UCD Accounting Glossary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Term	Definition
Account	The entity designated as the source of funds, or recipient of income, for a transaction. Account is a 7-digit field assigned by the organization to which it belongs.
Account Manager	An FIS user assigned to manage the activity in an account. The account manager is responsible for reviewing and approving financial transactions charged or credited to their account.
Account Number	A 7-digit number used in the Financial Information System to identify each revenue (income), expenditure (expense) or balance sheet account authorized in the accounting records. Account numbers are assigned by, and unique to, the organization to which they belong. The characters used have no significance to the FIS system.
Account Reviewer	Someone assigned to review transactions on an account and certify the validity of all charges and credits.
Account Type Code	A code in the FIS that designates the type/purpose of an account (Expense, Income, Unallocated, Balance Sheet).
Accounting	A system for collecting, summarizing, analyzing and reporting, in monetary terms, information about an organization primarily for management purposes. Some requirements are established by law or directives of state and federal agencies.
Accounts Payable (AP)	A system which integrates department and vendor information with purchasing, general ledger, capital asset management and departmental systems.
Accounts Receivable (AR)	The system which provides all departments a non-student revenue receivable system which formats bills or invoices, and processes payments while performing all of the accounting work. It also provides reports stating the current status for a department's receivables.
Accruals	The fiscal recording of items pertaining to a current period which would not have appeared on the General Ledger until a future period in the normal course of payment or receipt of the items.
Ad Hoc	For a specific purpose, case, or situation, as in a report generated on a one-time basis. A form of document routing for special approval, or for information only (FYI).
Add-on	Items which are not complete in themselves, and are attached to a capitalized or expensed equipment item. Add-ons are usually assigned a component asset number (2001xxxxxxxC) decal. Add-on parts must have a value of $1500 or more, and increase the value or useful life of a UC-owned equipment item. Also known as components.
Advance End Date	Indicates the date at which an advance should be covered by another voucher/document.
Agreement	A contract duly executed and legally binding as affected by applicable rules of law. The university engages in commodity agreements and price schedule agreements.
Annual Report Code (ARC)	The ARC is a 6-digit code assigned to every DaFIS account. It determines the account's function, school or college, and department. An example is 620100 - Public Service Graduate School of Management.
Appropriation	An amount allocated for expenditure. A sum budgeted for a department, unit or activity to identify a limit on the amount that can be expended under a particular account fund/sub budget.
Asset	The term used for equipment/property owned by the university.
Asset Number	The number assigned to an equipment or theft sensitive asset. For assets acquired through calendar year 1999, the first pair of digits indicates the calendar year of acquisition. For assets acquired in year 2000 forward, the first four digits indicate the calendar year of acquisition. Following the digits designating the year, the next pair of digits indicates the campus which originally acquired the item. The last five digits are sequentially assigned by the original acquiring campus beginning with 00001, in each calendar year. For example, 973000001 represents the first item inventoried at UC Davis in January of 1997; a component for this asset would be represented as 973000001C.
Asset Representative	The asset representative is the DaFIS user assigned to and responsible for the physical inventory of the assets for a custodial code.
Attributes	Characteristics of an account or object that include, among other things, the purpose and description.
Bank Draft	This is a check drawn on a bank in a foreign country in a foreign currency and mailed from Accounts Payable.
Base Budget	A base budget (permanent budget) is established for those functions that require a long-term financial commitment or have a long-term impact on the fiscal operations of the university (e.g., general funds, student fees, self-supporting funds). Funds in the base budget are automatically reallocated at the start of each fiscal year. The base budget is modified by using the Base Budget Adjustment document in DaFIS. The base budget rolls forward every year and is the starting point for that year's current operating budget.
Billing ID	A four-character ID number used by several campus service units for billing departments. Billing IDs are created and maintained by departments, and provided to a service unit at the time a service is requested. Each Billing ID is associated with a single Account. It may also have a Sub-Account and/or Project associated with it.
Blanket Order	A purchase agreement in which the purchaser contracts with a vendor to provide item(s), and/or service(s), on an "as required" and frequent basis. Such agreements have a limit on the period of time for which they are valid, and the amount of money that can be spent in that time.
Budget	A financial plan that estimates the costs of conducting future activities. The budget is intended to express the program objectives and how they will be carried out in terms of resources required.
Campus Assessment	An indirect cost surcharge to income derived from sales of goods and services to non-university customers. Campus assessment and the Non-University Differential (NUD) are not charged against the same income.
Campus Property Number	A field on CAMS documents that designates the property number originally assigned to an asset that is purchased or transferred from another UC campus. This field can also be used to enter the original property number on a found piece of equipment that was previously in the inventory.
Capital Asset Management (CAMS)	The module in DaFIS used for the financial accounting and physical tracking of university equipment.
Change Purchase Order / Business Agreement (CO)	A DaFIS document used to request changes to a Purchase Order/Business Agreement issued by Contracting Services. Detailed instructions on how and when to use the Change Order document are available in the One-Minute Manual.
Chart of Accounts (COA)	A code which represents the rules, policies and regulations under which organizations function.
