond Interest funds, one for each bond issue. Enter them as custom funds.
When adding a fund, why am I asked to “Check here if this fund is associated with a federal grant”?
The check mark is designed to help ensure federal grant information is entered, when necessary. If you received grants from the State, it’s likely these funds are associated with a Federal grant. Identify the funds that account for the Federal grants and determine the amounts that have been disbursed from those funds. Federal grants can come to you in different forms. Some of the most common forms of grants received by local units are: direct grants from Federal agencies; amounts passed through from the State; loan and loan guarantee programs; receipt of donated property, including donated surplus property; food commodities; interest subsidies; insurance; endowments; and program income. In addition, some grants are received through reimbursements, in which the local unit has disbursed money up front and is then reimbursed by the State or Federal agency at a later time.
Can the standard funds called Enterprise Operating, Enterprise Customer Deposit, and Enterprise Depreciation and Improvement be used more than once since we have more than one type of enterprise?
Yes, these three funds can be used more than once by the local unit, but only once for each enterprise.
Is there a way to change the Local Fund Name and/or number after it’s been added?
To make any necessary changes to a Local Fund Name and/or number, click on the appropriate “Edit” icon that appears on the Financial Data by Fund menu.
The funds within the grid and reports aren’t sorted the way I’d like. Is there something I can do to change the sort order?
Within the Annual Financial Report the funds are sorted by local fund number. However, these fund numbers are sorted as text cells so fund numbers of 9, 33, and 111 would be sorted in the following order: 111, 33, and 9 since it sorts by the first character. To enable these fund numbers to appear in numerical order, you will need to add leading zeros to the fund numbers (e.g. 009, 033, and 111).

Entering Receipts and Disbursements
What receipt classifications should be used?
The classifications within the Annual Financial Report were generally determined based upon names used within the statutes, but there are exceptions. For example, one receipt classification is called “Food and Amusement Licenses and Permits” since some local units may have several receipt classifications related to these types of activities. Match the receipt accounts within your accounting system to the Annual Financial Report receipt classifications as much as possible. If you have multiple receipt accounts that are related to one Annual Financial Report receipt classification, add the amounts and enter the total in the applicable Annual Financial Report receipt classification. Conversely, if you have a receipt account that spans two or more Annual Financial Report receipt classifications, record the receipts in the most applicable Annual Financial Report receipt classification. If none of the Annual Financial Report receipt classifications relate to your receipt account, classify the receipts as “Other” in the most applicable high level classification (e.g. Taxes and Intergovernmental, Licenses and Permits, etc.). If you have multiple types of “Other” within the same high level classification you can report the amounts in two ways:

a. Add up multiple “Other” receipts for a given high level classification and enter that amount as a single “Other” line. Since you will be required to enter an account name and number, this should reflect the combined account descriptions as closely as possible or,
b. Enter multiple “Other” lines for a given high level classification. Enter the local account name and number on each added “Other” line.
I want to use multiple “Other” lines for receipt classifications, but my accounting system doesn’t use account numbers. What should I enter in the Account Number field since it’s a required field?
If your accounting system doesn’t use account numbers for receipt classifications, you may enter any number.

 
What disbursement classifications should be used?
Match the disbursement accounts within your accounting system to the Annual Financial Report disbursement classifications as much as possible. If you have multiple disbursement accounts that are related to one Annual Financial Report disbursement classification, add the amounts and enter the total in the applicable Annual Financial Report disbursement classification. Conversely, if you have a disbursement account that spans two or more Annual Financial Report disbursement classifications, record the disbursements in the most applicable Annual Financial Report disbursement classification. If none of the Annual Financial Report disbursement classifications relate to your disbursement account, classify the disbursements as “Other” in the most applicable high level classification (e.g. Personal Services, Supplies, etc.).
Is there an easy way to locate the receipt and disbursement classifications?
To more quickly find a receipt or disbursement classification simultaneously press the “Ctrl” and “F” on your keyboard, and it will open up a “Find” box in the browser. Then type in the key words or characters to find the desired classification or characters. This works on all screens within the Annual Financial Report.

