Making Cents of Accounting
FAST Financials (Oracle/PeopleSoft)
BASIC ACCOUNTING KNOWLEDGE
ROLES
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This program is suitable for:
• Office managers
• Business managers
• Program assistants
• Anyone who uses FAST and/or Finance Mart
OVERVIEW
The University of South Florida uses a comprehensive accounting software
(Oracle/PeopleSoft) to record and report its financial operations. Within the
university, the financial system is referred to as FAST. FAST is composed of
individual modules designed for managing specific activities. These modules
serve as subsidiary ledgers. The modules currently used by USF are Accounts
Payable, Accounts Receivable, Billing, Budget, Commitment Control, Contracts,
General Ledger, Grants Management, Project Costing, Purchasing, Security, and
Travel. All transactions are summarized and posted to the general ledger; all
transactions also pass through commitment control. In addition, financial data
from other stand-alone systems is imported electronically and recorded in the
General Ledger.
To better understand the data in FAST Financials it is necessary to have a basic
understanding of the fundamental accounting principles. This course will deliver
basic knowledge of accounting to help FAST users:
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understand the transactions they create
understand the relationship of related transactions
prepare themselves for reading and understanding FAST reports
This course should serve as a foundation and pre-requisite for the basic General
Ledger course, the Finance Mart Reporting course, and the Reconciliation
course.
Discussions in this course will include:
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The modules and their functions
The concept of a general ledger
The general flow of data
What are debits and credits
Cash basis versus accrual accounting
Basic building blocks of FAST
What are chart fields
Natural balances
Journals; their purpose and their ID’s
Accounting Periods
Glossary of terms
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THE MODULES OF FAST
PeopleSoft is a financial software package composed of individual modules
designed to perform specific business functions. These modules may be used
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individually or in various combinations as a component package. They are listed
below in alphabetical order.
Accounts Payable: This module is used to automate voucher processing to pay
vendors in a timely manner for goods and services purchased by USF.
Accounts Receivable: This module is used to record all money due from USF
customers. It is also used to record payments received (through Cashiering) and
to provide sales information to management.
Billing: this module is used to create billings for things USF sells to outside
customers. Outside customers include private businesses, private individuals,
other universities, state government, Moffitt, Sun Dome, UMSA, the USF
Foundation, and the USF Research Foundation.
Budget: This module is used to manage your spending authority and to manage
your money.
Commitment Control: This module supports the Budget module to help
departments manage their spending authority and money.
Contracts: This module is related to the Grants module and is used to set up
sponsored projects.
General Ledger: This module is used to support the accounting operations and
to provide information to end users and management.
Grants Management: This module is used to manage the sponsored grants
that are awarded to USF faculty. This module helps control the grant funds and
provides the information and reporting required by grant sponsors.
Project Costing: This module is used to record cash flow and expenses for
USF construction projects.
Purchasing: This module is used by USF departments for buying products and
services from vendors either through requisitions or Pcard transactions.
Security: Access to the FAST system is granted to individuals based on specific
duties performed. Find the request forms on the FAST web site under
Forms/Forms Alphabetical.
Travel: This is a part of the Accounts Payable module used to process all travel
requests and to account for travel related expenditures.
OTHER SOURCES OF DATA
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Although FAST is the primary financial system of the university, other subsidiary
systems continue to exist to perform specific functions that can not be performed
in FAST. For instance, student related transactions (recording of charges and
payments) are created in Banner (OASIS) and automatically uploaded to FAST
GL each evening. All payroll related transactions are created in GEMS (also an
Oracle/PeopleSoft product) and then automatically uploaded to FAST GL each
evening. Other stand-alone systems that feed data to the General Ledger exist in
Information Technology, Physical Plant, and Post Office. These subsidiary
systems employ functionality that does not exist in FAST and are designed to
provide important management information to personnel who work in these
areas. For instance, Information Technology has software named TAS designed
to track telephone usage including the telephone numbers, locations of the
telephones, calls placed, length of time of the calls, cost, etc. FAST was not
designed for this functionality. USF chose to retain TAS and feed the telephone
charges to the FAST general ledger rather than modify the PeopleSoft software
to replicate this functionality.
Data from these stand-alone systems is posted to the FAST general ledger in
summary. To find detail of the transactions, it is necessary to either search the
stand-alone systems or search the data warehouse.
In addition, some transactions are created on-line by import of spreadsheets
directly to general ledger. An example is the recording of inter-departmental
sales. When one department sells a service or a product to another department,
that sale and the corresponding expense are recorded on an Excel spreadsheet
to be imported to general ledger. The template of this Excel spreadsheet may be
found on the FAST web site www.usf.edu/fast.
