Glossary of Finance Terms

Account Code (Acct) - The element of the Chart of Accounts that represents the balance sheet, revenue, expense or transfer code. The six-character/digit code is used to identify what the funds have been spent for or what kind of revenue was earned.

Account Type (AT) - The account type signifies assets (10), liabilities (20), control accounts (30), fund balances (40), revenue (50), personnel costs (60), expenses (70), and transfers (80).

Activity Code - An optional, nonhierarchical element of the Chart of Accounts that can track inter-fund or cross-institutional activities. It is a field that is not currently used for TTUHSC but can track special events or departmental functions.

Activity Date (Act Date) - This date represents the actual date the transaction posted to the ledgers.

Annual Financial Reports (AFR) - Statements of TTUHSC’s activities and performance during the previous fiscal year.

Available Fund Balance (Avail Balance) - The available fund balance reflects expendable and available financial resources.

Balance Sheet - A financial statement that lists the assets, liabilities, and fund balance on a specific date.

Balance Sheet Account - An account code representing an asset, liability or fund balance.

Bank Code (Bk) - A two-character/digit code used to identify which bank account the transaction affects.

Banner - The software used by functional users for Finance, Financial Aid, Student and HR administrative tasks.

BAVL - BAVL is an acronym for Budget Availability and represents budgeted funds available for the fiscal year for a particular FOAP.

Beginning Fund Balance (Beg Balance) - The beginning fund balance is the accumulation of revenue minus expenditures for all previous fiscal years and represents the unspent funds carried forward.

Bread Crumbs - The report path displayed on a report or within Cognos. Provides a visual path that allows users the ability to retrace their steps if necessary.

Budget Account Code (BAC) - The budget account code is the pooled account code used in the Budget Availability (BAVL) checking process. Numerous data-enterable account codes may roll up to a budget account code.

Budget Account Pools - Banner account codes that define separate pools of budget set up for groups of expenses.

Budget Financial Reports - The budget financial reports summarize actual financial activity relative to the fund's budget. These reports are intended to help in analyzing actual earnings and spending compared to the current year's budget. These reports will not tell you if a transaction will process because they do not consider pooled organization codes and budgets at the fund, orgn, and program code.

Budget Revision System - A system used for submitting a change or addition to the operating budget.

Business Affairs tab - The tab on the WebRaider portal that contains links to commonly used pages including the Business Affairs department homepages, financial systems, and other important resources.

Campus - The campus is associated with the location of the department that owns the fund.

Cash Receipts System - A system used to record deposits of cash, checks, credit cards, wire transfers, credit card payments or other funds received.

Chart - The data element that defines the entity in the transaction. We currently have four charts: “E” = TTUHSC El Paso, “H” = TTUHSC, “S” = TTUS, and “T” = TTU.

Chart of Accounts - A systematic classification of accounts to organize financial transactions into meaningful and reportable information. The elements of the Chart of Accounts are Fund, Organization, Account, Program, Activity, and Location (FOAPAL).

Check Cancel Date (Ck Cancel) - The date a check cancellation document was entered into Banner.

Check Date (Ck Date) - The date the check was processed and printed in Banner.

Check Number (Check No) - An eight-character/digit number that prints on the check. The check number is also posted in the document field on Finance reports.

Cleared Date - The date the check cleared the bank.

Cognos - A reporting tool used to access financial and budget information.

Cost Share - The portion of total costs of a project that is contributed by TTUHSC.

Cost Transfer (CT) - A module of FiTS that allows the movement of current fiscal year expenditures between FOAPs.

Department (Dep) - The department is related to the TTUHSC organizational chart. Both the fund code and organization code relate to a specific department. Banner recognizes level five of the organizational hierarchy as the department code.

Division (Div) - The division is related to the TTUHSC organizational chart. Both the fund code and organization code relate to a specific division. Division examples include the School of Medicine, Finance, Rural and Community Health, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, etc.