 
How should transfers, interfund loans and/or interfund loan repayments be entered in the Financial Data by Fund?
In the past, we have seen many problems with transfers being out of balance. This occurs when the total of the transfers out does not equal the total of the transfers in. Many of the balancing problems are caused by inconsistent receipt/disbursement classifications. For example, if one side of a transfer transaction is entered as a transfer and the other side isn’t, the transfers will not balance. The following are related receipt and disbursement classifications that should equal:

Receipts: Disbursements:

Transfers In - should equal: Transfer Out - Transferred from Another Fund Transferred to Another Fund

Interfund Loans - should equal: Interfund Loan - Borrowed from Another Fund Loaned to Another Fund

Interfund Loans - should equal: Interfund Loan - Repayment from Another Fund Repaid to Another Fund

Transfers vs. Interfund Loans

A transfer permanently moves money from one fund to another, whereas an interfund loan is a temporary transfer and must be paid back to the original fund. Classifying one side of the transaction as an interfund loan (borrowed or repayment) and the other side as a transfer will make the transfers out of balance.

Recording Transfers

To enter the receipt side of a transfer on the Annual Financial Report, go to the Financial Data by Fund section. Scroll to the fund that the money is being transferred to and click on the receipts link. Scroll to the bottom of the receipts screen and enter the amount on the Transfers In line.

To enter the disbursement side of the transfer on the Annual Financial Report, go to the Financial Data by Fund section. Scroll to the fund that the money is being transferred from and click on the disbursements link. Scroll to the bottom of the disbursements screen and enter the amount on the Transfers Out line. The Annual Report Outputs section contains a Transfers report to help identify problems or confirm that transfers balance.

Recording Interfund Loans

To enter the receipt side of an interfund loan on the Annual Financial Report, go to the Financial Data by Fund section. Scroll to the fund that borrowed from another fund and click on the receipts link. Scroll to the bottom of the receipts screen and enter the amount on the Interfund Loans -Borrowed from Another Fund line.

To enter the disbursement side of the interfund loan on the Annual Financial Report, go to the Financial Data by Fund section. Scroll to the fund that loaned the money and click on the disbursements link. Scroll to the bottom of the disbursements screen and enter the amount on the Interfund Loan - Loaned to Another Fund line.

Recording Interfund Loans Repayments

To enter the receipt side of an interfund loan repayment on the Annual Financial Report, go to the Financial Data by Fund section. Scroll to the fund that received the loan repayment from another fund and click on the receipts link. Scroll to the bottom of the receipts screen and enter the amount on the Interfund Loans - Repayment from Another Fund line.

To enter the disbursement side of the interfund loan repayment on the Annual Financial Report, go to the Financial Data by Fund section. Scroll to the fund that made the loan repayment and click on the disbursements link. Scroll to the bottom of the disbursements screen and enter the amount on the Interfund Loan - Repaid to Another Fund line.
I generated the Transfers report and the Transfers In doesn’t equal the Transfers Out. Will that cause the Annual Financial Report to be rejected?
No. If your transfers don’t balance this will cause a submission warning to display when doing the “Review Submission” or “Submit Annual Report” section. Any submission warnings will alert you to potential problems, but it will not prevent you from submitting the Annual Financial Report.
How should unappropriated disbursements be entered?
If you have disbursements that are shown as unappropriated, you will need to classify them for the Annual Financial Report. For example, if you used unappropriated funds for expenses related to travel for a conference, you would classify that as a Communication and Transportation Expense under Other Services and Charges.
How should transactions related to Payroll Funds or Clearing Accounts be entered?
If you utilize a payroll fund or other type of clearing account and move money from one bank account to another, this movement of funds should not be entered as transfers. Instead, gross payroll expenses should be classified as Personal Services/Salaries and Wages from the original fund. The same amount should be entered as a receipt into the Payroll fund as Other Receipts/Payroll Fund and Clearing Account Receipts. When the payroll warrants and tax/deduction warrants are issued from the Payroll Fund, the disbursement should be classified as Other Disbursements/Other Disbursements.
Why do different types of utilities have different disbursement categories?
This is due to the structure of the standard chart of accounts being organized differently for gas and electric utilities versus water and wastewater utilities. The design of the gas and electric chart of accounts is intended to organize disbursements by function, rather than by the more common budgetary categories. Each functional category includes various expenditure categories, for example, "Administrative and General", a category available to gas and electric utilities, is meant to include: salaries, office supplies and expenses, outside services employed, property insurance, injuries and damages, employee pensions and benefits, etc. 
How should the Deduction for Examination of Records that is on County Form 22 Certificate of Tax Distribution from the County Auditor be entered on the Annual Financial Report?
There are two options. The preferred option is to receipt the gross amount of the property tax and then post a disbursement for the examination amount. This would provide you with a better accounting of the property tax revenue and would also recognize the examination expense.  You should also attach a note to the deposit ticket that explains the difference of the amount deposited from the amount of the receipt posted. The other option, if you use cash basis accounting, is to receipt the net amount of property tax into your ledger because the cash basis only recognizes the money actually received and deposited. We would not take exception to this option. 

