Chart of Accounts Policy

(Sample 33-digit chart of accounts coding)

The Tub identifies one of the highest financial reporting levels at Harvard.  It is usually a school or major department (for example, Central Administration is Tub 610 and Harvard Law School is Tub 265).  A complete list of University Tubs can be found at http://able.harvard.edu/coa/csma/userguide/seg-ranges-by-tub.xls.  Tub “175” should be used for all UIS and OAS transactions. 

The Org identifies the unit to which income and expenses are assigned.  It is usually a department, business unit, project, or direct cost grouping with the Tub.  (For example, University Telephone is Org 11030, OAS CAADS is Org 11272, and the Help Desk is Org 11140).  The Org range for UIS/OAS is 11000 to 12999.

The Object identifies the nature of the transaction such as salaries, wages, rent, equipment, etc..  The University has over 900 different object codes; however, UIS/OAS only uses a small fraction of them.  Please refer to the annual UIS/OAS “Chart of Accounts Listings” publication for an abbreviated listing.  A copy can be obtained from your Financial Partner.

The Fund identifies the source of the money.  For most Revenue and Expense transactions, UIS/OAS primarily uses fund “000001”, which is the University-wide fund for unrestricted-undesignated spending.  University policy requires fund “000000” be used for most Balance Sheet transactions.  A small number of transactions (e.g. depreciation and use of reserves) are posted to other funds.  However, those transactions are restricted to the Central Finance group.

Each local unit has created activities to differentiate lines of business within a department, project, or loans (as well as to track capital loans by fiscal year). 

The Subactivity is activity dependent (i.e. it must be associated with a specific activity).  The Subactivity helps to identify sub-categories within an activity such as project phases, types of revenue, categories of reserves, and business services.  Not all activities need to be broken down into subactivities, in which case “0000” is used. 

The Root identifies the building or faculty member related to a transaction where needed.  Since UIS/OAS does not have faculty, the root is used exclusively in Tub 175 to track building expenses by property location.  When this type of tracking is not needed, the root value used is “00000”.

 Tools to Assist in Coding Transactions

UIS/OAS Chart of Accounts Publication

UIS/OAS publishes and distributes a more concise listing of chart of accounts values specifically for use in Tub 175 transactions annually in late summer.  A copy can be obtained from your Financial Partner.

Cross Validation Rules & Restricted Object Codes

Local units can set up “Cross Validation Rules” which prevent certain coding combinations from being used to help prevent miscoding.  Additionally, some object codes are restricted and may only be used by specific University units, such as Central Administration.

Chart of Accounts Validator

A tool called the Chart of Accounts Validator is available to check the validity of any 33-digit account combination.  It will inform the user if the 33-digit string is invalid for any of the following reasons:

o        “Activity Not valid with the Org…” This is an example of a Cross Validation Rule error.  A restriction was setup to prevent one of the entered segments from being used with the other chart segment.  The requestor should contact the person who provided the coding or his/her Financial Partner to resolve the issue. 

o        “Restricted Object Code”  The object code can not be used by anyone but the specified group (usually Central Administration). The requestor should either select another appropriate object code or contact Central Administration’s General Accounting office to complete the transaction.

o        “CCID: Not Yet Created”  This is a warning that the particular 33 digit string entered has not been used before.  This warning alone does not mean that the code is invalid.

Some local billing systems (i.e. MySoft) have a built-in chart validator which will work similarly.

Prior to purchasing on behalf of your business unit, please be sure you have the proper authorization.  Become familiar with the Purchasing Approval and Signature Authority Policy and the Accounts Payable Policy as well as see your Financial Partner for the process for your local unit.