FAQ CoA Phase 2

The project team* is refining goals that will bring benefits to the University’s Financial community in the near-term. The current focus areas of the CoA Phase 2 project are arranged into the following workstreams:

*The project team is led by staff from the University Controller’s Office, University Budget Office, Research Financial Services, and UFA Project Management Office with strategic support from external partners that specialize in higher education accounting and Financial information systems.

a) Reporting and Analysis

Scope:

• Review and assess survey feedback
  • Training/Communication needs
  • New report or enhancement requirements
  • Revised chart requirements– data not currently captured
• Identify action items and owners. Group action items into logical workstreams/phases
• Gather detailed requirements, define scope, design and develop new or enhance existing reports, test, and implement them
• Assign leads to design and implement solutions as appropriate for workstreams other than stated above. Assist workstream leads from a reporting perspective

b) Natural Account

Scope:

• End date inactive Account values with zero balances and associated code strings
• Consolidate like Account values based on description and usage
• Review and assess Account value hierarchies
• Assess the need to create new Account values (i.e. Salary, Expenses and Receivables) and coordinate with UCO, Reporting Workstream and Stakeholders

c) Fund Type

Scope:

• Review existing fund type definitions and reporting requirements/needs in the current CoA
• Gather feedback to define fund type segment requirements and develop guidelines

d) Central Administration (900) Unit

Scope:

• Review, assess, and identify the Central functions currently under unit 900
• Assign proposed new unit codes to represent central functions
• Gather and assess requirements for the changeover and timing of activities and processes that will support the ability for financial and business personnel to:
  • Understand and use the new codes
  • Transition transactional data needed to support change
  • Identify configurations, interfaces, reports needed during change over
• Identify resources needed to support this workstream

e) Activity Segment

Scope:

• Gather requirements
• Develop a policy for adding and maintaining Activity values to support stakeholder requirements, under the current definition of Activity
• Review pros/cons of using generic vs specific values if the volume of required values is high (if faculty and physicians are required)
• Determine if Central approval will be required
• Coordinate with other work streams as required

f) Business Line Segment

Scope:

• Understand how the units are using the segment
• Understand the units reporting requirements
• Educate the units on the functional reporting of expenses
• Determine how Central and units should use the segment going forward
• Clean up the hierarchies and end date values that are not being used

g) Unrestricted Funds/Projects Module

Scope:

• Determine the reasoning and logic for why unrestricted funds (fund types 100 & 150) are being used in projects
• Determine if there is a need or special circumstance for unrestricted funds (currently 100 & 150 fund types) to remain in projects
• Analyze the use of fund type 165 in projects and review the policy
• Close inactive unrestricted projects
• Move balances and update configurations/defaults as needed

Legend:

Fund Type	Description
100	Unrestricted Operating – General
150	Unrestricted Operating – Other
165	Unrestricted Internally Designated – General

 

h) Department Segment/ Human Capital Management (HCM) Organizational Structure

Scope:

• Align the chart of accounts division/department segment values with the HCM department structure to support financial requirements and drive greater efficiency across University systems
• Prototype the units’ input received from the stakeholder design meetings as a baseline for discussions with the HCM Transformation Initiative Organizational Structure Alignment workstream

i) General Ledger-to-Project Portfolio Management (GL-to-PPM)

Scope:

• Analyze variances between general ledger and PPM balances and make corrections and adjustments to reconcile balances
• Educate that the units should only be transacting using Project fund types via the Projects module and not directly in the GL so that we can rely on project balances in PPM.

Design a simple, efficient, and enduring chart of accounts that aligns with the organizational structure and addresses business needs.

Simple: Each segment will have a clearly defined purpose, streamlining process, reporting and usability.

Efficient: The chart changes allow the user to spend more time analyzing and less time reconciling.

Enduring: The chart structure will align with HR and Financial system and set things up for the future.

Several benefits will be gained from this phase of work including, but not limited to:

• More consistent and robust financial reporting across the university
• Enhanced transaction management and tracking capability
• Simplified and standardized project accounting
• Align the department segment with the HCM project to drive greater efficiency across university systems

We expect other benefits will be identified as the project progresses.

The total number of segments and number of digits in each chart segment will not change. However, we are working to improve the existing chart of accounts segments to have a clearly defined purpose, streamlining process, reporting and usability. The chart structure will align with HR and Financial systems and set things up for the future. The chart changes, including improvements to the related subledgers, will allow the user to spend more time analyzing and less time reconciling.

We do not expect to have further CoA revisions after this phase as its goal is to make the CoA long-lasting and enduring.

There will be no changes to the accessibility and management of historical data.