Investments
How should Investments Funds be treated?
Some local units have “Investments Funds” to account for investments. Investments Funds are really subsidiary or memo accounts that are used to account for investments rather than traditional funds that account for the cash balances and transactions. Do not enter data into the Annual Financial Report for any Investments Funds you may have. The method to record investments is dependent upon whether the investments were purchased from a specific fund or from Total Monies on Deposit. See the following FAQs within this Investments section for additional information.
What do you mean by Total Monies on Deposit?
Total Monies on Deposit is money that has been deposited into one or more of the local unit’s banks and is not associated with one specific fund. If investments are purchased from “Total Monies on Deposit” then the disbursement check is NOT posted to any specific funds and when the investments are later sold and deposited back into the local unit’s banks the receipts are also NOT posted to any specific funds.
How should investment balances and transactions be entered if the investments were purchased from Total Monies on Deposit?
If investments were purchased during prior years from Total Monies on Deposit, since it was not purchased from a specific fund these investments should NOT be entered as Beginning Balance Investments for any fund. Investments associated with Total Monies on Deposit should instead be recorded as part of the Beginning Balance Cash and will automatically be included in the Ending Balance Cash cells. If investments associated with Total Monies on Deposit are purchased or sold during the year, these transactions should NOT be entered as a “Purchase of Investments” or “Sale of Investments” from any fund. See the question above for the definition of Total Monies on Deposit.
How should investment balances be entered if the investments were purchased from a specific fund?
If an investment was purchased from a specific fund prior to the beginning of the year, the original purchase price of the investment is entered in the Beginning Balance Investments cell. The Ending Balance Investment amount will be automatically calculated by the system based upon receipt and disbursement transactions.

For example, if a local unit utilizes investment funds within their accounting records a local unit could have the following two funds:
a. Fund 1234, titled Sample Fund which accounts for the cash.
b. Fund 1235, titled Sample Fund Investments which accounts for the investments purchased by fund 1234.

In this scenario you would perform the following steps to merge these funds:
a. Add fund 1234 – Sample Fund to the Annual Financial Report.
b. Enter the Beginning Cash Balance and enter the Beginning Investment Balance to this newly added fund. (Do not add fund 1235 – Sample Fund Investments, because the investment was entered in fund 1234’s Beginning Investment Balance.)
How should a purchase of investments be entered?
If you purchase an investment from a specific fund, the full cost of the investment is shown as a disbursement from the fund from which the investment was purchased. This is entered on the Annual Financial Report by going to the Financial Data by Fund section. Scroll down to the fund that the investment was purchased from. Click on the disbursements link to display the disbursement screen. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and enter the cost of the investment on the Purchase of Investments line.

If you purchase an investment from Total Monies on Deposit, the cost of the investment is NOT shown as a disbursement or purchase of investment from any fund on the Annual Financial Report.
How should earnings on investments and deposits be entered?
When you receive interest on investments purchased from a specific fund, it should be shown as a receipt to the fund from which the investment was purchased. This is entered on the Annual Financial Report by going to the Financial Data by Fund section. Scroll down to the fund that purchased the investment. Click on the receipts link to display the receipts screen. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and enter the amount of the interest on the Earnings on Investments and Deposits line.

If you receive interest on your bank accounts or an investment purchased from Total Monies on Deposit, it should be shown as a receipt to the general fund under Earnings on Investments and Deposits.
How should a sale of investments be entered?
If you sell an investment purchased from a specific fund, the full amount of the sale is shown as a receipt to the fund from which the investment was purchased. This is entered on the Annual Financial Report by going to the Financial Data by Fund section. Scroll down to the fund that purchased the investment. Click on the receipts link to display the receipts screen. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and enter the amount received on the Sale of Investments line. Note that any interest should be entered as a receipt under Earnings on Investments and Deposits.

If you sell an investment purchased from Total Monies on Deposit, the principal or purchase price of the investment is NOT shown as a receipt or sale of investments from any fund on the Annual Financial Report. But, any interest should be shown as a receipt to the general fund under Earnings on Investments and Deposits.
How should the “rollover” of an investment be entered?
A rollover of an investment happens when the investment is renewed. This should be shown as a Sale of Investments and a Purchase of Investments. This is true even though the bank does not pay the original investment and a warrant is not issued for the purchase of a new one. However, if renewed, the interest should be recorded as Earnings on Investments and Deposits. The interest shall not be added to the original deposit and reinvested by the depository without being recorded in the records.

