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September/October 2025
What's been happening with GEARS and things to keep in mind
Successful run
We are very happy to report that GEARS successfully generated payments for July 1, August 1, and September 2, 2025. We promptly reviewed and posted the associated reimbursement and payment reports. The processing dates for the GEARS runs are: 2025-06-19 for July 1st payments; 2025-07-17 for August 1st payments; 2025-08-20 for September 2nd payments. Please refer to these dates when accessing the GEARS -603 and/or -620 reports.
As a reminder, you will occasionally see off-cycle run dates within the listing of Expense Processing Dates. Only those agencies included in the off-cycle runs will generate reports related to those runs and they will be notified of the appropriate Expense Processing Date of the reports.
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Contracts ending September 30, 2025
September 30th is rapidly approaching. Agencies with grant contracts ending 9/30/2025 should verify that all appropriate costs have been reported to and processed through GEARS.
Corrections to previously reported costs, meaning increases or decreases to previously reported costs ONLY, should be submitted on an Additional Report for the original report month. Include comments to help the GEARS team ensure corrections are entered properly. Finding and fixing problems as early as possible helps assure funding remains available.
Email your questions related to GEARS reporting and/or reimbursements to the GEARS team at DHSDESBFSGEARS@dhs.wisconsin.gov. Please be sure to include your contact information, including your phone number, as well as your agency name, agency number, agency type, contract year, and profile numbers. This helps us to respond to and resolve questions quickly.
GEARS Reports for Reconciliations
As a reminder, the GEARS -603 and -620 reports are there to assist with your regular reconciliations.
The GEARS -620 report allows the user to view a single contract year or all unarchived contract years. The contract year view can be useful as you do your regular, monthly reconciliations. It contains:
- The chosen processing month’s periods’ activity
- Contract to Date (CTD) activity on all profiles with grant agreements in that contract year
- Contract amounts
- Net Due to/from Agency
- Any costs rolled between profiles
- Contract to date information by profile
- The total amount due-to or due-from an Agency Number-Agency Type
- The grand total is provided at the bottom of the -620 report
The GEARS -603 Report provides information on reported expenses and calculated reimbursements for all profiles processed as of the voucher/expense processing date. This can be useful as you complete your grant contracts’ FINAL reconciliation. The -603 report includes:
- Information on allocated expenses
- Any costs rolled between profiles
- Contract to date information
- The total amount due-to or due-from an Agency Number-Agency Type:
- The total amount due is subtotaled by a profile’s contract type
- The grand total is provided at the bottom of the -603 report
More information on both reports, including how to generate them and the information they contain, can be found in the GEARS Manual | Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
New calendar year contracts - reminder
As you start to receive your 2026 calendar year contracts, please review, sign, and return them in a timely manner to ensure payments can be processed accordingly. Only fully executed contracts are eligible for reimbursement payments. Expense reports from fully executed contracts submitted by the 15th are processed and paid by the 5th of the following month, if applicable. GEARS agency reports are available not less than five (5) days prior to the scheduled payment date.
Timely update of banking information is important
Updating banking information for GEARS payments in Wisconsin's STAR system is necessary for changes like bank mergers and routing number updates. For questions or assistance on updating your agency’s banking information, including routing number or depository account number, please contact DHSDESBFSVendorVAL@dhs.wisconsin.gov. Please make sure to let them know you are a GEARS vendor so that they can update your information in GEARS as well as in STAR.
Please allow 2 – 4 weeks from receipt for the update to take effect and maintain the current account until you verify that payments are being deposited to your new/updated account.
Reminder – Updated GEARS Expenditure Report form
Please start using the updated version of the form immediately
The GEARS Expenditure Report form was updated in March 2025. You can find the revised form with a revision date of 03/2025 on the GEARS website GEARS: Expenditure Reporting | Wisconsin Department of Health Services. The first tab of the form includes detailed instructions for completion of the expenditure report form.
Tip: Multiple profiles can be included on the same expenditure report, provided the agency number, agency type, contract year, report type, and reporting month are the same for all of the profiles on which an agency reports (in fact, we prefer that).
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