Fund

A fund is often defined as a fiscal and accounting entity with a self-balancing set of accounts recording cash and other financial resources, together with all related liabilities, and residual equities or balances, and changes therein, which are segregated for the purpose of carrying on specific activities or attaining certain objectives in accordance with special regulations, restrictions, or limitations. The fund enables a government to be fully accountable for its collection and use of public resources.

The fund chart of accounts element is generally used to specify each governmental accounting fund used. For example, clients often establish one or more funds of the following examples of classifications:

• General

• Special Revenue

• Capital Projects

• Debt Service

• Internal Service

• Enterprise

• Agency

• Permanent

• Pension Trust

• Governmental

• Proprietary

• Fiduciary

Simply stated, governmental funds are often used to segregate general government working capital according to the purposes for which it is to be used. Proprietary Funds are used to account for a state and local government entity’s business type activities. All assets, liabilities, equities, revenues, expenses, and transfers pertaining to these business activities are accounted for through one or more proprietary funds. Many of the generally accepted accounting principles that apply to proprietary funds are those applicable to similar private businesses. Fiduciary Funds are used to account for assets held by state and local government entities in a trustee or agency capacity. This trustee or agency capacity may apply for individuals, private organizations, or other governmental units.

The Sub Fund chart of accounts data element can be used to further classify the financial activity within a given Fund. For example, the Sub Fund could be used to differentiate what portion of the General Fund is earmarked for specific purposes such as meeting the financial needs of the executive versus legislative branch of government. Alternatively, the Sub Fund could be used by a given state or local government to identify what portion of each fund is associated with a given purpose. For instance, if a state or local government has numerous capital project funds that are each used for the construction of a specific building, the Sub Fund chart of accounts data element could be used to segregate the money that comes from federal versus state funding sources. The same Sub Fund data value could be used in each of the capital project funds to specify money that is considered federal versus state funding.

Sample Fund Hierarchies

Special Settings for Funds and Sub Funds

• Bank, EFT Bank, Master Bank - There are three possible bank defaults for each fund. The Bank value is the one that will default to certain accounting transactions when not manually entered. The EFT Bank is the value defaulted to disbursement transactions that are Electronic Funds Transfer transactions. The Master Bank is a value used with the Automatic Bank Transfer batch program. Please refer to the Bank Account Transfer Process run sheet in the CGI Advantage - General Accounting Run Sheets guide for more information.

A Credit Card Bank field also exits on the Fund reference page but it is hidden for now as it is for future use.

• Fiscal Year Beginning Balance – An amount field that displays the beginning balance of equity for a fiscal year that is used by the Trial Balance Inquiry (TBAL) and Fund Balance Accounting Period (FBALAPD) inquiry pages. The Sub Fund (SFUND) reference page also has this field. Please refer to the Populate FY Beginning Balance run sheet in the CGI Advantage - General Accounting Run Sheets guide for more information.

• Debt ID - When a Debt ID should always infer with the use of a fund code, this field supplies that Debt ID for transaction processing. The inference is a powerful one in that it cannot be cleared or replaced by another Debt ID. While the Debt ID of a Lease can be entered, it is not likely. The most likely type of debt would be for a bond issue that is tied to the fund followed by a loan. The Sub Fund (SFUND) page also has this ability.

• Component Unit - An indication that a fund is handled differently for ACFR reports. The flag is intended as an aid for ACFR reporting and is optional.

• Pool Fund - An indication that a fund code is to be used as the pool fund in the investments area.

• Major Fund - An indication that a fund must be displayed separately from others of this same fund type because of size or volume. The flag is intended as an aid for ACFR reporting and is optional.

• General Capital Assets (GCA) Fund - An indication a fund will use the GCA fund to record all asset information instead of in the individual fund itself. The Fixed Assets tab on Special Accounts (SPEC) specifies that GCA fund. Please refer to the CGI Advantage - Fixed Assets User Guide for more information.

• Responsibility Center Posting - An indication that a fund can use the Responsibility Center Posting functionality for Fixed Assets. Please refer to the CGI Advantage - Fixed Assets User Guide for more information.

• Allow Override Responsibility Center Posting - An indication that a fund can override the Responsibility Center Posting setting that defaults from Fund on a Fixed Asset transaction. Please refer to the CGI Advantage - Fixed Assets User Guide for more information.

• Allow Negative Investment Balance - An indication that a fund allows a negative balance on the Pool History (PHIS) inquiry page as a result of a cash sweep. Please refer to the CGI Advantage – Treasury Accounting User Guide for more information.

• Fixed Asset Intent Fund – An indication that a fund can be used on a Fixed Asset Intent transaction as part of the processes of establishing asset information to be used as assets are purchased. Please refer to the CGI Advantage - Fixed Assets User Guide for more information.

• Year End Options - There are a number of fields that are used by the Annual Close, Open Activity Roll, Open Activity Lapse, and Automatic Accrual system processes. Of all the fields, only the Close Fund Into Account field is required for data entry as it has no default.

Run Sheets in the CGI Advantage - General Accounting Run Sheets guide will detail how each field is used by the respective batch process. The CGI Advantage – Year End Procedures Manual also contains information on how these fields interact with each process.

Other Reference Pages with Funds and Sub Funds

This list of other pages where Fund is a key is not comprehensive, but does include the major control pages.

• The Special Fund Accounts (SPECFUND) page enables specification of defaulting accounts that are specific to a particular fiscal year and fund. These accounts are used in lieu of the system-wide default accounts if the account's particular override flag is selected on the Special Accounts (SPEC) page. As balance sheet accounts (BSA) are tracked by fund, the use of the SPECFUND page is intended not to just give a different BSA for a fund, but to give a different BSA that has different control settings of its own.

• The Accounting Period Fund (APDFD) page enables a combination of fund, fiscal year and accounting period to be closed early (”soft closed”) while the accounting period is still open system-wide on the Accounting Period (APD) reference page.

• The Fiscal Year Fund (FYFD) page enables a combination of fund and fiscal to be closed early (”soft closed”) while the fiscal year is still open system-wide on the Fiscal Year (FY) reference page.

• The Fund Tolerance (FTOL) page enables the establishment of transaction type to transaction type tolerances at the fund and fiscal year level. A special feature of fund tolerances is that they can override the system tolerances if the System Tolerance Override indication is made. If not selected, a system-wide and fund tolerance would both be applied to a transaction. Note: The override ability does not apply to other tolerances such as at the transaction code level.

• The "Tolerances" topic in the CGI Advantage - Financial Administration User Guide contains more information.

• The Budget Fund Control (BUDFCON) page allows establishment of budget control options at a fiscal year and fund level.

• The "Budget Control" topic in the CGI Advantage – Budget Control User Guide contains more information on fund controls.

 The following are other areas where fund codes are used to control with additional elements:

• Required Budget

• Retainage

• Budget Fiscal Year Stage Definition

• Treasury Accounting (refer to the CGI Advantage - Treasury Accounting User Guide)

The following items in the "Advanced - Setup" topic contains the Fund measure.

• Cash Balance Control

• Fund Balance Control

• Balance Sheet Balances