Making Financial Inquiries in CU's Finance System
This course is part of a suite of courses required for Financial
System access at CU. It complements the online Skill Soft
course, Financial-Inquiry, but also offers trainees:

the opportunity to run financial reports in a practice
database
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the ability to ask questions specific to individual
department environments
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key policy overview and additional resources
You'll be able to view it online any time you need a refresher;
you need not be at a campus computer.
There's a lot to learn about CU's Financial System...don't worry about retaining all the
information we go over today (see the chart below for a subject matter overview); just make
sure you remember what documents and help resources are available for you...like this training
course, which will always be in its most current status on the web!
FISCAL CULTURE
DATA STRUCTURE
NAVIGATION
REPORTING
RESOURCES
Chartfields
Report Generation
Driving Forces
FOPPS and Speedtypes
Practice Database
Policy Hierarchy
Report Types
Links
Dictionary
Step-by-Step Guides Report Parameters
Security and
Confidentiality
Fund Groups
Tutorials
Account Codes
CU's operations are organized into Organizational Units that develop and
execute plans to carry out the University's mission and achieve its objectives.
These units obtain and utilize resources, the financial impact of which is
accumulated and summarized in the University's financial records. Key elements
of CU's fiscal culture are:
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Public, tax-exempt institution -
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creates greater public scrutiny
subject to more laws and regulations
subject to legislative oversight
subject to State budget process
Elected governing board -- direction subject to political process.
Decentralized accounting structure -- relies on many people with diverse
educational and experiential backgrounds for financial statement accuracy.
 Federally funded research -- subjects CU to federal regulations.
 Confidentiality of sensitive personal information, including protected
patient data.
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The University has implemented policies at various levels to ensure compliance and
accountability. Following are key elements of the policy structure.
Policy search
page
The Regents of the University of Colorado sit atop our policy
hierarchy, and create laws and policies that lower level policies, like
APS, PPS, and campus-specific policies strive to support:
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Laws of the Regents
Policies of the Regents
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which defines best-practices in
fiscal management (after the accounting and auditing misconduct
that took place at the turn of the century - Enron, WorldCom, etc.) is
the driving force behind many of CU's Administrative Policy
Statements:
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Fiscal Roles and Responsibilities
Fiscal Code of Ethics
Fiscal Certification
Officer Disclosure of Interests
Other factors, like the need for transparency and
accountability in fiscal management, have
impacted Administrative Policy Statements and
PSC Procedural Statements:
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Propriety of Expenses
Sensitive Expenses
Alcohol Purchase and Provision
Campus Alcohol Policy Event with Alcohol Form
CU Foundation Transfers
Recognition and Training
CU's sponsors, who provide much of our funding,
have their own polices, such as:
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NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide
NIH Grants Policy Statement
It's not necessary for you to become an expert at
interpreting sponsor policies - for UCD integrates
them into our own campus policies in order to
ensure compliance and consistency:

UCD Fiscal Policies
The University has implemented policies concerning the acceptable use of
university IT resources, and the security and confidentiality of CU data:
Acceptable Use
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Use only authorized access
Do no harm
Limit personal use
Comply with statutes, regulations, and policies
Access is conditional upon agreement
Data Security and Confidentiality Practice Requirements
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Use university data only for university business
Protect personal data
Maintain security of University data
Protect HIPAA data

Separation of duties
 Three jobs
▪ Handling money
▪ Billing and booking
▪ Reconciling
 Split among at least two people