THE CONCEPT OF A GENERAL LEDGER
The general ledger captures and consolidates all of the financial information from
all aspects of a business operation. The heart of a general ledger is a table of
entries summarizing the transactions that appear in the various sub-ledgers.
General ledger is not designed to capture detail but rather the final balance.
A general ledger contains five account types; assets, liabilities, equity, revenue
and expenses. Assets are things the university owns such as bank accounts,
accounts receivable, and equipment. Liabilities represent debts of the university
such as what we owe to vendors for things we have purchased. Equity is titled
net assets in the University system, and represents what how much more we
own than what we owe. Revenue represents sales that USF departments have
made to customers. Expenses of course recognize our cost of operating. For
reporting purposes in Finance Mart, the assets, liabilities and equity appear on
the Balance Sheet; revenue and expenses appear on the Financial Reporting
Summary.
The following graph maps the flow of data from originating source to the reporting
tools. Data from GEMS, OASIS, IT and Physical Plant is transferred to GL by
electronic interface on a daily basis. The on-line entries are presented on
spreadsheets that are uploaded to GL on demand. The entries created in the
various modules are posted to GL by a series of PeopleSoft jobs that are run
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daily. All entries are processed and validated by GL and by Commitment Control.
That data is transferred to the Data Warehouse from which reports are formatted
for viewing via the Finance Mart.
SECTION BRIEFLY DESCRIBING BUDGET AND PURCHASING
The Flow of Purchasing Actions
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In addition to financial actions that involve an exchange of money like payments
made to vendors or deposits of cash, specific purchasing actions are recorded in
the financial system. These actions have an impact on a department’s budget
and they reflect the status of a purchasing action.
The general flow is:
A requisition is prepared and submitted to Purchasing
The requisition is validated
A purchase order is issued
On occasion changes to the purchase order may be made
A voucher is created
Expense and accounts payable are created
Finally the vendor is paid
Budget is affected through this purchasing flow. When the requisition is created
budget is reserved in the amount of the requisition; this action decreases the
amount of RSA (remaining spending authority) to prevent overspending by the
department. When the purchase order is created, the budget amount reserved by
the requisition is reversed and budget is then reserved for the encumbrance
(purchase order). When the voucher is created, expense is recognized. Budget
reserved for the purchase will be reversed and then RSA will be decreased in the
amount of the expense. The example below illustrates the effect of a $500
purchase from a total budget of $1,000.
CREATING BALANCED ENTRIES WITH DEBITS AND CREDITS
There are two general methods of accounting for financial activity. Most
individuals use a single-entry system of accounting, where an entry is only
recorded once. For example, a checking account deposit is written down in the
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checkbook once. Businesses and USF use a double-entry system of recording
transactions. That means that each transaction has at least two lines. The
accounting lines will include both debits (positive values) and credits (negative
values).
One of the basic concepts of accounting is balance. Although accounting entries
must be at least two lines, there will always be at least one debit and at least one
credit. However, all of the lines in an accounting entry must balance to zero. The
sum of the debits must equal the sum of the credits. This is the foundation of
double-entry accounting.
In some subsidiary modules of FAST, a user creates one side of the transaction
and the system automatically creates the rest of the entry to form a balanced
entry. For instance when an outside customer billing is created, the user selects
a billing code that creates the credit side of the entry (a credit to revenue). The
debit side of the entry is automatically created systematically (a debit to accounts
receivable).
There are also occasions when a departmental user or a central user will create
a complete entry. When a departmental user creates an expenditure transfer
using the journal entry template form, a debit and a credit are created. The debit
represents the chart field string you would like the expense charged to and the
credit represents the chart field string you would like the expense removed from.
You will notice this double-entry accounting when you search the general ledger
and when you view reports in Go Fast
A typical entry for the payment of a vendor invoice might look like this.
.
A typical entry for the billing of a customer of the university might look like this.
A typical entry for the depositing of money might look like this.
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A balanced entry must have debits and credits, chart fields to define the
transaction, and positive and negative dollar amounts that balance to zero
DEBITS AND CREDITS
Debit and credits are used to make changes to, or state the amount of, items on
a financial statement. When using the University’s General Ledger (central
accounting system), knowledge of debits and credits is needed for the following
purposes:
•
To create online transactions and record deposits
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To read General Ledger reports
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To understand transactions in the Finance Mart reports
Note that in the General Ledger, when information is expressed in terms of debits
and credits, the credit is indicated by a dash preceding the dollar amount
(example –50.00). A debit is indicated by the lack of any sign. It is also a
standard practice to show debit amounts on the left side and credit amounts on
the right side. (See the illustrations on page 8)
The Debits and Credits chart below shows the various contexts in which debits
and credits are used, and their meaning, based on the context.
