Accounting Basics for FIS Users

Overview

1. Types of Accounts2. Basic Account Structure3. Budget Transfers4. Journal Entries5. Inter-fund Transfers6. Miscellaneous

Accounting Basics for FIS users

Section 1 – Types of Accounts

• Operating Accounts (Departmental)• Trust Accounts• Grant Accounts


There are 3 main types of accounts

Operating Accounts

• These are your Business Unit accounts• They are 5 digits long and start with either a “1” or a “2”

eg. Dept A - 19250• They are funded through the University’s central operating

budget, administered by the Budget Process and the Budget Committee, and approved by the Board of Governors.

• The Budget is allocated to various object accounts such as general office supplies, travel, equipment, and repairs


Trust Accounts

• These accounts are set up for specific purposes or functions such as Scholarships or conferences

• They are 5 digits long and start with either a “6” or a “7” • They are funded through various outside sources ie private

donations, government grants, or registration fees (conferences)

• There are 2 main types of Trust accounts: Endowment Accounts (Interest Earning)Expendable Accounts (No Interest earned)


Trust Accounts-Endowment • Typically funded by an individual or group of individuals

for a very specific purpose ie. Scholarship• These accounts begin with a “6” • The initial investment is deposited and remains unspent

unless the Endowment is to be closed out. These accounts have specific terms of reference that must be followed and expenses are not allowed to be posted to them.

• Interest earned is calculated at year-end with a maximum of 6% transferred to an Expendable trust. This account will start with a “7” and has the same last four digits as the Endowment. Interest earned over 6% is returned to the Endowment.


Trust Accounts-Expendable

• Funded by the interest from their respective Endowment Accounts, Government funding, or from private donations that have not been earmarked as an Endowment.

• These accounts begin with a “7” • Payments for scholarships, supplies, salaries etc can be

made from these accounts• These accounts do not have budgets. Expenses are limited

to funds available.


Grant Accounts• Grant accounts are 5 or 6 digits long and start with an “8”• They are funded from external granting agencies such as

NSERC or SSHRC, or internally funded (start up grants)• Grantee is responsible to ensure that expenditures meet the

funding agency’s guidelines. Any non-compliance with these guidelines may result in loss of future funding to the grantee and the University as a whole.

• Any over-expenditure of the grant is the sole responsibility of the grantee

• Any grant account may be audited by the funding source at any time

• Additional financial assistance may be available from the Research Grants Department of Finance


Section 2 - Basic Account Structure

• Made up of the following components – Business Unit 19250 Dept AObject Account 8560 Special Projects

When entering data in the System, you must always have a Business Unit and an Object Account as well as a “.” separating the two.

Please see the attached “FIS QUICK FACTS” Sheet for easy reference


19250.8560

Basic Account Structure

• A Sub-object is another level of detail that is sometimes added to a particular Object. In the above example, the Business Unit is Dept A. The Object account is Special Projects and the Sub-Object could be for “System Upgrade”.

• The use of the Sub-Object further clarifies what the object is being used for and makes tracking of these expenses easy to identify.


19250.8560.1

Budget Transfers

• Budget transfers are used to move budget monies from one account to another in order to facilitate spending

• Budget amounts can be “Base” meaning that these amounts are given to your Business Units on an annual basis or “One Time” which means the funds are only given once and for a specific purpose identified in the budget process.


When do I do a budget transfer?

Budget Transfer –General Rules


• The most important thing to remember is to put the expense where it belongs. Finance relies on historical information to help us make decisions regarding Budget Submission approvals and to forecast future costs to the University. This adds to the integrity of the data.

• Our auditors use this information as well, to determine what areas need further focus at year- end

Section 3: Budget Transfers

• Budget transfers are done via a number of document types. Each of the codes are designed to allow the user to easily identify what kind of budget transfer users are looking at.

• The most common are as follows:

– BO – a basic budget transfer used for one time transfers between accounts

– BB – a Base Budget transfer used to transfer base budget funds on a permanent basis.


Budget Transfers – General Rules


• You give the money “to” the account that needs it to cover the spending and take away money “from” the account you have the funds in.

• You want to move money from Miscellaneous to the Equipment budget you would:DEBIT (to) 11130.8860CREDIT (from) 11130.8550

Budget Transfer –Example 1

• The actual cost of the Furniture needs to be charged to the account that best reflects the nature of the purchase.

• As you have funds in Misc and have no budget in Furniture, does not mean that this is where you should charge the purchase order.

