FAD e-News | June 26, 2001

Applications Administration: Introduction back to top

For many of us, the chart of accounts -- with its countless digits and segments, "cross validation," and "naming conventions" -- is a slightly scary topic. When people start to talk about "responsibilities," passwords, and security, it's easy to feel queasy… In this issue, we will review how Harvard's chart of accounts (CoA) works, and discuss how access to financial systems and data is managed. These topics are interrelated, since your access to systems and data depends on which CoA values you are authorized to charge, journal, see, or report on. We'll also describe the role and function of Financial Administration's Applications Administration department -- the people who manage Harvard's chart of accounts, cross-validation rules, and access to University financial systems.

What Is the Chart of Accounts? back to top

Harvard's chart of accounts is:

An organizing framework or coding structure to budget, record, and report on all financial transactions and account balances;
A defined set of accounting categories;
A common information structure for all financial systems.

Put another way, a chart of accounts is like the system of assigning telephone numbers where groups of numbers carry special meanings, such as:

In this example, the telephone number has ten digits in three segments. Harvard's chart of accounts has a similar, if somewhat more complicated structure of 33 digits in seven segments, as shown here:

To make sure that the segments are used in a uniform way, Harvard has established names and purposes for each segment:

Tub (3 digits)	Org (5 digits)	Object Code (4 digits)	Fund (6 digits)	Activity (6 digits)	Subactivity (4 digits)	Root (5 digits)
major school or department	budgetary unit or "cost center"	asset, liability, fund balance, income, expense, or non-operating	"source" of funds: e.g., unrestricted, sponsored, gift, endowment, loan, plant	"use" of funds: e.g. construction project, sponsored research project, course offering	categories within "activity": e.g., phases in a construction project, years in a sponsored research project	faculty member or building associated with the transaction

Naming conventions exist to ensure consistency in the name or description we associate with each numerical CoA value. For example, each org has a naming convention comprised of: tub acronym + ^ + org name which generates an org name such as:

CADM^Loeb House Functions

This becomes particularly important when we conduct online searches of available chart values. Many of the University's financial systems (including Web Voucher and AWS2) allow users to look up CoA values by searching for keywords that appear in the name of the value. In the above example, we could search for the numeric org value that goes with this name in two ways. Since we know that the name is "Loeb House Functions," we could use one or more of these words as keywords and search for the orgs whose names contain them. Alternatively, since we know that the tub acronym makes up the first part of the org naming convention, we could search for all orgs whose names start with "CADM" and we would get a list of all Central Administration orgs.

Ranging relates to the use of specific numerical values within the chart of accounts so that similar items can be grouped together. For example, object codes 4000 to 5999 are used to categorize different kinds of income while object codes 6000 to 8999 are for expenses. Activities 000001 to 099999 are for construction projects, while activities 200000 to 499999 are for sponsored research projects. Each chart segment has its own naming convention and its own ranges. Often you can tell a lot about the characteristics of a chart value simply by knowing what numerical range it falls within.

The term cross-validation is a process in which the system checks to see whether certain CoA values can be used in combination with each other, based on a set of business rules established by Harvard. The business rules, which apply system-wide for all users, may exist to enforce the logic of how the chart has been set up, to prevent the creation of nonsensical or improper accounting transactions, or to provide a needed financial control. For example:

the system would prohibit the Central Administration tub (value 610) from being used in combination with an FAS "org" because it is not logical. The transaction must ultimately be "owned" by one major school or unit, and an org that is recognized as one of its departments.

Each cross-validation rule has a name. If a transaction you submit fails cross-validation -- that is, it violates an established business rule -- you will get an error message from the system you are using. Please write down the error message before calling your department manager, local chart administrator, or the Helpdesk -- it will reference the violated rule and help them pinpoint the problem.

Ranging makes cross-validation practical to implement given that Harvard has over 120,000 chart values. For example, Harvard Medical School has been assigned "orgs" 45300 to 49299 in the chart of accounts. A cross-validation rule exists in the system that prevents use of the HMS tub (520) with org values other than those from 45300 to 49299. If HMS's orgs were scattered throughout the chart rather than being grouped together, the cross-validation rule would need to contain hundreds or thousands of lines of logic rather than one stating that tub 520 can only be used with orgs 45300 to 49299.

Further information about the Chart of Accounts, including two online courses (Using Harvard's Chart of Accounts and Using Harvard's CoA for Sponsored Research Transactions), is available on ABLE.