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CASH ACCOUNTING V. ACCRUAL ACCOUNTING - WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
USF Uses An Accrual Accounting System
On July 1, 2003 USF implemented Oracle/PeopleSoft’s financial system, referred
to as FAST. At the same time, USF changed the way it does business. USF
converted from a cash accounting basis to an accrual accounting basis. Both
cash accounting and accrual accounting are based on the timing of the
bookkeeping.
Why Change
Until the purchase and implementation of PeopleSoft, the university operated on
a cash basis. Over the years, the university became a more complex operation.
The university recognized that we need to meet the highest accounting standards
and follow sound accounting principles to ensure that we operate at the highest
level of efficiency. Accrual accounting affects more truly our accounting
operation, and FAST allows us to use it.
Our year-end financial statements have always been created using accrual
accounting. Now, we use a form of accrual accounting all year long.
Cash Basis Accounting
Cash accounting recognizes and records transactions only when there is an
exchange of cash. Revenue is recorded only when a payment is received.
Expenses are recorded only when a check is created to pay the vendor. Cash
basis accounting does not recognize promises to pay or expectations to receive
money in the future.
Example of revenue in Cash Accounting
A USF department sells something to an outside customer. The
department then sends an invoice to the customer. No accounting entries
are made at this time. The following is an example of a sale when a
department rents a room to two people for a wedding reception. The room
is rented for one day for $1,000.
When the customer sends in payment for that invoice, a two line
accounting entry is made. The accounting entry recognizes that cash is
deposited to the bank and revenue is recorded.
But if the customer never sends payment, no revenue is ever recorded
and the department does not get credit for the sale.
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The accounting entry would appear as follows:
When Customers pay USF
Debit
Cash in Bank
$1,000.
Revenue
Credit
$1,000
Example of expense recording in Cash Accounting
When a USF department wants to buy something, the department creates
a requisition. Purchasing then creates a purchase order. Next the vendor
delivers what was ordered and the department receives an invoice. An
expense is recorded on the department’s books only when USF pays the
vendor for that invoice.
The accounting entry would appear as follows:
When USF pays a Vendor
Debit
Travel Expense
$500.
Cash in Bank
Credit
$500.
Accrual Basis Accounting
Accrual accounting systems use a different timing for bookkeeping. Departments
get credit for revenue when the sale is made and the university recognizes that
the customer owes us a certain amount of money. Expenses are recorded when
the voucher is created and the university recognizes that we owe a vendor a
certain amount of money. This more accurately reflects the accounting
transaction. If we stopped doing business that day, we would still owe the money
to the vendor and would have to pay.
Example of revenue in Accrual Accounting
Let’s use the same example above. When the department sends the
invoice to the customer, revenue is recorded at that point in time. The
department now has credit for the sale. USF also creates an entry for the
amount the customer owes us (an account receivable).
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When the customer sends payment, USF creates a two line entry. The
accounting entry recognizes a deposit to the bank and reduces the
accounts receivable balance.
If the customer never sends payment, the department obviously never
receives the cash but they have received credit for the sale (revenue). If
never collected from the customer, the account receivable balance
relating to the sale has to be written-off. This officially recognizes that
USF will never collect it.
The accounting entry for the situation described above would appear as
follows:
When the invoice is created
Debit
Accounts Receivable
$1,000.
Sales to Customers (revenue)
Credit
$1,000.
When the customer pays USF
Cash in Bank
$1,000.
Accounts Receivable
$1,000.
Example of expense in Accrual Accounting
After the department creates a requisition, Purchasing creates a purchase
order. Once the item has been received and a voucher is created a two
line accounting entry is made. Expense is recorded on the department’s
books and an accounts payable is created because USF owes the
vendor.
When USF prepares a check to pay the vendor, the accounts payable is
debited and cash is removed from the department’s funds.
The accounting entry for the situation described above would appear as
follows:
When the voucher is created
Debit
Expense
$500.
Accounts Payable
Credit
$500.
When the vendor is paid by USF
Accounts Payable
Cash in Bank
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$500.
$500.
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Why Use One Over the Other
Cash basis accounting is the method used by most individuals, and by
some businesses, that have limited payables or receivables or whose
income and expense cash flows are closely associated with each other in
timing.
Accrual basis accounting identifies potential cash to be received or
disbursed. By recording accounts receivable at the time an invoice is
presented to the customer, USF can predict future cash flow. By
recording accounts payable at the time the voucher is created, USF can
predict future cash needs.
What Does This Mean
When you view the general ledger or Finance Mart or even some of the
other modules, you will see these transactions. They affect your funds.
This should be useful information to help you manage your department
and make sound business decisions.
THE BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS IN FAST
So what are the basic building blocks?
SET ID
A SetID is used to connect multiple business units to commonly used data tables.
USF uses just one SetID: USFSI. Purchasing uses five business units but all five
use the same vendor table under the SetID USFSI. Billing uses two business
units to separate grants activity from commercial activity but both business units
use the same customer file under SetID USFSI.