Document ID (Doc ID) (Document) - A user or system assigned identifier for each transaction to the operating, general, or encumbrance ledger. The first two characters distinguish the origin of the transaction (Ex. HA000324 - HA signifies a cash receipt).

Document Prefix - A two-character code in a Banner document that identifies the department responsible for the transaction and provides a brief description.

Document Reference Number (Doc Ref) - An optional 8-character field that allows the user to enter additional information relating to the transaction.

Drill Down - A term used to describe accessing additional or detailed information for an item within the same report.

Drill Through - A term used when a link is selected within a Cognos report to open a new report with similar information.

Emburse - Emburse is the online expense management system for PCard transactions, as well as all travel encumbrance and reimbursement processes.

Encumbrance (Enc) - An obligation to a third party to provide payment for services or commodities. An encumbrance will reserve the funds from the current budget.

Encumbrance Item (Item) - A sequential number assigned to each item/commodity on the order. General encumbrances only have one item per encumbrance, but purchase orders can have multiple items.

Encumbrance Ledger - The encumbrance ledger is a subsidiary ledger to the general ledger. It maintains the encumbrance totals by fund, organization, and program code to the point that the encumbrance reaches zero.

Encumbrance Sequence (Seq) - Assigned based on the FOAP information provided per item. If an item in an order has multiple FOAPs, each FOAP will be distinguished by the sequence number. The sequence number is directly related to the item number.

Encumbrance Type (Type) - The encumbrance type identifies general encumbrances (E), purchase orders (P), and labor encumbrances (L).

Ending Fund Balance (End Balance) - The ending fund balance is a calculation of the beginning fund balance plus the net year-to-date activities (revenue - expense + net transfers). The ending fund balance amount does not represent a spendable dollar amount since it has not accounted for the encumbrance and reserve amounts.

Effort Certification and Reporting Technology (ecrt) - A system used to ensure the salary and wages of employees charged to a sponsored project are allocable, allowable, consistently treated, and reasonable and to ensure the effort put forth on a sponsored project warrants the financial compensation provided by the sponsor.

ePrint - The ePrint system is used primarily by departments to review Financial Transaction System (FiTS) transactions.

Expense Report - A document in Emburse used to request reimbursement for travel expenses incurred on official state business.

F&A Work Tools - WebRaider tab that displays useful links to various areas, including Human Resources, Budget, Business Affairs, and Procurement Services.

Finance Systems Management (FSM) - The department that oversees a variety of financial processes, including maintenance of the Banner fund hierarchy and structure, setup of interdepartmental billing using FiTS, training functional and department accounting system users, and administration of systems security.

Financial Manager - The person whose responsibility includes the overall financial operation of a department. These duties include budget oversight, financial reporting, and directing financial activities.

Financial Transaction System (FiTS) - A system consisting of four modules: (a) The Cost Transfer (CT) module allows movement of current fiscal year expenditures between FOAPs; (b) the Journal Voucher module allows movement of current fiscal year revenues (RTs) between FOAPs and allows the transfers of funds between FOAPs for internal professional services, continuing professional education, and other internal purchases of goods and services (PTs); (c) the IVs module allows service departments to bill departmental FOAPs for expenses related to goods and services provided; (d) the IPFTs module allows departments to transfer funds for professional services, continuing professional education, and other internal purchases of goods or services that are not in the normal course of business from one FOP to another.

Fiscal Period (FP) - The fiscal period is a term for the monthly accounting period within the finance system. The fiscal period is a two-digit number beginning with 01 for September and ending with period 12 for August. At the end of August, fiscal period 12 is closed and period 14 is opened. Period 14 is used by administrative departments to record year-end adjusting entries and accruals into the prior year for the Annual Financial Reports.

Fiscal Year (FY) - The twelve-month period beginning on September 1 and ending on August 31.

FOAP - FOAP is an acronym for Fund, Organization, Account, Program.

