2.1. ACCOUNT STRUCTURE
A. General Ledger
The general ledger is used by Accounting and Financial Management for monitoring and reporting financial activity. The financial activity at The University of Texas at Austin posts to a subsidiary ledger (a 10-digit account), which rolls up to the general ledger (six-digit account). When a transaction is completed, the general ledger is updated through the use of transaction codes (T-Codes), which are assigned based on the combination of the account number and the object code used in a transaction. Through monthly integrity reviews, Accounting and Financial Management ensures that the subsidiary ledger and the general ledger stay in balance. University departments do not refer to the general ledger when reviewing or taking action on their accounts.
Note: Certain processing offices post entries directly to the general ledger at fiscal year-end for reporting purposes only.
A general ledger number is composed of a two-digit account group and a four-digit type of activity.
Figure 1. General ledger number format
B. Account Number (Subsidiary Ledger)
The subsidiary ledger includes the subsidiary accounts used by departments to post all financial transactions. Once a budget group is created, subaccounts are added to the budget group to create subsidiary accounts. The digits within the subsidiary account number, as well as those in the general ledger number, are used to classify financial activity as outlined below.
1. Subsidiary Budget Group Number Format (Eight Digits)
A subsidiary budget group number is composed of eight digits. The first two digits are the account group. The remaining six digits are used to organize the budget group numbers within the account group. For example, these six digits have been used to group accounts by department, function, and funding source.
Figure 2. Subsidiary budget group number format
2. Subsidiary Account Number Format (10 Digits)
A subsidiary account number is composed of a two-digit account group, a six-digit account series, and a subaccount.
Figure 3. Subsidiary account number format
3. Subaccount Number Format (Two Digits)
Subaccounts are assigned to budget groups There are standardized subaccounts to assist departments in tracking and restricting the activity processed within a budget group. Subaccounts 01-90 are used to post expenditures and 91-99 are used to post revenues and reserves. The use of standard subaccounts may be adjusted based upon departmental needs.
||Salaries, Wages, and Fringe
||Overhead (26-Accounts) Allocation for Budget Adjustment (All Other Fund Groups)
||Maintenance, Operations, and Equipment
||Sponsored Program Receivables
||Scholarships and Fellowships
||Tuition and Fees
Note: All budget groups, general ledger numbers, and account numbers are fiscal year and campus specific. This means that they have fiscal year and campus code prefixes stored on the account and budget group records. The year is displayed in *DEFINE in the Year field in the upper right corner, and the campus code is displayed in the Campus field in the lower left corner on each command screen. These default to the current fiscal year and the campus code of the person logging in to *DEFINE; however, most people do not refer to these three digits when discussing the length of budget groups, general ledger numbers, and account numbers, so the discussion above omits these digits. For example, account numbers are referred to as 10-digit account numbers instead of 13-digit account numbers.
Part 2. Fund Accounting - Table of Contents