BUSINESS UNITS
The university is a separate legal entity maintaining it’s own set of books of
financial activity. The General Ledger uses the Business Unit USF01 to capture
all of the transactions for the university. The other modules (subsidiary ledgers)
in FAST use business units to group transactions for specific areas of the
university. For instance, Purchasing uses multiple business units to separate
transactions by campus (Tampa, St. Petersburg, Lakeland, Sarasota, USF
Health, and Physical Plant).
CHART OF ACCOUNTS
A chart of accounts is a listing of all accounts used in the general ledger
including a description and a corresponding number. The accounts are
categorized in groups. See page 12 for a description of the grouping logic used
by USF.
Ledgers
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A ledger consists of posted balances that represent a set of books for a business
unit. Ledgers store the posted activity for a set of chart field values by accounting
period and by fiscal year. Because a ledger supports a single chart of accounts,
separate ledgers are defined for business units having a unique chart of
accounts. Ledgers are maintained primarily through journal entries, and can store
actual, budget, forecast, statistical, or other types of data at many levels.
Ledgers may be combined into ledger groups. A ledger group can have one
primary ledger and up to nine subsidiary ledger.
The “Actuals” ledger contains actual expenditure and revenue transactions
(things you bought, things you sold, and money you deposited). Use the Actuals
ledger for searching the general ledger for transaction information.
There is also a ledger group named “CC ORG” which contains budget
transactions that are not grant related. (See Appendix D) Typical transactions are
the release of budget and any budget transfers. In this ledger you will also see
encumbrances and expenses which consume the budget. The remaining budget
after expenses are paid and after purchase orders have been created is referred
to as RSA or residual spending authority. The CC ORG ledger is used during
searches in the Commitment Control menu options.
There is a related ledger group, CC_ORG_REV which contains only revenue
related transactions.
Grants uses other ledger groups. They are CC_PROJECT_CHILD AND
CC_PROJECTS__PARENT.
There are other ledger groups but these four, CC_ORG, CC_ORG_REV,
CC_PROJECT_CHILD and CC_PROJECT_PARENT are the four most
commonly used ledger groups.
To recap, ledgers in FAST contain accounting entries defined by chart fields and
dollar values. All of the accounting entries for the university are combined as a
set of balanced books under business unit USF01. All of the business units of the
various subsidiary modules in FAST use common data tables that all carry the
SetID USFSI.
ORACLE/PEOPLESOFT CHARTFIELDS
A chart field value is a combination of either numbers or letters that will help
identify the characteristics of an accounting transaction. Chart fields identify the
source and purpose of a transaction and help drive how and where it is reported.
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Seven basic chart fields are combined to form a chart field string. The account
chart field satisfies accounting needs. The other six fields (Operating Unit, Fund,
Department ID, Product, Initiative, and Project ID) exist for organizational
purposes. Chart fields and chart field strings may be used to search for
information in both FAST and Finance Mart.
Operating Unit: This is a breakdown within one company to show different segments of the
company. Here at USF, we use the operating unit chart field to identify
campuses and large individual segments such as USF Health. The operating
units ID is 3 characters long and only letters. We have seven operating units.
FPR
HSC
LKL
SAR
STP
TPA
UNV
Fund ID:
Florida Institute for Phosphate Research
Health Sciences Center
Lakeland Campus
Sarasota Campus
St. Petersburg Campus
Tampa Campus
University Wide
As a university, we are required to separate our funds into specific categories for
reporting purposes. In addition, specific funds will have specific restrictions on
how they may be used. For instance, the use of federal research funds (fund ID
20000) must comply with federal regulations. General revenue funding from the
State of Florida (fund ID 10000) must be used in compliance with state
regulations.
The fund codes are 5 numbers in length with the first number indicating the broad
category to which the fund belongs. There are 9 categories each of which refer
to the source of the funding and the type of restrictions on those funds.
Funds beginning with:
0
1
2
3
5
6
7
8
9
are
are
are
are
are
are
are
are
are
Auxiliary (unrestricted) identifying a particular EBA activity
Unrestricted (includes state funding from the E & G component)
Restricted (targeted purpose) including sponsored research funds
Loan Funds (student loans)
Capital Project funds (construction)
Renewal & Replacement (reserve)
Debt Service (debt payments)
Capital Asset (property)
Agency (not USF’s money)
Most often, you will deal with Auxiliary, unrestricted, restricted and agency funds.
GL Account
The GL Account chartfield collects accounting data and identifies the nature of
the transaction. Accounts, commonly referred to as a chart of accounts, are
grouped into five types; the type determines where the transaction will appear in
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official reports. The five types are listed below with their appropriate report and a
definition of the type.