Commodity Code	An alphanumeric classification code for an acquired item. The commodity code selected drives the object code and description field in Purchasing documents. It also drives the description field in CAMS documents. Equipment commodities begin with an alpha character, while supply and theft-sensitive commodities begin with a numeric character. Refer to the Commodity Code online help for more information and assistance in choosing an appropriate code.
Control Account	An active DaFIS account that can be used to extract data from Decision Support on groups of accounts having no other association except that they all report to the same account.
Credit (to an account)	An increase in income or a decrease in expense. For balance sheet accounts, an increase in fund balances or liabilities, or a decrease in asset accounts.
Current Budget	A unit's budget for the current fiscal year. The current budget is modified by using the Current Budget Adjustment document in DaFIS. Year-end balances (surplus or deficit) in the current budget are re-appropriated to the next fiscal year. Carry-forward re-appropriations are combined with the base budget (if applicable) to provide the beginning current year budget at the start of each fiscal year.
Custodial Code	The four-digit number assigned by Equipment Management to a specific department. Each custodial code is assigned to an account number, and should reflect the campus organizational structure as it relates to functional responsibility. Most departments have at least 2 custodial codes: one for equipment used for teaching, and one for equipment used for research. Some departments set up additional custodial codes to track equipment by Principal Investigator (PI). If you wish to set up or modify a custodial code, complete the Custodial Code Request form.
DaFIS	Acronym for the Davis Financial Information System.
Debit (to an account)	An increase in expense or a decrease in income. For balance sheet accounts, an increase in assets, or decrease in fund balances or liability accounts.
Decision Support (DS)	A server that holds a copy of the University's financial data. The data is available for viewing, reporting and analysis. The web based system used to run queries of the university's financial data.
Delegate	An FIS user assigned primary, or non-primary, duties for managing the transactions in an account. This user is designated by the account manager as having the sole, or shared, responsibility for the assigned account.
Disbursements	Payments.
Document	An online screen used to process a transaction. Electronic equivalent to a paper form.
Document Initiator	The DaFIS user who opens and completes an electronic document.
Document Type	All documents in DaFIS are identified by a document type - e.g. the Vendor Invoice is identified as VI. Document type can be used to narrow the results of a search for a particular document. More information on the document types can be found in the Document Types and Uses online help resource.
DS Only User	A user that has been given selected access to Decision Support queries. This access has been specified by an Access Manager within the user's school/unit/department.
Encumbrance	A firm commitment or obligation placed against funds of a department, in the form of purchase orders or agreements, to cover a later expenditure required when goods are delivered or services are rendered.
Equipment	Generally, equipment is classified as a free-standing item having an acquisition value of $5000.00 or higher, and a normal life expectancy of one year or longer. See Policy and Procedure Manual, Section 350-65 for more information. Equipment can only be purchased on a Requisition (PR).
Expenditures (Expense)	The cost of goods delivered, or services rendered, which are recorded as charges to the accounts of an activity or department.
Extramural Funds	Funds (not regularly budgeted) received under grants, donations, or contracts from sources (private, state, federal, etc. ) outside the university.
F.O.B.	An acronym meaning, "free on board". The term means that the seller is required to place goods aboard the equipment of the transporting carrier with or without cost to the buyer. The F.O.B. must be qualified by a location. The stated F.O.B. location is generally where title for the goods passes from the seller to the buyer. The buyer is liable for such charges and risks after passing of title. Refer to the Freight Terms online resource for assistance in choosing the correct code.
Fabrication	Inventorial equipment physically constructed by a University activity or department. Documentation instructions for completing a fabrication are available in the Fabrication Request online reference manual.
Financial Documents	Computer screens designed for processing debit and credit transaction entries.
FIS	An acronym for Financial Information System.
Fiscal	Pertaining to financial matters.
Fiscal Period	A segment of a fiscal year. There are 13 periods defined for each fiscal year - 12 that approximate the months in a year, and the 13th for the fiscal close process.
Full Accounting Unit (FAU)	30-character string that identifies the university function of a financial transaction. The complete FAU consists of the following fields: Chart (1) - Account (7) - Sub Account (5) - Object (4) - Sub Object (3) - Project (1-10). The required FAU fields are: Chart, Account, Object. See the online help resource for more information.
Fund	An income source established for the purpose of carrying on specific activities, or attaining certain objectives, in accordance with special regulations, restrictions or limitations. The terms and conditions established by this income source must be complied with in making expenditures against the particular account.
Fund Group	A high level classification of all fund sources which have similar characteristics.
General Funds	Funds provided by the State of California through the annual State Budget act. Also commonly referred to as "19900" funds.
General Ledger Engine (GLE)	A system computer that processes and permanently maintains the university's financial data.
Hierarchy	Organizational structure used for routing, review, and approval of transactions.
Higher Education Function Code	Standardized reporting classifications for higher education as defined by the National Association of College and University Business Officials (NACUBO). In DaFIS, a 4-digit code assigned to each account to define the overall purpose of the account. The 4-digit code is driven by the first 2 digits of the OP Account number. Example: INSP = Institutional Support (72).
Honorarium	Payment or award in recognition of special service or distinguished achievement for which custom or propriety forbids any fixed business price to be set. A gratuity paid for lecturing or similar service, usually not directly related to the value of service performed.
