Organization Elements

CGI Advantage provides many levels of organizational information for reporting, budgeting, and controlling. The following is just one sample of an organizational hierarchy.

Department is first level of organizational information entered on transactions and for security. Two different pages are used to establish a Department.  

A department code establishes the entity that defines the centralized organizational structure as well as enables the definition of many other chart of account measures that are keyed by department. A department is also the foundation for security within the application.

The Department (DEPT) reference page is the first of two pages for establishing departments. In addition to the common chart of account fields, there are the following controls.

• AR Unit Inference - This required field is the counterpart to the AR Department Inference indication on the System Wide Controls (SOPT) reference page, where a rule is established as to how the AR Department is inferred or has to be manually entered on transactions recording accounts receivable activity. The AR Unit Inference controls how the AR Unit is inferred on transactions recording accounts receivable activity for a department. Valid choices are:

• Set to ALL means that there are no specific AR rules by Unit and AR Unit will default to ALL.

• No Inference means the user will have to manually enter a value for AR Unit.

• Infer from Transaction ID will trigger the system to set the AR Unit to the Transaction Unit value.

• Infer from User ID will trigger the system to set the AR Unit to the user's security unit.

• Logo File - When using Accounts Receivable in a decentralized fashion where AR Department is an actual department and not the centralized wildcard of ALL, this optional field provides the capability for a department to use a separate logo at the top of A/R correspondence instead of the central logo that would normally be brought in through the forms tool. If this feature is desired, then the field and the Attachment action need to be made available with Configure Page.

• Additional Description - This field is used to add an additional description to the XML generated by the following jobs: Generate Invoice, Generate Statement, Past Due Invoice, Past Due Statement, and Payment Plan. This field is optional.

• Base Department - The Base Department flag indicates whether the selected Department is marked as the Base Department for the actions on the Department Fiscal Year (DEPTFY) that create Activity and Function data.

• Travel Policy – An optional indication of a default travel policy for which a department will apply to travelers for that department that is different from a system-wide travel policy.

• Central Buyer - The buyer ID identified for procurements of a commodity that is not assigned a specific buyer based on the requestor's Department.

• Central Buyer Team - The buyer team identified for procurements of a commodity that is not assigned a specific buyer based on the requestor's Department. Either the Central Buyer or the Central Buyer Team can be used, but not both.

• Decentralized Buyer - The buyer ID identified for procurements of a commodity that is not assigned a specific buyer based on the requestor's Department and no Central Buyer is established.

• Decentralized Buyer Team - The buyer team identified for procurements of a commodity that is not assigned a specific buyer based on the requestor's Department. Either the Decentralized Buyer or the Decentralized Buyer Team can be used, but not both.  

• For more information on any of the buyer fields or how they are used, refer to the CGI Advantage - Procurement User Guide.

• Disbursement Contact - A contact code specified that will supply information to the Disbursement process that will appear on a check stub when the Department is used. Other locations to default a contact are the System Wide Options (SOPT) reference page, Unit reference page, and as a direct parameter to the disbursement process.

• Service Date Editing Type - Valid values are: No Editing, See Next Level, Type A, Type B, Type C, and Type D.

• Task Order / Program Inference - When using the Task Order Inference (TOINF) page to infer program, this field is used for editing on TOINF. If a department has chosen to infer program from task orders with a hard inference (one that overlays any existing value) then the task orders for that department should follow suit. If the department uses a soft inference, then task orders for the department can follow suit or use the hard inference when there is only one valid program for a task order.

• This field is delivered initially as a hidden field and should be made visible with the Configure Page (DESIGNER) if it should ever be set to Hard, as the default is Soft.

• Overhead Indicator - When the use of the Internal Costing function for overhead calculation is desired, the first setup step is by department. Here, the choice of Task Order to Task Level is made by those departments that choose to use the function. The default of Not Applicable is left for those departments that will not use the feature. When set to Task Order or Task Level, the Cost Allocation Plan (CAP) Rate Set field on the respective reference page can be one of the pre-defined rate sets or could be None, if not applicable to the Task Order or Task. The other reference page, must have None as the CAP Rate Set.

• This field is delivered initially as a hidden field and should be made visible with the Configure Page (DESIGNER), if using the feature.

The Department Fiscal Year Control (DEPTFY) reference page is for defining controls and settings that can vary by fiscal year. When one of the element boxes is checked, every Unit must be associated with a valid code for that element under the Department. Departments with considerable structure may require every element for Units, where another Department that is relatively flat organizationally, may not require any of the elements. The Unit element is protected because it is always a required part of any organizational structure.

• Government Branch - A required association to a government branch.

• Cabinet - A required association to a cabinet.

• Division - An indication that makes Division required for setting up units.

• Group - An indication that makes Group required for setting up units.

• Section - An indication that makes a Section required for setting up units.

• District - An indication that makes District required for setting up units.

• Bureau - An indication that makes Bureau required for setting up units.

• Unit - A preset indication that makes Unit required for a department.

