Inside the Fiscal Year Transition

Many people think of a new year beginning on January 1 or as the start of the academic year each fall. The University of Arizona's fiscal calendar begins on July 1 and runs through June 30, serving as the foundation for budgeting, accounting and financial operations across campus. The new fiscal year officially begins in July. Year-end financial activities, however, continue through August, with Federal grants closing later in September. Behind the scenes, months of planning and coordination make sure every transition happens accurately and with minimal disruption. 

When the new fiscal year officially began at the University of Arizona, most employees found the transition was seamless. Budgets were available, financial systems continued running, and business moved ahead without interruption. 

For the Kuali Financial System (KFS) Support team, planning begins well before summer. Fiscal year-end activities don't begin in production until late June, but preparations are already underway months earlier. UITS teams work alongside Financial Services, Development Operations (DevOps), University Analytics & Institutional Research (UAIR), Service Continuity and other campus partners to prepare one of the University's most complex annual technology transitions. 

"The UITS Financial BA team starts work on the fiscal year-end calendar and testing calendar in February," said Lori Swanson, Applications Development Manager. "That includes communication with Financial Services, creating campus notifications and creating Jira tickets for both testing and the actual fiscal year-end." 

Testing activities begin in late April, when the team establishes a dedicated fiscal year-end testing environment and validates a series of specialized processes that only run once each year. Those jobs must be thoroughly tested before they can be executed in production. 

Throughout the transition, the team coordinates weekly fiscal year-end check-in meetings from April through August and manages a dedicated Microsoft Teams space where technical and functional teams collaborate, resolve questions and keep work on schedule. 

The new fiscal year begins on July 1, but the work doesn't end there. Teams continue supporting fiscal year-end activities through August as prior-year financial transactions are finalized, while grant-related year-end processes typically continue through September. 

KFS is the center of the financial system, but the work extends well beyond a single application. The financial system relies on Oracle databases, HR systems, budgeting applications, Business Intelligence reporting and enterprise job scheduling through Control-M (an enterprise-grade workload automation and workflow orchestration platform). Each system must remain synchronized throughout the transition. 

Many of the annual batch processes must execute in a specific order, with each step validated before the next can begin. Team members monitor Control-M job status, review system logs, run Structured Query Language (SQL) queries to verify data integrity and document approvals through Jira before advancing to the next phase. 

Some of those annual jobs require significant processing time, making careful coordination especially important. 

"Every year we look at those run times and try to find solutions so the system isn't down for extensive time," Swanson said. "The data transfers with Analytics are critical because they ensure financial data is available to campus systems on time." 

The transition also depends on people working behind the scenes long after the workday ends. During three critical nights each fiscal year, members of the KFS Support team stay awake overnight alongside Operations and the Control-M team to monitor batch processing, verify successful completion and respond immediately if an issue arises. 

Communication is just as important as technology. Jira tracks approvals and documentation, Microsoft Teams and Slack keep technical teams connected in real time, and detailed SQL validation results are preserved to support future fiscal year transitions and annual audit activities. 

Even with thorough documentation, experience plays a significant role. 

"The biggest challenge is coordinating work across multiple teams while keeping the fiscal year transition on schedule," Swanson said. "Many processes depend on one another, so communication and timing are critical." 

When everything goes according to plan, the work is almost invisible to the campus community – a success the team takes pride in. 

"Our specific team has been doing this together for many years," Swanson said. "I think we have gotten smoother and more accurate each year." 

It's the kind of work most employees never see, but it provides the foundation for a successful start to each new fiscal year and helps ensure the University's financial operations begin the year with confidence.