For example, there is a certificate of deposit for $10,000. It has matured and is renewed. The interest earned is $300. So, there would be a $300 receipt for Earnings on Investments and Deposits to the fund from which the investment was purchased. There would also be a receipt for $10,000 shown as a Sale of Investments. Then, there would be a disbursement shown for a Purchase of Investments for $10,300.

In the case of United States Government Securities, the amount received from investments must be receipted into the records and a warrant issued for the purchase of new securities. There is no authority for the “rollover” or reinvestment of securities by a depository.
Should savings accounts be treated as cash or investments?
Savings accounts should be treated as cash. By definition, these are transaction accounts and not investment accounts.
Financial Data by Fund-Schools
What type of errors and warnings will I see on the error report?

Submission Errors
Invalid Section number- not equal to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 7
Invalid Fund Number-not in the range of 0101-9999
Invalid Account number - Account number not on list
Duplicate Fund Name-each Fund Name must be unique
Invalid combination of Section and Account- 5 & 7=0, 1 & 3=receipt account, 2 & 4=expenditure account
Invalid Fund Type-not equal to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12
Inconsistent Fund Number and Fund Type
Duplicate entry- each combination of Section/Fund Number/Account must be unique
Submission Warnings
Invalid Fund Number-  Fund Number is not on Chart of Accounts
Invalid combination of Fund Number and Account number-  Account number is not listed for this Fund Number
Capital Assets
How should we answer the Unit Question related to assets if we are so small that we don’t have any assets?
Local units that don’t have any assets should answer No to the Unit Question related to assets.
What assets should be reported? Do we include desks, copiers, shredders or other low dollar value items?
The governing body should have established a capitalization policy that sets a dollar amount as a threshold to be used in determining which acquisitions should be included in the inventory of capital assets.
Do we include assets that we don't own and are leasing?
If you are renting without an option to purchase, you would not include those assets.

Grants
What should I do if I don’t have all the information needed to complete each cell within the Grants grid (e.g. Federal Agency, Assistance Listing Number, and Award Number)?
The Grant section should be filled out as completely as possible. Zeros should be entered in the dollar amount cells that aren’t applicable to the grant.
How can I resolve the error message related to Grants that appears in the Review Submission or the Submit Annual Report sections?
If you believe that a submission error entitled “Grant Section Not Filled Out” is inappropriately appearing on the in the Review Submission or Submit Annual Report section, make sure that the Grant section has been completed if you have received or disbursed money from federal grants. If you did not receive or disburse any federal grant money, change the answer to the Grants question on the Unit Questions menu.
Does a school need to report Federal Medicaid reimbursement on the AFR?
The answer to this question is below and comes from the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE). The Assistance Listing number for Medicaid funding is 93.778.
This is regarding the percent of federal dollars that Local Education Agencies (LEAs) receive as the result of Medicaid Administrative Claiming (MAC) versus Medicaid "medical" claiming for Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) direct medical services that schools provide per IEPs of Medicaid eligible students. LEAs may opt to participate in one, both or neither of these two very different types of Medicaid claiming.
In the case of MAC reimbursements (for administrative activities performed in support of the Indiana Medicaid State Plan), the entire amount paid to each Indiana MAC-participating LEA is 100% federal dollars. Some of these state/local expenditures are claimable at the regular Medicaid Administrative match rate (50%) and some are eligible for enhanced (75%) match pursuant to recent federal legislation (CHIPRA -Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act).
For Medicaid covered IEP direct medial claims, (for services such as Physical Therapy, Nursing or Audiology that LEAs may bill just as any other qualified provider of the same medical services), the entire Medicaid reimbursement (both the state and federal share) is retained by the LEA. The IDOE contributes the state match for these Medicaid reimbursements via an intergovernmental transfer (IGT) of state education funds (state tuition support dollars) to the Indiana Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning. The state's Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) rate determines the amount of federal versus state funds included in IEP direct medical services reimbursements paid to LEAs that choose to bill Medicaid for covered IEP services.
Just to clarify: 100% of reimbursements for school based Medicaid Administrative Claims (referred to as MAC or in our case, IndianaMAC) are federal dollars.  Federal match dollars for MAC program costs are drawn down based on the schools' Certified Public Expenditures (CPEs) for their demonstrated state and locally funded costs for claimable activities.
If our Special Education Co-op or District is a fiscal agent for federal grants that are distributed to member school corporations, do we include those in the grant section of our AFR?
No. These special education grant agreements are between the Indiana Department of Education and a member school corporation, not the Special Education Co-Op. The grant section of the Gateway Annual Financial Report for a Special Education Co-Op would be to indicate only federal grants that the Special Education Co-Op received directly and not for a grant that they were just a fiscal agent. The Special Education Co-Op should report to the member school corporations their portions of the special education funding so they can include it in their Gateway Annual Financial Report.
Where do I enter commodities for the school lunch program?
The commodities are entered in the "Non Cash Assistance" column for the school lunch grant.   https://www.in.gov/sboa/files/2018-March-School-Bulletin.pdf
I received a grant agreement for a grant from the State Department of Workforce Development that says I must report the grant on the "annual financial report called an Entity Annual Report (E-1)". Is this correct?
No. The Entity Annual Report (E-1) is filed by nongovernmental entities. The Annual Financial Report and the Entity Annual Report are not the same report. Governmental units file the Annual Financial Report (AFR).

