Organizational Elements

Your implementation of AMS Advantage Financial reflects the organizational hierarchy that you need for accounting and budget reporting, whether it is a centralized or decentralized model.  The organization structure can reflect the most vertical as well as the flattest department.  A centralized structure can exist beside departmental ones.

* There are 2 Department Pages and 1 is keyed by Fiscal Year.

NOTE:  The Department element, or the combination of Department and Unit, can be used to enforce security for document access.  In this way, only a user identified with a particular organization can work with documents related to that organization.  For this reason, codes for both pages are in the Memory Resident (MRT) tables with other security information.

Sample Organizational Hierarchies

AMS Advantage Financial provides many levels of organizational information for reporting, budgeting, and controlling.  Sub Unit is the lowest level and is delivered as optional.  Unit and Department (because Department codes make Unit codes unique) are the only required levels delivered.  The two delivered optional rollup levels above Department, called the Central Organizational elements, are Government Branch and Cabinet. Between Department and Unit, there are delivered rollups that are either required or prohibited by Department codes on a yearly basis.  These elements, called Decentralized Organizational elements, are: Division, District, Group, Section, and Bureau.  In addition to those elements, there are five Flexible Reporting Codes available to each Unit for reporting purposes only.

Government Branch

This element represents the top of the organizational tree and usually reflects the responsible executive, legislative, or judicial body.

Cabinet

The cabinet is a portion of the branch, such as Transportation or Finance and Accounting.

Department

Department is first level of organizational information entered on accounting transactions and for security.  Examples are the Department of Transportation or the Controllers Office. Two different pages (DEPT and DEPTFY) are used to establish a Department code.  

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

Specific Abilities for Departments

The Department (DEPT) table is for establishing department controls that are not fiscal year based.  Among those controls are:

• AR Unit Inference - This field is the counterpart to System Wide Controls (SOPT), where a single rule is established as to how the AR Department is inferred or has to be manually entered on documents recording accounts receivable activity. The AR Unit Inference controls how the AR Unit is inferred on documents recording accounts receivable activity for a department.  For sites that choose to have different AR controls for different departments or even different units within a department, this choice will complete the AR Unit fields for a user or require it to be manually entered.  Valid choices are Set to ALL which means that there are no specific rules by Unit.  No Inference which means the user will have to manually enter a value.  Infer from Document ID will set the value to the same codes that were entered for document ID information.  Infer from User ID will set the values to the user's own security unit.

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

• 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 code.  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 code and no Central Buyer is established.  Either the Decentralized Buyer or the Decentralized Buyer Team can be used, but not both.

• 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 code.  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 AMS 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 that Department code is used.  System Wide Options (SOPT), the Unit page, and the parameters to the disbursement chain can also be used to supply the contact information.

• Base Department - The Base Department flag indicates whether the selected Department is marked as the Base Department for the Department Fiscal Year (DEPTFY) Propagate Actions:  Propagate Department to Activity Pages and Propagate Department to Function Pages.  Only one Department can be marked as the Base Department.  The propagate actions will not work if there is not a Base Department.

The Department Fiscal Year (DEPTFY) table is for defining controls and settings that can vary by fiscal year.

• Government Branch - An optional association for a Department code to a Government Branch code for reporting, budgeting, or other editing purposes.  The value entered will be inferred on accounting documents based on the entry of a Fiscal Year and Department code.

• Cabinet - An optional association for a Department code to a Cabinet code for reporting, budgeting, or other editing purposes. The value entered will be inferred on accounting documents based on the entry of a Fiscal Year and Department code.

• Division - A flag that controls the requirement or prohibition of a Division code when establishing Unit codes for the Department and Fiscal Year combination.

• Group - A flag that controls the requirement or prohibition of a Group code when establishing Unit codes for the Department and Fiscal Year combination.

• Section - A flag that controls the requirement or prohibition of a Section code when establishing Unit codes for the Department and Fiscal Year combination.

• District - A flag that controls the requirement or prohibition of a District code when establishing Unit codes for the Department and Fiscal Year combination.

• Bureau - A flag that controls the requirement or prohibition of a Bureau code when establishing Unit codes for the Department and Fiscal Year combination.

