Maintaining the Chart of Accounts

Overview

Accounting distribution (company/account/center) combinations must be established on your company Chart of Accounts before you can use or maintain them. The accounting distribution is entered in all modules and is validated against your agencys Chart of Accounts defined on the General Ledger.

As part of the North Carolina Accounting System project, your agency's original valid company/account/center combinations will be set up for you. This section of the course will show you how to add or change these combinations.

Statewide Master Account List

In order to establish a uniform Statewide Chart of Accounts, OSC has established a list of valid accounts called the Statewide Master Account List. It is often referred to as the master company or company AAAA. When adding an account to a company, the master company is checked to determine whether the account exists in company AAAA. An account cannot be added to your company unless it is on the Statewide Master Account List.

As part of maintaining your agencys Chart of Accounts, you may need to:

  • Add an account that is not in the master company
  • Add an account that is in the master company

To view the master company, you can run a report called C-U-GL-COA-Master from the GL Public Library. Or the preferred method is to use what is in the SIG (North Carolina Accounting System Information Guide), in the NCAS Data Elements section.

Requesting a New Statewide Account

To add an account that is not in the master company, you must submit a written request to the OSC as follows:

Step Action

1.

Fill out the Agency Account Request Form. Be sure to justify why you are requesting the addition to the Statewide Master Account List. (See Agency Account Request Form)

2.

Email the completed form to:

Office of the State Controller
Chart of Accounts Committee
OSC.SADFR@osc.nc.gov

3. 

The OSC Chart of Accounts Committee will determine if the request is valid and consistent with statewide policies. If so, OSC will add the account to the Statewide Master Account List. You will be notified of the account addition or of the appropriate existing account to use.

4.

If a new account is created, add the new account to your company's Chart of Accounts. 

Note:  All accounts newly added to the Statewide Master Account list are listed in the SIG
 

Accounting Distributions

Once an account has been added to a company, it must be combined with a center to create a valid accounting distribution. A valid accounting distribution is made up of the company, account, and center. These valid accounting distributions are used when entering documents in the North Carolina Accounting System. An accounting distribution must be valid before it can be used.

Establishing an Accounting Distribution

To add an accounting distribution, you must enter information on the following three screens: 

  • The Add or Change an Account (286) screen is used by authorized agency personnel to add accounts that already exist on the Statewide Master Account List to their agency companies.
  • The Add or Change an Account/Cntr (287) screen is used by agencies to create or maintain company/account/center combinations. Complete company/account/center combinations must be added before being used in the system.
  • The Miscellaneous Description (288) screen allows agencies to add descriptions for a center. Descriptions can be general or they can be specifically tied to a fund, budget code or cost center. Descriptions are used for inquiring and reporting purposes.

Descriptions are established for:

  • Center
  • Fund
  • Center components (RCC, funding source)
  • Budget code
  • Performance (program) budgets
  • CFDA (grant)

Adding an Account

When you add accounts, you need to add the original account and its related family of accounts as follows:

When you add a 53XXXX account, you need to add the following accounts:

  • 73XXXX
  • 78XXXX
  • 83XXXX
  • 03XXXX

When you add a 43XXXX account, you need to add the following accounts:

  • 63XXXX
  • 68XXXX

The following are account descriptions:

  • 43XXXX Actual Revenue
  • 53XXXX Actual Expense
  • 63XXXX Authorized Revenue
  • 68XXXX Certified Revenue
  • 73XXXX Authorized Budget
  • 78XXXX Certified Budget
  • 83XXXX Purchasing Encumbrance
  • 03XXXX Accounts Payable Encumbrance

If you do not add the complete family of accounts, you may receive an error message when you try to process the transaction. There are reports available that you can run to check that all account families are properly established. The C-U-GL-MISSING-ACCT-FAMILY report is one of the reports that you can use for that purpose.

Note:  Generally, you cannot use a new accounting distribution on the day it was created unless you type 2 in the UPDATE AFF field while processing budgetary control transactions.

Note:  When adding new accounts, the account title defaults from the Master Company for all accounts except AA accounts.  AA accounts are defined as Master Company accounts where positions 5-6 are AA.  Within AA accounts, each agency has the flexibility to assign its own account titles.  Be sure to assign the same title to all members of the account family as well as use these titles consistently across all companies.  Problems with inappropriate account titles on reports are often the result of dissimilar titles within an account family or between companies.

Adding Other Center Descriptions

The Miscellaneous Descriptions (288) screen is used to add descriptions for all segments and subsegments of the Chart of Accounts, including those stored on the Company Fund table and the Company Center table. These include descriptions for the following:

  • Company
  • Center
  • Budget fund
  • Budget code
  • RCC/Organization code
  • Program
  • Other

A description needs to be added for the full center as well as for each of the segments in the center. For example, an agency may have a center with the following center structure:

If this is the case, a center needs to be established for the following:

  • Full center description
  • Fund description
  • RCC/Organization description
  • Program description

Agency Batch COA Maintenance

Detailed information on Agency Batch COA Maintenance

Summary

The system will check to ensure that all accounts added to your company are included on the Statewide Master Account List. You also need to establish all valid company/account/center combinations for each company. Descriptions are also added for inquiry and reporting purposes.