Important: Please check calendar below for revised biennium dates in the coming months.

Topics on this page:

What is Biennium Close?                                                             

What does this mean to the UW?

System Availability

Things to Know

Payment Information During Biennium Close

Cutoff Dates Calendar

What is Biennium Close?

Many governmental organizations, including the University of Washington (UW), divide their accounting records into two-year periods. Each two-year period is called a “biennium”.  During a biennium revenue and expenses are recorded. 

At the conclusion of the biennium the records are closed and a new set of records is opened and a “new” biennium is created.  At the UW a biennium begins in July of an odd year and concludes at the end of June two years later.

For a month or so after the day a given biennium ends (which is usually June 30), we continue to record revenues and expenses that pertain to the old biennium in the old biennium.  This allows UW to record its financial transactions to the appropriate time period. For a short period of time, two separate sets of records are open, one for the new biennium and one for the old. Biennium crossover is the period of time when the old and new biennias are both open.  Biennium close occurs when transactions can no longer be put into the old biennium. There are a series of steps leading up to this cutoff.

What does this mean to the University of Washington?

To comply with Washington State accounting procedures for closing out the current Biennium, the University's books of account will be held open for a limited time during the month of July to record transactions processed after June 30 relating to business of the expiring fiscal period.

The Biennium Cutoff Dates are the final dates on which various transactions must be received, and or processed, to ensure recording for biennium business. 

System Availability

It is important to note that various systems may be unavailable, for the processing of transactions.  You can learn more about any planned system downtime, or unavailability on the System Availability page.

Things to Know: 

• July 8th is the first day budgets for the 2021-2023 biennium will be available in Ariba 
• Budgets that expire in the 2019-2021 biennium (6/30/2021):
  • Expired 2019-2021 budgets are removed from Ariba default budget Preferences. Re-set your Preferences with a new 2021-2023 biennium on July 8th (see our Tutorials webpage for training on changing Ariba Preferences)
  • Budgets that expire on 6/30/21 cannot be used to make payments; use of expired budgets will delay payment
  • We recommend if you are creating a Contract Request (CR), Requisition (S) or Non-PO Invoice with a budget that expires on 6/30/2021 that the transaction be held until July 8th when the new budgets are available
• Budgets that continue from the 2019-2021 biennium into the 2021-2023 biennium:

  • Will continue to have invoices paid under the same continuing budget number with no further action necessary

  • Requisitions (S), Contract Requests (CR), Non-PO Invoices (INV) and Expense Reports (ER) that were in a Submitted status on or prior to July 7 will be automatically updated to the new 2021-2023 biennium with same budget number and no further action necessary

  • Requisitions (S), Contract Requests (CR), Non-PO Invoices (INV) and Expense Reports (ER) that were in a Composing status on or prior to July 7 will not be updated to the new 2021-2023 biennium; Preparers must Edit to select the 2021-2023 budget version and re-submit

  • All Payment to Individuals (XP) and eReimbursements (ER) with either expired or continuing budgets but showing the 2019-2021 budget version in either Composing or Submitted status must use the Edit process to choose an active 2021-2023 budget, then re-submit

Ariba transaction payment Information for the 2019-2021 Biennium Close period

Biennium 2019-2021 Cutoff Date Calendar

Keep checking this calendar for updates        

Printable Calendar