Income	The payment for goods or services from a university client who does not have a UC expenditure account or from a non-university client. Income is tracked in the campus accounting system with financial object code 006x and budget object INCO. See Revenue and Recharge for additional payment information.
Independent Consultant	An independent consultant is an individual or organization outside the university of proven professional and technical competence who provides primarily technical or professional advice to the university in an independent contractor relationship. The end product is usually a written or oral report, study, design, or set of recommendations. Consultants are vendors who provide professional services over which the University has neither the right to control the manner of performance nor the results of the service. These services should be processed on a Requisition document. In addition, an Independent Consultant Agreement form is to be completed.
Independent Contractor	An independent contractor relationship is a relationship in which the university controls only the results of the service, not the manner of its performance. Independent contractor requests are processed on a Requisition in DaFIS after the Independent Contractor (Individual) Pre-Hire Determination Worksheet has been completed by the requesting department and approved by Human Resources.
Indirect Costs	The costs of conducting business that are incurred for common or joint objectives and therefore cannot be identified readily and specifically with particular projects (such as individual grants or contracts) or with a specific activity (such as instruction, research, public service). For purposes of charging federal grants, UC Davis negotiates Facilities and Administrative (F&A) cost rates with the Department of Health and Human Services. There are two negotiated rates: The Off-Campus F&A Rate is applied to sponsored projects conducted at facilities not owned or leased by the university. The On-Campus F&A Rate is applied to sponsored projects when project is conducted on-campus. For a recharge activity, indirect costs are collected from non-university clients, through assessing the non-university differential (NUD).
Intercampus	A transaction taking place between campuses, such as an intercampus transfer of equipment from the English Department at UC Davis to the English Department at UC Berkeley.
Interlocation	A transaction taking place between locations. The Davis campus has two locations, Location 3 and L. Since each UC campus has two or more locations, an interlocation could be between two locations at the same campus (intracampus) or between one campus location and another campus location (intercampus).
Intracampus	A transaction taking place between units at the same campus, such as an intracampus loan of equipment from the UCD English Department to the UCD Mathematics Department.
Inventorial Equipment	Equipment
Invoice (Vendor)	A request for payment (bill) from a vendor for specific materials or supplies furnished or services rendered to the University.
Journal Entry	A means to record in the accounting records equal debit and credit entries between sub-budgets or account/funds.
Ledger	The basic and official accounting record of all financial transactions recorded under each revenue, expenditure and balance sheet account.
Legacy System	The previous accounting system. Often used to refer to older systems.
Lien	Encumbrance
Local Area Agreement	A campus-wide fixed price agreement. Orders are issued against the agreement by opening a Departmental Purchase Order (DPO). Reference the agreement number in the DPO document to bring forward the agreement information. Visit the online help for instructions on how to process a DPO against an agreement.
Log	To record daily progress or activity.
Maintenance Documents	Computer screens used for the setup and maintenance of data stored in the DaFIS reference tables (e. g. account, organization, etc. ).
Module	A logical grouping of electronic documents used for a specific business function (such as Purchasing or Accounts Payable).
Network	A system allowing computers to communicate and share data.
Non-University Differential (NUD)	A percentage surcharge assessed to a non-university client, in addition to the recharge rate. NUD is the UC Davis mechanism for recovering the indirect (or overhead) costs for a recharge activity from non-university clients.
Object Code	A 4-digit "code" (defined by the UC Office of the President as well as by the UCD General Accounting department) used to identify the nature, purpose or object of each financial transaction. They are used at all campuses for consistent reporting purposes. Object Codes roll up into Object Consolidation Codes. Example: The Object Code for Regular Staff Salaries (REGS) rolls up into Object Consolidation Code SUBS.
Object Consolidation	A collection of objects that all have the same functional nature (e. g. , consolidation SUB5 contains all of the objects used for travel-related transactions). Every Object Code belongs to an Object Consolidation. Object Consolidations are the highest level summary for transactions. See list.
Object Grouping System	A tool within Decision Support that allows you to group financial information in a way that is most meaningful to your organization. Whereas most reports are restricted to summarizing data by the centrally established Object Consolidation, reports that support Object Grouping can be customized to group and total data at whatever level you choose.
Object Type	A code used by Accounting for reporting purposes which classifies the type of object being used. Some examples of object types include Accrued Expense, Fund Balance, and Recharge. The object type also drives special condition routing on DaFIS documents.
Order Type	A specific two character code used by the Purchasing department to identify a type of order (i.e., purchase delegation). Order types include: M3-orders placed against a Planned Purchasing Program Agreement D3-orders placed against a blanket agreement OV-orders placed using the open-vendor purchase delegation U3-purchases of published/copyrighted materials RO-repair orders
Organization	A unit (such as a department or activity), within the University system, defined in DaFIS for reporting purposes. A collection of accounts, units, or organizations; all organizations report to other organizations, with the highest level organizations reporting to themselves. This structure creates the hierarchy used for routing and approvals.
Organizational Hierarchies	The structures that define organizational reporting relationships in DaFIS. Eventually, all organizations report to the highest level organization, the Dean or Vice Chancellor Office.
