Planning & Budgeting

UW’s Financial Accounting System

Introduction

FAS is University of Washington’s primary financial accounting system and was implemented in 1974. All financial transactions flow through FAS even when the transaction originated in another system such as the eProcurement or Payroll system. Systems such as Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) and MyFinancial.desktop (MYFD) consume information from FAS to produce financial reports. A listing of UW web-based systems, legacy systems, and other financial systems can be found at the bottom of this page.

Key components of FAS (Fund, Org, Object, Program, and Revenue Codes):

Fund References

The Fund References page defines and categorizes UW fund groups and fund codes, and connects them with the corresponding fund codes used by the Office of Financial Management (OFM).

Organization Codes

Organizational Codes are a ten-digit code that represents the University organizational structure in FAS since 1975. When referenced on the Budget Index the Organization Code relates a budget number to an Organizational Unit. The system is capable of identifying hierarchical relationships through six organizational levels.

Level Designation Description
1 President/Provost Top administrative areas
2 Dean/Vice President Major organizational divisions(Colleges, Vice president divisions)
3 Major Areas Programmatic or organizational divisions
4 Departments/Offices Primary Operating Units
5 Division Sub-disciplines or sub-specialties within a department or unit
6 Sub-Division Level Specialized research, teaching or service activities
  1. President’s Level (org_pres) – A broad grouping of units according to top administrative areas of responsibility or major class of programs: 1-00-00-00-00-0
  2. Dean/Vice President’s Level (org dean) – Major organizational divisions usually headed by an officer reporting to the President (colleges, schools, vice president divisions): 1-02-00-00-00-0
  3. Major Level (org_major_area) – Programmatic or organizational partitioning of major organizational divisions (organizational dependent): 1-02-03-00-00-0
  4. Department Level (org_dept) – Primary operating unit of the University, usually designated as a department in academic units and as an office in administrative units: 1-02-03-04-00-0
  5. Division Level (org_division) – Academic sub-disciplines or sub-specialties contained within a department and functional/organizational division of large administrative/service units: 1-02-03-04-05-0
  6. Sub-Division Level (org_division) – org_sub_division) – Specialized research, teaching or service activities, e.g., the research activities of a single Principal Investigator; the training/research/patient care activities conducted at affiliated hospitals: 1-02-03-04-05-6

Budget Number

Budget numbers are assigned as FAS accounts to facilitate record keeping for entities. A six digit control number (xx-xxxx) is assigned to a particular college, department or entity in order to keep track of revenue and expenditures. Also, certain budgets are grouped to identify whether they are categorized as state, self-sustaining, or grant & gifts.

See theBudget Number Index.

Budget Types/Classes

Budget Type and Budget Class provide a general category/subcategory classification of budget numbers based roughly on type of funding. Budget Type is a 2-digit code that facilitates monitoring and reporting of University budget and funding levels. Budget Class is a 2-digit extension of Budget Type. It adds subcategories within the Budget Type groupings. Budget Class designations are meaningful only within the context of a Budget Type; they are not used by themselves.

Object Code

Object Codes are six-digit numbers that are used to categorize actual expenses, budgeted amounts of expenses, and encumbrances into categories that describe the nature of goods or services purchased.

The first two digits (major object) represent the major groupings of expenditures. These are listed below:

  • 01 Salaries and wages
  • 02 Contracted services
  • 03 Other services
  • 04 Travel
  • 05 Supplies and materials
  • 06 Equipment
  • 07 Employee benefits
  • 08 Scholarships and awards
  • 09 Debt redemption
  • 10 Capital projects (construction)
  • 11 Internal overhead
  • 12 Capital projects expensed (repairs)
  • 13 Bad debts
  • 14 Inventory adjustments
  • 15 Depreciation
  • 19 Intra-agency payments (within UW)
  • 20 Inter-agency payments (between UW and other state agencies)
  • 21 CTI’s (credit side)
  • (Codes above 21 are for special use.)

The second two digits (sub-object) provide more detail within major categories. For Example, 05-30-00 means books and pamphlets, a specific type of supplies & materials.

Please see the following page for more information:Object (Expense) Codes.

Program Codes

Program codes are purpose codes used to classify a financial activity by function, and are assigned to a budget number. Examples of commonly used program codes are:

010 – Instruction: Consists of formal instructional activities available to students seeking to complete an academic, professional, adult basic education, vocational or occupational curriculum or desiring to continue their education through non-credit instructional programs.

  • 011 – Instruction & Dept. Research – Gen University.
  • 012 – Instruction & Dept. Research – Health Science.
  • 013 – Special Session Instruction.
  • 014 – Community Education.
  • 015 – Extension Education.

020 – Research: Consists of all research-related activities undertaken within a higher education institution and conducted with separately budgeted funds, excluding grants and contracts funds. This program does not include those activities normally considered a part of professional development, such as journal reading and other independent, non-separately funded, and non-release time activities of faculty members.