Acct Type
Assets
Liabilities
Equity
Appears On
Balance Sheet
Balance Sheet
Balance Sheet
Revenue
Income Statement
sometimes called Fund Balance
Expenses
Income Statement
Description
What USF owns (cash, buildings)
What USF owes (invoices payable, bonds)
The difference between assets and
liabilities.
Inflow of resources (student tuition, sales);
Outflow of resources (salaries, supplies)
Account codes are always five characters and always numbers.
Accounts beginning with:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
are
are
are
are
are
are
are
are
Assets
Liabilities
Equity (sometimes called Fund Balance)
Revenues
Operating Expenses
Non-Operating Expenses (travel, interest)
Interdepartmental transfers
Budget transactions (see Appendix B)
Department: This field is used to define a cost center; one with a budget for its area, such as a
college department. There are 6 characters, all numbers, in the department ID.
The numbering scheme, using the first number of the department ID, often points
to a college or a VP area.
Product:
Within a department, this may be used to keep track of the accounting for a
single activity. For example, Educational Outreach uses product codes to track
the revenue and expenses of each individual course that they offer, no matter
what fund ID or department ID is used. There are 6 characters in the product
field. They may be a combination of numbers and/or letters. We say this field is
optional but it must be populated with a value. An example of an Educational
Outreach product field is XLIC27 representing Polk County Government. But
departments that do not choose to use product codes enter the value 000000 in
the chart field. Products may be used to capture expense and revenue amounts.
Initiative:
At USF an initiative is used for tracking each P I.’s share of a grant, or to track
internally funded awards. Initiatives are always 7 characters long and may be a
combination of numbers and letters. Initiatives are also considered an “optional”
field but must have a value in the field. Departments not using initiatives populate
the field with 0000000.
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Projects:
This field is used to track both sponsored research grants (10
characters – all numbers) and construction projects (all begin with P followed by
a second letter and 12 digits). For grants this field identifies a specific award. It
is a combination of campus, department, funding source, NACUBO code,
sequence number and sub-account number. For capital projects this field
identifies a specific construction project reference.
Typical chart field strings might look like this:
Oper Fund
Unit
ID
Account
Code
Dept
ID
Product
Code
Initiative
Project
Description
TPA
03600
54000
042700
000000
0000000
auxiliary expense
TPA
03700
44201
460601
XCAR11
0000000
auxiliary revenue
TPA
10000
50022
471000
FIO001
0000000
salary expense
SAR
06001
44426
520300
000000
0000000
Sarasota revenue
SAR
06001
12010
STP
20000
53600
Sarasota AR
122400 000000
0000000 2132101101
Grant expense
Appropriate Combinations of Chart Fields:
Notice that the fifth chart field string example above contains only three chart
fields. In general,a chart field string will have values in all six primary fields ; grant
related transactions will have values in seven fields including the project ID.
However when a transaction is built involving an asset or a liability GL account
code that starts with a 1 or a 2 (also called balancing chart fields), the
department, product, and initiative fields are not populated. Those fields must be
left blank.
When a sponsored research fund (20000, 21000, 22000, etc) is used, it should
be accompanied by a project ID.
Examples of Inappropriate Combinations of Chart Fields:
* Revenue codes (beginning with a 4) should never be used with a state fund ID
(fund 10000 or fund 10009)
* A chart field string containing an operating unit, and fund ID, and a GL account
code beginning with either “1” or “2” must not have any values in the department,
product and initiative fields.
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* When a project ID is used in a chart field string, it must also be accompanied by
a PC Business Unit, and Activity ID, and a Budget Reference.
NATURAL BALANCES
To make it easier to understand debits and credits, each of the five account types
has a natural balance. They are:
Assets
Expenses
Liabilities
Fund Balance
Revenue
Debit
Debit
Credit
Credit
Credit
For example, cash is an asset. It is normally expected that a cash balance
appearing on a balance sheet would have a positive (debit) value. In the General
Ledger a transaction for the receipt of cash would also have a positive value but
a transaction for the disbursement of cash would carry a negative (credit) value.
Expenses, when recorded in the General Ledger, appear with a positive (debit)
value. However a transaction to correct an expense record would appear with a
debit to the correct chart field coding and a credit to the incorrect chart field
coding.
JOURNALS
A journal is a record that contains accounting entries in chronological order that includes
amounts and the accounts that are affected. A journal will contain accounting entries
that are similar in nature but represent activities in multiple departments. In addition, the
journal may contain descriptions of the transaction.
For instance, each day we create billing journals that are composed of bills to outside
customers created by many departments on campus. The billings remain intact but they
are grouped together for posting to the general ledger. The same thing is done for
deposits, accounts payable payments and grants among others.