Overdraft	A circumstance where expenditures and/or encumbrance exceed the amount of funds appropriated in a particular account/fund/sub-budget.
Overhead	Indirect Costs
Planned Purchasing Program	Fixed price contracts established for use by the University system. Some of these agreements are delegated for use by departments, and are known as M3 agreements. Orders are issued against these agreements using a DPO document.
Plant Funds	Funds to be used for the construction, alteration or purchase of physical property of the University e.g., land, buildings, general improvements, equipment and library collections.
Pre-encumbrance	Unofficial encumbrances created in DaFIS, using the Departmental Encumbrance (DE) document, or by the Payroll system.
Principal Investigator	The Principal Investigator (PI) is the individual designated as head of a research project. To be eligible as a PI, the individual must be an academic appointee. More information about eligibility (section 1-500) and responsibilities (section 10-330) can be found in the UCOP Contract and Grant Manual.
Project	An optional element of the Full Accounting Unit (FAU), consisting of 1 to 10 characters. It is used to tie together transactions across charts, organizations, and accounts. It's intended to be used for short-term tasks (e.g., recruitment, fabricating an equipment item, a conference, etc.)
Purchase Order/Business Agreement (PO)	The document used by Contracting Services to formalize a purchase/business agreement transaction with a vendor.
Recharge	The assessment and collection by one university department of a charge to recover the direct costs of providing goods or services to another university department. A type of payment made via a UC expenditure account with financial object code 39xx and budget object SUB9. See Revenue and Income for additional payment information.
Reference Tables	Behind the scenes tables that contain the information used to create transactions (e.g. account, organization, etc.). Can be displayed to locate information needed for completing a transaction.
Refund	To return money in restitution, repayment, or balancing of accounts.
Reimbursement	A repayment, commonly for out-of-pocket expenses incurred by an employee, such as for travel. Also refers to payment by agencies to the University for costs incurred under contracts.
Requisition (PR)	The document used by departments to requisition goods and services through the Purchasing and Business Contracts departments. Visit the online reference manual for more information.
Restricted Funds	Funds, the use of which must be made in accordance with restrictions, directions, or instructions placed on them by donors or outside agencies.
Revenue	Inflow of funds from sales, services, fees, gifts, or other sources. Two types of revenue are recorded in DaFIS: recharge and income.
Routing	The process of sending electronic documents to others for approval or information.
S&E	An abbreviation for supplies and expense.
Sales Tax	A tax levied by the State on sales of tangible personal property which is not for resale. UCD pays sales tax on taxable purchases directly to California vendors or out-of-state vendors registered with the State Board of Equalization.
Service Department	A University department which supplies goods or services to other departments, such as Bulk Mail, Storehouse, Reprographic Services, etc. Costs incurred for these goods or services are recharged to the departments using them.
Special Conditions Routing	A form of document routing used when "special" approval is required, such as transactions involving certain sub-fund groups and/or object code levels.
Staffing List	A listing by department of all academic and staff positions and provisions (all funding); used by departments to align their base budgets with their actual staff & faculty salary commitments.
Sub Account	An optional sub-division or cost center of an account. A sub account allows an account manager to break down an account into multiple smaller accounts in order to better track detailed budget and expenses.
Sub Fund Group	An attribute of an Account, which is a further breakdown of the Fund Group. It is an alpha representation of the specific funding source for an account. Example: Sub Fund group CAARB designates that the funding source is the State of California (CA) and the funding agency is the Air Resource Board (ARB). It is a high level attribute used to get information regarding the status of all accounts within an organization that are funded by a single source.
Sub Fund Group Type	Represented by a single, alphanumeric character, these consist of a collection of sub fund groups under a more general heading of the funding source. All funds with similar income sources will have the same sub fund group type designation. For example, the sub fund group CAARB belongs to sub fund group type S - State Government. Sub fund group types are used to classify revenue in the annual financial schedules.
Sub Object	An optional, more detailed definition of an Object. For example, a sub-object for Air Travel might be created for use with a Travel object. Sub-objects are created for an account by the Account Manager.
Supply	Generally, a supply item is classified as being expendable with an acquisition value under $5000.00, and a normal life expectancy of under a year.
TP User	A user that has access to create transactions in Transaction Processing, as well as view queries in Decision Support. This is also known as a "Normal User".
Transaction	Data entered by the user as a debit and/or credit, then processed by the components of DaFIS and reflected in reports as a debit and/or credit to the account(s) effected.
Transaction Processing (TP)	The environment which allows authorized users to transact financial business through their computers, rather than using paper forms previously available.
Transfer of Funds	Adjustment to budgeted appropriations.
Unallocated Funds	Funds held temporarily in suspense (not available for use) pending final allocation. These funds appear under the object consolidation SUB8 in Decision Support.
Use Tax	UCD pays use tax on taxable purchases directly to the State Board of Equalization, rather than to the vendor. Use tax generally applies to out-of-state vendors who are not registered with the California State Board of Equalization.
Vendor	An individual, partnership, or corporation that sells something or charges for a service.
Wire Transfer	This is an electronic transfer of funds from the UCD bank to the bank account of the vendor. Funds being wired can be US Dollars or foreign currency to either US Bank or Foreign Bank. With a wire transfer nothing is mailed from Accounts Payable.

