General Ledger


Table of Contents


GL Introduction

Welcome to the on-line overview of The Ohio State University's PeopleSoft General Ledger (GL) system. The following sections of this document provide an introduction to the University's financial accounting system, which is used by over 1,000 faculty and staff to account for financial activity in over 3,000 University organizations and over 12,000 University funds. We welcome your interest in the University's administrative systems and appreciate your comments and feedback. Thanks for your help!

The PeopleSoft General Ledger

The University, the OSU Research Foundation and the OSU Health System will go live on a single, integrated financial system, PeopleSoft Financials Version 8.4, on August 23, 2004. Five new Grants modules replace the Research Foundation's legacy systems for administering the University's sponsored research grants. A single GL and common chart of accounts (ChartField) bring new visibility and ease-of-reporting across the enterprise. And new Brio Insight models give University departments more powerful tools for analyzing their revenues and expenses.

The Version 8.4 general ledger operates in regular cycles of daily activity (such as journal entries and posting of GL interfaces), monthly closings and annual closings. The following sections of this overview provide additional details on the University's daily, monthly and annual GL processing cycles.

Daily GL Processing

The Version 8.4 Financials system is available for on-line transaction processing from about 7 am to 7 pm on weekdays, with more limited hours on weekends. GL users enter on-line journals via Journal Entry, Deposits and Budget Action/Fund Transfer pages, approve workflow items, run on-line inquiries in PeopleSoft, and run/access reports in the University's eReports portal.

The University has established three GL business units in the 8.4 system: UNIV, for general University transactions; OSURF, for sponsored projects administered by the OSU Research Foundation (13xxxx and 59xxxx fund ranges); and OSUMC, for the clinical operations of the OSU Health System (Hxxxxx fund range). The OSURF business unit allows the University to apply different business rules to RF and non-RF projects. The OSUMC business unit allows the Health System to close its month (accounting period) later than the general University. System edits ensure that GL users enter the appropriate business unit/fund combinations.

Users of the old Version 7.02 GL may notice that the journal edit process has expanded in Version 8.4. In addition to checking for valid ChartFields, balanced debits/credits and open accounting periods, the edit process in 8.4 includes:

Combination Edits - Delivered 8.4 functionality has allowed OSU to implement a variety of "combination edit rules", including rules to ensure use of Health System cost centers (organizations) with the appropriate Hxxxxx funds, use of RF project values with entries to OSURF 59xxxx funds, use of appropriate accounts with the General Fund, and prevention of charges to Endowment Principal and other nonexpendable funds. Other system edits ensure use of appropriate combinations of business unit and fund and prevent direct postings to equity and other "control accounts". On-line journals will not post until all edit errors have been resolved.

Creation of Cash Offset Lines - In the Version 8.4 GL, OSU no longer runs the nightly fund balancing allocations, which were used in Version 7.02 to move 11010 cash between University funds to bring those funds back into balance. Instead, the University uses delivered "interunit" functionality to create 11010 fund-balancing entries as part of the journal edit process. For example, suppose we did an expenditure transfer to move $100 of supplies expense from Fund 160001 to Fund 160002. When we debit expense in 160002 and credit expense in 160001, the total GL stays in balance, but the Funds are each out of balance by $100. The edit process detects that these Funds are out-of-balance and adds journal lines to the entry ($100 debit to 160001 cash and $100 credit to 160002 cash) to bring each Fund back into balance.

Please note that the system-generated cash offset lines use a central Organization value (85898 for general University). These combinations of the central 85898 organization with the various Funds are not considered "fund exceptions" (see note below on central error processing) and do not appear on Fund Exception reports.

Commitment Control (Encumbrances and Budget Checking) - One major behind-the-scenes change in PeopleSoft Version 8.4 is the move to a new Commitment Control (KK) ledger for the tracking of encumbrances and budget checking. Encumbrances, which were accounting-style entries posted to a separate column in the Actuals ledger in Version 7.02, are maintained in the 8.4 Commitment Control ledger as (one-sided) balances, without an accompanying detail of debit/credit transactions. The edit process updates (in effect, "posts") encumbrance entries to the KK ledger and runs budget checking, which is being used to track deficits (and in some cases, prevent procurement activity) on OSURF sponsored projects.

Overnight Batch Processing:

After 7 pm, the University posts GL interfaces and updates the reporting (RPT) copy of the Financials system used for flex reporting in eReports.

Posting of GL Interfaces - The Procurement and Grants modules use delivered PeopleSoft "journal generator" features to summarize and post transactions to the GL. For payroll, BARS and other GL interfaces, the University uses a custom "interface engine" program. Combination edit rules, creation of cash offset lines, and updates to Commitment Control (described above) run on all GL interfaces. Journal lines with invalid ChartFields or combination edit errors create Suspense journals. Files that are duplicates of previous interfaces, are out-of-balance or have excessive numbers of edit errors do not post to the GL.