• The budget transfer will be as follows:


You are finally getting that new desk and chair you havealways wanted! You don’t have any money in your Furniture account, but you have lots in the Misc account.

Budget transfer –Example 1



• The actual cost of the Machine needs to be charged to the Business unit that has the ultimate control over the asset.

• The purchase order will be made out to the other Business Unit ONLY. Your accounts will not be charged for part of the purchase.



As your department has plans to use another dept’s new machine, you have decided to give them somemoney to help pay for it.

Section 4 - Journal Entries

• Journal Entries are completed when expenses have been incorrectly charged to an object account or cost centre or when you are doing internal transfers

• Keep in mind that you want to ensure that charges are made to where they most accurately reflect the nature of the expense.

• The following examples are provided.

When do I do a Journal Entry?


Journal Entries–Example 1

• The actual cost of the Furniture needs to be charged to the account that best reflects the nature of the purchase.

• A journal entry needs to be made that will move the expense from your Miscellaneous account (credit) to your Furniture account (debit).

• The journal entry will be as follows:

Your new desk and chair have come in and at month-end you look at the Furniture account for the charges. You discover they were charged to Miscellaneous in error.


Journal Entry –Example 1


Journal Entries–Example 2

• The actual cost of the Office supplies needs to be charged to the account that best reflects the nature of the purchase.

• A journal entry needs to be made that will move the expense from your Miscellaneous account (credit) to your Office Supplies account (debit).


An order for office supplies has come in and you assign object account 8550 to the invoice.


Journal Entry –Example 2


Section 5 - Interfund Transfers

• Accounting needs to properly report all dollars moved from one type of fund to another

These are transfers that occur between Operating, Trust, and Grant accounts.


Interfund Transfers• To ensure proper accounting and reporting of these

transfers, a series of objects have been setup to transfer funds.

• These objects are found in your accounts:

– 8975.1 Transfer to Operating– 8975.6 Transfer to Trust Fund– 8975.8 Transfer to Research Grants


Interfund Transfers• There are offsetting revenue objects to accurately track

these transfers.

– 5901 Rev-Internal from Trans-Operating– 5902 Rev-Internal from Trans-Grants– 5903 Rev-Internal from Trans-Trust Acct


Interfund Transfers –Operating to Trust

• This transfer will be from your operating account to a trust account.

• You have funds available in your miscellaneous account to pay for this.


HRG has a trust account XXXXX setup for a special Speaker series and you have promised them $500 to help pay for this.



• We have now moved the budget funds from our Miscellaneous account to the Transfer to Trust account.

• The “Transfer to” accounts must always balance• Now that we have done our Budget transfer, we have to

have a balancing Journal entry to physically move the funds from our Operating to the Trust account. The trust account records this as revenue, and the operating account records this as an expense.



Internal Transfers –Operating to Trust


Internal Transfers-Operating to Grant

• The transfer will be from your operating account to the grant account.

• You have funds available in your miscellaneous budget to pay for this.

• The budget transfer will be as follows.

Prof Doe has a grant account that he is using to helpfund a research project. Your department has decidedto pay for some equipment he will need to purchase.


Interfund Transfers –Operating to Grant

• We have now moved the budget funds from our Miscellaneous account to the Transfer to Grant account.

• The “Transfer to” accounts must always balance• Now that we have done our Budget transfer, we have to

have a balancing Journal entry to physically move the funds from our Operating to the Grant account. The grant account records this as revenue, and the operating account records this as an expense.



Section 6 -Miscellaneous

• The Budget Department is staffed as follows:

– David Butcher – Director, Budgets x2130– Cathy Evanyk– Budget Associate x2130– David Smith – Budget Analyst x2082– Stephanie McMahon – Budget Analyst x2022– Leanna Prior – Budget Analyst x2021For further information, please visit our Budget website at :

www.uwindsor.ca/budgets


Miscellaneous – Other Financial Issues

If you have questions relating to FIS such as getting Security on accounts or training for staff members, please contact :

– Sandy Mehenka, Systems x2143


Miscellaneous – Other Financial Issues


Any Grant related questions should be forwarded to :-Chris Busch, Supervisor, Grant Accounting X2127-Donna Bergamin-Grant Accountant X2132(CFI,OIT,Sharc-Net,HRDC)-Kathy McGorman-Grant Accountant X2129(SSHRC/NSERC/CIHR Grants, Start up Grants)

Visit the Grants website at: ‘www.uwindsor.ca/finance”and then click on the Research Grants “flyout” on the left.

Accounting Basics for FIS Users

Documents

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