Term

Definition

Account

The entity designated as the source of funds, or recipient of income, for a transaction. Account is a 7-digit field assigned by the organization to which it belongs.

Account Manager

An FIS user assigned to manage the activity in an account. The account manager is responsible for reviewing and approving financial transactions charged or credited to their account.

Account Number

A 7-digit number used in the Financial Information System to identify each revenue (income), expenditure (expense) or balance sheet account authorized in the accounting records. Account numbers are assigned by, and unique to, the organization to which they belong. The characters used have no significance to the FIS system.

Account Reviewer

Someone assigned to review transactions on an account and certify the validity of all charges and credits.

Account Type Code

A code in the FIS that designates the type/purpose of an account (Expense, Income, Unallocated, Balance Sheet).

Accounting

A system for collecting, summarizing, analyzing and reporting, in monetary terms, information about an organization primarily for management purposes. Some requirements are established by law or directives of state and federal agencies.

Accounts Payable (AP)

A system which integrates department and vendor information with purchasing, general ledger, capital asset management and departmental systems.

Accounts Receivable (AR)

The system which provides all departments a non-student revenue receivable system which formats bills or invoices, and processes payments while performing all of the accounting work. It also provides reports stating the current status for a department's receivables.

Accruals

The fiscal recording of items pertaining to a current period which would not have appeared on the General Ledger until a future period in the normal course of payment or receipt of the items.

Ad Hoc

For a specific purpose, case, or situation, as in a report generated on a one-time basis.
A form of document routing for special approval, or for information only (FYI).

Add-on

Items which are not complete in themselves, and are attached to a capitalized or expensed equipment item. Add-ons are usually assigned a component asset number (2001xxxxxxxC) decal. Add-on parts must have a value of $1500 or more, and increase the value or useful life of a UC-owned equipment item. Also known as components.

Advance End Date

Indicates the date at which an advance should be covered by another voucher/document.

Agreement

A contract duly executed and legally binding as affected by applicable rules of law. The university engages in commodity agreements and price schedule agreements.

Annual Report Code (ARC)

The ARC is a 6-digit code assigned to every DaFIS account. It determines the account's function, school or college, and department. An example is 620100 - Public Service Graduate School of Management.

Appropriation

An amount allocated for expenditure.
A sum budgeted for a department, unit or activity to identify a limit on the amount that can be expended under a particular account fund/sub budget.

Asset

The term used for equipment/property owned by the university.

Asset Number

The number assigned to an equipment or theft sensitive asset. For assets acquired through calendar year 1999, the first pair of digits indicates the calendar year of acquisition. For assets acquired in year 2000 forward, the first four digits indicate the calendar year of acquisition. Following the digits designating the year, the next pair of digits indicates the campus which originally acquired the item. The last five digits are sequentially assigned by the original acquiring campus beginning with 00001, in each calendar year. For example, 973000001 represents the first item inventoried at UC Davis in January of 1997; a component for this asset would be represented as 973000001C.

Asset Representative

The asset representative is the DaFIS user assigned to and responsible for the physical inventory of the assets for a custodial code.

Attributes

Characteristics of an account or object that include, among other things, the purpose and description.

Bank Draft

This is a check drawn on a bank in a foreign country in a foreign currency and mailed from Accounts Payable.

Base Budget

A base budget (permanent budget) is established for those functions that require a long-term financial commitment or have a long-term impact on the fiscal operations of the university (e.g., general funds, student fees, self-supporting funds). Funds in the base budget are automatically reallocated at the start of each fiscal year. The base budget is modified by using the Base Budget Adjustment document in DaFIS. The base budget rolls forward every year and is the starting point for that year's current operating budget.

Billing ID

A four-character ID number used by several campus service units for billing departments. Billing IDs are created and maintained by departments, and provided to a service unit at the time a service is requested. Each Billing ID is associated with a single Account. It may also have a Sub-Account and/or Project associated with it.

Blanket Order

A purchase agreement in which the purchaser contracts with a vendor to provide item(s), and/or service(s), on an "as required" and frequent basis. Such agreements have a limit on the period of time for which they are valid, and the amount of money that can be spent in that time.

Budget

A financial plan that estimates the costs of conducting future activities. The budget is intended to express the program objectives and how they will be carried out in terms of resources required.

Campus Assessment

An indirect cost surcharge to income derived from sales of goods and services to non-university customers. Campus assessment and the Non-University Differential (NUD) are not charged against the same income.

Campus Property Number

A field on CAMS documents that designates the property number originally assigned to an asset that is purchased or transferred from another UC campus. This field can also be used to enter the original property number on a found piece of equipment that was previously in the inventory.

Capital Asset Management (CAMS)

The module in DaFIS used for the financial accounting and physical tracking of university equipment.

Change Purchase Order / Business Agreement (CO)

A DaFIS document used to request changes to a Purchase Order/Business Agreement issued by Contracting Services. Detailed instructions on how and when to use the Change Order document are available in the One-Minute Manual.

Chart of Accounts (COA)

A code which represents the rules, policies and regulations under which organizations function.