Approval
 Knowledgeable
 Authority to challenge
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Review of financial reports monthly
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By person not handling money or entering transactions
Detail and overview
Correct errors
Suspicious transactions. Fraud Hotline
Cu's financial data coding structure uses “chartfields", which consist of ten blocks (database fields) of information that tell the
system precisely how to record a transaction. Some values are defaulted, some are optional, and the others are required to
be entered by the system user:
Business Unit - Defaults to UCOLO.
Fund - Identifies the source of the money being received and spent. You'll learn much more about funds as we go...
Organization - Identifies the campus/department/school/reporting division spending or receiving the funds.
Program - Identifies a fiscal-year based University activity.
OR
Project - Identifies a non-fiscal-year-based University activity.
Sub-Classification - Optional - Allows financial tracking of related activities under a main activity.
Account - Describes the asset, liability, revenue, expense or transfer in a transaction. This is another important term that we'll
discuss quite a bit later in this course.
Budget Year - Defaults to the current fiscal year. You'll learn more details about CU's fiscal year later in this course.
Statistics Code - Optional - not used.
Currency Code - Defaults to the US dollar (USD).
The unique combination of the chart fields "fund + organization + program or project + subclass" (which you may recall is
optional) describes a specific university entity, and is referred to as a FOPPS.
Each FOPPS, which could have up to 19 digits, has a shortcut for data entry, called a "speedtype". Speedtypes are 8 digit
smart-numbers, that start with the campus code in the first digit position, followed by the fund in digit positions 2 and 3,
followed by an auto generated five-digit number.
This diagram shows the relationship between a FOPP and a speedtype:
You'll recognize which campus a speedtype belongs to by its campus code (the first of the 8 speedtype digits):
CAMPUS
CODE
Boulder
1
Colorado Springs
4
System Administration
5
Denver and Anschutz
6
So, speedtype "13055555" is a Boulder speedtype in fund 30 (sponsored projects fund); speedtype "63412345" is a UC
Denver speedtype in fund 34 (gift fund).
To learn more about the specific speedtypes you'll be working with, have your supervisor help you fill out "My Speedtypes Sponsored Projects forms, and the Programs version.
61099999 – FINANCE OFFICE OPER
MCMULLIN, SHAUN
99999 – FINANCE OFFICE
99999 – FINANCE OFFICE OPER
An asset is what you own; tangible or
intangible property like cash, inventory,
accounts receivable, etc.
A liability is what you owe, like payroll due
or loan payments due
Net assets (AKA equity) are the difference
between what you own and what you owe
The accounting equation (AKA the balance sheet equation states:
Assets = Liabilities + Net Assets
Net assets (along with assets and/or liabilities) change as revenue is earned and as expenses are incurred.
61099999 – FINANCE OFFICE OPER
10 – UNRESTRICTED GEN OPER
99999 – FINANCE OFFICE
99999 – FINANCE OFFICE OPER
NO SUBCLASS
MCMULLIN, SHAUN
MCMULLIN, SHAUN
Revenue results from the sale of goods or the rendering of services, and is recorded (and
so increases net assets) when earned, not necessarily when payment is received.
An expenditure is a cost incurred in order to provide the goods or services an organization provides, and is recorded (and
decreases net assets) at the time the cost is incurred, regardless of when payment is made.
61099999 – FINANCE OFFICE OPER
10 – UNRESTRICTED GEN OPER
99999 – FINANCE OFFICE
99999 – FINANCE OFFICE OPER
NO SUBCLASS
Budget ledgers: a planned amount of revenue or
expenditure. Some speedtypes don’t have budgets so this
column would contain zeros.
MCMULLIN, SHAUN
MCMULLIN, SHAUN
Actual ledgers: a realized amount of revenue or expenditure. If no actual
revenues or expenditures have occurred, the actuals column would contain zeros.
Encumbrance ledgers: a planned expenditure that commits University dollars but has not been realized yet. Examples of expenses that
are encumbered are employees’ future salaries and benefits and purchase orders that have not been received.
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The balance sheet shows what an organization owns
(assets) and what it owes (liabilities), and the difference
(net assets) at a fixed point in time. The balance sheet
changes as revenue and expenses are incurred.
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The income statement shows how much money an
organization made (revenue) and spent (expenditures)
over a period of time. For the same reasons that we
balance our checkbooks each month to ensure that the
bank recorded our banking transactions correctly, it is
imperative that financial managers at all levels review the
financial statements related to their departmental activity,
at least monthly, to ensure that transactions are recorded
accurately and completely.
0000999999
To move Finance Office unearned revenue to A/R for July 2011
DEBIT
1 61099999
Finance Office July Unearned Rev
Finance Office Oper
2 61099999
Finance Office July Unearned Rev
Finance Office Oper
10
99999
99999
10
99999
99999
Journal entries are used to record financial transactions in the general ledger – the repository of the debits and
credits that is used to create financial statements. Some journal entries are performed manually by individual
Finance System users, while other are uploaded through automated processes from subsystems.
Proper accounting practices seek to maintain the accounting equation – in other words, to balance the books.
Each transaction has an equal amount of debits (recorded as positive numbers) and credits (recorded as negative
numbers.) This convention is known as “double-entry accounting”, which helps prevent errors and ensures that
each transaction keeps the organization’s accounting equation in balance.
CREDIT
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A fiscal year is a one-year period in which financial activity occurs, is recorded in the
general ledger, and is summarized on financial statements. It does not necessarily
follow the calendar year. CU’s fiscal year begins July 1st and ends June 30th.
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An accounting period refers to a single month in the fiscal year. Since CU’s fiscal year
begins in July, July is known as “accounting period 1”, August is “accounting period 2”,
and so on.
Account codes describe the type of transaction
being recorded: revenue, expense, etc. CU has
over 5000 account codes!
You can search for account codes in the Finance
system too; you'll learn how in the next section,
"Navigation".
Reports are created from the data in reporting databases, after the financial transactions
in production databases are copied into them overnight.
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Can be run by authorized Finance System users and
anyone in a fiscal role at any time once logged in to the
system through the portal
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Can be run for one or more speedtypes within a single
report; by speedtype, project, program, org/org node,
subclass, or FOPPS
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Can be run in a variety of formats: .html, .pdf, .xls, .csv,
depending on your preference
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Can be run for a variety of date ranges. For example, detail
reports can now be run for more than a 12 month period
To learn how to navigate in the Reporting
System, we'll log in through the portal.