Here is a brief summary of key GL interfaces and their timing/frequency:

Payroll - all biweekly and monthly payrolls posted approximately 5 working days before monthend; payroll expenditure transfers posted on last day of month

Procurement - posted daily for general University and Research Foundation; monthly for Health System

Grants Modules (OSURF) - receipts, expenditures and F&A charges posted throughout month; sponsored project billings posted at end of month

BARS (Student Billings and Receivables) - posted daily

Treasurer/Endowment - posted at end of mont

Development - posted at end of month

Other Billing Feeds - posted at end of month

Update of Reporting Database - After the completion of GL interface processing, a copy of the production database is made for ad-hoc (flexible) reporting. When GL users run flex reports in eReports, they will not see transactions that were posted today. The reporting database reflects all transactions posted as of yesterday's close of business (including any interfaces posted last night).

Maintenance of ChartFields, Trees, Allocations and Combo Edit Rules - The Accounting Division of the University Controller's Office works in coordination with accounting staff at the Research Foundation and Health System to maintain ChartFields, Trees, Allocations and Combination Edit Rules in the 8.4 system. The Research Foundation sets up new Project values for sponsored programs via the Grants modules. The Health System maintains the Hxxxxx Funds, the 7xxxx range of HS-specific revenue and expense Accounts, the Trees used for HS detail reports, and the combination edit rules for Hxxxxx Funds. The Accounting Division handles all other ChartField, Tree, Allocation and Combo Edit maintenance. For additional information on maintaining your department's ChartFields, please see the Guidelines for ChartField Changes in the General Ledger Policies section of the Controller's website.

Central Error Processing -- Accounting monitors the GL for certain types of errors, including suspense transaction lines and fund exceptions (combinations of organization and fund that violate established fund control rules in the system). In some cases, such as Suspense, the problem is relatively straightforward (such as an invalid ChartField value). However, other "errors", such as Fund Exceptions, are more complex. Some Fund Exceptions may require a correcting entry, some may be deemed OK (temporary arrangement to share a Fund approved by fiscal officer), and some may require ChartField maintenance (for example, to allow sharing of a Fund by related organizations).

Accounting works with the initiators of erroneous transactions to arrange the appropriate correcting entries. However, as part of its primary responsibility to maintain the University's accounting records in accordance with University policy and external reporting requirements, it is sometimes necessary for Accounting to initiate correcting entries and then notify the affected departments. Please feel free to contact the Accounting Division with any questions or concerns regarding errors or correction activity.

Monthly GL Processcing

At month-end, the University cuts off GL interfaces, Interdepartmental Billings and all charges to OSURF sponsored projects on the second working day of the new month, allows three additional working days for departmental correction and accrual activity, runs allocations and automatic budget reallocations (ABRs), and generates electronic and paper monthly GL reports. The OSU Health System generally holds its accounting period open 3-4 additional working days to record accruals and other non-cash entries to its Hxxxxx funds. Daily GL activity for the new accounting period continues throughout the monthly closing process.

Accounting publishes the monthly GL closing schedule on its website and in NewsLink updates from OIT. GL users will be notified via email of any changes in the closing schedule.

New Month Processing - The 8.4 system allows GL users to process transactions in more than one month or accounting period. To facilitate posting of recurring entries, accrual reversals and similar items, the current period and 18 future periods are open in the GL. The Journal Date determines the accounting period of a GL entry. During the first five working days of the new month, GL users need to override the default (calendar) date to get entries into the prior accounting period.

Interface and IDB Cut-off (2nd Working Day) - The University has established the close of business on the second working day as the cut-off for all prior-month interfaces, OSURF sponsored program activity and interdepartmental billings.

On the third working day, Accounting throws a switch that prohibits the creation or posting of any further IDBs to the prior month. For example, if a user accesses the Journal Entry - General panels on the fourth working day in September and puts 8/31/2004 in the Journal Date, a message will appear informing the user that IDBs are no longer allowed in the prior period, and the IDB check-box on the Journal entry header panel will be grayed out, preventing its use.

If the user in our example goes ahead and tries to post this entry to August, the system will send the entry into workflow for approval. Similarly, if a user tries to post a previously entered/saved IDB entry after the deadline, the system will uncheck the IDB check-box, and if the user proceeds with posting, the system will send the entry into workflow.

Employee Benefit Allocations (2nd Working Day) - After the processing of GL interfaces the evening of the second working day, the employee benefits allocations run across all GL business units.