Commodity Code

An alphanumeric classification code for an acquired item. The commodity code selected drives the object code and description field in Purchasing documents. It also drives the description field in CAMS documents. Equipment commodities begin with an alpha character, while supply and theft-sensitive commodities begin with a numeric character. Refer to the Commodity Code online help for more information and assistance in choosing an appropriate code.

Control Account

An active DaFIS account that can be used to extract data from Decision Support on groups of accounts having no other association except that they all report to the same account.

Credit (to an account)

An increase in income or a decrease in expense. For balance sheet accounts, an increase in fund balances or liabilities, or a decrease in asset accounts.

Current Budget

A unit's budget for the current fiscal year. The current budget is modified by using the Current Budget Adjustment document in DaFIS. Year-end balances (surplus or deficit) in the current budget are re-appropriated to the next fiscal year. Carry-forward re-appropriations are combined with the base budget (if applicable) to provide the beginning current year budget at the start of each fiscal year.

Custodial Code

The four-digit number assigned by Equipment Management to a specific department. Each custodial code is assigned to an account number, and should reflect the campus organizational structure as it relates to functional responsibility.

Most departments have at least 2 custodial codes: one for equipment used for teaching, and one for equipment used for research. Some departments set up additional custodial codes to track equipment by Principal Investigator (PI).

If you wish to set up or modify a custodial code, complete the Custodial Code Request form.

DaFIS

Acronym for the Davis Financial Information System.

Debit (to an account)

An increase in expense or a decrease in income. For balance sheet accounts, an increase in assets, or decrease in fund balances or liability accounts.

Decision Support (DS)

A server that holds a copy of the University's financial data. The data is available for viewing, reporting and analysis.
The web based system used to run queries of the university's financial data.

Delegate

An FIS user assigned primary, or non-primary, duties for managing the transactions in an account. This user is designated by the account manager as having the sole, or shared, responsibility for the assigned account.

Disbursements

Payments.

Document

An online screen used to process a transaction. Electronic equivalent to a paper form.

Document Initiator

The DaFIS user who opens and completes an electronic document.

Document Type

All documents in DaFIS are identified by a document type - e.g. the Vendor Invoice is identified as VI. Document type can be used to narrow the results of a search for a particular document. More information on the document types can be found in the Document Types and Uses online help resource.

DS Only User

A user that has been given selected access to Decision Support queries. This access has been specified by an Access Manager within the user's school/unit/department.

Encumbrance

A firm commitment or obligation placed against funds of a department, in the form of purchase orders or agreements, to cover a later expenditure required when goods are delivered or services are rendered.

Equipment

Generally, equipment is classified as a free-standing item having an acquisition value of $5000.00 or higher, and a normal life expectancy of one year or longer. See Policy and Procedure Manual, Section 350-65 for more information. Equipment can only be purchased on a Requisition (PR).

Expenditures (Expense)

The cost of goods delivered, or services rendered, which are recorded as charges to the accounts of an activity or department.

Extramural Funds

Funds (not regularly budgeted) received under grants, donations, or contracts from sources (private, state, federal, etc. ) outside the university.

F.O.B.

An acronym meaning, "free on board". The term means that the seller is required to place goods aboard the equipment of the transporting carrier with or without cost to the buyer. The F.O.B. must be qualified by a location. The stated F.O.B. location is generally where title for the goods passes from the seller to the buyer. The buyer is liable for such charges and risks after passing of title. Refer to the Freight Terms online resource for assistance in choosing the correct code.

Fabrication

Inventorial equipment physically constructed by a University activity or department. Documentation instructions for completing a fabrication are available in the Fabrication Request online reference manual.

Financial Documents

Computer screens designed for processing debit and credit transaction entries.

FIS

An acronym for Financial Information System.

Fiscal

Pertaining to financial matters.

Fiscal Period

A segment of a fiscal year. There are 13 periods defined for each fiscal year - 12 that approximate the months in a year, and the 13th for the fiscal close process.

Full Accounting Unit (FAU)

30-character string that identifies the university function of a financial transaction. The complete FAU consists of the following fields: Chart (1) - Account (7) - Sub Account (5) - Object (4) - Sub Object (3) - Project (1-10). The required FAU fields are: Chart, Account, Object. See the online help resource for more information.

Fund

An income source established for the purpose of carrying on specific activities, or attaining certain objectives, in accordance with special regulations, restrictions or limitations. The terms and conditions established by this income source must be complied with in making expenditures against the particular account.

Fund Group

A high level classification of all fund sources which have similar characteristics.

General Funds

Funds provided by the State of California through the annual State Budget act. Also commonly referred to as "19900" funds.

General Ledger Engine (GLE)

A system computer that processes and permanently maintains the university's financial data.

Hierarchy

Organizational structure used for routing, review, and approval of transactions.

Higher Education Function Code

Standardized reporting classifications for higher education as defined by the National Association of College and University Business Officials (NACUBO). In DaFIS, a 4-digit code assigned to each account to define the overall purpose of the account. The 4-digit code is driven by the first 2 digits of the OP Account number. Example: INSP = Institutional Support (72).

Honorarium

Payment or award in recognition of special service or distinguished achievement for which custom or propriety forbids any fixed business price to be set. A gratuity paid for lecturing or similar service, usually not directly related to the value of service performed.

