Understanding the GL008 Revenue and Expense Activity Report in Cognos Analytics

Business Unit

The only valid choice for this prompt is NWUNV (The value is already preselected).

Date Options

• Current Period: Use this prompt to automatically choose Current Fiscal year and Accounting period. For example, if you are running the report on the calender date of December 5 2018, the report will return results same as if you were to run the report for Fiscal Year 2019, Accounting Period 4. This is an useful prompt to use when you want to setup scheduled output to be delivered via email on a particular date of every month.
• Previous Period: Use this prompt to automatically choose Previous Fiscal year and Accounting period. For example, if you are running the report on the calender date of September 5 2018, the report will return results same as if you were to run the report for Fiscal Year 2018, Accounting Period 12. This is an useful prompt to use when you want to setup scheduled output to be delivered via email on a particular date of every month.
• User Defined YTD Period: Use this prompt to filter report for Annual View.
• User Defined Period: Use this prompt to filter report by Fiscal Year and Accounting Period.

Manager/Reviewer

Select your or your manager’s name, if available, to limit the report.

Fund.

Select one or multiple funds.

Department Prompt

• Department Search & Select: Search and Select for one or more departments to which you have access. The Search result will be automatically filtering results based on your Selection from Date Options Prompt.
• Tree as of Report Period: Select one or more department node from to which you have access. The Tree/Nodes are automatically filtering results based on your Selection from Date Options Prompt.
• Specify Fiscal Year Tree: Select one or more department node from to which you have access. Fiscal Department Year: Choose a fiscal year to filter the reports results by. This can be a different Fiscal year you have chosen in from the Data Options Prompt.

Project Status

Filter Project prompt and reports results by All Projects (Default), Active Project Only, Inactive Projects Only.

Project

Search and Select for one or more projects to which you have access.

Account

Search by entering all or part of an Account ID or its description.

Chartfield1

Search by entering all or part of a Chartfield1 ID or its description.

F&A

Use the radio buttons to filter report to show or hide F&A Detail.

Display/Hide Budget Activity

Use the radio buttons to filter report to show or hide Budget Activity.

A

Accounting Period

Parentheses next to the Accounting Period indicate whether that period was open or closed at the time the report was run. "Closed" indicates this report has "final" amounts. If "open", the totals and balances are not final.

B

Account/Transaction Type

In bold you see the Account number and name where transactions were posted. Below it you see the Transaction types charged to this Account. The Transaction Type corresponds to the Transaction ID to the right.

C

Transaction ID

Shows you the number of the original transaction. If you're viewing this report online in Cognos, the transaction number hyperlink can be clicked to open a window with additional information about the transaction. The Transaction ID can also be used in NUFinancials inquiries.

D

Line/Schedule/Distribution

The first number, Line identifies the line number of the transaction. The second number, Schedule is not being used and can be ignored. The third number, Distribution tells you which line this chart string is on (assuming the amount was distributed among more than one chartstring).

E

Budget Check Date

Identifies when the transaction was originally budget checked. Normally, this happens on the day a transaction is created/entered. This date is important for actuals transactions that do not have a GL post date because it is the date the funds were encumbered (reserved).

F

Description

Varies by transaction type. In general, the description is a combination of the description a user enters, along with numbers, dates, and codes from NUFinancials.

G

Pre-Enc/Enc

Pre-Encumbrance/Encumbrance indicates whether the transaction amount is currently encumbered with a positive amount. An encumbrance commits funds in the budget to that transaction so that the money cannot be spent elsewhere. The budget checking process encumbers the funds. The Pre/Enc total appears in bold with the amounts listed below. Pre-Encumbrances only apply to unapproved requisitions. Encumbrances apply to approved requisitions/Purchase Orders and Travel Authorizations/Advances. Amounts move out of this column and into the Transactions column when they become paid expenses. This column does not apply to Revenue.

H

Account Beginning Balance

Displays the cumulative total for the fiscal year through the period for which the report was run. This amount carries over from the previous accounting period and indicates a starting total for this period.

I

Transactions

Indicate the amount of actual revenue or expenses during the accounting period for which the report was run. The Transactions total appears in bold with the amounts listed below. Transactions whose amounts appear in this column include Revenue deposits, Expense Reports, Journals, and Vouchers/Payments. The GL Post Date corresponds to these amounts.

J

Account Ending Balance

The sum of Account Beginning Balance and Transactions. The total Account Ending Balance appears in bold with the subtotals listed below. At month end/close, this balance carries forward into the next period as the account beginning balance.

K

GL Post Date

The date Transactions were paid/posted to the General Ledger. Their amounts appear in the Transactions column. The column is blank if the expense has yet to be paid.

L

Chartfield

Refers to ChartField1, a 4-digit code used (optionally) to categorize and track transactions at a finer level of granularity for reporting/analysis. It also serves to track payroll transactions that are in suspense by displaying SUSP in the column. The Chartfield column is left blank if your department does not use it.