Understanding the Chart of Accounts
Link to Chart in Excel Format
http://www.csu.edu.au/division/finserv/staff/policies.htm
Chart of Accounts Components
1
The Chart of Accounts is the key index to all financial data in the system. It is important
that you understand the Chart of Accounts to understand how your transactions are
stored and can be retrieved in the system.
2
The structure of the chart of accounts coding, referred to as the ledger coding, for
every transaction in the finance system is as follows:
3
Chart
One alphanumeric code – currently the value is 5.
Fiscal Year
Two numeric digits – e.g. 11 means the year 2011.
Fund Code
Up to 6 alphanumeric code – currently is either 4 or 5
alphanumeric characters in length.
Organisation Code
Up to 6 alphanumeric code – currently is either 3 or 4
numeric digits in length.
Account Code
Up to 6 alphanumeric code – currently is 3 numeric digits
in length.
Program Code
Up to 6 alphanumeric code – currently is either 4 or 5
alphanumeric characters in length.
The chart of accounts has other optional components as follows:
Index Code
Up to 6 alphanumeric code – currently is used only in
restricted circumstances.
Activity Code
Up to 6 alphanumeric code – currently not used by CSU.
Location Code
Up to 6 alphanumeric code – currently not used by CSU.
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Description of Components
4
The following describes how the individual components are used in the system for
recording individual transactions:
Chart
This code is used primarily to denote separate legal
entities for the purposes of producing financial
statements. Currently CSU only has one chart of account
but this may change in the future. It is a mandatory field.
Fiscal Year
All transactions in the system are recorded and reported
by fiscal year. It is a mandatory field.
Fund Code
Fund codes provide the mechanism for the University to
separately record funds from outside the university that
come with legal conditions to separately record and
report on those funds. The fund code is generally used to
identify the external source of the funds but may also be
used to define some internally allocated funds. It is a
mandatory field.
Organisation Code
Organisation codes are the key component that holds
budgets. When linked with a Fund code the combination
of Fund/Orgn is what we call a Budget Centre or a Cost
Centre. The Organisation code structure will generally be
similar to the formal university organisation chart
wherever that unit of the University holds budget
responsibilities. It is a mandatory field.
Account Code
Account codes tell the system what type of accounting
entry is being processed and identifies for us the type of
accounting transaction, i.e. revenue, expense, asset,
liability, or equity. It is a mandatory field.
Program Code
Program codes provide flexibility in reporting and
managing budgets. It is used to manage budgets for
projects, consultancies, cross organisation collaborative
projects, multi funded projects, internally funded
research projects etc. It is a mandatory field and used
quite diversely by CSU.
Activity Code
Can be used for university-wide activities, such as
professional development. It is an optional field and is
currently not used by CSU.
Location Code
Location codes identify the physical location of buildings
and rooms to the system. It is an optional field and is
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currently not used by CSU for transactions processing.
But it is used in a restricted way by the Division of finance
only for the Banner Fixed Assets master file to record
where fixed assets are physically located.
Index Code
Indexes can be established to facilitate data entry and
represent a default Fund-Orgn-Acct-Prog-Actv-Locn
combination – currently is used only minimally at CSU.
Hierarchy of Components
5
The following describes the hierarchy established for the components to facilitate
flexible reporting levels within the system. Typically transactions are only able to be
entered at the lowest level of the hierarchy, i.e. at the data enterable code. The higher
level codes are used for ‘roll up’ reporting.
In the Fund code example below, querying or running a report on Fund code RB57 (not
data enterable) will provide a summarised view of all transactions for the data
enterable funds RD04 + RD30 + RD38.
Fund Code
R001
Hierarchy structure to five levels. For example:
Research Grants
R002
Commonwealth Research Grants
R589
Cooperative Research Centres
RB57
CRC National Plant Biosecurity
RD04
CRC NPB - 3880 - J Spinner/G Gurr
RD30
CRC NPB - 3897 - J Kent
RD38
CRC NPB - 4125 - G Gurr
Organisation Code
400
Division of Facilities Management
410
Facilities Management - Operations
6701
Operations - Directorate
413
Operations – Director
6702
Operations – Sustainability Management
Account Code
33
Hierarchy structure to eight levels. For example:
Hierarchy structure to four levels. For example:
Fees for Services Rendered
335
Conference/meeting Services
342
Conference/Seminar Fees
362
Catering – Meetings/Conferences
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Program Code
5627
Hierarchy structure to five levels. For example:
Office of Corporate Affairs Programs
9003
Alumni Office Programs
6110
Alumni – WACOBU Programs
6111
WACOBU White membership
6112
WACOBU Gold membership
E154
Mitchell Old Boys Rugby
Nomenclature
6
Ledger Coding or FOAP is the correct terminology to use with Finance to be
understood correctly when referring to the F-O-A-P : F(und)-O(rgn)-A(cct)-P(rog).
Please refrain form using Account codes to refer to the full FOAP as that is misleading
since the Account code is only one component part of the ledger coding.
Ledgers
7
The Finance system incorporates four main ledgers:

General Ledger (for assets & liabilities – mainly used by Division of Finance)

Operating Ledger (for revenue & expenses – used by everyone)
o Includes the Budget Ledger (for budgets)

Encumbrance Ledger (for Requisitions and Purchase Orders)

Grant Ledger (for Research Grants for multi-year reporting)
Finance System Overview
8
The Banner Finance system includes several different modules that are integrated into
one system. It also integrates with other Banner systems such as Human Resources,
Student Administration, Advancement and Financial Aid. CSU only operates the
Banner Finance and Banner Student systems. A relationship diagram below shows the
integration of the modules.

General Ledger module

Finance Operations module

Purchasing module

Accounts Payable module

Stores Inventory module

Fixed Assets module
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
Research Grant Accounting module

Accounts Receivable module

Endowment Management module

Cost Accounting

Budget & Position Control
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