Chart of Accounts

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Glossary 

Attribute - A unique identifier used to better describe a segment value in a consistent manner. Attributes can be used to report on items that all have the same characteristic. Attributes are used in the Grant segment to identify the Faculty member name associated with the account or in the Project segment to describe the type of OMAFRA research (i.e. Plants Program).

Balancing Segment  an Oracle General Ledger term that defines the segment that automatically balances all journal entries for each value of this segment. Example: Our fund segment is defined as the balancing segment and therefore Oracle General Ledger ensures that within every journal entry, the total debits to fund 100 equal the total credits to fund 100.

Child Segment Value - A segment value that rolls up to at least one parent segment value for summarization purposes. In the Unit segment, the department code is a child value to the college/division code. The 'bottom' child value for the segment is the one that is used for coding purposes on journal entries etc.

Cost Centre - Refers to an area of responsibility for costs and revenues at the transaction level. Within the new COA, the cost centre may be;

  1. Unit segment, where the project and Grant value is zero, or 
  2. Project segment value, where Grant segment value is zero, or 
  3. Grant segment value, where Project segment value is zero.

Cross-validation rules  rules that define valid combinations of segment values. Cross-validation rules restrict users from entering invalid combinations of code of account segment values.

Legacy - we use the word legacy to describe "old and/or non-strategic" elements of the FIS Project. Examples include: 

  • legacy Chart of Accounts refers to the 30 year old, 11 character COA that has been redesigned.
  • legacy operating system refers to the VM/CMS operating environment.
  • legacy mainframe refers to the IBM 4381.

Natural Account - An Oracle term that identifies the segment used in identifying the accounting classification of the transaction as an asset, liability, fund balance, revenue or expense. Segment 5, the Object segment is the "natural account" within the New U of G Chart of accounts.

Our object segment values are defined in the following numerical blocks;

  • Assets range from 10, 000 to 19, 999
  • Liabilities: 20,000 to 29,999
  • Fund Balance: 30,000 to 39,999
  • Revenues: 40,000 to 59,999
  • Expenses: 60,000 to 99,999

Parent Segment Value - A segment value that refers to or summarizes other segment values (which are called 'child segment values'). Parent values are not valid for creating account code combinations for coding purposes but exist for roll-up and reporting purposes. An example is in the Unit segment where the college/division code combines/summarizes all departments in that area.

Reporting Attribute - Refer to the term "Attribute" at the beginning of the glossary

Restricted - Funds with restrictions placed on their use either by an external source or internal decisions must be reported separately from funds that carry no restrictions. The "restricted" attribute attached to the grant segment indicates which grant numbers carry restrictions (restricted) and which do not (unrestricted). This attribute can be used to report on all restricted grants cumulatively.

Section 4400 - New reporting requirement for non-profit sector including universities.

Segment - A segment is a section of your chart of accounts structure that typically represents an element of your business structure, such as a department, grant, revenue or expense. Each segment is separated from the other segments and can be reported on individually or in combination with other segments. The 5 segments making up the UofG/Oracle COA are Fund, Unit, Grant, Project, & Object. There is also a sixth segment that is for future use.