Debt
I have entered and submitted the debt management forms to DLGF. Why do I have to enter debt information in the Annual Financial Report too?
We find that often the information entered in the Debt Management system does not agree to the debts listed in the Financial Data by Fund. Also, some data we require is not currently available in the Debt Management system. Please review and update your debt information in the Debt Management system. Pay particular attention to the amortization schedules. Compare them to the amortization schedules per the bond documents and/or escrow agent. There are also amortization calculators on the Internet if you don't have a schedule for a particular debt issue. We will continue to review the quality of the data in the DLGF Debt Management system and hopefully sometime in the future we can eliminate the Debt section in the Annul Financial Report.  

Financial Assistance to Non Governmental Entities
What happens if I don’t know what to enter in some of the cells within the Financial Assistance to Non Governmental Entities grid (e.g. Federal Tax ID and all of the various contact information)?
The Financial Assistance to Non Governmental Entities section should be filled out as completely as possible. However, the only required cells include the Name, County, Description of Funding, Amount, and Type of nongovernmental entity. If the type of nongovernmental entity is not included in the dropdown list, select “Other Not-For-Profit” from the dropdown list.

Townships
How should townships enter disbursements related to the Township Assistance Fund (i.e. Admin, Direct Assistance, Other Assistance, and Misc. Inv.) since townships cannot departmentalize that fund?
There are disbursement classifications created specifically for the Township Assistance standard fund (and for the Distressed Township Funds). The classifications include: 1) Emergency Shelter, 2) Housing, 3) Utilities, 4) Food, 5) Clothing, 6) Household Supplies, 7) Transportation, 8) Health Care, 9) Funerals, Burials, Cremations, and 10) Other Direct Relief. Administrative disbursements made from the Township Assistance fund should be reported in the appropriate classifications under Personal Services, Supplies, etc. The Township Assistance fund should be created as a standard fund. It should NOT be added as a custom fund because custom funds do not provide the necessary classifications related to Township Assistance.
Since the Township Disbursements by Vendor Report is available on the public website, isn't this a privacy issue for the clients that are receiving township assistance?
Since the checks are made payable to the landlord, utilities, etc., the vendor name is published, not the name of the client receiving assistance.
How should townships that receive LIT report this since it’s not in the list of standard funds for townships?
Normally the LIT distribution would be receipted to the Township Fund. If the Township creates a special fund for this distribution, then they need to add a custom fund.
Does the township have to provide a copy of the Annual Financial Report to the County Auditor?
Yes. Per IC 36-6-4-12, the township must file a copy of the Annual Financial Report and the accompanying vouchers (checks) with the County Auditor.

Annual Report Outputs
I bought and sold investments. Why are the Sale of Investments receipts and Purchase of Investments disbursements included on the Cash Fund Statement and the Investment Fund Statement, but excluded from the Cash and Investments Combined Statement?
The purchase and sale of investments are included on the Cash Fund Statement because these transactions affect the cash balance. They are also included on the Investment Fund Statement because the purchase and sale affects the investment balance. However, transactions related to the purchase and sale of investments are excluded from the Cash and Investments Combined Statement so that the local unit’s receipts and disbursements are not inappropriately inflated.
When I try to generate reports from the Annual Reports Output Menu, the screen is blank.  How do I generate these reports?
You must use a web browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox for the reports to generate.

