Overview

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The Chart of Accounts (COA) represents the structure through which financial transaction data is organized and reported through UC San Diego financial systems

Critical Concepts

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• UC San Diego’s Chart of Accounts (COA) is considered stable
• New requests will not be processed for certain chart segments
• The segments listed in Steps to Take, represent the segments that may be requested by departments
• Requests for new Financial Units require VC approval, an attachment of an email approval is required to process request
• You may request/attach more than one COA segment to a case i.e., request a Fund and Financial Unit within the same Services & Support ticket
• Chart of Accounts requests must be submitted as a ticket with the following parameters:
  
  About: Financial Accounting
  Related To: Chart of Accounts
  More Specifically: Chart of Accounts Inquiries
  

Steps to Take

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Be aware of special characters in COA names, values, or descriptions, refer to the table at end for further guidance

Account

• Segment Definition: Asset, Liability, Revenue, Expense, or Fund Balance
• Account requests include:
  
  • New Accounts
  • Expenditure Types on an existing Expense Account
  • Closing an Account
• Download, complete, and attach the Account request form to the case

Financial Unit

• Segment Definition:
  
  • Represents a FinUnit with an ongoing business objective
  • Responsible individual with fiscal authority over budget and costs
  • Identifiable group of employees, and generally a physical space
  • Every FinUnit must submit its own budget
  • FinUnit are also used for approvals, routing, and authorizations
• Learn more about what qualifies as a Financial Unit
• Financial Unit requests require VC approval and include requesting a new FinUnit or closing an existing FinUnit

1. Download, complete, and attach the Financial Unit request form to the case
2. After the Financial Unit is approved and created, submit Oracle and Concur Role Request

• Roles and approvers need to be assigned to the Financial Unit in order to transact with the Financial Unit
• In order for transactions to be approved for the Financial Unit, workflow approver roles must be assigned

Fund

• Segment Definition: The Fund is the high-level classification of the source of Funds for a transaction and tracks restrictions and designations
• Fund requests include new Funds, except Gift Funds and Close Funds
• Download, complete, and attach the Fund request form to the case

Activity

• Segment Definition: An Activity is used for Merchant Accounts and internal loan tracking only
• Activity requests are when:
  
  • The new Merchant Account needs posting to the Credit Card Clearing Merchant Account (Oracle account 101030)
  • A change or close to a Merchant Account
  • An Internal Loan is used for for Debt, Treasury or Equipment
• Download, complete, and attach the Activity request form to the case

Location

• Segment Definition: Location is a physical location or capitalizable asset
• Location requests must include CAAN numbers
• Download, complete, and attach the Location request form to the case

Guidelines for COA Values and Descriptions

Special Characters in COA	Description	Guidance
.	Period	Do not use
_	Underscore	Do not use
()	Parentheses	Do not use
'	Single Quotation	Do not use
|	Vertical Bar	Do not use
@	at sign	Do not use
+	Plus sign	Do not use
\	Backslash	Do not use
,	Comma	Do not use, replace with a forward slash /
&	Ampersand	Do not use, replace with the word "and"
= < >	Equal, less than, greater than	Do not use, replace with words
-	Hyphen	Try not to use

Additional Formatting Tips:

• Check for spelling
• Abbreviations should be consistent and understood by general campus
• Click here for common Acronyms and Abbreviations at UCSD
• Capitalize the first letter of most words, e.g. Materials Science Program, Center for Extreme Events