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BUSINESS OFFICE PRODEDURE: Coordinating Department Names and Codes
EFFECTIVE DATE: 7-1-11
Date revised: 9-15-11, 4-24-14, 7-31-14
AUTHOR: Director of Fiscal Services
PURPOSE
Department and program names and codes are used in Datatel ST, HR, and CF modules.
These are fundamental to institutional reporting (scheduling, catalog, and student FTEs),
the staff directory on the website, position setups in HR, and budgeting/financial
reporting. This document describes how changes are coordinated between Curriculum,
Planning and Research, Human Resources, and the Business Office. The positions and
names of the individuals involved are:
 Curriculum Specialist (Curriculum Specialist Graf) – Curriculum, Planning
and Research (CPR)
 Director of Human Resources (Carrie Loewen) – Human Resources
 Director of Fiscal Services (Director of Fiscal Services Robuck) – Business
Office
CHANGE PROCESS
Changing a department name, creating a new department, and splitting or merging
departments begins with discussions between the department(s) and the Dean. Deans
review proposed changes with their VP. These individuals ensure that others who are
affected are informed before the changes are finalized.
Changes are solicited and made as part of the annual budget process. The benefits of this
consistent timing include:
 the budget process includes soliciting changes in department names and
descriptions; this initial step is already routinize.
 the budget process is coordinated with the catalog process.
 changes are made as a single group, facilitating coordination.
Logistically, the sequence for changes follow.
Changes in program names or codes: no coordination required
Changes in department names or codes, including new, split or merged departments:
1. In the annual instructions to budget originators each January, the Director of
Fiscal Services includes a request for any changes in department names and
structure (new, split or merged departments). If changes are requested, the
Director of Fiscal Services:
a. verifies the proposed changes with the Dean and the VP
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b. creates new CF department names and codes, and blocks retired codes in the
new fiscal year
c. tells the Director of Human Resources any full-time staff whose GL coding
needs to be revised, effective July 1
d. tells the Curriculum Specialist the new department names and CF department
code, for the fiscal year beginning July 1
2. The Curriculum Specialist:
a. creates the exact same department name in ST
b. creates ST department codes
Department code changes in ST happen once a year, after Institutional Reseach
has successfully pulled data for end-of-year reports, around the end of July/first of
August.
3. The Director of Human Resources:
 changes department codes in positions
 changes GL coding strings in positions
Changes are made before the first payroll is run for the new fiscal year.
DESCRIPTION OF DEPARTMENT AND PROGRAM CODES IN DATATEL
Curriculum, Planning and Research
The Curriculum Specialist maintains a “CCC dept code structure” list in Word, which is
appended. It illustrates the items described below.
The Curriculum Specialist maintains department and program codes in Datatel ST.
Department code: There is no relationship in Datatel between the department code in ST
and the department code in CF. The ST department is a 4-letter code created by the
Curriculum Specialist; it has no parallel in CF and is not coordinated with Business
Services. On the appended “CCC dept code structure” list, the ST department code is in
the column labeled “alt id identified dept codes”. The Curriculum Specialist includes, as
a reference, the 5-digit CF department code in the column labeled “budget department
code”.
Department name: Department names are entered independently in ST and CF. The
department name entered in ST shows up in the schedule, catalog, and CPR reports; the
department name entered in CF shows up in the budget and financial reports.
Department names need to be consistent across the college.
Program name and code: There is no relationship in Datatel between programs in ST
and that segment of the account coding string in CF. The Curriculum Specialist creates
programs in ST. On the appended “CCC dept code structure” list, these are headed
“secondary program titles” and “secondary department codes”, but the Curriculum
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Specialist refers to them as program codes. In general, these represent academic
disciplines which are part of a given department.
Human Resources
Department code: HR ties each employee to a position in the Datatel HR module. Each
position requires the ST department code – for example, ENGL for English. The position
does not have a field for the CF department code – 10029 for English.
Program code: A position may have a program code; it is optional, rather than required.
If used, it is the ST program code.
Relationship to CF: Each position is assigned the full general ledger coding string, xxxxxx-xx-xxxxx-xxxxx. The components of the GL code are not isolated or accessed in
Datatel HR. As noted above, the position setup uses department codes and (optionally)
program codes from ST. The assigned general ledger coding string is an additional field
filled in for each position.
The staff list on the college website comes from Datatel HR. It includes all ST
departments and programs which have active employees in positions with those codes.
The list does not distinguish between departments and programs. An employee can be
listed in a department or program, but not both. For example, assume Applied
Technology/Wildland Fire is a department. Apprenticeship, Welding, and Fire Science
are programs within that department. The department chair appears under Applied
Technology/Wildland Fire; Welding instructors appear under Welding.
Business Office
Department: Department names and codes are created in Datatel CF as one segment of
the GL coding string. As noted above, there is no relationship in Datatel to departments
created in ST, so we use the process in the next section to keep department names
consistent between the two.
Program codes: The program code in CF is the second segment of the coding string.
“Program” in this context is a generic Datatel term. Program codes in CF are not
academic programs. This segment denotes a variety of things, depending on the fund.
Examples:
 in Capital Projects funds, the specific project
 in Grants and Contracts Fund 73, the specific grant or contract
 in Intramurals and Athletics & Student Life and Leadership, the team or student
club
 in Fee Fund revenue, the specific course fee
CF program codes are not coordinated with ST or HR.
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Addendum
In the chart of accounts redesign effective 7-15-07, program codes in General Fund were always
0000. In 2011, some departments requested program codes for functions within departments.
For example, the Student Support department wanted to segregate expenditures for outreach,
testing, veterans services, etc. The departments that requested General Fund program codes in
2011 found it was more clutter than information and subsequently reverted to 0000. The writeup
below has been retained in case of future requests.
Using non-zero program codes in General Fund can create an accounting database design issue.
Aside from the fact that Fee Fund balances carry over, people view General and Fee funds as
fundamentally the same – both are operating funds, managed by the same budget originators. If a
new number series was created for functions within departments, a given function – say testing –
could be one program code in the General Fund and a different, course-fee specific program code
in the Fee Fund.
Fortunately, most course fee codes mirror the academic programs set up by Curriculum Specialist
in ST, and most departments wanting programs codes for accounting are looking to track finances
and budgets by academic program. It’s usually possible, with minimum modifications, to have
program codes that are the same in the General Fund and Fee funds; and if the functions are
academic programs, have the program names the same as in ST so that student FTE reports and
financial reports equate.
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