TYPES OF ACCOUNTS

The University has two fund types which are identified by the fund number as shown below:

1.    State funds – Revenue in these funds is provided by the State Treasury through General Revenue Appropriations.Expenditures in these funds must comply with the fiscal regulations and procedures provided by the State Comptroller’s Office and the State Purchasing Act.

2.    Local funds – Revenue in these funds is provided from local sources.Expenditures from these funds must comply with guidelines set forth by Midwestern State University and are paid from local bank accounts.

Operations

Midwestern State University currently operates using Sungard Higher Education’s Banner Finance software.The Chart of Accounts is the numbering system used by Banner to capture financial transactions and facilitate retrieval of information and financial reporting.There is only one Chart of Accounts in Banner and it is defined by the letter “M.”

In Midwestern’s previous accounting software, FRS, accounts were defined as N-NNNNN-NNNN, where the first digit represented the ledger, the second five digits represented the account, and the last four digits represent the object code.

The chart of accounts structure in Banner, however, is composed of six elements: Fund, Organization, Account, Program, Activity, and Location (FOAPAL).The four required elements of each FOAPAL are the Fund, Organization, Account, and Program: FFFFF-OOOO-AAAA-PP.For simplification, MSU will not use the location element and will only use the activity element for payroll and state transactions (which is transparent to the end user).Each element of the chart of accounts is defined below.To access a FOAPAL number using your FRS account number, click here.

Fund:

The fund element of the FOAPAL is used to specify the funding source.The fund structure in Banner is very similar to the fund structure in FRS.The fund number is five digits instead of six.

*The following funds have been reclassified from auxiliary funds to designated funds: Medical Services, Athletics, and Student Service Fee funds

Organization:

The organization code is used to identify the organizational unit that is responsible for financial activity within that unit.This is similar to the operating funds in FRS, but greatly enhances financial reporting due to the ability to establish a multi-level hierarchy that follows the University’s organizational chart.

The lowest level in the hierarchy represents the organization code used for data entry purposes.The lowest level can be either a four digit or a five digit code, depending on whether or not it is attached to an “Umbrella Fund,” which has multiple organizations.This code is used to query detailed revenue and expense transactions as well as budget balances.For financial reporting, each level of organization can be rolled up to a higher level.These codes are attached to the funds described above.

The four and five digit organizations are tied to the funds.The first two digits of the four digit organization number is embedded in the fund numbers as the second two digits, so it is easier to recognize what funds belong to which organization.

For instance, fund numbers 22209 (2[22]09), 42200 (4[22]00), and 62202 (6[22]02), belong to the College of Business Administration, because that organization is 2200.This is also true for the five digit organization codes that are attached to umbrella funds.

Account:

The account code is four digits and is used to classify assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenditures by type.It describes what an item or transaction is.Revenue account codes identify the type of revenue, such as salaries or supplies.In FRS these were referred to as object codes.

In Banner, account codes also have a hierarchy that helps to summarize them for financial reporting purposes.Although there are account codes established for budget pools, Banner expenditures do not appear to “pull” from those pools when reviewing your budget balances except as shown on screen FGIBAVL.

Program:

The program code is used to identify the major purpose of expenditures.Program codes organize expenditure information into major categories.The program codes used are taken from the NACUBO-defined functions and are included in MSU’s Annual Financial Report.