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Oracle Cloud is a chart of accounts system for organizing the University's financial accounts in the general ledger, the complete bookkeeping record for the entire institution's financial transactions.

ServiceNow Forms Updated

Request forms located on the Services Portal and IT Services Portal that required Financial Account information were modified during the transition from FAS to FST; this article explains the key differences between the previous and new versions of those forms. It also answers questions to the most frequently asked questions regarding this change.

Terminology

This section provides the most commonly used terms and their definitions for Oracle Cloud (FST).

Chart of Accounts (COA)

The 10-segment structure used to record all financial actions for the institution. COA provides the organizing framework for budgeting, recording, and reporting. It underlies all fiscal administration of projects, units, activities, and the ability to report. The series of segments are comprised of five primary segments (Entity, Organization, Account, Fund, and Purpose), three secondary segments (Program, Activity, or Site) and two system generated segments (Affiliate and Future).

Entity:

Used to identify a legal organizational unit or a major institutional unit

Organization:

Used to identify units/departments that incur costs and/or generate revenue. Generally, organizations have an ongoing financial objective (i.e., distinct function), a permanent team, an established budget, and fiscal oversight by a responsible individual.

Account:

Used to record the nature of the transaction ("Natural Account"). Accounts are categorized as Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Revenues, and Expenses.

Fund:

Used to track budgets the institution chooses to separate for accounting purposes. This includes general operating, institutionally designated, and restricted funds.

Purpose:

Used to record the institutional function supported by the transaction.

Program:

Used for formal, ongoing, sets of activities conducted by academic and administrative units.

Activity:

Used to "tag" revenues and expenses that are generated or incurred in connection with a specific undertaking or event. Activities are events, occurrences, initiatives, etc., that generate revenues and/or incur expenses.

Site:

Used to track financial activity (primarily revenues and expenses) to a specific operating location.

Affiliate:

Used to record cross-entity transactions.

Future:

Used as an additional expansion of segments for future use/growth of the University.

POETAF

Project, Organization, Expenditure Type, Task, Award, and Funding Source (POETAF): The six-segment account string created to help track costs associated with UChicago projects or grants. During the creation of a requisition, expense report, or labor cost for associated to a Project, users must enter the POETAF string. Note: Capital Projects will only use POET when creating a charge.

Project Number:

Used to identify the project associated to the business transaction.

Organization:

Used to identify units/departments that incur costs and/or generate revenue.

Expenditure Type:

Used to record the nature of the transaction ("Natural Account").

Task:

Used to identify the task number associated to the business transaction for a specific Project Number.

Award:

Used to identify the funding for an award or a contract associated with the project. An award is the umbrella record that contains comprehensive demographic and financial information for sponsored research agreement or university funded agreement.

Funding Source:

Used to associate the fund "pot of money" allotted for a specific business transaction for a specific Project Number.

Account Types

In the new financial system there are three account types: COA UC, POETAF, and UCMed Accounts.

When selected, each account type populates a different set of Account Information fields. A minimum number of fields must be entered with the correct combination of values in order to submit a form.

Form Updates

What's changed on forms that ask for one account (one-time charges)?

Take a moment to review our comparison of what these forms previously required, and what is required now.

Then:

• FAS Account Number is Mandatory, but not indicated by a red asterisk
• Subaccount Number is Mandatory, but no longer is indicated by a red asterisk
• Authorized Signer is Mandatory, but does not display on the form until the subaccount field is entered

Now:

• The UC Entity and UC Organization are auto-populated based on your division (Entity) and department (Organization). However, you have the ability to change these fields if needed.
• A read-only field named Financial Account is automatically updated by the system as you enter the appropriate fields.
• A read-only field named Status is automatically populated with various states by the system as you enter different fields, ranging from Incomplete, Invalid, and Valid.
• Most fields are Mandatory, even though there is no visual indicator of a red asterisk.
• If an Authorized Approver field populates on the form, it is Mandatory.
• Additional COA Details should remain unchecked since it is reserved for future use.
• Note: Some forms may have an option to add percentages across multiple accounts rather than actual amounts. The percentages must add up to 100% and do not require a percent sign after the numbers.
  
  Input Percentages in the Amount field:
  
  
  Percentages between two accounts:
  

Below is a visual depiction of these changes with all mandated fields populated with a sample account.

How do I fill out the form if I don't have the necessary information?