Extreme differences in numerical patterns of the segments are not anticipated.  Activity is the only segment that may potentially have significant change.  The project team will validate the approach with campus and central leadership and communicate when it has been confirmed. 

It is imperative that we analyze how the University’s organizational structure and business needs will evolve over time and make improvements to the current chart of accounts. This will enable us to meet the University’s collective needs at the macro and micro levels. The implementation of the CoA Phase 2 project will occur over the course of the next 3 years. Throughout the lifecycle of this project, the project team will work in partnership with key stakeholders and constituents from across the university. As is the case with most projects of this complexity and scope, dates for key milestones and the overall timeline are subject to change.

Currently, the project team is concentrating its resources and efforts with the goal of making improvements to the existing chart of accounts through workstream-focused activities, including stakeholder engagement. This includes alignment with the HCM Transformation Initiative, reporting and analysis survey follow up discussions, and chart of accounts design working sessions.

As a part of our communications strategy, we are partnering with the Chief Business Officer (CBO)- and Chief Financial Officer (CFO)–designated contacts to communicate with the university’s financial community. We ask that you discuss your questions with the contact for your area prior to contacting the project team. However, the project team can always be reached at: coa_phase_2@finance.rutgers.edu.  

Please contact the CBO– and CFO– designated contacts for your unit to see how you can contribute.  

All CoA Phase 2 information will be on this website, so you’ve come to the right place.  This site will be updated periodically as Phase 2 progresses. The CoA Phase 2 FAQs will be dynamic and updated as we progress through the project.

The project team loaded the Department segment data, that was collected from all units across the University in spring of 2021, into the Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud Service (EDMCS) tool and shared that information with the HCM Transformation Initiative team. That team will review the Department data and use it for reference as they determine their HR/Payroll departmental needs.

The project team is working on Oracle controls and determining the FY23 UDOLFB sync entry.  The team has also met with Research Financial Services (RFS) to coordinate the final clean-up of sponsored projects, and additionally have obtained buy-in from RFS & the Office of the Controller to test existing reconciliation dashboards for Universitywide rollout.

No. The project team is confirming policies related to Unrestricted Fund operating vs self-supporting projects and how balance roll-forwards can be handled. Policies will be validated with campus and central leadership and communicated once they are confirmed.

Focus group discussions conducted from the survey helped to inform the service requests created to support new requirements gathered.

New 9xx Unit values will not be assigned for the FY24 budget cycle.  The Central Administration Unit 900 workstream is analyzing the required implementation steps and approach for comparative reporting of historical unit 900 budget and activity with new 9xx unit budget and activity.  The implementation timeline will be confirmed upon completion of the analysis.

The original scope of the CoA Phase 2 project was modified to focus on improving the existing segments, therefore none will be repurposed to program or initiative.  However, the Activity workstream is opening up that segment to support initiative requirements.  The project team will validate the approach with campus and central leadership and communicate when it has been confirmed.

The updated definitions of the chart of accounts segments are listed below.

 

Segment	Definition
Unit	Unit represents the budgetary authority and responsibility of each transaction and aligns with the Board of Governors’ approved operating budget.
Division	Division is used to group Organizations into hierarchies.
Organization	Organizations are operational entities and have dedicated people and space.
Location	Location is the area for which you are providing service, which could or could not be the physical geographic location of the people providing the service.
Fund Type	Fund Type identifies the sources of financial resources and restrictions or limitations imposed by regulations, external entities, senior management, or the governing boards.
Business Line	Business Line indicates the functional expense categories required for financial statement and other regulatory reporting and identifies the programs and services offered by the various university entities
Account	Account identifies the element of the accounting equation that is affected by the transaction, e.g., assets, liabilities, deferred inflows, deferred outflows, net position, revenues, expenses, transfers.
Activity	Activity identifies total activity of high-level, interdisciplinary and strategic initiatives that span across multiple responsibility centers/units.
IntraUnit	IntraUnit is used in system-generated transaction lines to balance financial transactions that span different Units.
Future	Future segment is a placeholder for when a new concept – unrelated to any of the existing segment concepts – is identified as a reporting need.

Change management is the proactive and structured approach to transition individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. For CoA Phase 2, Rutgers has contracted with KPMG to collaborate with University Finance and Administration Project Management Office to deploy leading engagement, communications and learning practices and tools. This will help ensure that stakeholders are better prepared to utilize the CoA updates once they go into effect.

Training will be provided in two ways at select timeframes during this effort. We will develop learning activities to assist with project execution, for example how to utilize the Enterprise Data Management Cloud Service (EDMCS) tool. We also will develop learning activities to assist the end user in utilizing the CoA effectively once the changes to the segments are implemented.