DSS FISCAL MANUAL SECTION IV - DSS-1571 SUBMISSIONS

SECTION IV - DSS-1571 SUBMISSIONS

December 31, 2011

Section IV-A The Who’s, What, When's and Where's of DSS-1571 Submission

Submission Instructions

Certification

The report or Statement of Administrative Cost is to be dated and signed by the County Finance Officer, who by General Statute is responsible for the accuracy of the information reported. The report or Statement of Administrative Cost will be co-signed by the Director of the Department of Social Services.

Submission

Reports have one method of submission, which is electronic. Item 1 addresses those items that apply to ALL submissions. Item 2 applies to “electronic” submissions.

1. ALL submissions:

• If reports are not balanced, error free and/or received after the 15th of the month, (or the first workday thereafter) that county will not receive an interim payment the following month.

• If you are submitting the Part II electronically, counties should retain the DSS-3538 with your copy of the report for audit purposes. If there are any questions concerning how to report a worker, how to report an expenditure, or any questions about the DSS-1571 report, please call either your Local Business Liaison or the County Administration Accounting Unit of the Controller’s Office.

2. ELECTRONIC submissions:

• In preparing for electronic submission, the county must have at least one person that has a RACF ID and password (assigned for the county fiscal group) for the State Informational Technology System, ITS, mainframe The upload program requires a Windows 95 operating system (the same requirement as has been stated for the Windows’ version of QuIC and TEC). The county must also have access to NC XPTR (see APPENDIX IV) on the ITS system. There are several methods of connecting to the ITS mainframe to be able to use the upload capability. One method is by connection to North Carolina’s statewide area network. Another method is through an Internet Service Provider (such as America OnLine, Compuserve, etc.). Then there is the dial-up method (you must request special assistance to set up this method). The dial-up method requires a modem be installed with your computer and access to a phone line that will be dedicated to the function you are performing at any one time (upload, reviewing reports, etc.). An alternative method of electronic submission is by the Maximus program. For details on transmitting through Maximus programming, counties must contact Maximus customer service. Any questions may be addressed to the help desk at (919) 733-9100 (let the help desk operator know you need to have access to use NC XPTR, and file uploading capabilities to the mainframe, using FTP).

• When the county is ready to upload the parts of the 1571 they intend to file electronically, they must complete the Statement of Administration format shown in Figure IV-A. (on county letterhead, plain paper, or other paper of their choice), then fax a copy to: (919) 715-5847 ATTN: County Administration Accounting Unit.

• Effective July 1, 2004 for FY 04-05, it is no longer required that the original signatures of the county director and county finance officer on the Statement of Administrative Cost form be mailed to the Controller’s Office; it may be faxed to the Controller’s office. Electronic signatures and signature stamps are permitted. However, it is the responsibility of the county to establish procedures assuring that only authorized persons have access to facsimile signatures. Regardless of whether a copy of the document is faxed or mailed, counties are required to retain a copy of the document submitted for retention and audit purposes.

• The Statement of Administrative Costs should be signed under the Certification by the local County Director and by the DSS County Finance Officer.

• The county may use the software provided by the State for the upload. This software may be found through the DHHS Controller’s Office web site http://www.ITS.state.nc.us/DHHS/Control/contpage.htm. After installation, any questions about this program should be addressed to the Controller’s Office, County Administration Accounting Unit at (919) 733-2306.

• Each month after a county’s DSS-1571 upload has been completed and the Statement of Administrative Costs form has been faxed, the county’s files will be processed and the result will be placed in NC XPTR under report DHRWCA County Transmittal Balance Report for the county to review. If there are any errors or the file’s computed total does not match the Statement of Administrative Costs form totals, the county must determine the problem and make the necessary changes. See Section IV-B (which immediately follows this section) for a list and description of possible errors also see the last page of the Fiscal Manual (Appendix-IV) NC XPTR instructions for a list of the available reports. If the DSS-1571 file is incorrect, the county must correct the data, create a new file and repeat the upload step. If a total is incorrect on the Statement of Administrative Costs form, the county must correct the form, have it resigned and/or initial the correction, and resubmit it as directed above. If there are no errors and the totals agree, the county DSS-1571 transmission is complete.

• Do not call the State Help Desk regarding errors on your XS305. Upon calling County Administration, they will determine if there is a need to call the State Help Desk or if the MAXIMUS Help Desk should be called.

• Refer to WCA305 XS307 for information on the date of the county’s last submission.

Figure IV-A