Budget & Finance Knowledge Base - How to Determine a Chart String (CoA Reference Guide)

Overview

This article reviews UCSD Chart of Accounts (CoA) that make up segments in a chart string to complete financial transactions in Oracle Financial Cloud (OFC) and Concur. It provides an overview on subsystem Chartstring segments for POETAF, and UCPath Chartstring requirements.

Essential Information

About the Chart String

A chart string in OFC consists of 12 segments and all segments must have a value, a zero value is a value.
The order of a chart string is Entity > Fund > Financial Unit > Account > Function > Program > Location > Project > Activity > InterEntity > Future1 > Future2
Chart string values are numeric, defined lengths, separated by periods (.), and have no spaces
InterEntity, Future1 and Future 2 must have 0 values, e.g. 00000.000000.000000
Not all segments are required in Concur.
The chart string determines where a transaction posts in the General Ledger (GL).
If there are transactions in a subledger, it will push-up from the subledger into the GL.

Legacy Segments versus OFC Segments

The new CoA has fewer values per segment, relative to the legacy CoA.
Legacy system had fixed segment combinations of Fund Org Program, but the OFC chart sting is not fixed and each segment is dynamic.
Each segment is defined and there will be scrutiny for adding new values to the CoA.
OFC will not have faux departments for Financial Unit, including cost center organizations for recharge operations.
An Index or an equivalent does not exist in Oracle.

Updating CoA Values

All maintenance and updates to any segment on a chart string are made within Oracle.
Special characters in CoA values or descriptions can create errors.
Refer to the guidelines for CoA values table in KB0032196: How to Request New Chart of Account (CoA) Segments.

About POETAF

POETAF is not a chart string for the GL.
It is required information for Projects in the Oracle Project Portfolio Management (PPM) module, which is a subledger of the GL.
PPM is primarily a module for tracking/reporting on Expenses.
PPM module will use the 12 segments plus POETAF.
More details below

About UCPath

UCPath requires the 12 segments in the chart string plus PTF.
UCPath is a system that interfaces with OFC.
Data in UCPath is unique and it needs to be compatible in OFC in order for a successful interface between the two systems.
More details below

Next Steps

General Ledger Chart String

Use the reports on Business Analytics Hub under General Ledger & Account Info.
- Filter/Search for "Chart of Accounts Panorama" > click Launch to lookup:
  - Individual chartstring segment values and hierarchies.
  - Chart strings under a Financial Unit .

Below is additional information on segments of each chart string:

	Chart String Segment	Quick Tips and Description	Zero Value Accepted?	Segment Length
1	Entity	Entity is a major UCSD operating unit that comprise of Financial Units Entity and Financial Unit are linked where the last 2 digits of an Entity are the first 2 digits of a Financial Unit	No	5
2	Fund	Tracks funding Foundation Funds are the same in both Foundation and UCSD ledgers Gift and Endowment Funds are alpha-numeric All other Funds are numeric	No	5
3	Financial Unit	A Financial Unit can only be associated to one OFC Entity and the first 2 digits of a Financial Unit are the last 2 digits of an Entity Financial Unit is defined at minimum by a group of employees working for a business objective with budget and costs	No	7
4	Account	An Account is an Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue, Expense or Transfer Account	No	6
5	Function	Use Function when the OFC Account is an Expense Account When the Account is NOT an Expense Account, OFC Function will have a zero value This follows NACUBO defined Function Expense classification	Yes	3
6	Program	Only use Program with system-wide Revenue or Expense transactions formalized, defined and assigned by UCOP Otherwise enter a zero value	Yes	3
7	Location	Only use if Location is needed to identify a physical location or capitalizable Assets Otherwise enter a zero value	Yes	6
8	Project	Only use if there is a Project in the PPM module Otherwise enter a zero value	Yes	7
9	Activity	Only use Activity for either Credit Card Clearing Merchant Accounts Internal Loan tracking The first two characters of the activity posting values are alpha, indicating the types of the codes Otherwise enter a zero value	Yes	6
10	InterEntity	Only use zero value 00000	Must be zero	5
11	Future 1	Only use zero value 000000	Must be zero	6
12	Future 2	Only use zero value 000000	Must be zero	6

