How to use and understand funding codes and strings when purchasing, billing, making payments, transferring funds, and managing reimbursements at UW–Madison.
Sometimes these are referred to as a “charts of accounts.”
Chartfields/Chart of Accounts
A funding string is a collection of several chartfields used to record and classify a transaction.
This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.
Account code
A four digit numerical value that categorizes the nature of the transaction. Account code types are Expense, Revenue and Balance Sheet.
Fund Code/Appropriations
A three-digit numerical value that categorizes the State Appropriation for the transaction.
Common categories:
- GPR – General Purpose Revenue – General purpose revenues consist of general taxes, miscellaneous receipts and revenues collected by state agencies which are deposited into the general fund, and are available for appropriation by the legislature. Fund 101 for example.
- PR – Program Revenue – Program revenues consist of revenues which are deposited into the general fund and are credited by law to an appropriation to finance a specified program or state agency. Fund 128 for example.
Department IDs
A six-digit numerical value identifying the organizational structure the transaction is charged/credited to. In Legacy this was referred to as the UDDS. The first two digits represent Division, the second two digits represent Department, and the last two digits represent Sub-Department. For example department 037780 represents:
03 – Division of Business Services
77- Department of Materials Distribution Services (MDS)
80 – Sub-Department of Surplus With a Purpose (SWAP)
- Organizational Edits – Also commonly referred to as org edits, department edits, combos or “The Tree.” These define all of the fund-program combinations that are valid for a department. This is one of the more common edit errors users will encounter.
- Department ID Search Tool
- Instructions for department change requests
Program codes
A one digit alpha or numerical value identifying the activity type of the transaction. Based on the Financial Accounting and Reporting Manual for Higher Education, published by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO).
- 0 – Student Services
- 1 – Institutional Support
- 2 – Instruction
- 3 – Hospitals
- 4 – Research
- 5 – Public Service
- 6 – Academic Support
- 7 – Physical Plant
- 8 – Auxiliary Enterprises
- 9 – Financial Aid
- F – Farm Operations
- R – Revenue
Class codes
Four to five character alphanumeric values to further categorizes the nature of the transaction. Most of the time this is optional, but is required in a few cases when used in combination with certain account codes.
- Class Codes identifying building/grounds – class codes for Buildings are 4 digit numerical values. Add leading zeros to the Facility Numbers displayed on the list that are less than 4 characters. For example Facility Number 2 on the list would be class code 0002.
- Sales Tax Class Codes (xlsx)
- Travel and Expense Class Codes (xlsx)
Project ID
Seven character alphanumeric values used to capture all the transactions associated with a specific grant, contract or activity. Project IDs are optional in many cases, but are required when used in combination with funds 114, 133, 135, 138, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 150, 161, 233 and 236. Projects can be sponsored or non-sponsored.
Project ID formats
-
- Created 05/31/2015 or later: ααα#### – created in sequential order (i.e. AAC1234)
- Created between 2008 and 05/12/2015 – PRJ##αα (i.e. PRJ25AF)
- Created before 2008 – ###αα## (where the first 3 #s represent fund i.e 233FS40 would be a gift project)
Sponsored projects
- Projects on funds 133 (non-federal grants) and 144 (federal grants) are managed by RSP. See the RSP Accountant Search for contacts for specific RSP projects.
- Fund 135 – WARF Grants – Contact VCRGE Accounting to request new projects or modify existing projects
- Fund 142-143 -CALS
- Fund 145-148 – Federal Aid
Non-sponsored projects
- Fund 233 – Gifts – see Gifts or contact giftmgt@bussvc.wisc.edu to request new projects or modify existing ones.
- Fund 161 – Trust Funds – Contact the Office of Trust Funds to request new projects of modify existing ones
- Projects on all other funds – Use Non Sponsored Project Request Form to request new projects or modify existing projects.
- Send completed form to sfssetup@bussvc.wisc.edu. This requires approval from your Divisional/Dean’s office
Edits
UW–Madison’s Financial Systems have various edits in place to ensure that the use of all the chartfields is appropriate and to prevent data entry mistakes.
- Common error message and troubleshooting (Word doc)
- Checking Edits/Validating Funding Strings – Use the Funding Validation/Inquiry page of WISER. Navigate directly in WISER via Main Menu>Tools>Funding Validation. Enter all of the chartfield values and click “Check.” You will either receive a “funding string entered is valid” or one of the error messages seen in the guide above.
- Special note for project edits – a transaction must pass all edits. Often times a user will look at the results of a Project Search in WISER and see that everything seems valid for the project (project dates, project status and the Edits tab of the search result) and wonder why they are still receiving an error. A transaction must pass the project edits as well as all the other edits. Often times in this scenario the transaction isn’t passing the Org Edits and the fund-program combination isn’t valid with the department ID.