  • 021 – Agricultural Research Centers & Institutes.
  • 022 – Other Institutes & Research Centers.
  • 023 – Individual or Project Research.

030 – Public Services: Consists of activities established primarily to provide non-instructional services beneficial to groups external to the institution. Such activities include seminars, projects and various organizational entities established to provide services to particular sectors of the community.

  • 031 – Community Services.
  • 032 – Cooperative Extension Service.

040 – Primary Support Services: The Primary Support program encompasses those activities which directly serve the instruction, research and public service programs. It includes the retention, preservation, and display of materials and the provision of services that directly assist the academic functions of the institution. These activities are organized into the sub-programs of Academic Computing Services, Ancillary Support Services, and Academic Administration.

  • 041 – Academic Computing.
  • 042 – Ancillary Support Services.
  • 043 – Academic Administration.

050 – Libraries: Consists of activities relating to the retention and display of materials and the provision of services which support the three primary programs of instruction, research and public service.

  • 051 – Learning Resources.
  • 052 – Specialty Libraries & Services.

060 – Student Services: Consists of social and cultural services and institutional management activities relating directly to students, but not a part of formal instruction.

  • 061 – Basic Student Services.
  • 062 – Educational Opportunities Programs.
  • 063 – Other Special Programs and Services.

070 – Hospitals: Consists of activities associated with the operation and management of hospitals.

  • 071 – University Medical Center.
  • 072 – Harborview Medical Center.

080 – Institutional Support: Institutional Support consists of activities whose primary purpose is to provide operational support for the ongoing functioning of the University, excluding expenditures for physical plant operations and maintenance.

  • 081 – Institutional Management.
  • 082 – Fiscal Operations.
  • 083 – General Support Services.
  • 084 – Logistical Services.
  • 085 – Community Relations and Development.

090 – Plant Operation and Maintenance: This program accounts for the activities of maintenance, repairs and services to campus buildings, grounds, and utilities; operation of the central power plant; transportation, trucking and waste disposal services; energy management; environmental health and safety; the campus police department; and the fire prevention program. Engineering design, estimating, and consulting services related to these functions are also included as well as engineering consulting services to assure compliance with the regulations of the Washington Industrial Safety Act, Department of Ecology, Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal, state, and municipal regulatory agencies. Also included are maintenance and utilities costs for state-supported facilities remote from the main campus.

  • 091 – Utilities and Other Fixed Costs.
  • 092 – Building and Utility Maintenance.
  • 093 – Custodial and Grounds Services.
  • 094 – Operation and Maintenance Support.

Revenue Codes

Please see the following page for detailed information regarding revenue codes: Revenue & Source Codes.

Financial, HR, and Database Systems

Below is a listing of UW web-based systems, legacy systems, and other financial systems.

  1. Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW): EDW is a central repository of the University’s electronically stored institutional data. This repository is organized in a way that is meaningful for business analysis, reporting and decision-making.

    EDW2 represents the next generation of data available in the Enterprise Data Warehouse. Data added to the EDW2 are designed and built to support quick and easy user interaction. Business rules are reflected in the data and the data are cleaned, defined, and integrated across subject areas to represent an institutional perspective. Tools such as reports, cubes and visualizations are created to facilitate ease of interaction

  2. Financial Index Network (FIN): FIN is a component of FAS, and is a set of on-line financial accounting screens that allow the user to view financial accounting information that originates in FAS and financial indexes that are an integral part of FAS processing. This provides read-only access to revenue and expenditure transactions, index of budget numbers, and links to data on encumbrances financial coding, and payroll load rates
  3. Budget Driver (BGT): BGT is a legacy system that was implemented in 1983 and is supported by UW-IT. The Budget Driver system is an online budget building and monitoring tool. BGT is a collection of budget transactions maintained throughout the biennium to keep budgeted levels current.
  4. My Financial.desktop (MYFD): MyFinancial.Desktop is a web interface for the FAS. MYFD provides users a means for monitoring budget balances and reconciling transactions. MYFD users can build custom reports, use the budget worksheet to plan for future budget activity and transfer posted salary and non-salary expenses online. MYFD also includes a project cost accounting (PCA) system that allows UW departments to monitor expenditures, report revenue, and track a variety of other data.
  5. Ariba Network System: UW is transitioning from its legacy purchasing system (PAS) to Ariba eCommerce platform for its procurement transactions. Ariba reports are available for various categories of data and are useful to departments for reviewing eProcurement orders, tracking invoices, reviewing reimbursement payments and payments to individuals.
  6. JD Edward – Grant and Contract Accounting System: JD Edward was implemented in November 2004 to manage accounts receivable, accounts receivable aging, and cash management for sponsored funding. Its purpose was to enhance the billing process, improve cash flow, and increase productivity.
  7. Payroll System (Workday): UW Payroll database system which provides information on individual faculty and staff payroll including current funding allocation and funding history by each payroll period and by budget number. Workday replaced HEPPS.
  8. Student Database (SDB): Database to manage student registration, transcripts, tuition, scholarship activity and class offerings and lists.