Accrual Units
How will accrual units fill out the Annual Financial Report?
Accrual units (except charter schools, regional development authorities, housing authorities and hospitals) will fill out all sections of the Annual Financial Report including the Financial Data by Fund section. The Beginning Cash Balance for each fund should come from the local unit’s accounting records. The receipts should be reported as Other Receipts/Other Receipts and the disbursements reported as Other Disbursements/Other Disbursements for each fund. The resulting Ending Cash Balance should match the local unit’s accounting records. Some local units may keep a subsidiary cash record to support this. Otherwise, an analysis of the transactions posted to the cash accounts in the ledger would be necessary. You may disregard the Submission Warning that states, “All disbursement codes for all funds have a disbursement code set as “other”. At least one code should not be listed as other.”
Do accrual units still need to separately submit financial statements?
Yes. Accrual units (except charter schools, regional development authorities, housing authorities and hospitals who submit their accrual statements within the AFR) also need to submit their Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Cash Flow Statement via the Monthly and Annual Engagement Uploads application under the GAAP section. If you are required or approved for a GAAP audit and do not have this section in the Monthly and Annual Engagement Uploads please email Gateway@sboa.in.gov for help. In the past, some accrual units have submitted a “Trial Balance” listing of their accounts instead of their financial statements. This is not acceptable. We prefer the statements in Excel, but will accept PDF.
Should accrual units enter their grants based upon cash or accrual?
Accrual units may choose to enter grants based upon either method.

Errors, Warnings, and Helpful Hints
I click on the “Save All Work” button, but sometimes my entries don’t save. What can I do differently to make sure the data is saved?
In some instances data fails to save because it isn’t entered in the required format. System edit checks generate warning messages, but it’s possible the warning message isn’t viewable due to the position of the scroll bar. In addition, it may be difficult to determine which cell/field the error message relates to.  Other times the error message may go away when moving to a different section within the screen. If data isn’t saving, make sure you press the “Enter” key on your keyboard after entering all data in a row and make sure no error messages are displayed after each entry. 
Why am I getting errors related to negative investment balances?
The Annual Financial Report will not accept a negative amount for the Beginning Investment Balance. In addition, the Annual Financial Report will generate a submission error if the Ending Investment Balance is negative. This is because there isn’t any investment instrument such as a CD, Stock, etc. that can be issued for a negative amount. Therefore, negative Investment Balances are indicative of an error such as failing to separately record the Earnings on Investments when recording the Sale of Investments, or entering a Sale of Investments when the investment was not previously recorded as either a Purchase of Investment or included in the Beginning Investment balance for the fund.
How do I fix system identified errors related to negative receipt amounts?
If a receipt classification nets to a negative due to a refund or some other reason, enter it as a disbursement.
How do I fix system identified errors related to negative disbursement amounts?
If a disbursement classification nets to a negative due to a return or some other reason, enter it as a receipt.
If errors are identified after submission, can the Annual Financial Report be re-submitted?
It is best to correct any errors before the Annual Financial Report has been submitted. After the Annual Financial Report has been submitted, the data is locked. In order to make corrections after the Annual Financial Report has been submitted, the person with submitter access must first click “Unsubmit”. After corrections are made, you will need to resubmit the Annual Financial Report. The database will track resubmissions.
How can I change the sort order on-line?
The sort order can be changed by clicking on the column heading cells within most of the sections. The Financial Data by Fund section is sorted by the local fund number and cannot be changed. Some columns are sorted numerically and others are sorted alphabetically as text cells.
How does Gateway relate to the new SBOA Chart of Accounts?
SBOA is updating the chart of accounts one local unit type at a time. The new county chart of accounts became effective January 1, 2013. In the future, as each local unit type's new chart of accounts becomes effective, it will be incorporated into Gateway.
Can more than one user enter data on the Annual Financial Report at the same time?
Yes, more than one user can enter data on the Annual Financial Report at the same time, but they cannot both enter on the same section. For example, they both cannot enter data on the Grant page at the same time.

TA-7 Detailed Instructions

Upload Error Reports and Messages

Unidentified Errors Report – Additional Information

This report shows only the rows that had formatting errors that prevented the record from being loaded, i.e. saved to a testing area for further analysis. As a result, there isn’t any way to provide more specific information as to the cause of the error. However, these types of errors are usually caused by the following issues.

No data is posted to the unit’s Annual Financial Report until the upload process completes without any errors.

Detailed Error Report

A Detailed Error report will be generated for each file that contains system detectable errors. If a file doesn’t have any errors, then the report for that file will not be generated. The report will show only the rows in the file that have system detectable errors. It does not include any rows with unidentified errors. Error fields have been added at the end of the row to show what the problem is with the row. Use the scroll bar at the bottom of the screen to see more columns to the right. Error descriptions for each file are listed below.

No data is posted to the unit’s Annual Financial Report until the upload process completes without any errors.

