Accounting

Accounting period closes in the General Ledger (1/20/09)

Accounting periods in the General Ledger will be closed according to the schedule published below. On the morning of the 7th business day following the end of the month. For Period 7, this will be February 10th.

Many inquired "what time of day" the deadline is to ensure transactions post to the period that will close. The time depends on which approvals are required:

• Activity that meets the approval threshold for Accounting Services (where their approval is required) must be to Accounting Services prior to 4:30 p.m. the day before the scheduled close.
• Activity that does not require Accounting Services approval must be processed and fully approved by 10 p.m. the night before the scheduled close.
• The morning of the scheduled close is reserved for final adjustments from Accounting Services.
• The actual process used in the system to close an accounting period runs at about 9 a.m. the morning of the scheduled close.

Return to top of page

---

When do accounting periods close?

In the new financial system, periods close the morning of:

• Workday 2 Treasury
  
  
• Workday 3 Purchase Orders, Accounts Payable, and Expenses
  
  
• Workday 5 Asset Management, Grants, Projects, Contracts, Accounts Receivable, and Billing
  
  
• Workday 7 General Ledger
  
  • Activity that meets the approval threshold for Accounting Services (where their approval is required) must be to Accounting Services prior to 4:30 p.m. the day before the scheduled close.
    
  • Activity that does not require Accounting Services approval must be processed and fully approved by 10 p.m. the night before the scheduled close.
    
  • The morning of the scheduled close is reserved for final adjustments from Accounting Services.
    
  • The actual process used in the system to close an accounting period runs at about 9 a.m. the morning of the scheduled close

As a reminder, departments are responsible for monitoring manual journals they have created to ensure that they are fully processed (posted). Once a period is closed, it will not be re-opened to allow for further processing of a manual journal; the journal will need to be re-created with a date in an open accounting period.

Return to top of page

---

Carryforward balance calculation process in PeopleSoft Financials (6/29/09)

Accounting Services has started to run the carryforward calculation processes in PeopleSoft for FY2009. You will see entries in your ChartField strings each month in statistical accounts 900101 and 900102. These entries are being made in preparation for recording and displaying the final FY2009 ending balances (carried forward into FY2010) on the carryforward page and departmental reports. (Note: this process is being run for non-sponsored ChartField strings only.) More detailed information is available here including:

• what the process is doing,
• what it looks like on the ledger,
• and more.

Return to top of page

---

Changes to Account Definitions for Non-Capitalized Equipment (6/4/09)

For FY10 the Account code definitions will no longer distinguish between non-capital equipment purchased for less than $500 and non-capital equipment between $500 and $2,500. Accounts budgeted using 720100 General Office Supplies should be used for supply purchases only and accounts budgeted using 750100 Non-Capital Equipment should be used for equipment purchases for less than $2,500. Because this definition change impacts only small dollar purchases you are not required to make changes to FY10 non-sponsored budgets that have already been input into PeopleSoft (but you can if you want to do so).

Return to top of page

---

Reporting encumbrance activity on asset accounts 168001 & 168002 (6/2/09)

Prior to October 24th of 2008, no encumbrance activity was recorded in EFS for accounts 168001 and 168002. A configuration change was made on October 24th to begin recording these encumbrances on any new activity, however; requisitions and purchase orders for capital equipment created prior to October 24th of 2008, which have partial or no invoice/receipt activity, will not reflect the encumbered amount on the standard University reports. In order to provide visibility to the impacted transactions, a public query (UM_FGL_ENC_VW_BY_DEPTID -- name corrected 6/3/09) has been released to capture this encumbrance activity on a department level. The query can be accessed via the query tool in the EFS Reporting instance and will prompt by business unit and DeptID. The results of the query can be used to supplement the results provided by the standard University reports relative to encumbrance activity.

Return to top of page

---

Endowments: Use of CF1 value for Target Income Distribution (6/1/09)

Is the income from your Endowment being deposited to a target ChartField String? Does that ChartField String use the CF1 value to identify the participant ID or the foundation account for that revenue? Use of CF1 can aid in reporting and budgeting for FY2010. Following the instructions in the Endowments: Target Income Distribution job aid to change the income distribution setup to use the appropriate CF1 Value.

Return to top of page

---

Attention users of ChartField 1 values for University of Minnesota Foundation (UMF) funds 

CF1 values beginning with “UMF” will be maintained through the UMF's Donor Management System (DMS).

The DMS process replaces the BPEL request process for all changes related to UMF CF1 values.

You must have access to DMS to change ChartField 1 values for UMF funds. The information will be updated weekly into EFS.

To change the description you see of University of Minnesota Foundation funds in EFS follow these steps:

• Login to DMS. Click on Fund Inquiry.
• Click Maintain EFS ChartField1.
• Enter the fund number.
• DMS fund # and description will appear along with the current ChartField1 short and long description. You can now edit the short/long description to update how they will appear in EFS.
• Edit and click Update.
• The updated descriptions will appear.

Return to top of page

---

Queries for identifying Journal Entries (5/19/09)
Two public queries have been created to assist users with identifying journals they have prepared but that have not yet posted to the general ledger.

• First, UM_FGL_JRNL_BY_CLASS will enable users to determine why a journal has not posted; the query will be run by journal class.
  
  
• Second, UM_FGL_JRNL_BY_X500 will enable the user to monitor the journals that they have entered and find out where the journals are in the approval process; the query will prompt by User Id (also known as Internet ID or X.500 ID) of the preparer.

Return to top of page

---

Program codes that require FinEmplIDs (5/22/09)

Accounting Services wants to help clean up stray balances in ChartField strings that are not allowing transactions because of a FinEmplID combo edit violation. The few system anomalies that resulted in the incorrect ChartField strings have been resolved but the combo edit is making clean-up difficult.

Please check your activity on Programs where a FinEmplID is required to see if you have a balance on a ChartField string that does not include a FinEmplID value but should.

One way to identify these strings is by using the "Chartfield String Budget Status for Current Non-Sponsored Funds" report, grouped by Program and Fin EmplID.

If you have a balance in a problem string, please contact Emily Larson at e-lars@umn.edu for detailed instructions.

Return to top of page

---

GL Single Transaction Detail Query (2/23/09)

Use the UM_FGL_SINGLE_TRAN_DTL Query to retrieve Voucher, AP Business Unit, SetID, Vendor, and Vendor Name for those journals that were posted to the UMNIS Business Unit in Accounts Payable.

Return to top of page

---

Is the CF2 field similar to the old Sub-Org field in CUFS?

The CF2 field is similar to the old Sub-Org field in that it is optional, defined at a local level, and adds additional tracking detail.

---

Tips

If it times out a journal may have already been created.
Even if the system times out on GL Journals, a journal probably has been created with a Journal ID. The user will have to perform a Journal Inquiry to find out what the Journal ID number is. And of course, they should check the process monitor to see if the process has completed.

Need to figure out if a budget line is established for a Project?
Here is one place to search for information on which budget lines/Account codes are established for use on a Project:
Grants > Awards > Project Budgets
Consult the training materials available on Training Services' Web site for more helpful information.

Entering ChartField strings for cost share accounts
Cost share ChartField strings must include both the non-sponsored Fund-DeptID-Program that the expense is being cost shared from, as well as the PC Business Unit-Project-Activity that is being cost shared to. The system will not allow the use of the CS value in the Cost Share field without both Program and Project in the ChartField string.

Return to top of page

---