Journal entries may be simple or compound entries. Simple journal entries would include
two lines, one debit and one credit balancing to zero. For example, the payment of a
vendor invoice would typically be recorded as a debit to Accounts Payable Trade (GL
account 20000) and a credit to Cash (GL account 10031). An example appears below.
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Compound journal entries include either multiple debits or multiple credits. For example
imagine that you work in an auxiliary on campus. You sold services to an outside
customer for which the customer will pay you later and that customer is required to pay
sales tax for those services. The journal entry would record a debit to Accounts
Receivable (GL account 12010), a credit to Revenue (GL account 44000), and another
credit to Sales Tax Payable (GL account 20100). The three lines would net to zero. An
example of a compound entry appears below.
Journal entries are identified by unique reference numbers (journal ID’s). If you know the
journal ID, you can look up the journal in the General Ledger and drill back to the details
of the individual transactions. A journal ID is ten characters long. It begins with a journal
mask; usually three letters that describes either the source of the transactions or the
nature of the transactions. The remaining seven characters are numbers assigned in
sequence.
The following are examples of commonly used journal masks. For a complete list, see
Appendix A.
APA
APP
ARB
ARP
BNR
ETR
TAS
CAS
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Accounts Payable accrual
Accounts Payable payments
Billings to customers
Payments received by the university for customer invoices
Transactions imported by interface from Banner/OASIS
Non-payroll expenditure transfers
Telephone charges from IT
College of Arts and Sciences (USF Computer Store for example)
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The following are examples of actual journal ID’s:
APA0073435
APP0073440
ARB0073297
ARP0073067
BNR0070757
Accounts Payable accrual journal (expense recognized)
Accounts Payable payment journal (vendor is paid)
Billing journal (billing to outside customer)
Accounts Receivable payment journal (customer payments)
Banner/OASIS journal (generally a student related transaction)
ACCOUNTING PERIODS
The USF accounting/fiscal year is July 1 through June 30. Fiscal years are
commonly referred to by the year when they end. For example the fiscal year
2007 runs from July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007.
Each fiscal year has twelve periods. July is period 1. August is period 2. June is
period 12. Accounting periods are used when conduction searches in the
General Ledger and when building reports in Finance Mart.
Accounting periods give definition and create time periods for reporting purposes.
As we progress through a fiscal year, we close
each accounting period generally by the 15th day following the end of a month.
Once we close the period, no new transactions may be created with a date that
falls in the closed period. This allows the university to publish final, official reports
for a particular period. This is a normal requirement of any business related
organization and is required by auditors.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Accounting
Periods
Accounting
Period 0
Updated
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Each month represents a specific accounting period. Since USF operates
on a fiscal year of July through June, July is accounting period 1, August
is accounting period 2, September is accounting period 3 and so on to
June which is accounting period 12.
This is a unique accounting period that represents the period of time,
immediately following the last period of a fiscal year (June) during which
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adjusting entries and final closing entries are made to the USF financial
system.
Accrual Accounting
Accrual accounting systems use a different timing for recognition of
revenue and expenses. Revenue is recorded when the invoice is sent to
the customer. Expenses are recognized when the voucher is created.
Assets
Things that the university owns. Examples are cash, land, equipment,
buildings, and accounts receivable.
Balance Sheet
A financial report stating the condition of the business. Balance sheets
report assets, liabilities, and total equity (fund balance). On a Balance
Sheet, total assets minus total liabilities must equal equity (fund balance).
Budget Check
The budget checking process ensures that a pending expenditure or
revenue transaction is covered by budgeted funds. If the amount left
unspent (RSA) in a budget account is less than the pending expenditure,
the transaction will fail budget checking. If the remaining amount of a
revenue budget account is less than the pending billing amount, the
transaction will fail budget checking. Budget checking is performed on
requisitions, purchase orders, vouchers, journal entries, and customer
billings.
Chartfield
A value identifying a characteristic of a financial transaction such as the
unit originating the transaction or type of funding being used. Chart fields
currently being used in FAST are Business Unit, Operating Unit, Fund ID,
GL account, Department ID, Product, Initiative, and Project ID.
Chartfield String
A group of chartfields forming the accounting information of a transaction.
Chart of Accounts
A logical grouping of all account codes used by the university. For
example all expense GL account numbers begin with 5 or 6. All revenue
GL account numbers begin with a 4. The account values categorize
transactions to meet accounting standards and to help construction of
financial reporting.
Commitment
The reserving of a portion of a department’s budget for an expected
purchase. Two types of commitment are pre-encumbrance and
encumbrance.
Commitment
Control
The name of the module and menu section in FAST that contains budget
Information and validates that sufficient budget exists to pass a
transaction.
Credit
The negative side of an accounting entry. Credits decrease assets and
expenses. Credits increase liabilities and revenue.
Debit
The positive side of an accounting entry. Debits increase assets and
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expenses. Debits decrease liabilities and revenue.