Entity

This segment identifies and represents Entities at the posting level of either each Vice Chancellor’s area or major UCSD operational units

OFC Entity	OFC Entity Title
16110	Academic Affairs
16120	Marine Science
16130	Health Science
16143	Health Physician Group
16144	Population Health Svc Orgn (PHSO)
16150	Chief Financial Officer
16160	Student Affairs
16170	Resource Management and Planning
16180	Research Affairs
16191	Academic Senate
16192	Office of the President
16193	Advancement
16194	Equity Diversity Inclusion
16195	Chancellor
16196	Campus Organizations
16198	Sanford Consortium
99941	Medical Center UCOP Elimination Entries
16242	CEO of Medical Center
16499	UCSD UCOP Current (ALPHA ledger ALPHA funds)
16597	UCSD Foundation
99941	Medical Center UCOP Elimination Entries

Fund

CoA fund structure focuses on external fund restriction for audited financial statement presentation.
There are 5 fund categories with detailed values under each.
The category descriptions are:

OFC Fund Category	Fund Category Description
Unrestricted	All other Funds not defined below which may be used for general operations of the University
Restricted Expendable	These Assets may be fully expended but only for specific purposes identified by the donor or external entity providing the Funds
Restricted Nonexpendable	Endowment and similar type Funds in which donors or other third parties have stipulated, as a condition of the gift, that the principal be maintained inviolate and in perpetuity, and invested for the purpose of producing present and future income, which may either be expended or added to principal
Net Investment in Capital Assets (NICA)	These represent the university’s net investment in campus facilities, equipment and infrastructure, net of outstanding debt obligations related to these capital assets
Agency Funds	These are Funds held at the university on behalf of another entity for which UCSD has custodial responsibility They are not used for university operations and show the movement of assets and liabilities

Financial Unit - First 2 Digits

Financial Unit (FinUnit) represents a unit with:
- An ongoing business objective.
- A responsible individual with fiscal authority over budget and costs.
- An identifiable group of employees.
- Generally physical space
Every FinUnit must submit its own budget.
FinUnit will also be used for approvals, routing, and authorizations.
The first two digits of the FinUnit correlate to the last two digits of the Entity code.

OFC Financial Unit (Level 1 Title)	First 2 Digits
Academic Affairs	10
Marine Science	20
Health Science	30
Medical Center UCOP Elimination Entries	41
CEO of Medical Center	42
Health Physician Group	43
Population Health Svc Orgn	44
Chief Financial Officer	50
Student Affairs	60
Resource Management and Planning	70
Research Affairs	80
Academic Senate	91
Office of the President	92
Advancement	93
Equity Diversity Inclusion	94
Chancellor	95
UC San Diego	96
Foundation	97
Sanford Consortium	98
UCSD UCOP ALPHA Funds	99

Account Types - First Digit

OFC Account Type	Starting Digit
Assets	1xxxxx
Liabilities	2xxxxx
Fund Balance/Net Position/Equity	3xxxxx
External Revenues	4xxxxx
External Expenses	5xxxxx
Revenue and Expense Internal Transfers	7xxxxx
UCOP Revenue Allocations	74xxxx
UCOP Expense Allocations	75xxxx
EMF Subcontracts - Between Campuses	72xxxx
Recharges between Campuses	78xxxx
Internal Recharges	77xxxx
Med Center/Campus Transfers	73xxxx
Other Changes in Net Position	8xxxxx