Income

The payment for goods or services from a university client who does not have a UC expenditure account or from a non-university client. Income is tracked in the campus accounting system with financial object code 006x and budget object INCO. See Revenue and Recharge for additional payment information.

Independent Consultant

An independent consultant is an individual or organization outside the university of proven professional and technical competence who provides primarily technical or professional advice to the university in an independent contractor relationship. The end product is usually a written or oral report, study, design, or set of recommendations. Consultants are vendors who provide professional services over which the University has neither the right to control the manner of performance nor the results of the service. These services should be processed on a Requisition document. In addition, an Independent Consultant Agreement form is to be completed.

Independent Contractor

An independent contractor relationship is a relationship in which the university controls only the results of the service, not the manner of its performance. Independent contractor requests are processed on a Requisition in DaFIS after the Independent Contractor (Individual) Pre-Hire Determination Worksheet has been completed by the requesting department and approved by Human Resources.

Indirect Costs

The costs of conducting business that are incurred for common or joint objectives and therefore cannot be identified readily and specifically with particular projects (such as individual grants or contracts) or with a specific activity (such as instruction, research, public service). For purposes of charging federal grants, UC Davis negotiates Facilities and Administrative (F&A) cost rates with the Department of Health and Human Services.

There are two negotiated rates:

The Off-Campus F&A Rate is applied to sponsored projects conducted at facilities not owned or leased by the university.
The On-Campus F&A Rate is applied to sponsored projects when project is conducted on-campus.

For a recharge activity, indirect costs are collected from non-university clients, through assessing the non-university differential (NUD).

Intercampus

A transaction taking place between campuses, such as an intercampus transfer of equipment from the English Department at UC Davis to the English Department at UC Berkeley.

Interlocation

A transaction taking place between locations. The Davis campus has two locations, Location 3 and L. Since each UC campus has two or more locations, an interlocation could be between two locations at the same campus (intracampus) or between one campus location and another campus location (intercampus).

Intracampus

A transaction taking place between units at the same campus, such as an intracampus loan of equipment from the UCD English Department to the UCD Mathematics Department.

Inventorial Equipment

Equipment

Invoice (Vendor)

A request for payment (bill) from a vendor for specific materials or supplies furnished or services rendered to the University.

Journal Entry

A means to record in the accounting records equal debit and credit entries between sub-budgets or account/funds.

Ledger

The basic and official accounting record of all financial transactions recorded under each revenue, expenditure and balance sheet account.

Legacy System

The previous accounting system. Often used to refer to older systems.

Lien

Encumbrance

Local Area Agreement

A campus-wide fixed price agreement. Orders are issued against the agreement by opening a Departmental Purchase Order (DPO). Reference the agreement number in the DPO document to bring forward the agreement information. Visit the online help for instructions on how to process a DPO against an agreement.

Log

To record daily progress or activity.

Maintenance Documents

Computer screens used for the setup and maintenance of data stored in the DaFIS reference tables (e. g. account, organization, etc. ).

Module

A logical grouping of electronic documents used for a specific business function (such as Purchasing or Accounts Payable).

Network

A system allowing computers to communicate and share data.

Non-University Differential (NUD)

A percentage surcharge assessed to a non-university client, in addition to the recharge rate. NUD is the UC Davis mechanism for recovering the indirect (or overhead) costs for a recharge activity from non-university clients.

Object Code

A 4-digit "code" (defined by the UC Office of the President as well as by the UCD General Accounting department) used to identify the nature, purpose or object of each financial transaction. They are used at all campuses for consistent reporting purposes. Object Codes roll up into Object Consolidation Codes. Example: The Object Code for Regular Staff Salaries (REGS) rolls up into Object Consolidation Code SUBS.

Object Consolidation

A collection of objects that all have the same functional nature (e. g. , consolidation SUB5 contains all of the objects used for travel-related transactions). Every Object Code belongs to an Object Consolidation. Object Consolidations are the highest level summary for transactions. See list.

Object Grouping System

A tool within Decision Support that allows you to group financial information in a way that is most meaningful to your organization. Whereas most reports are restricted to summarizing data by the centrally established Object Consolidation, reports that support Object Grouping can be customized to group and total data at whatever level you choose.

Object Type

A code used by Accounting for reporting purposes which classifies the type of object being used. Some examples of object types include Accrued Expense, Fund Balance, and Recharge. The object type also drives special condition routing on DaFIS documents.

Order Type

A specific two character code used by the Purchasing department to identify a type of order (i.e., purchase delegation). Order types include:

M3-orders placed against a Planned Purchasing Program Agreement

D3-orders placed against a blanket agreement

OV-orders placed using the open-vendor purchase delegation

U3-purchases of published/copyrighted materials

RO-repair orders

Organization

A unit (such as a department or activity), within the University system, defined in DaFIS for reporting purposes. A collection of accounts, units, or organizations; all organizations report to other organizations, with the highest level organizations reporting to themselves. This structure creates the hierarchy used for routing and approvals.

Organizational Hierarchies

The structures that define organizational reporting relationships in DaFIS. Eventually, all organizations report to the highest level organization, the Dean or Vice Chancellor Office.

Overdraft

A circumstance where expenditures and/or encumbrance exceed the amount of funds appropriated in a particular account/fund/sub-budget.

