NUFinancials Chart of Accounts Quick Reference

This guide is a quick reference to department, fund, project, and account codes within the NUFinancials Chart of Accounts (COA).

 

Who does that DeptID belong to?

DeptID Prefix

Description

10

President

11

Fringe Benefits

12

University Relations

13

Central Resources – Non-Recurring Reserves

13

Central Resources – Recurring Reserves

13

Central Resources – Debt Service

13

Central Resources – Investment in Plant

13

Central Resources – Student Aid

13

Central Resources – Tuition/Fees

13

Central Resources – Other

14

Business & Finance

14

Bus. & Finance – Misc. Gifts

15

University Services

16

Alumni Relations & Dev.

17

Information Technology

18

Facilities Management

18

Facilities Management – Educational Plant Properties

19

Recreation

20

Athletics

21

Student Affairs

22

University Housing

23

Auxiliary Enterprises / NU Press

24

Auxil Enterprises/Allen Ctr

30

Provost

30

University Enrollment

30

Residential Colleges

32

University Libraries

40

Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences

41

School of Education

42

Medill School of Journalism

43

Media Management Center

45

 School of Music

46

School of Communication

46

 Institute for Modern Communication

46 & 52

 CHSP split between SOC & FSM

47

McCormick Engineering /Applied Sci.

47

Infrastructure Technology Institute

49

The Graduate School

50-54

Feinberg School of Medicine

55

School of Law

56-57

Kellogg Graduate School of Management

58

School of Continuing Studies (SOC)

58

School of Continuing Studies – Summer Session

58

School of Continuing Studies – Center for Public Safety

71

NU in Qatar

80

OR Programmatic Support

81

Research Operations

82

Research Centers & Institutes

84

Technology Transfer Program

97

Medical Faculty Foundation

98

Rubicon Corporation

Each chart string contains a Department ID (DeptID). The DeptID identifies a unit at Northwestern. The first two digits of the DeptID identify the grouping of units within which DeptIDs belong.

https://www.northwestern.edu/controller/accounting-services/chartfield-maintenance/overview-definitions.html  

Chart of Accounts Quick Reference

Term

Description

Account

5 digits

ChartField value that classifies transaction activity as revenue, expense, transfer, or balance sheet.

Activity

2 digits

ChartField value required when a project number is used. It indicates the phase of construction for plant funds. For grants, this value is 01 unless the sponsoring agency doesn’t allow carry-over funding between award periods or requires billing invoices to be sent for spending on individual periods.

Chart of Accounts

Organizing structure for NUFinancials. All charts strings are part of the Chart of Accounts.

Chart String

Combination of ChartField values used for financial transactions and budgeting.

ChartField

An accounting code that segregates and categorizes transactional and budgetary data. ChartFields are shown below. The most commonly used are in bold.

Fund

Dept

Project

Activity

Class

Program

ChartField1

Account

ChartField1

4 digits

ChartField1 is a 4-digit code used optionally to categorize and track transactions. It provides an additional level of analysis. It also serves to track payroll transactions that are in suspense (SUSP).

Class

3 digits

ChartField that identifies the functional purpose of the expense. It does not require manual data entry.

Department

7 digits

ChartField that identifies the financial entity, or management unit, that is responsible for the activity. Also called DeptID, this is different than the 6-digit HR Department ID.

Fund

3 digits

This ChartField value indicates the type of funding for a transaction or budget. Ex- ample fund types include: unrestricted, gift, or grant. For the complete listing of fund codes see Chart String Fund & Prefix Descriptions included in this document.

Primary Management Unit (PMU)

Major organizational structure within a school or unit. The PMU resides at level 5 of the NU Master DeptID tree and is the lowest level for common university-wide reporting.

Program

4 digits

ChartField that is used as a tracking tool or linking mechanism to unite collaborative activities across units. It is secured so multiple users can access it. Budgets do not reside on Program codes.

Project

8 digits

ChartField value used to identify financial activity for a distinct unrestricted or re- stricted purpose. This number captures financial transactions by fiscal year for non- multi-year and multi-year projects and from inception-to-date for multi-year pro- jects. It tracks the fiscal year projects: designated, self-supporting, cost-sharing, gifts, endowments/annuity, student loan, and agency. It also tracks the multi-year projects: grants & contracts and plant.