Who Administers the
Chart of Accounts, etc.? back to top

Within the Financial Administration, the Applications Administration ("Apps Admin") department oversees the creation and retirement of chart of account values, updating cross-validation rules, and the assignment of system and data access to users. In addition to the chart of accounts, the University systems within Apps Admin's domain include:

Financial Systems

Reporting Systems

General Ledger
Budget Tool
Web Voucher/Reimbursement
Accounts Receivable
Accounts Payable

Harvard Data Warehouse (HDW)

HUDINI
AWS
AWS2
Ad Hoc Reporting

Apps Admin only responds to requests for changes, additions, and deletions of chart values or user security from a network of authorized requestors in each school and department.

Authorized requestors, who have been given the training, responsibility, and authority in each unit to change the chart of accounts or the system access of individual end users, follow very specific procedures and use special tools to submit these requests.

How Does User Security Work in the Financial Systems? back to top

To use any of these systems, each of us needs a "user name" and password to log on. Generally, your user name is the first eight digits of your Harvard University ID, and your initial password (you can change it once you get into the system) is:

FIRST FOUR CHARACTERS OF LAST NAME, followed by the 2-DIGIT DAY OF BIRTH, followed by the 4-DIGIT YEAR OF BIRTH. For example, Mary Jones, born on April 23, 1960, would have the initial password

JONE231960

For the purposes of accessing Harvard's financial systems, there are five different types of employees, each of whom have different levels of system access. They include regular Harvard employees, casual employees, consultants, temporary employees, and hospital-based affiliates. Click here for more detailed information on which kinds of employees can have which kinds of access, and ways in which their user names and passwords may differ from the simple example given above. (Please note: the link will launch a PDF file that contains four slides; scroll down to see them all.)

What Does User Access Allow You to
Do, See, or Report? back to top

First of all, you log on to each of the University financial systems mentioned above by pointing your web browser to http://vpf-web.harvard.edu/applications/, as shown here:

You'll click on the system you want to use, and get a log in screen that will ask for your user name and password. You must log in separately for each system you use, but you will have a shared (i.e., the same) user name and password for all Oracle financial systems (Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Budget Tool, General Ledger, and Web Voucher). The Oracle reporting systems (HUDINI and AWS2) share the same user name with the financial systems but use different passwords.

Once you've successfully logged on, you'll either enter directly into an application if you have just one responsibility, or be presented with a list of reponsibilities if you have more than one. A responsibility controls the data entry "forms" (or screens) and functions that you can access and the range of chart of accounts values you can charge, look at, or report on.

By understanding the naming convention for your responsibility, you can usually figure out what the boundaries or limits of your system and data access are. Sometimes, you will need to talk to your local chart / security administrator (see the authorized requestor list) to understand exactly what access you have, or to request that your access be broadened if you are responsible for the financial administration of units, projects, or accounts not initially within your responsibility.

Often, AWS2 users call the Helpdesk because they have "successfully" run reports that returned no data when they know that expenses have been incurred in a particular org or object code. Usually, the reason is that your system access is not broad enough for you to see the data you have requested: the system "knows" that, so it returns results accordingly. Here are some examples:

A responsibility that could be assigned to you...	And what it means...
HRVD^GL^CADM^85563^IE	You have access to the Harvard general ledger. You are authorized to create journal entries using your org value 85563 (within Central Administration - CADM), and object codes within the income (I) and expense (E) ranges.
HRVD^BUD^CADM^85563^IE-S	You have access to the Harvard budget tool. You are authorized to create budget line items using your org value 85563 (within Central Administration - CADM), and object codes within the income (I) and expense (E) ranges excluding salary object codes (-S).
HDW^CADM^85563^BIE^PSV	You have access to the Harvard Data Warehouse (HDW), which allows you to run reports from AWS2 and HUDINI. You are authorized to run reports using your org value 85563 (within Central Administration - CADM) and object codes within the balance sheet (B), income (I), and expense (E) ranges. Your reports will display detail (versus summary) data for Payroll (P) and STAR (S), plus you have access to Accounts Receivable (V) reports.

As shown above, there are differences in the range of transactions for org 85563 that the user can create, see, and report on -- based on the responsibilities assigned in each application.

Finally, you may be assigned a Web Voucher responsibility as follows:

WV responsibility...	What it means...
Preparer	You are a Web Voucher preparer. Although you work in Central Administration (CADM, tub 610), you can prepare a web voucher using any valid 33-digit combination. However, the voucher must be approved by a user whose authority includes the CoA values being charged.
Approver	You are a Web Voucher approver. You can authorize charges to any valid account coding combination within tub 610 that is used in combination with org 55672.

End users cannot derive their approval authority from a Web Voucher responsibility name. This information should be communicated to end users by their supervisor at the time of assignment.