• 1099 Reporting Payer - When the 'Multiple 1099 Reporting Payers indication is yes on the Expense part of the System Options (SOPT) reference page' this indication on the Department Fiscal Year Controls is required. The value supplied will be used on the 1099 forms and magnetic media being submitted to the IRS.

• Create Activity Structure and Create Function Structure - Two of the programmatic elements (Activity and Function) are delivered as elements defined to individual departments. When these programmatic elements need to be defined system-wide instead of by department, two special actions are available in the row menu to populate other reference pages with a standard set of codes defined already to the Base Department.

More infoMore info for both Propagate actions:

The following are other areas where departments are used to control with additional elements.

• Spending Budget Fiscal Year Stage Definition

• Revenue Budget Fiscal Year Stage Definition

• Balance Sheet Budget Fiscal Year Stage Definition

• Non-Accounting Budget Fiscal Year Stage Definition

• Required Budget

• Approval

• Collaboration

• Security

• Accounts Receivable

Unit is typically the lowest level of organizational structure for data entry on accounting transactions and for security. All units are defined on the Unit (UNIT) reference page. The information on the Unit reference page is part of the Memory Resident (MRT) tables, so any additions require the regeneration of those tables before the Unit can be used.

In some cases a Unit may use the Sub Unit element to further breakdown the organizational structure, account for locations, or any other need to capture an additional measure.

The Sub Unit (SUNIT) reference page allows you to define Sub Units. The Sub Unit page contains only the common chart of account fields.

Specific Abilities for Units

• Disbursement Contact Code - A contact code specified that will supply information to the Disbursement process that will appear on a check stub when the Unit is used. Other locations to default a contact are the System Wide Options (SOPT) reference page. Department reference page, and as a direct parameter into the disbursement process.

• VSS Unit - An indication that, when checked on the Advantage Financial Unit table, will then be available in Vendor Self Service (VSS) as a Government Entity. Displaying Government Entity within VSS is configured on the System Wide Options (SOPT) page via the VSS Unit Required field.  

• Division - An association to a Division that is required or prohibited based on the Division indication on the Department Fiscal Year Control (DEPTFY) reference page.

• Group - An association to a Group that is required or prohibited based on the Group indication on the Department Fiscal Year Control (DEPTFY) reference page.

• Section - An association to a section that is required or prohibited based on the Section indication on the Department Fiscal Year Control (DEPTFY) reference page.

• District - An association to a District that is required or prohibited based on the District indication on the Department Fiscal Year Control (DEPTFY) reference page.

• Bureau - An association to a Bureau that is required or prohibited based on the Bureau indication on the Department Fiscal Year Control (DEPTFY) reference page.

• Flexible Reporting Code 1 - An optional association to a Flexible Reporting Code 1 value for reporting purposes only.

• Flexible Reporting Code 2 - An association to a Flexible Reporting Code 2 value for reporting purposes only.

• Flexible Reporting Code 3 - An association to a Flexible Reporting Code 3 value for reporting purposes only.

• Flexible Reporting Code 4 - An association to a Flexible Reporting Code 4 value for reporting purposes only.

• Flexible Reporting Code 5 - An association to a Flexible Reporting Code 5 value for reporting purposes only.

• Central Buyer - The buyer ID identified for procurements of a commodity that is not assigned a specific buyer based on the requestor's Unit.

• Central Buyer Team - The buyer team identified for procurements of a commodity that is not assigned a specific buyer based on the requestor's Unit. Either the Central Buyer or the Central Buyer Team can be used, but not both.

• Decentralized Buyer - The buyer ID identified for procurements of a commodity that is not assigned a specific buyer based on the requestor's Unit and no Central Buyer is established.

• Decentralized Buyer Team - The buyer team identified for procurements of a commodity that is not assigned a specific buyer based on the requestor's Unit. Either the Decentralized Buyer or the Decentralized Buyer Team can be used, but not both. For more information on any of the buyer fields or how they are used, refer to the CGI Advantage - Procurement User Guide.

The following are other areas where unit codes are used to control with additional elements.

• Approval Setup

• Security

• Accounts Receivable

The following items in the "Advanced - Setup" topic at the end of this user guide contain the Unit dimension.

• Combination Validations

• Required Elements

• Inferences

As mentioned earlier, there are many other reference pages where Department exists because that element is part of the definition of over half of the delivered chart of accounts. Those pages are not listed here but covered in later chart of account sections. Listed here is a page closely related to organizational structure.

• The Alternate Organization Structure (ALTOR) reference page allows you to define an alternate structure to apply to detail level codes used previously under a formal structure. It does not provide for reorganizations, but rather shows what financial and budget data would look like if a different structure existed. There is no limit on the number of these structures. You use the Alternate Organization Structures page to complete the setup of these structures. All of the codes you enter on this page must be valid on their respective reference tables. Each alternate structure requires and ID or code along with a descriptive name for reference.

The following are other areas where unit is used to control with additional elements.

• Approval

• Collaboration

• Security

• Accounts Receivable