OSURF Sponsored Project Billings (3rd Working Day) - After reviewing current-month charges to sponsored projects (including the results of the previous night's employee benefit allocations), the Research Foundation runs sponsored project billings and generates revenue/receivable entries for the month's sponsored project activity.

Departmental Cut-off (5th Working Day) - During the three working days after the interface cut-off, entries to the prior accounting period are limited to non-Deposit, non-IDB entries. A small number of Other Bank Activity entries (for example, to post an end-of-month wire transfer) also occur during this period. Departments may post entries until 7pm on the fifth working day, at which time the system goes off-line for overnight batch processing.

Allocations and Automatic Budget Reallocations (ABRs) - On the evening of the fifth working day, the University runs a series of allocations for interest income, overhead expense, federal work-study wages and other miscellaneous reclassifications.

Each category of allocation is known in PeopleSoft jargon as an "allocation group". For example, overhead is an allocation group. Within each group, there are one or more "allocation steps". Each allocation step creates a journal entry with a unique Journal ID.

To ensure that the allocations calculate properly, the allocation groups are arranged in a specific order. The automated job-processing system, Autosys, posts the results of each allocation group to the GL before proceeding to the next allocation group. After the allocations, the University runs and posts a series of custom ABRs (automatic budget reallocations) to the 01400x and 049000 ABR funds to cover current month expenditures for college work-study, fee authorizations, and other centrally funded items.

After all allocations and ABRs are posted to the GL, the Ledgers for a Unit panels are updated to prevent any further entries to the accounting period for UNIV and OSURF. Approximately 3-4 working days after the general University close, the OSU Health System manually closes the accounting period for OSUMC.

Report Generation and Distribution

At the conclusion of the allocation and ABR processes, generation of the standard monthly and user-requested monthly GL reports begins. Once the runs are completed, the report output goes to eReports for loading into the portal and to the Printing Facility on Kenny Road to produce the paper version of the reports.

The standard and user-requested monthly reports in eReports are available in PDF (adobe acrobat) format. The GLU004OS-91 (Revenue and Expense Transaction Detail), GLU006OS-91 (Balance Sheet Transaction Detail) and GLU007OS-90 (ChartField Combination Revenue and Expense - Budget vs. Actual) reports also are available in a .csx format that can be imported into Excel. Prior months' reports will remain in eReports indefinitely (the University is still working on plans for electronic archiving of old GL reports).

Paper reports are delivered to the Division of Accounting for sorting by college/department distribution number. Accounting contacts the departments when the paper reports are ready for pick-up.

Annual GL Processing

The yearend closing process in the 8.4 GL consists of two June closings, the posting of audit adjustments and a final "re-closing" of June to reflect the audit adjustments in the final yearend balances. Special accounting periods are used to carry balances forward into the new fiscal year.

First June Closing -- The fiscal year closing process begins with an initial June "cash" close, which is identical to the regular monthly closing process. After this initial closing, which includes a full set of monthly GL reports, Accounting re-opens June for additional correction and accrual entries by departments.

Second June Closing - Approximately 10 working days after the initial June closing, Accounting runs a second "rollover" closing for June that includes a re-run of the allocations/ABRs, generation of second-close June reports, and the carryforward of balance sheet, PBA (Present Budget Allocations), and GFSA (General Funds Spending Authority) balances into the new fiscal year.

Special-Purpose Accounting Periods - To close out the fiscal year in the PeopleSoft GL, Accounting uses a few special-purpose accounting periods. In addition to periods 1 through 12, which correspond to the months in the fiscal year, there is a period 998, which is for yearend audit adjustments; a period 999, to post close-outs of current-year revenues and expenditure balances; and a period 0, to post beginning of the year balance sheet and PBA amounts (GFSA carryforwards post to period 1 of the new fiscal year).

Audit Adjustments - From late July through November, Accounting and the Health System post audit adjustments to period 998. Please note that the 998 audit period is for central use only. At the conclusion of the audit, Accounting re-runs the yearend closing process. This updates the period 0 (beginning of the year balance sheet) balances in the new fiscal year. Accounting provides reports or similar notification of audit adjustments to affected departments.

For additional dates and deadlines associated with yearend, see the yearend reporting schedule on Accounting's website.

Links to Additional Information

To learn more about processing general ledger transactions in PeopleSoft Version 8.4, visit the ASSIST pages and click on the General Ledger link. Policies and procedures for deposits and cash handling are available on the Treasurer's website. Additional guidance on budget and fund transfers and reconciling GL reports is available at the Controller's website. Policies and procedures related to sponsored research projects are available on the OSU Research Foundation's website. If you are a new GL user, we strongly encourage you to attend the PeopleSoft and Financial Training courses offered by OIT and the Controller's Office.


Revised: August 10, 2000