FOP - FOP is an acronym for Fund, Organization, Program.

Fund Balance - The cumulative net income or loss generated by the operation of the fund since its inception. It is also equal to the difference between the fund's assets and liabilities.

Fund Category (Fund Cat) - A grouping of funds representing the broad NACUBO fund groups. Examples are Educational/General, Designated, Auxiliary, Restricted, Loan, Endowment, Unexpended Plant, etc.

Fund Class - A further breakdown of the fund category. For example, the Designated fund category includes the following fund classes: Medical Practice Income Plan, Nursing Income Plan, Health Professions Practice Income Plan, Pharmacy Income Plan, General Designated, Student Fees, Permanent Health Fund, and Service Departments.

Fund Code - The self-balancing set of accounts that show ownership of assets, liabilities, and fund balance, and defines the fund class, division, campus, department and sub-department.

Fund Maintenance System - A system used to request new fund(s) in Banner, make changes to current fund names, and terminate funds.

Fund Manager - The Fund Manager is generally responsible for the financial operation of the fund, including budget oversight, finance reporting and daily financial activities. This person is also responsible for assigning financial roles to individuals.

General Encumbrance Document - A document that reserves the budget to fulfill an obligation to a third party.

General Ledger - The General Ledger maintains the assets, liabilities, and fund balances for each fund.

Grant ID - A unique number that identifies a particular grant. It may be associated with one or more funds.

Hierarchy - Refers to the Banner hierarchy that reflects the relationships among FOAP levels and supports roll-up reports.

HUB - A Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) is a corporation, sole proprietorship, partnership or a joint venture formed to make a profit in which at least 51 percent ownership of the business is by a woman, minority and/or service-disabled veteran.

Inception to Date (ITD) - Inception to date refers to the period between the beginning of the fund, grant or project to the current date.

Income Statement - A detailed statement that shows the revenue, expenses, and transfers, which results in a net profit or loss for a specific period.

Indirect Costs (IDC) - Those costs incurred for common or joint objectives, and can’t be identified with a particular sponsored project, instructional activity, etc.

Interdepartmental Billing (IV) - A module of FiTS that allows service departments (funds beginning with 19) to bill for goods and services provided to other departments.

Internal Purchase Funding Transfer (IPFT) - A module of FiTS that allows departments to transfer funds for professional services, continuing professional education, and other internal purchases of goods or services that are not in the normal course of business from one FOP to another.

Invoice (Inv) - The Banner document entered by the Accounts Payables department to produce a check. It is not to be confused with the Vendor Invoice number.

Invoice Cancel Date (Inv Cancel) - The date an invoice cancellation document was entered into Banner.

Invoice Management System - Invoices that have been delivered to the departments are to be submitted to Payment Services using the Invoice Management System which allows for electronic invoice web submission, confirmation of invoice submission, automated reminders to complete TechBuy receiving, and notification of when an invoice has been paid.

Location (Loc) - The element of the Chart of Accounts used exclusively by the Property Inventory system to track the location of Fixed Assets. An optional code that identifies physical locations.

Merchant Account - A system used by departments to obtain a new merchant or add additional merchants.

Month to Date (MTD) - The month-to-date calculation is defined as the activity for the month selected within the parameter set. If a fiscal period or month is not selected, it will reflect the current period’s activity.

NACUBO - Abbreviation for the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

Net Income - The calculation (revenue - expenses + net transfers) that provides the profit or loss for a specific period of time. This amount eventually increases or decreases the fund balance.

New FOP System - A system used to submit Financial Manager change requests for fund manager or orgn manager changes, as well as requests to create a new organization, change an organization name, or deactivate an organization.

Non-Operating - Expenses that are typically related to fixed assets.

Operating Ledger - The Operating Ledger maintains the revenue, expense, and transfer transactions by Fund, Organization, Account, and Program codes.