New Amex Corporate Cards to Be Issued
back to top

Here is some time-sensitive news from the Travel Office for holders of the American Express Corporate Card.

All of Harvard's Amex Corporate Cards will expire on July 31, 2001. New cards are due to be issued beginning June 25; if you have not received your new card by July 13, the Travel Office recommends that you contact American Express at the phone number on the back of your card to check on its status.

If a cardholder's account is 60 days past due or not in good standing with Amex, s/he may not get a new card issued. Even if a delinquent account is paid in full in the days ahead, do not expect to be issued a new card. You will have to call Amex to request a renewal.

Common Problems with Processing
Web Voucher Reimbursements back to top

Custom Forms
Several departments have tried to use custom-designed forms or are still using the NERF. Please remember that the only form the Travel Office can accept for detailed substantiation of expenses is the Universal Expense Form (UEF). You can download the UEF from either the Travel Office web site or the Forms area of ABLE.

Photocopies of the UEF are acceptable, as they are not numbered documents like the old pink forms. If you have any enhancement requests to the form, please send an e-mail to Priscilla Campbell (priscilla_campbell@harvard.edu) with your suggestion, or log an enhancement request with the Helpdesk (6-2001).

Under Substantiation
Currently, the Travel Office is returning about 10-15% of the reports submitted each day; out of the 400 to 475 reports received daily, between 40 and 70 are sent back for rework. The majority of the returned reports are for basic things such as:

no receipts for items over $75
no signature
incomplete business purpose
no indication that expense was for airfare, ground transportation, lodging, meals, or other

A summary of the minimum items that the Travel Office needs before they can process a report can be found in the Harvard University Reimbursement Policy at a Glance.

Unapproved Reports
Another common cause of delay is reports that have been sent to the Travel Office before they have been approved. Preparers should send their reports directly to their approvers, thus allowing the approver to review the documentation. Once s/he completes the approval process, the approver should send the reports to the Travel Office. The Travel Office cannot process a report that has not been approved, often leading to delays while they mail the report back to the approver.

Over Substantiation
Some preparers are doing more work than is required by providing all of the necessary detail on the Web Voucher report but also filling out the complete detail on a UEF. The UEF is only needed if the minimum detail requirements, as listed on the Policy at a Glance, are not included on a signed Web Voucher report.

If the business process of your department requires that you fill out a UEF for each reimbursement (e.g. for the purposes of getting a signature in advance of creating the report), you can put the detail on the UEF and enter only summary information into the Web Voucher system. For example, if you list the business purpose on the UEF, you can put "see UEF" in the Web Voucher business purpose field; you don't have to list it twice.

Also, all expenses being charged to the same coding can be combined into a single line in Web Voucher if the required detail about the expenses appears on the UEF.

Reimbursements Made Via Direct Deposit
This convenient feature is terrific and working well. However, we'd like to remind preparers to update the "Reimbursement E-Mail Maintenance" area of Web Voucher for themselves or for any individuals they create reimbursements for. By updating the appropriate e-mail address in the system, a preparer can make sure that the reimbursee will receive an e-mail notification when the direct deposit payment is made.

The Vendor Hotline has been getting quite a few requests from preparers to do this update on their behalf. This is not necessary; it's a very simple task that preparers should get into the habit of doing for themselves.

Complete instructions on choosing direct deposit as the payment option, getting a direct deposit site set up for a reimbursee, and for using the "Reimbursement E-Mail Maintenance" option on the Web Voucher main menu can be found in the May 26 issue of the e-News.

Unsettled Advances
Please remember that the Travel Office requests that all advances be settled within 15 days of the end of a trip. If an advance remains unsettled for 30 days, the Travel Office will send out a dunning notice to the traveler and their approver. If an advance is still unsettled after 60 days, it will be auto-settled to your tub, the traveler will lose the privilege of receiving future advances, and it will be reported as income to the traveler.