Overhead

Indirect Costs

Planned Purchasing Program

Fixed price contracts established for use by the University system. Some of these agreements are delegated for use by departments, and are known as M3 agreements. Orders are issued against these agreements using a DPO document.

Plant Funds

Funds to be used for the construction, alteration or purchase of physical property of the University e.g., land, buildings, general improvements, equipment and library collections.

Pre-encumbrance

Unofficial encumbrances created in DaFIS, using the Departmental Encumbrance (DE) document, or by the Payroll system.

Principal Investigator

The Principal Investigator (PI) is the individual designated as head of a research project. To be eligible as a PI, the individual must be an academic appointee. More information about eligibility (section 1-500) and responsibilities (section 10-330) can be found in the UCOP Contract and Grant Manual.

Project

An optional element of the Full Accounting Unit (FAU), consisting of 1 to 10 characters. It is used to tie together transactions across charts, organizations, and accounts. It's intended to be used for short-term tasks (e.g., recruitment, fabricating an equipment item, a conference, etc.)

Purchase Order/Business Agreement (PO)

The document used by Contracting Services to formalize a purchase/business agreement transaction with a vendor.

Recharge

The assessment and collection by one university department of a charge to recover the direct costs of providing goods or services to another university department.
A type of payment made via a UC expenditure account with financial object code 39xx and budget object SUB9. See Revenue and Income for additional payment information.

Reference Tables

Behind the scenes tables that contain the information used to create transactions (e.g. account, organization, etc.). Can be displayed to locate information needed for completing a transaction.

Refund

To return money in restitution, repayment, or balancing of accounts.

Reimbursement

A repayment, commonly for out-of-pocket expenses incurred by an employee, such as for travel. Also refers to payment by agencies to the University for costs incurred under contracts.

Requisition (PR)

The document used by departments to requisition goods and services through the Purchasing and Business Contracts departments. Visit the online reference manual for more information.

Restricted Funds

Funds, the use of which must be made in accordance with restrictions, directions, or instructions placed on them by donors or outside agencies.

Revenue

Inflow of funds from sales, services, fees, gifts, or other sources. Two types of revenue are recorded in DaFIS: recharge and income.

Routing

The process of sending electronic documents to others for approval or information.

S&E

An abbreviation for supplies and expense.

Sales Tax

A tax levied by the State on sales of tangible personal property which is not for resale. UCD pays sales tax on taxable purchases directly to California vendors or out-of-state vendors registered with the State Board of Equalization.

Service Department

A University department which supplies goods or services to other departments, such as Bulk Mail, Storehouse, Reprographic Services, etc. Costs incurred for these goods or services are recharged to the departments using them.

Special Conditions Routing

A form of document routing used when "special" approval is required, such as transactions involving certain sub-fund groups and/or object code levels.

Staffing List

A listing by department of all academic and staff positions and provisions (all funding); used by departments to align their base budgets with their actual staff & faculty salary commitments.

Sub Account

An optional sub-division or cost center of an account. A sub account allows an account manager to break down an account into multiple smaller accounts in order to better track detailed budget and expenses.

Sub Fund Group

An attribute of an Account, which is a further breakdown of the Fund Group. It is an alpha representation of the specific funding source for an account. Example: Sub Fund group CAARB designates that the funding source is the State of California (CA) and the funding agency is the Air Resource Board (ARB). It is a high level attribute used to get information regarding the status of all accounts within an organization that are funded by a single source.

Sub Fund Group Type

Represented by a single, alphanumeric character, these consist of a collection of sub fund groups under a more general heading of the funding source. All funds with similar income sources will have the same sub fund group type designation. For example, the sub fund group CAARB belongs to sub fund group type S - State Government. Sub fund group types are used to classify revenue in the annual financial schedules.

Sub Object

An optional, more detailed definition of an Object. For example, a sub-object for Air Travel might be created for use with a Travel object. Sub-objects are created for an account by the Account Manager.

Supply

Generally, a supply item is classified as being expendable with an acquisition value under $5000.00, and a normal life expectancy of under a year.

TP User

A user that has access to create transactions in Transaction Processing, as well as view queries in Decision Support. This is also known as a "Normal User".

Transaction

Data entered by the user as a debit and/or credit, then processed by the components of DaFIS and reflected in reports as a debit and/or credit to the account(s) effected.

Transaction Processing (TP)

The environment which allows authorized users to transact financial business through their computers, rather than using paper forms previously available.

Transfer of Funds

Adjustment to budgeted appropriations.

Unallocated Funds

Funds held temporarily in suspense (not available for use) pending final allocation. These funds appear under the object consolidation SUB8 in Decision Support.

Use Tax

UCD pays use tax on taxable purchases directly to the State Board of Equalization, rather than to the vendor. Use tax generally applies to out-of-state vendors who are not registered with the California State Board of Equalization.

Vendor

An individual, partnership, or corporation that sells something or charges for a service.

Wire Transfer

This is an electronic transfer of funds from the UCD bank to the bank account of the vendor. Funds being wired can be US Dollars or foreign currency to either US Bank or Foreign Bank. With a wire transfer nothing is mailed from Accounts Payable.

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