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.

For example, the general fund can be established to track money that is collected and disbursed for the purpose of supporting the general government as a whole.  Alternatively, one or more special revenue funds can be established to track money that is collected and disbursed for a specific purpose, such as a federal grant for the building of a road.  Lastly, a given state or local government entity may have one or more enterprise funds that have been established to track money from business related activities, such as the building of furniture that is for sale to external parties.  In essence, unique funds are often established by a state or local government entity to meet the demands of external parties, such as a federal grant, or internal restrictions, such as those mandated by management to fulfill internal accountability requirements.

The fund chart of accounts element is generally used to specify each governmental accounting fund used by a client.  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 projects 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

Specific Abilities for Funds

The following options apply to fund codes directly on the Fund (FUND) page:

• Bank, EFT Bank, Master Bank - identifies the banks that are the defaults for this fund.  The Bank value is the one that will default to certain accounting documents when not manually entered.  The EFT Bank is the value defaulted to disbursement documents that are Electronic Funds Transfer documents.  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 AMS Advantage Financial - General Accounting Run Sheets guide for more information.

• Debt ID - The Debt ID field on the Fund (FUND) page allows you to enter the ID of a given debt instrument that is always tied to that Fund code.  This field allows the system to powerfully infer the Debt ID to accounting documents when the Fiscal Year and Fund are used.  If the Fund code can be used outside of a single debt instrument or with multiple instruments, this Debt ID field on the FUND page should not be completed.  

While the Debt ID of a Lease can be entered, it is not likely.  The most likely type of debt would be a Bond followed by a Loan.  The Sub Fund (SFUND) page also has this ability when individual debt instruments are associated on a 1:1 basis with Sub Fund codes instead of Fund codes (the recommended approach for bonds).

• Component Unit for CAFR - indicates that this fund is handled differently for CAFR reports.  The flag is intended as an aid for CAFR reporting and is optional.

• Pool Fund - indicates a fund code is the one to be used as the pool fund in the investments area.

• Major Fund for CAFR - indicates that this 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 CAFR reporting and is optional.

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

• Allow Override Responsibility Center Posting - When this flag is checked, you can manually change the inherited Responsibility Center Posting value from Fund on the Fixed Asset document.  The default value is unchecked.  Please refer to the AMS Advantage Financial - Fixed Assets User Guide for more information.

• Responsibility Center Posting - This flag indicates whether the fund can use the Responsibility Center Posting functionality.  The default value is unchecked.  The value of this flag defaults to the accounting line document component of the Fixed Asset document type upon saving an accounting line when the corresponding field is blank.  Please refer to the AMS Advantage Financial - Fixed Assets User Guide for more information.

• Allow Negative Investment - indicates a fund code allows a negative balance in a Pool Investment Account for the participatory fund.

• Year End Options - specify rules concerning closing of the fund as well as the treatment of open pre encumbrances, encumbrances, receivables, and other types of accounting at year-end.   The fields other than the Close Fund Into Account have corresponding values on the Parameters for Lapse Process (LPPA) and Roll Process (RLPA) pages.  If the matching field on LPPA or RLPA has its Override flag selected, the field for the individual fund will be used.  When open activity should be treated one way for all funds except one or a few, the override options can be used in lieu of multiple batch runs with extensive selection criteria.  

Please use these links for more information on how the fields in the Year End Options section are used:

Run Sheets in the AMS Advantage Financial - General Accounting Run Sheets guide :

1. 1. Annual Close

   2. Open Activity Lapse - Update Mode & Report Mode

   3. Open Activity Roll - Update Mode & Report Mode

   4. Open Accounting & Budget Activity Roll

The AMS Advantage Financial – Year End Procedures Manual.

The AMS Advantage Financial – General Accounting Users Guide - "Advanced Batch Processing" section.

The following rules and options apply to fund codes on other pages.  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.  See the Balance Sheet Account section below for that Level of Balance Control setting.

• The Accounting Period Fund (APDFD) page shows accounting period records by fiscal year and fund.  The APDFD page allows a combination of fund and accounting period to be closed (”soft closed”) while the accounting period is still open on the Accounting Period (APD) page.  The APDFD page will not allow a fund and accounting period combination to remain open if the accounting period is closed on the APD page.  If the soft close indication is not selected, there are no restrictions on creating additional documents for this accounting period, given the accounting period is open on the APD page.  If the soft close indication is selected, no new documents can be accepted for this combination of accounting period and fund.  If the Soft Close Override Allowed flag is selected on the Document Control (DCTRL) page for a document code, then with proper override authority the fund and accounting period can be used for that document code.

• The Fiscal Year Fund (FYFD) page shows fiscal year records by fund.  The FYFD page allows a combination of fund and fiscal year to be closed (”soft closed”) while the fiscal year is still open on the Fiscal Year (FY) page.  The FYFD page will not allow a fund and fiscal year combination to remain open if the fiscal year is closed on the FY page.  If the soft close indication is not selected, there are no restrictions on creating additional documents for this fiscal year, given the fiscal year is open on the FY page.  If the soft close indication is selected, no new documents can be accepted for this combination of fiscal year and fund.  If the Soft Close Override Allowed flag is selected on the Document Control (DCTRL) page for a document code, then with proper override authority the fund and fiscal year can be used for that document code.

• The Fund Tolerance (FTOL) page allows establishment of document type to document 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 flag is selected.  If not selected, a system-wide and fund tolerance would both be applied to a document.  Note:  The override ability does not apply to other tolerances such as at the document code level.  The "Tolerances" section in the AMS Advantage Financial - General Accounting User Guide contains more information.

• The Budget Fund Control (BUDFCON) page allows establishment of budget control options at a fiscal year and fund level.  Such controls are then inherited to budget lines using that fund, given the appropriate Inheritance Rule is established on the Budget Structure Update page.  See the following section for more information on Budget Controls.

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

• • Required Budget

  • Budget Fiscal Year Stage Definition

  • Treasury Accounting (refer to the AMS Advantage Treasury Accounting User Guide).

Items in "Advanced - Setup" Section

The following sections in the "Advanced - Setup" section at the end of this users guide contain the Fund dimension.