Rarely Used Object Codes Eliminated
back to top

In an attempt to reduce Harvard's extensive list of expense object codes, a review was conducted of codes that are rarely, if ever, used. After consulting with tub representatives, we have determined that the following object codes can be eliminated beginning in FY02:

Object Code	Description
6633	Subscription Sales, INTERTUB^Nonlibrary Books+Reprints+Subscriptions
6685	Pharmaceuticals, INTERTUB Sales^Other Supplies+Materials
6689	Merchandise+Materials Fixed Fee Sales, INTERTUB^Other Supplies+Materials
6701	CD-ROMs^Supplies+Materials, Cost of Goods Sold
6712	SW Media, INTERTUB Sales of^Computer Software, Not Capitalized
6721	Software Documentation^Computer Software, Not Captl, Cost of Goods Sold
6873	Noncomputer Equipment, INTERTUB Sales of
6874	Noncomputer Equipment, INTRATUB Sales of
6892	Other Equipment^Equipment for Rental, Cost of Goods Sold
7049	INTERTUB Sales^Monographs for Library Collections
7097	Fixed Fee Svc Contracts, INTRATUB Sales of^Space+Occupancy Recoveries
7099	Market Rate Svc Contracts, INTRATUB Sales of^Space+Occupancy Recoveries
7100	No Markup Svc Contracts, INTERTUB Sales of^Space+Occupancy Recoveries
7244	Building/Infrastructure Assessment Real Estate Rentals, INTERTUB
7701	Fine Arts^Insurance Premiums, External
7931	Legal Fees, Recoverable^Legal Professional Svcs
8081	Library Retrieval Svcs, INTERTUB^Document Delivery+Inter-Library Loan Svcs
8082	Library Retrieval Svcs, INTRATUB^Document Delivery+Inter-Library Loan Svcs
8104	Radiation Survey Lab Svcs, INTRATUB^Lab Svcs
8106	Radiation Registration Lab Svcs, INTRATUB^Lab Svcs
8372	Library Fees, INTRATUB^Library Fees+Fines, Internal
8452	Advertising Sales, INTERTUB^Expenses Ineligible for Fed Reimbursement
8453	Advertising Sales, INTRATUB^Expenses Ineligible for Fed Reimbursement
8642	Family Subsistence^Trainee/Other Professional Support
8643	Clothing^Trainee/Other Professional Support
8645	Typing^Trainee/Other Professional Support
8647	Shipping^Trainee/Other Professional Support
8649	Miscellaneous^Trainee/Other Professional Support
8721	Shrinkage, Spoilage or Rework

If you have any questions or issues related to the deletion of these codes, please contact Karen O'Rourke at 496-3375 before June 30.

About the e-News back to top

The Financial Administration publishes this semi-monthly electronic newsletter for users of Harvard University's financial systems, policies, and procedures. Generally, the e-News is published on the 12th and 26th of each month.

It contains:

updates on projects underway to build or improve University financial systems;
information about new University financial policies, procedures, and forms;
reminders about upcoming deadlines and cut-over dates;
tips and tricks for working more easily or productively.

We welcome questions and suggestions for improvement from readers. If your questions are of general interest, we will answer them in future issues.

Please send comments, questions, or suggestions for improvement by email to us at: fad_communications@harvard.edu

How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe from the e-News (back to top)

The e-News, including all back issues and an index by topic, is available to anyone with internet access at: http://vpf-web.harvard.edu/training/enews.html. No subscription or password is needed.

When we publish each issue, we send out a notification email to all users of Oracle financials, STAR, the Budget Tools, and the Data Warehouse. Because there are nearly 5,000 users, we compile and maintain this "listproc" in an automated way. The Harvard Data Warehouse and the STAR security module are queried for all registered users. Twice a month, the queries are re-run to pick up new users. Disabled or terminated users automatically drop off. Duplicates between systems are eliminated. As a final step, email addresses are pulled from the HUID system, which is fed by the UIS Telecommunications Directory.

If you do not actively use Harvard University financial systems and find the semi-monthly notification email bothersome, you should ask your local security administrator or financial office to disable your financial system access. This is the only way to get off the listproc.

If you are an active user of Harvard financial systems, but do not receive the notification email, it is likely there is no email address listed for you in the UIS Telecommunications Directory. You can submit an email address, or change it, in three ways:

1. Via the directory coordinator for your department. This contact -- often, but not always, your department administrator -- is responsible for updating directory information throughout the year, whenever staff contact information changes. This info is fed into the online directory and to the telephone operators the next business day.

2. On the update directory page on the UIS web site.

3. FAS faculty and staff should update their records via the FAS Portal. The Portal requires a Harvard University personal identification number (PIN). PINs and supporting documentation are available on the PIN Administation site at www.pin1.harvard.edu.

Applications Administration: Introduction back to top

What Is the Chart of Accounts? back to top

Who Administers the Chart of Accounts, etc.? back to top

How Does User Security Work in the Financial Systems? back to top

What Does User Access Allow You to Do, See, or Report? back to top

New Amex Corporate Cards to Be Issued back to top

Common Problems with Processing Web Voucher Reimbursements back to top

Rarely Used Object Codes Eliminated back to top

Sponsored Fund Description Changes Effective in June back to top