BegBal File Error Messages

Year Error – The year should be numeric, and 4 digits long. Check to make sure the year is correct.

Unit ID Errors – These errors include:

• County Error
• Unit Type Error
• Unit Code Error

The Unit ID should be numeric, seven digits long, and in the format of “nntcccc” where

• “nn” is the County number
• “t” is the unit type
• “cccc” is the unit code

The Unit ID must match the Unit ID of the unit to which the User doing the upload is logged on to.

Fund Number Not Valid Error - Fund number must be numeric, 6 digits long, and the first digit must be a 1 or 9.

Fund Number Not Valid For This Unit Or Enterprise Type Error – If the first digit of the Fund number is a 1 then the fund number must be in the published Fund Table for the appropriate Unit Type.

Unit Fund Number Required Error – No data for the Unit’s Fund Number which is a required field.

Unit Fund Name Required Error – No data for the Unit’s Fund Name which is a required field.

Beginning Investment Balance Negative Or Format Error– Make sure the beginning investment balance is in a valid format. A valid amount will NOT include blanks, dollar signs, commas or other nonnumeric characters. A valid amount MUST also include the decimal point and the cents. The Beginning Investment Balance amount can NOT be negative.

Beginning Cash Balance Format Error – Make sure the beginning cash balance is in a valid format. A valid amount will NOT include blanks, dollar signs, commas or other nonnumeric characters. A valid amount MUST also include the decimal point and the cents.

Enterprise Number Format Error – Enterprise number must be numeric and 2 digits long.

Contact File Error Messages

Year Error – The year should be numeric, and 4 digits long. Check to make sure the year is correct.

Unit ID Errors – These errors include:

• County Error
• Unit Type Error
• Unit Code Error

The Unit ID should be numeric, seven digits long, and in the format of “nntcccc” where

• “nn” is the County number
• “t” is the unit type
• “cccc” is the unit code

The Unit ID must match the Unit ID of the unit to which the User doing the upload is logged on to.

Unit Contact Number Format Error – Make sure the Unit’s Contact phone number is in a valid format, i.e. 999-999-9999

Unit Contact Email Format Error – Make sure the Unit’s Contact e-mail address is in a valid format, i.e. username@domain.org.

Software Vendor Number Format Error – Make sure the Software Vendor’s phone number is in a valid format, i.e. 999-999-9999

Software Vendor Email Format Error – Make sure the Software Vendor’s e-mail address is in a valid format, i.e. username@domain.org.

Departments File Error Messages

Year Error – The year should be numeric, and 4 digits long. Check to make sure the year is correct.

Unit ID Errors – These errors include:

• County Error
• Unit Type Error
• Unit Code Error

The Unit ID should be numeric, seven digits long, and in the format of “nntcccc” where

• “nn” is the County number
• “t” is the unit type
• “cccc” is the unit code

The Unit ID must match the Unit ID of the unit to which the User doing the upload is logged on to.

Department Code Error – Department Code must be numeric, 4 digits long, and be in the published Department Code Table for the appropriate Unit Type and Fund.

Department Name Empty Error – Department name must be included in the file.

Disbursements File Error Messages

Year Error – The year should be numeric, and 4 digits long. Check to make sure the year is correct.

Unit ID Errors – These errors include:

• County Error
• Unit Type Error
• Unit Code Error

The Unit ID should be numeric, seven digits long, and in the format of “nntcccc” where

• “nn” is the County number
• “t” is the unit type
• “cccc” is the unit code

The Unit ID must match the Unit ID of the unit to which the User doing the upload is logged on to.

Fund Number Not Valid Error – Fund number must be numeric, 6 digits long, and the first digit must be a 1 or 9.

Fund Number Not Valid For This Unit Or Enterprise Type Error – If the first digit is a 1 then the fund number must be in the published Fund Table for the appropriate Unit Type.

Department Code Not Valid Error - Department code must be numeric, 4 digits long.

Department Code Not Valid For This Fund Or Unit Type Error – Department Code must be in the published Department Code Table for the appropriate Unit Type and Fund.

Disbursement Code Not Valid Error – Disbursement code must be 4 character long.

Disbursement Code Invalid For This Unit or Enterprise Type Error – Disbursement code must be in the published Disbursement Code Table for the appropriate Unit Type or Enterprise.

Disbursement Amount Invalid Format Or Negative Error – Make sure the disbursement amount is in a valid format. A valid amount will NOT include blanks, dollar signs, commas or other nonnumeric characters. A valid amount MUST also include the decimal point and the cents. The Disbursement amount can NOT be negative.