EBA activity
An Educational Business Activity (EBA) is a revenue-raising activity that
supports the overall mission of USF. Educational business activities are
established and carried on only when approved by the University in
accordance with operating procedures. An (EBA) may be either a onetime activity with specific beginning and ending dates or be on-going.
Encumbrance
An encumbrance is a way of reserving a portion of a department’s budget
to pay for an expected purchase. Encumbrances have a purchase order.
Purchase order numbers start with the letter O.
EFT
A method of payment; payment is made electronically.
Electronic
Interface
Equity
assets and
Some of the university’s information is created in stand-alone systems
outside FAST; the data is then automatically loaded to the General
Ledger with no manual data entry.
This is also referred to as fund balance. It is the difference between
liabilities. Equity is traditionally a positive amount. Assets (normally
a positive value) should be greater than Liabilities (normally a negative
amount).
Journal
This is how accounting transactions are posted to the General Ledger.
A journal is a batch of similar accounting entries either entered on-line
or by electronic interface to the General Ledger.
Liabilities
Money that the university owes to others. Examples are amounts USF
owes to vendors and sales tax collections owed to the state.
Pre-encumbrance
An alternative name for a requisition.
Purchase Order
A purchase order is written authorization for a supplies (vendor) to ship
products at a specified price which becomes a legally binding contract
once the supplier accepts it. In addition to price, other specific conditions
may be agreed upon by the supplier and the buyer. Purchase orders
begin with the letter O.
Requisition
A requisition is an online request used by the requesting department
when ordering products and services from external vendors, as well as
travel reimbursement requests, certain payment authorizations,
reimbursements other than travel, subscriptions, registrations and others.
Requisition numbers start with the letter Q.
RSA
Remaining spending authority. This is the result of Budget minus preencumbrances minus encumbrances minus expenses
Voucher
A written record of expenditure, disbursement, or completed transaction.
A voucher is required before a payment to a vendor may be created.
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For a more comprehensive glossary, go to the MetaMart at the following url.
http://reports.admin.usf.edu:8001/metamart.html
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APPENDICES
Appendix A
Journal Masks
The journal mask is used on the Excel spreadsheet template to identify the type of transaction
or the area/department/college/unit originating the transaction.
Journal ID
ACC
ACT
ADS
ADV
AFS
AL0
AMA
AMD
ANT
AOH
APA
APC
APP
APV
ARB
ARC
ARM
ARP
AUD
AUM
AUX
BEH
BIG
BIO
BKS
BMB
BNR
BOC
BPA
Area
Accounting Adjustment
Academic Computing
Employment Advertising
University Relations
Annual Financial Statement Adjustments
Auxiliary Overhead Allocations
Asset Management Additions
Asset Management Depreciation
CAS Center Applied Anthropo Auxiliary
Administrative Overhead Adjustments
Accounts Payable Accrual
Accounts Payable Cancel
Accounts Payable Payment
Accounts Payable Void
Accounts Receivable Billing
Accounts Receivable Cash Journal
Accounts Receivable Maintenance
Accounts Receivable Payment
Audit Adjustments
ID Cards/Printing
Card Center
Grant Revenue Adjustments
Billing Grants
Biology
Bookstore
BioChem Rebate
Banner/Oasis Interface Entries
Adm Svcs Copying- St Pete
Budget Policy & Analysis
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Journal ID
BRC
BUD
CAC
CAS
CBN
CED
CFS
CHE
CHI
CHM
CLR
CMD
CMS
CNB
CNV
CPE
CPH
CPS
CRC
CSH
CTA
CTR
DRG
EAT
ECS
EDO
EDU
EFT
EHS
ENG
ERF
ETR
F&A
FIO
FIX
FKC
FMH
FMP
FPC
GEO
GLY
GR0
GRA
Area
Bank Reconciliation Adjustments
Budget Forcasting
Student Life
Computer Store
Banner Suspense Correction
Center for Economic Development
Grant RTC Conference
Chemistry Exp Transfer
Chinsegut Hill
Chemistry
Clearing Account Adjustment
Lab for Comp BIO Research
College of Marine Science Aux
Banner Suspense Correction
Conversion Entries
Continuing Medical Education
COPH Support Services
House Staff
Cash Receipt Corrections or Career Center
Cash Reallocation
TAS Suspense Correction
Marshal Center
DRG Workers Compensation
FTCE Testing & Scanning Charges
Emergency Recovery Site
Educational Outreach
Col Support Services - EDU
EFT Bank Receipts
Workman Comp
English Language Institute
Expense Refunds/SAMAS
Non-payroll Expenditure Transfers
F&A Overhead Allocation
Florida Institute of Oceanography
Fix entries on FAST GL
Florida Kinship Conference
