Finance Terminology

Instances

Instances are distinct databases. Each campus has its own instances; the HR and Finance applications on a given campus have separate instances; and there may be multiple instances within an application. For example, the Finance production instance is FHUMPRD (F=Finance, HUM=Humboldt, PRD=production).

This table holds information on the current instances.
Instance Description Use
FCFSPRD Finance production - Campus Purchasing, budget, financials inquiry
HHUMPRD HR production Recruit workforce (faculty personnel)

Modules

There are several modules within PS Finance. Each module defines a different functional area.
Module Name Function Department
PO Purchasing Purchase goods & services Procurement
AP Accounts Payable Pay vendors Accounts Payable
GL General Ledger Record financial activity Accounting

Accounting Periods

Accounting periods are accounting months. They are numbered relative to the fiscal year, not the calendar year. Ledgers are organized on accounting periods. Every financial transaction is posted to a specific period, which may be different than the actual transaction date.

This table holds information on Accounting Periods.
Accounting Period Description
1 July
2 August
3 September
4 October
5 November
6 December
7 January
8 February
9 March
10 April
11 May
12 June
0 Beginning balances
999 Year-end adjustments

Fiscal Year

The fiscal year runs July 1-June 30. In PeopleSoft, a fiscal year is designated as the first calendar year of the fiscal year. For example, FY 2004-05 is designated as fiscal year 2004. Whenever a query or report prompts for year, it is asking for fiscal year. So, January 2005 is Year 2004, Period 7.

Business Unit

A business unit is a set of accounting books. Most reports and lookups require you to specify a business unit. HSU has several sets of books, but the only one relevant to the general enduser is HMCMP (HM=Humboldt, CMP=campus). These are the Humboldt State University legal books.

Some users who work with student Financial Aid in the Accounts Payable module may see an additional business unit called HMSTD (HM=Humboldt, STD=Student). This unit is not used in General Ledger.

Chartfields

Chartfields are the elements that comprise the chart of accounts: how financial activity is categorized and coded in PS Finance. Humboldt State University uses six different chartfields:

  • Account
  • Fund
  • Department
  • Program
  • Class
  • Project

See Chart of Accounts for more information on the chartfields and their values.

Document Types

The following documents participate in PS Finance, and trace an accounting "life cycle" for purchases.
Document Description Module
Requisition Pre-encumbrance; request for goods & services PO
Purchase Order Encumbrance; contract to buy goods & services PO
Voucher Authorization to pay a vendor AP
Journal Daily accounting activity batch; pathway to ledger GL
Ledger Chartfield balances by period GL

See the Financials Data Flow diagram for a graphic representation of document flow in PS Finance.

Ledgers

The ledger is the final resting place for accounting transactions, the document of record for the organization’s financial state. There are actually multiple ledgers in PS Finance, depending on the nature of the dollars represented. You will see ledgers specified on reports and inquiry pages. The following ledgers are relevant to endusers:

The following table holds information on ledgers in PS Finance.
Ledger Name Contents
ACTUALS Revenues, expenditures; assets, liabilities, equity
STANBUD Budget
KK_DTL_ENC Encumbrances (purchase orders in, vouchers out)
KK_DTL_PRE Pre-encumbrances (requisitions in, purchase orders out)

A line in a PS ledger generally consists of a chartfield string, an accounting period/fiscal year, and a dollar amount. The dollar amount represents the net total of whatever quantity is stored in that ledger, for the specified chartfield string and period. There is no indication of the activities that make up that total; that information is stored at a lower level in the system.

Scenarios

A scenario is a category of budgetary activity. Scenarios appear in the budget ledger & journals, and associated reports.
Scenario Description
BDCAMPUS Legacy conversion roll-forward
ORIGINAL Original
REVISED Revised (transfers)
ALLOCATION CSU allocation orders

Journal Sources

Journal source is a field that appears in a journal header, describing the origin of the journal. The field is also used in the HUMGL015 transaction detail report, in the "Src" column. The following values are in use in the HMCMP business unit:

The following table holds information on Journals.
Journal Source Description
ALO Allocations (including budget roll-forward)
APS Accounts payable (vouchers, payments, claims)
SFS Student system (charges, payments)
BUD Budget entry
HRS Human Resources (payroll LCD)
IMP Imported journal entry
ONL Online journal entry
YEC Year-end closing