Enterprise Number Error – Enterprise number must be numeric and 2 digits long. It must also match one of the Enterprise numbers in the BegBal file.

Fund And Enterprise Code Does Not Match Record In Begbal File Error – The combination of Fund and Enterprise of this record does NOT match any record in the Begbal file.

Receipts File Error Messages

Year Error – The year should be numeric, and 4 digits long. Check to make sure the year is correct.

Unit ID Errors – These errors include:

• County Error
• Unit Type Error
• Unit Code Error

The Unit ID should be numeric, seven digits long, and in the format of “nntcccc” where

• “nn” is the County number
• “t” is the unit type
• “cccc” is the unit code

The Unit ID must match the Unit ID of the unit to which the User doing the upload is logged on to.

Fund Number Not Valid Error – Fund number must be numeric, 6 digits long, and the first digit must be a 1 or 9.

Fund Number Not Valid For This Unit Or Enterprise Type Error – If the first digit is a 1 then the fund number must be in the published Fund Table for the appropriate Unit Type.

Receipt Code Not Valid Error – Receipt code must be 4 characters long.

Receipt Code Not Valid For This Unit Or Enterprise Type Error – Receipt code must be in the published Receipt Code Table for the appropriate Unit Type or Enterprise.

Receipt Code Fund Code Enterprise Account Must Be Unique Error - There can be only one record for each Fund/Enterprise/Receipt Code/Account combination.

Receipt Code of Type ‘Other’ Missing Required Fields – When there are multiple entries with a receipts Code of ‘other’, they must each have an account number and name value included.

Receipt Amount Invalid Format Or Negative Error – Make sure the receipt amount is in a valid format. A valid amount will NOT include blanks, dollar signs, commas or other nonnumeric characters. A valid amount MUST also include the decimal point and the cents. The Receipt amount can NOT be negative.

Enterprise Number Error – Enterprise number must be numeric and 2 digits long. It must also match one of the Enterprise numbers in the BegBal file.

Fund And Enterprise Combination Does Not Match Record In Begbal File Error – The combination of Fund and Enterprise of this record does NOT match any record in the Begbal file.

TwpVendorDisburse File Error Messages

Year Error – The year should be numeric, and 4 digits long. Check to make sure the year is correct.

Unit ID Errors – These errors include:

• County Error
• Unit Type Error
• Unit Code Error

The Unit ID should be numeric, seven digits long, and in the format of “nntcccc” where

• “nn” is the County number
• “t” is the unit type
• “cccc” is the unit code

The Unit ID must match the Unit ID of the unit to which the User doing the upload is logged on to.

Fund Number Not Valid Error – Fund number must be numeric, 6 digits long, and the first digit must be a 1 or 9.

Fund Number Not Valid For This Unit Or Enterprise Type Error – If the first digit is a 1 then the fund number must be in the published Standard Fund Table for the appropriate Unit Type.

Twp Disbursement Code Error – Twp Disbursement code must be in the published Twp Disbursement Code Table.

Twp Disbursement Amount Invalid Format Or Negative Error – Make sure the Twp disbursement amount is in a valid format. A valid amount will NOT include blanks, dollar signs, commas or other nonnumeric characters. A valid amount MUST also include the decimal point and the cents. The Twp Disbursement amount can NOT be negative.

Vendor Name Required Error - No data for the Vendor Name which is a required field.

Enterprise Number Error – Enterprise number must be numeric and 2 digits long. It must also match one of the Enterprise numbers in the BegBal file.

Fund And Enterprise Combination Does Not Match Record In Begbal File Error – The combination of Fund and Enterprise of this record does NOT match any record in the Begbal file.

 Error Reports-Schools

To view the error report click the link shown in red below on the Financial Data by Fund schedule.

Below is a sample error report. To show you the layout we have highlighted in green the entries on the Financial Data by Fund Section. The red highlights indicate the error columns and the yellow highlights show the warning.  These are indicated with a '1'.

Submission Errors

Invalid Section number- not equal to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 7

Invalid Fund Number-not in the range of 0101-9999

Invalid Account number - Account number not on list

Duplicate Fund Name-each Fund Name must be unique

Invalid combination of Section and Account- 5 & 7=0, 1 & 3=receipt account, 2 & 4=expenditure account

Invalid Fund Type-not equal to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12

Inconsistent Fund Number and Fund Type

Duplicate entry- each combination of Section/Fund Number/Account must be unique

Submission Warnings

Invalid Fund Number-  Fund Number is not on Chart of Accounts

Invalid combination of Fund Number and Account number-  Account number is not listed for this Fund Number