Most fields can be filled out by inputting either the appropriate codes or its corresponding name. The search fields all search by "begins with" and not "contains", so you will need to type the words or numbers in sequence for it to display in search results.

Sample COA UC Account Information

• UC Entity: 609 OR Physical Sciences Division
• UC Organization: 25200 OR PSD Dean of Students
• UC Account Number: 74015 OR Business Meal
• UC Fund: 900838 OR SG - PSD Student Association
• UC Purpose: 870 OR Agency Activities
• Ensure the Status is "Valid". (Note: Do not submit if the Status is "Incomplete" or "Invalid")

Sample POETAF Account Information

• Expenditure Item Date: Date
• Project: UCP81600 OR Financial System Transformation(FST) - Capitalizable Costs
• Expenditure Org: 11729-ITS ES - Ancillary System
• Expenditure Type: 72905-MAS: Computer Supplies
• Task: CC
• Award:
• Funding Source:
• Ensure the Status is "Valid". (Note: Do not submit if the Status is "Incomplete" or "Invalid")

UCMed Generic Account Information

• Note: At the time of this article's publication, UCMed accounts were undergoing system integration validation testing and were unable to include in this documentation.

How do I find my new Financial Account?

The COA Mapping Tool is where someone can input FAS information to search for the new Oracle Cloud Financial Account information.

1. Visit the COA Mapping Tool webpage.
2. Type your old FAS Account into the search bar.
3. Click Enter.
4. Your new Financial Account information should appear.
5. If you need assistance you can reach out to your Chart of Accounts Liaison.

What does "Add to Favorite Financial Accounts" mean?

The "Add to Favorite Accounts" checkbox is automatically checked when you fill out a form and you haven't designated a favorite account. When the box is checked, the financial account that you used to complete the form will be added to your favorites. In the future, your favorite accounts can be selected from a drop-down. This speeds up the process, so that you no longer need to fill out the required fields manually. Also, when this box is checked, another field called "Favorite Account Nickname" populates. This field allows you to name your account something that you'd prefer to call it the next time you use it.

What happens if I try to submit a form without the Financial Account Information Fields completed?

You cannot submit a form without these important fields populated with valid entries. If you try to bypass these fields, ServiceNow stops you by displaying an error message at the top of the form, stating you must enter a valid combination of fields. The status field also reflects as "Incomplete" in this scenario.

Why isn't the Authorized Approver field visible on the form?

When using Oracle, there will no longer be a term "Authorized Signer" instead you will see "COA POETAF Approver".  This field does not appear until a valid Oracle Cloud Account fields are populated.

What's the "Recurring charges use same info as one-time charges" checkbox on a form mean?

Some forms have the functionality to request the charges be split between multiple financial accounts, regardless of the financial account type. In IT Services, the most common scenario is allocating a one-time charge (for initial equipment or setups, for example) to one financial account, and then charging a separate financial account for any recurring charges like monthly usage fees. A form that has this checkbox beneath the Account Information label allows requestors to designate when multiple financial accounts should be used. It provides the opportunity for you to specify which financial account to use for each charge type. In cases where both the one-time charges and the recurring charges should use the same financial account, keep the checkbox checked.

What's changed on forms that have that "Recurring charges" checkbox?

The "Recurring charges use same info as one-time charges" checkbox is still visible when the form is first displayed. The old layout is shown below, where after unchecking the checkbox, specific Oracle Cloud fields appeared to enter details for the recurring charges.

Now, the form provides options to input rows of data for each Oracle Cloud account and displays a bit differently.

Follow these steps to quickly input your financial details.

When two Financial accounts will be used for one-time and recurring charges

1. Uncheck the "Recurring charges use same info as one-time charges" checkbox. Take note of the Help text, indicating to use the first row to input for one-time charges, and the second row to input for recurring charges.
   
   
2. Click the Add button below the Financial Accounts with Approvers label to designate account details for the one-time charges.
   
   
   
3. Enter the mandatory fields for Entity, Organization, Account Number, Fund, and Purpose, then click Add to return to the previous screen.
   
   
   
4. Click Add again to display the screen to input financial account details for the recurring charges.
   
   
   
5. Enter the mandatory fields for recurring charges the Financial Account Type and Authorized Approver, then click Add to return to the previous screen.
   
   
   
6. You can select the edit (the pencil) or remove (the x) icons for either row you just entered if needed.
   
   
   
7. Scroll to the right to see what you just entered. You'll see a lot of blank columns here, as all fields from all 3 types of financial accounts are represented.