Florida Mental Health
HSC Armored Car Service
Facilities Planning and Construction
Geography
Geology
Government Relations
Correction of Grant Suspense Journal
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Journal ID
GRO
GRT
HIT
HLD
HON
HRU
HSC
HSL
HSS
ICT
INT
INV
IOP
ITS
KK0
KKY
LIB
LSE
MBA
MCF
MFC
MRP
NRC
ODT
OFS
ORC
PAT
PAY
PBR
PBT
PCD
PED
PET
PFS
PHY
Area
Government Relations
Grant Journal Entry Adjustments
HSC Info Servies
Holding Account
Honors College
Human Resources Unemployment Comp
Health Science Center
Health Science Library
HSC Shops
Interfund Cash Transfers
Investment interest
SPIA Investments
Biomed Auxiliary
Information Technologies
Commitment Control Ledger Adjustments
Commitment Control Ledger Adjustments
Library Copy Services
Loans and Scholarships Bank
Advancement University Relations
Merchant Card Fees
Merchant Card Fees
Postal St. Pete
ENG CMR Lab Aux
Organizational Dev Training
Office Stores
Student Publications Aux
Dept of Pathology
Payroll Journal Entries
Public Broadcast
Public Broadcast
P Card Purchases
Physical Education Wellness
Payroll Expenditure Transfers
Purchasing and Financial Services
Chemistry Exp Transfer
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Journal ID
PP0
PPA
PR0
PRL
PRS
PSC
PST
PTS
REC
RFM
RSD
SAC
SAP
SAR
SBD
SME
SPR
SPS
STP
SWP
TAC
TAS
TPA
TRA
UPB
UPS
URC
URD
USR
VPA
WRS
XBN
Y42
YE3
YE4
YE7
YE8
Area
Physical Plant
Physical Plant
Payroll
Payroll Liability
Presidents Office Lifsey Aux
Banking Corrections
Post Office
Parking & Transporation Services
Campus Recreation
Research Financial Management
Residence Services
Library - SAR
Postal Services - SAR
Sarasota Correction
Small Business Development
Sally Mae Bank Receipts
St Pete Regional Data Campus
Computing
St Pete Student Affairs
Stp Educ Resources Aux
Daily Bank Sweep
FMHI Training Support
IT Department billings
Tampa Corrections
Travel Adjustments
University Police
University Police
Research Compliance
University Relations
University Services 1% Allocation
CVPA FAE Production Aux
Bank Wires
Banner/Oasis Interface Entries
Corrections
Year end closing and opening entries
Year end closing and opening entries
Year end closing and opening entries
Year end closing and opening entries
Year end closing and opening entries
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Appendix B
Budget Accounts
Unique budget account values are used to set budget limits for departments and colleges.
Budget is recorded with account values of 8XXXX. Find a complete and current list of all budget
account codes with corresponding GL account code values on the Budget and Policy Analysis
web site.
Either go directly to http://usfweb2.usf.edu/bpa/
Or
Navigate through the USF web site as follows:
Go to www.usf.edu
Click A-Z Index
Click the letter B
Navigate to the second page to find Budget and Policy Analysis
On the BPA page, look for:
Budget Expense Accounts Mapping
Budget Revenue Accounts Mapping
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Appendix C
Source Codes
During your review of FAST reports, the general ledger, and Go Fast reports you will see source
codes referenced. The following is a list of the source codes.
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Appendix D
Ledger groups in FAST
The most commonly used ledger groups which are most often used to search the
commitment control module are:
CC_ORG
Organization budget ledgers
CC_ORG_REV
Organization revenue budget ledgers
CC_GM_CHD
Grants child budget ledger group
Appendix E
Good Resources
FAST !! Web Site
Don’t forget to use the FAST!! Financials web site as a reference. It includes
documentation of the development of FAST, important messages, and forms that are
required to initiate various actions in FAST!!
The web site url is:
http://usfweb2.usf.edu/fast/
COMPASS
Don’t forget to use COMPASS as a resource for USF policy and procedure.
The web site url is:
http://compass.custhelp.com/cgibin/compass.cfg/php/enduser/home.php
PeopleSoft Help is Available
From any web page in PeopleSoft you can view PeopleSoft documentation specific to the
in the
page or field in FAST. Just click Help
upper right corner of the web page. A popup box will appear. Then click the PeopleBooks
hyperlink that appears.
FAST List-Serve
Sign up on the list-serve web site: http://listserve.admin.usf.edu/archives/fast-list.html
Anyone can send an email to Mark De Vore ([email protected]) and he can add
or delete staff.
Remember to use the USF Portal
The USF portal is a quick way to sign on to multiple systems including FAST, Finance
Mart, FAIR/FARM, and GEMS Self Service.
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The link is https://eusf.admin.usf.edu
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