 

Chart String Fund & Prefix Descriptions

Understanding Fund Numbers

The Fund code is the first three digits of a chart string. It indicates how finances are managed. Below is a list of the most commonly used Fund codes in Northwestern, organized by series. Each series represents a different source, or pool, of funds. Italicized funds are budgetary-only codes, used for budget planning but not for spending.

Unrestricted Funds (100 series)

110

General Unrestricted

120

Employee Benefits

130

Unrestricted Clearing

131

Payroll Clearing

132

Student Accounts Clearing

133

Vendor Interface Clearing

150

Auxiliary Enterprises

151

Allen Center

152

NU Press

156

Evanston University Housing & Food Service (EV-UHFS)

157

Chicago University Housing & Food Service (CH-UHFS)

160

Recharge Operations

170

Unrestricted with Project

171

Designated

172

Self Supporting

190

Cost Sharing

191

Mandatory Cost Sharing

192

Over-the-Cap Commitment

193

Voluntary Committed Cost Sharing

 

Gift Funds (300 series)

310

Temporarily Restricted Gifts

320

Unrestricted Gifts

330

Gift Holding

 

Endowment/Annuity Funds (400 series)

410

Permanently Restricted Endowment Principal

420

Temporarily Restricted Endowment Principal

430

Unrestricted Endowment Principal

431

Funds Functioning as Endowment

432

Unrestricted Gains & Losses on Endowment

433

Unrestricted Income Returned to Principal

440

Temporarily Restricted Endowment Spending

450

Unrestricted Endowment Spending

460

Endowment Holding

470

Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRT)

471

Permanently Restricted CRT

472

Temporarily Restricted CRT

480

Charitable Gift Annuities (CGA)

481

Permanently Restricted CGA

482

Temporarily Restricted CGA

483

Unrestricted CGA

 

Student Loan Funds (500 series)

510

University Funded

520

Government Advances

530

Gift Funded

540

Endowment Fund

 

Grants & Contract Funds (600 series)

610

Federal Grants & Contracts

611

Federal ARRA Grants & Contracts

620

Federal Flow-Through

621

Federal ARRA Flow-Through

630

State of Illinois Funding

640

Industry Clinical Trials

650

Non-Federal Non-Industry Clinical Trials

(a.k.a Other Grants & Contracts)

 

Agency Funds (700 series)

710

Agency

720

Agency Spending Advance Funds

730

Agency Student Organizations (ASO)

731

ASO – Evanston

732

ASO – Chicago

740

Agency Invested Funds

750

Agency NU Press Work-In-Prog

 

Plant Funds (800 series)

810

Plant Construction – Capital

811

Temp Restricted Plant Const. – Capital

812

Unrestricted Plant Construction – Capital

820

Plant Construction – Non-Capital

830

Debt Service

840

Investment in Plant

 

Centrally Managed Funds (000—099)

010

Investment Pools

011

Long Term Balanced Pool

012

Short Term Money Market Pool

013

Debt Service Pool

014

Income Distribution Clearing

020

Rubicon Insurance

021

NMFF Med Malpractice

022

NU Med Malpractice

023

NU General Liability

024

NU Auto Liability

025

NU Student Insurance

026

Rubicon Administrative Costs

030

Student Loan Sales (XSLM)

 

Understanding Project Number Prefixes

Use the first digit of a project number to determine what type of funds are associated with the project. The first digit of the project is the same as the first digit of the fund (except for cost sharing projects). Funds 010 - 160 are not associated with projects.

 

Prefix

Meaning

1

Unrestricted with Project

3

Gifts

4

Endowments/Annuity

5

Student Loans

6

Grant & Contract, Cost Share

7

Agency

8

Plant

9

Investment in Plant (Asset)

Understanding Account Number Prefixes

Use the first digit of an account number to determine whether the activity is: revenue, expense, balance sheet, transfer, or statistical in nature.

Prefix

Meaning

1

Asset

2

Liability

3

Fund Balance

4

External Revenue

5

Internal Sales Revenue

6

Salary & Fringe Benefits

7

Other Expenses

8

Transfers

9

Statistical

 


Keywords: coa "chart of accounts"
Created: 2021-06-04 21:41:23
Updated: 2021-08-06 21:55:30

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Article ID: 1200
Created
Thu 5/12/22 12:38 PM
Modified
Wed 1/11/23 11:17 AM