Overview
The Account chartfield classifies transactions by type (assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, expenses) and is shared across UCSF entities for reporting.
The Account chartfield is a 5-character numeric value which identifies the nature or type of the transaction by classifying them into Assets, Liabilities, Equity (net position), Revenues, and Expenses. It is a required field on all transactions. The Accounts are organized into reporting levels using a PeopleSoft tree. The Accounts are designed to facilitate reporting and are generally used across the organization. The campus, foundation, and medical center will share the same list of Accounts. (See the Alternate Account section for additional information for medical center accounts). In other words, the Accounts do not have departmental ownership.
Purpose/Use
A new Account chartfield may be established when:
- A unique Account is necessary to facilitate reporting, management decisions, and timely reconciliations
- No existing Account describes the transaction
- The transactions that need to be captured by an Account are material to the campus as a whole and are common to multiple departments
- A transaction is most appropriately captured by an Account chartfield (vs. a Department ID, Project, Function or Flexfield)
Numbering Convention
Accounts will use a 5-character numeric value that adheres to the following convention:
| Account Type | Account Range |
|---|---|
| Assets | 10000-19999 |
| Liabilities | 20000-29999 |
| Net Position: Transfers | 70000-79999 |
| Net Position: Equity | 30000-39999 |
| Revenue | 40000-49999 |
| Expense | 50000-59999 |
Attributes
| Field Name | Type | Length | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Set ID | AN | 5 | Accounting structure is defined in a series of control tables or tablesets that allows sharing of control data among business units. A Set ID identifies each tableset. In simple terms:
|
| Account | AN | 10 | An alphanumeric value assigned to an account. Account field is a 10 character field in the physical database table. UCSF allows 5 characters for all account values. |
| Effective Date | Date | The date that the attributes and definitions associated to an account go into effect. | |
| Effective Status | AN | 1 | Account status as of Effective Date:
|
| Description | AN | 30 | 30-character account description |
| Short Description | AN | 10 | 10-character account short description |
| Control Account | AN | 1 | Y/N value; indicates whether this is a control account that can be updated only by using the Journal Generator or a load process from a third party system. The purpose of this designation is to prevent manual or online entries in general ledger to the account. |
| Budgetary Only | AN | 1 | Y/N value; indicates whether the account value is to be used for budgetary purposes only. A budgetary account will not be available for recording financial (i.e., actuals) transactions. |
| Statistical Account | AN | 1 | Y/N value; indicates whether this account is used to capture statistical amounts only, not monetary amounts. |
| Unit of Measure | AN | 3 | If the account is a statistical account, the unit of measure used to track the statistical amounts. |
| Account Type | AN | 1 | A – Asset E – Expense L – Liability Q – Equity or Net Position R - Revenue |
| Open Item | AN | 1 | Y/N value; indicates whether to activate the Open Item processing for tracking and matching debits and credits that post to this account. When this option is selected, the following four Open Item related fields need to be completed. |
| Open Item Edit Record | AN | 15 | Name of the table against which the Open Item key will be validated. For example, if the Open Item key is an employee ID, enter a table that contains a list of valid employee IDs, such as the PERSONAL_DATA table. |
| Open Item Edit Field | AN | 18 | Name of the field from the edit record containing the Open Item key values, such as the EMPLID field. |
| Open Item Prompt Table | AN | 15 | Name of the prompt table for the Open Item key field when entering transactions for the account. |
| Open Item Reconcile Tolerance | Sign Decimal | 23.3 | Maximum amount allowed to manually close non-zero balance Open Item rows. For system reconciliation, there is no tolerance. The balance must be zero. |
| UCOP Account Group Code | AN | 6 | Indicate the category to which an Account belongs in UCOP's accounting structure. UCOP Account Group Code is required for Account Types of A, L, Q, and R. It should be blank for Expenditure accounts. |
| UCOP Object Code | AN | 4 | Used for UCOP Reporting to identify the natural classification of expenditures. UCOP Object Code is required for Expenditure accounts only and should be blank for other account types. |
| UCOP Sub Code | AN | 1 | Used for UCOP Reporting to differentiate types of expense for current funds: 0 = Salaries – Academic 1 = Salaries – Staff 2 = General Assistance 3 = Supplies & Expense 4 = Equipment & Facilities 5 = Code available for special item 6 = Employee Benefit 7 = Code available for special item 8 = Code available for unallocated funds & special item 9 = Recharge UCOP Sub Code is required for Expenditure accounts only and should be blank for other account types. |
Alternate Accounts (UCSF Health only)
UCSF Health uses a set of Alternate Accounts to characterize financial transactions and facilitate external reporting requirements. The chart in Doing Business with UCSF Health shows the relationship between the Business Units and use of Accounts/Alternate Accounts.