Function Values

OFC Function	Title	Description
400	Instruction	Includes expenditures for most activities that are part of UC's instruction program including: Academic, occupational and vocation instruction (credit or noncredit courses) Departmental research and public services that are not separately budgeted Expenditures for department chairpersons who are also instructors Note: This excludes the following: 1. Administrative activities of the office of academic deans (falls under academic support) 2. Summer Session Instruction (falls under Summer Session - Function 41) 3. University Extension Instruction (falls under University Extension - Function 61)
410	Summer Session	Includes unique instructional and administrative activities in operation during a summer session, interim session, or other period not associated with an institutions' academic term and which are incurred solely a result of conducting a special session (e.g. faculty salaries)
420	Teaching Hospitals	Includes expenditures associated with patient care operations of a hospital including nursing and other professional services, general services, administrative services, fiscal services, and charges for physical plant operations and institutional support
430	Academic Support Non Clinical	Expenses incurred to provide support services for the institution's primary programs of instruction, research and public service including museums, galleries, aquariums, educational media services, non health clinical ancillary support to gain practical experience, academic administration support to academic programs, etc.
431	Academic Support Clinical	Expenses incurred to provide support services for the institution's primary programs of instruction, research and public service related to Health clinical activities.
440	Research	Includes expenditures for the following: All activities specifically organized to produce research outcomes (i.e. institutes, research centers, and individual and/or project research, whether commissioned by an agency external to UC or budgeted separately by an organizational unit within the institution) Expenditures for departmental research that are separately or specifically budgeted for research
600	Libraries	Includes expenditures for all activities that directly support the operation of a catalogued or otherwise classified collection of published materials This includes acquisition, preservation, display and maintenance of collections
610	University Extension	Includes expenditures for actives (both credit and noncredit) that are conducted to provide instruction to the members of the community or other groups external to the institution
620	Public Service	Includes expenditures for activities established primarily to provide non-instructional services beneficial to individuals and groups associated with particular sectors of the community outside the institution, such as community service programs (excluding instruction activities) cooperative extension services, conferences, institutes, general advisory services, reference bureaus, ratio and television, consulting, and similar non-instructional services
640	Operations & Maintenance of Plant	Includes: All expenditures of current operating funds for operation and maintenance of physical plant, net of amounts charged to auxiliary enterprises, hospitals and independent operations Expenditures for operations established to provide services and maintenance related to grounds and facilities Utilities, fire protection etc.
680	Student Services	Includes expenditures for the admissions and registrar's offices and for activities whose primary purpose is to contribute to a student's emotional and physical well-being and intellectual, cultural and social development outside the context of a formal instruction program
720	Institutional Support	Includes expenditures for central executive-level activities; fiscal operations; administrative data processing; space management; employee personnel and records; logistical activities; faculty and staff support services that are not operated by an auxiliary enterprise and activities involving community and alumni relations
760	Auxiliary Enterprises	Includes expenditures that exist to furnish goods or services to students, faculty, or staff and are managed essentially as self-supporting activities This category also includes all expenditures relating to the operation of auxiliary enterprises, including expenditures for operation and maintenance of plant and institutional support
780	Scholarships and Fellowships/Student Financial Aid	Student Financial Aid includes expenditures for: Scholarships and fellowships financed from either restricted or unrestricted funds, given as an outright grant to student selected by UC Trainee stipends, prizes and awards (except trainee stipends awarded to individuals who are not enrolled in formal coursework, which are charged to instruction) Research or public service grants Aid to students in the form of tuition or fee remission
790	Department of Energy laboratories	Includes expenditures associated with federally funded Department of Energy research laboratories at Berkeley, Livermore, and Los Alamos
800	Provisions for Allocation	Includes funds held for subsequent allocation to campus departments or programs including: Merit increases and promotions, range adjustments, staff reclassifications, etc. Unallocated funds such as undistributed endowment income, unallocated student fees, and scholarship funds Assigned campus budgetary savings target

Activity - First 2 Characters

OFC Activity	Starting with
Credit Card Clearing Merchant Account	CCxxxx
Internal Loan	ILxxxx

Location - First Character

OFC Location starts with	Location Description
C	Building in Tririga
G	General Improvement
F	Infrastructure
B	Library
L	Leasehold
A	Intangible
P	Prorated
R	Real Estate
S	Software
V	Ship/Vessel
T	Modular office/trailer/portable
N	User defined

What Happens if Entered Data per Guidance above and an Error is Received?