CU Denver/Anschutz Access Portal
There are step-by-step guides available on the
University Controller's website:

Cognos step-by-step guides
Use your
regular
campus
logon.
Portal
Click on the “CU Resources” tab
Under the “Reporting” drop down
menu, click on “Public Folders”
You’ll be taken to the public folders section.
Gives summary of assets, liabilities, and net
assets for the period of report
Gives summary of budgets, actuals, and
encumbrances with available budget amount
for period of report
Once you click the Finance link, you’ll see a
list of reports you can run using a variety of
parameters:
SAMPLE: TRIAL BALANCE SUMMARY
Once you’ve decided on the report you want to run, you’ll need to decide on your report parameters.
 For detail reports, you’ll select a fiscal year, a “from” and a “to” period, depending on the information
you want to see.
 For summary reports, you’ll choose the fiscal year and the “through” period value.
Summary Reports
Detail Reports
From
Fiscal Year Accounting
Period
To
Accounting
Period
Through
Accounting
Period
Results for Program/Project
Single FY
only
1
1
Single FY
only
1
1 through 12
All transactions in a specified fiscal year up to a selected period number
Single FY
only
998
998
All year-end transactions in a specified fiscal year posted to period 998
Single FY
only
1 through 12
998
All transactions in a specified fiscal year between selected period numbers, including
998
Single FY
only, starting
in period 0
Single FY
only, starting
in period 0
Single FY
only, starting
in period 0
Month 1 transactions only for specified year
0
Prior year roll forward balances as actuals this month and as actuals to date column
Prior year roll forward balances (included in actuals to date column) plus all account
code balances in specified fiscal year in period 1 (shown in actuals this month column
1
and included in actuals to date column)
Prior year roll forward balances (included in actuals to date column) plus all account
code balances in specified fiscal year up to selected period number (included in
actuals to date column.) Actuals this month include only actuals during the period
1 through 12 chosen.
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Trial Balance
Speedtype Summary
Operating Summary
Financial Detail
Speedtype One-Liner
Project Financial Status
Payments Received
BAE by Month
Summary reports
versus
Total reports
Marketplace transactions on financial reports
Concur transactions on financial reports
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UCD Finance Office (this site's homepage)
Procurement Service Center
Office of University Controller
Finance FAQs
Reporting Fraud
Policies
Signature Authority Policy Contract Signature Matrix
Presenters:
Shaun.McMullin@ucdenver.edu 303-724-9611;
Caroline.Kirkwood@ucdenver.edu 303-315-2286;
Ryan.Yu@ucdenver.edu 303-315-2256
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Help:
Finance.AccountingHelp@ucdenver.edu 303-724-9610
FinProHelp@cu.edu 303-837-2161