Organization Code (Orgn) - The budgetary or departmental unit of the Chart of Accounts. It tells who earns or spends the funds and is based on organizational structures. The organization code is only entered with operating ledger and encumbrance ledger transactions (revenue, labor, expense, and transfers).

Pass-Thru Fund - Grant award issued by a Federal Agency that is transferred to a State or Local agency.

PCI DSS - The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements intended to ensure that all companies that process, store, or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment.

Personnel Expenses - Expenses associated with salary, wages, and fringes and are classified with an account type of 60.

PO/Encumbrance Change Request - A system used by departments to assist in modifications or closures of originally issued purchase orders (POs).

Pre-Approval Report - A document in Emburse used to encumber expenses and request approval for travel in advance of the trip.

Program Code (Prog) - The element of the Chart of Accounts that classifies the function of the revenues and expenditures. It defines NACUBO function (Instruction, Research, Institutional Support, Public Service, etc.).

Property Custodian - The person whose responsibility includes managing, controlling, and accounting for all assets within his or her department.

Property Inventory System - A system that provides listings of departmental property inventory. The system allows for changes to condition code, serial number and location codes for assets, transfers of property from one TTUHSC department to another, and removal/status change requests, as well as surplus pickup requests. The required annual certification of department inventory is also processed through the system.

Property Management - The area of FSM responsible for providing tag numbers for all fixed asset purchases in the financial system. Other functions include processing deletions of property, administering the annual property certification process, and ongoing assistance to clarify property procedures to departments.

Purchase Order (PO) - A document issued to a supplier to constitute a legal and binding offer to purchase goods or services. This document also reserves budget to fulfill the obligation.

Reserves (Res) - A reserve sets aside funds that are not spendable. The dollar value of a fund’s reserve is subtracted from its ending fund balance to account for non-spendable funds. Reserves are typically associated with inventory and petty cash.

Revenue (Rev) - Funds earned from activities associated with providing goods and services to entities separate from the university or funds received for endowments, gifts or grants.

Revenue Journal Voucher (RT) - A module of FiTS that allows departments to move current fiscal year revenues between departmental FOAPs.

Statement of Changes (SOC) - A report that provides summary and detailed information relating to the changes in fund balance up to a specific point in time.

Statement of Net Income - A report that provides summary and detailed information relating to the revenue, expense and transfers during a specific time period.

TEAM Application - The online registration/security process used for financial processes that allow Fund Managers to register those in their departments who they determine necessary to use online financial applications.

TechBuy - The online eProcurement system at TTUHSC.

Transaction Date (Trans Date) - A date that reflects the period for which the transaction was posted. For example, period 01 will consist of all transactions with a transaction date between 01-Sep and 30-Sep.

Transaction Description (Trans Desc) - A 35-character field used to provide a short description of the purpose or nature of the transaction.

Transfers - A transfer is the movement of money from one fund to another.

Trial Balance (TB) - The trial balance lists the beginning and ending balances for all General Ledger accounts with activity in the fund. The Trial Balance confirms that debits equal credits and should have a zero-net total.

Vendor - The vendor is the name of a company or individual associated with an invoice, check or encumbrance.

Vendor ID (Vend ID) - Each individual or company added to the Banner system is assigned a nine-character ID number beginning with R.

Vendor Invoice Number (Vend Inv) - A number or alphanumeric value the vendor provides when they invoice TTUHSC for tracking purposes. This should not be confused with an Invoice document created in Accounts Payable to create a check.

Vendor Payments - A system used by departments and vendors to query payments made to vendors since September 1, 2008 by TTU, TTUHSC, and TTUS.

WebRaider Portal - The one-stop shop for access to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center information and systems. Each student, faculty and staff member will have access to the WebRaider Portal but will only see the content that they have permission to view.

Year to Date (YTD) - Year-to-date amounts represent the revenue, expense, and transfer activity for the current year up to the most current point in time.

If you have additional questions, please contact Finance Systems Management at fsm@ttuhsc.edu.