It is likely that your entry violated a Cross Validation Rule (CVR)

Cross Validation Rules (CVRs)

CVRs are in OFC to prevent certain invalid combinations of chart strings from being used.
The intention of CVRs is to:
- Simplify the selection of strings.
- Prevent accidental errors in selecting incompatible strings between segments.
If a CoA string violates one of the CVRs, you will get an error message.
An example of the CVRs is that Entity must be used with their respective Financial Units.
Please refer to KB0032302: What are Cross Validation Rules (CVRs)?

POETAF

In addition to the CoA structure, POETAF information is required for Projects in the Oracle PPM module.
POETAF is not a Chartstring for a project, it represents a specific instance of an expense.
Sponsored Research Projects are the only Projects that have Award numbers and Funding Sources associated with their Projects.

Name

Description

Required for:

Project Number

The unique number that describes a Project

These identical values will also appear in the COA in the Project segment

All transactions in PPM

Expenditure Organization

Organization generating the expense transactions

This is often not the same as the Project-Owning Organaztion
The values in this segment come from the Organization table in OFC (which is populated with the names, not number of the Financial Units)

All transactions in PPM

Expenditure Type

The specific type of Expense being incurred

The Expenditure Type will be used to derive the Account segment value in the COA, but Expenditure Types are more granular
One Account may be represented by many different Expenditure Type

All transactions in PPM

Task Number

The number that represents the Project Task incurring the Expense

All transactions in PPM

Award number

The Award to be used for this transaction

It matched the KR Award Number

Transactions against projects that have Awards

Funding Source

Name of the sponsor in KR for the external Funding Source

This is not the same as the Fund in the CCOA
This is the name of the sponsor name in KR

Transactions against projects that have Awards

UCPath

UCPath requires the OFC GL chart string (12 segments) plus PTF (Project, Task, Funding Source from POETAF above).
UCPath allows for blank segment values in place of using 0's as required in OFC GL chart string.
Task and Funding Source are not one of the 12 segments in the OFC GL chart string.
The Fund that is entered is a unique Fund specifically for UCPath processing (cap, cost transfers, etc.).
These Funds drive functionality and roll into 3 main Sponsored Project Funds that are then sent to OFC GL.

See table below:

Fund	Title	Use In UCPath	Use for OFC GL
20000	Federal C&G	Yes	Yes
20001	Federal NIH capped (HHS)	Yes	No
20003	Federal Work Study *	Yes	No
20004	Fed DHHS K Award Salary Cap - Capped (KIA)	Yes	No
20400	State and Local C&G	Yes	Yes
20401	State C&G CIRM capped (CIRM)	Yes	No
20402	State and Local Fed Flow Thru	Yes	No
20403	State and Local DHHS Fed Flow Thru Capped (HHS)	Yes	Yes
20700	Private C&G	Yes	Yes
20701	Private Federal Flow Thru NIH capped (HHS)	Yes	No
20702	Private Federal Flow Thru Non-NIH (Private C&G)	Yes	No
20703	PCORI capped (POR)	Yes	No

*Fund 20003 should not be used by Campus or Medical Center. This Fund is solely for Federal Work Study splits.

In order for OFC and UCPath to be able to transfer data to each other the Project and Task must be active.
The Fund entered in UCPath must be correctly associated to the Project and Task in Oracle.
The individual CoA segments must already exist in OFC.
If you need to request new chart segments, refer to KB0032196: How to Request New Chart of Account (COA) Segments for forms, then submit a ticket for new chart segments.
A Funding Source number is only needed for Sponsored Projects.
Zero values in UCPath are to be left blank.

Supplemental Guides

Additional information on POETAF and UCPath can be found here

Questions?

If you need any additional assistance, please submit a ticket here.