Common Terminology

The Accounting Profile groups together multiple Accounting Templates which are assigned accounting distribution percentages.  A user can select Accounting Profiles on transactions to facilitate and standardize data entry.

The Accounting Template groups together Chart of Account elements and assigns each grouping a unique Accounting Template. A user can choose to use the Accounting Templates to facilitate and standardize data entry.

Balance Sheet Accounts are accounts that reflect the financial condition of fund. They are broken down into assets, liabilities, equity, and contra assets (sometimes called asset offsets).  The term has a micro and macro usage. The micro term refers to a code established on the Balance Sheet Account reference page. The macro term is for a ledger or other balance record that represents a dollar total for a Fund and Balance Sheet Account combination.

The Payment Request (PR) transaction type has a feature available to edit service dates against referenced service dates as well as dates defined for a fiscal year or budget fiscal year. Please refer to the Advanced - Unique Features for COA Service Date Editing in the Financial Administration User Guide for more information on this feature.

Centralized Organizational Elements are the principal organizational chart of accounts: Government Branch, Cabinet, and Department.

Current Rollups are rollup codes inferred by a report based on the current definition of a primary element code.

Decentralized Organizational Elements are the organizational chart of accounts below Department: Division, Group, Section, District, Branch, Unit, and Sub Unit.

Department-Specific is a term used to refer to those chart of account measures that are defined (keyed) by Department codes. Such a measure allows each department to define codes specific to their business needs.

Element is a point of measurement for financial activity, specifically, a division of the chart of accounts structure. Examples include Fund, Department, and Location. The term often refers to just Primary Elements, but Sub Elements can also be implied by the term.

Fund accounting is the term associated with public sector accounting that refers to the use of Fund, Revenue Source, Object of Expenditure, and Balance Sheet Account chart of account elements.

Fund is the chart of accounts element that represents a self-balancing set of accounts.

Hierarchy is a tree-type relationship among a series of chart of account elements where one element, a parent, is broken down into smaller components, called children. The hierarchy may be one that is structured within the application (Fund and Sub Fund) or implied through setup (Fund Category and Fund Class).

Historic Rollups are the rollup codes originally recorded by a transaction based on the definition of a primary element code at the time the transaction was processed.

Inference is the process by which codes are automatically brought into transactions when combinations of other codes are used.

Major Program defines the high level initiative under which funds are received and identifies global characteristics for all Programs defined beneath.

Object of Expenditure is the chart of accounts element that classifies expenditures into groups such as personnel costs and expenses. The term most often used in simply Object.

Other Classifications are the chart of accounts view that provides additional reporting and tracking elements. Another term used can be programmatic elements.

A Primary Element is a point of measurement for financial activity, specifically, a division of the chart of accounts structure. The term primary is used to separate an element from the sub element or rollup.

Required Element is a chart of accounts element that is defined as being necessary optional or prohibited for transactions under certain circumstances. Those circumstances can be the type of accounting event being performed or the existence of one or mode chart of account codes already entered.

Revenue Source is the chart of accounts element that reflects the source of money for an activity or an objective. The term used could just be Revenue as well.

Rollup is a grouping of chart of accounts element codes for reporting or control purposes. Most elements use element class, category, type, and group to roll information into higher levels of summarization.

Sub Element is a subordinate measure of account activity that derives its characteristics from the parent element.

System-Wide is a term used to refer to those chart of account measures that are not defined (keyed) by the Department element. These measures are defined once for use by all entities within the application.