• Unit - A flag that controls the requirement or prohibition of a Unit code when establishing Unit codes for the Department and Fiscal Year combination.  This flag is protected and always selected.

Two of the programmatic elements (later section of COA) are delivered as elements defined to individual Department codes.  When these programmatic elements need to be defined system-wide instead of by Department, two actions on the DEPTFY page allow for the quick definitions of all existing codes for a new Department added: Propagate Department to Activity Pages and Propagate Department to Function Pages.  For both Propagate actions:

• If the population process generates a record with a key that already exists, the existing record will not be changed and the new record will not be saved.  An informational message will be issued stating the record that already exists.  If any record fails to add, none will be added on any of the pages.  

• If no record for the Fiscal Year and Base Department is found on a page, then no propagation will occur and no message for such will be issued.  

• If no Department is flagged as the Base Department on the DEPT page, then when this action is taken an error is issued.

• Each individual Activity and Function page has a similar action that will take a record and copy it for each Department code.

The following are other areas where department codes 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 Setup

• Security

• Accounts Receivable

Items in "Advanced - Setup" Section

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

Unit

Unit is the lowest level of organizational structure for data entry on accounting documents and for security. All values are defined on the Unit (UNIT) page. The information on UNIT is part of the Memory Resident (MRT) tables, so any additions require the regeneration of those tables.

Sub Unit (SUNIT) is available as an optional level below Unit for those organizational structures that require another level. The entry of a valid Fiscal Year, Department, and Unit code on the accounting line will infer all organizational structure from UNIT. Those inferred values will then exist for edits such as budget availability, combination validations, required element rules, and inferences even though they are not displayed.

Specific Abilities for Units

The following options apply to fund codes directly on the Unit (UNIT) table:

• Disbursement Contact Code - A contact code specified that will supply information to the Disbursement process that will appear on a check stub when that Department code is used.  System Wide Options (SOPT), the Unit table, and the parameters to the disbursement chain can also be used to supply the contact information.

• VSS Unit - An indication that enables the Unit code to be selected in Vendor Self Service (VSS) for vendors to signify a governmental organization that they interact with for approvals with the document model for vendor information.

• Division - An association for a Unit code to a Division code for reporting, budgeting, or other editing purposes.  May be required or prohibited based on Department Fiscal Year (DEPTFY) settings.

• Group - An association for a Unit code to a Group code for reporting, budgeting, or other editing purposes.  May be required or prohibited based on Department Fiscal Year (DEPTFY) settings.

• Section - An association for a Unit code to a Section code for reporting, budgeting, or other editing purposes.  May be required or prohibited based on Department Fiscal Year (DEPTFY) settings.

• District - An association for a Unit code to a Division code for reporting, budgeting, or other editing purposes.  May be required or prohibited based on Department Fiscal Year (DEPTFY) settings.

• Bureau - An association for a Unit code to a Division code for reporting, budgeting, or other editing purposes.  May be required or prohibited based on Department Fiscal Year (DEPTFY) settings.

• Flexible Reporting Code 1 - An association for a Unit code to a Flexible Reporting Code 1 value for reporting purposes only.  The value is not inferred to the accounting line like the other rollups.

• Flexible Reporting Code 2 - An association for a Unit code to a Flexible Reporting Code 1 value for reporting purposes only.  The value is not inferred to the accounting line like the other rollups.

• Flexible Reporting Code 3 - An association for a Unit code to a Flexible Reporting Code 1 value for reporting purposes only.  The value is not inferred to the accounting line like the other rollups.

• Flexible Reporting Code 4 - An association for a Unit code to a Flexible Reporting Code 1 value for reporting purposes only.  The value is not inferred to the accounting line like the other rollups.

• Flexible Reporting Code 5 - An association for a Unit code to a Flexible Reporting Code 1 value for reporting purposes only.  The value is not inferred to the accounting line like the other rollups.

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

• 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 code.  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 code and no Central Buyer is established.  Either the Decentralized Buyer or the Decentralized Buyer Team can be used, but not both.

• 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 code.  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 AMS Advantage Procurement User Guide.

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

• Approval Setup

• Security

• Accounts Receivable

Items in "Advanced - Setup" Section

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