Guest post by Cathy Cartwright, Interim Executive Director, Finance and Budget
For Part 2 of this topic, see Cathy Cartwright’s March 2 message.
As you know, we moved into the ctcLink environment two weeks ago. This involves major changes in the way that we do business in Finance, Cashiering, Budgeting and Grants. We are working on developing documentation specific to things like how to request an expense reimbursement or submit a requisition and hope to have it ready soon. While we wait for that to be ready to share, I want to begin introducing you to what has changed.
Over the next several weeks, I am going to tell you about those changes in a way that hopefully allows you to become familiar with the information without being overwhelmed.
Today’s Topic: Chartfield String
Today’s topic is around some of the elements of what is called the chartfield string in PeopleSoft, or what you knew as the budget number in Legacy.
To keep that going, we decided to use both a department and a program field. Each of these are 5-digit fields with the department being all numeric and the program being alpha numeric. While the department fields are pretty much all new, we tried to maintain a connection to the operational Legacy budget by assigning the first digit in the program field the division the budget serves (see the Division Key box on the right-hand side) and the other four characters the org from FMS (the Legacy financial system).
Division Key
0 = President’s Unit
1 = Administrative Services
2 = Academic Affairs
3 = Student Services
4 = Institutional Advancement
8 = Capital Projects
9 = Institutional/SBCTC
What Do Those Numbers Mean?
To illustrate what this looks like, let’s start with the Finance department budget number, 149-082-1910. For this lesson, we will look at the final four digits (the FMS org): 1910.
Finance is part of Administrative Services; our PeopleSoft department number is 10200 (the first digit the division) and our program is 11910 (the first digit the division and the rest our FMS org).
Now let’s look at a budget number from Academic Affairs, 149-043-2110. Again, we will look at just the last four digits: 2110.
Their PeopleSoft department number is 20100 (again, the first digit the division) and the program is 22110 (the first digit the division and the rest the FMS org).
Crosswalk Example: Legacy FMS Org to ctcLink PeopleSoft Department and Program
| FMS Org (Legacy) | Division # | Department # (ctcLink PeopleSoft) | Department Name | Program # (ctcLink PeopleSoft) | Program Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1910 | 1 | 10200 | Finance | 11910 | Finance |
| 1911 | 1 | 10100 | Administrative Services | 11911 | Insurance |
| 2110 | 2 | 20100 | Academic Affairs | 22110 | Instruction Support |
| 2123 | 2 | 20230 | Academic Success Centers | 22123 | Math Resource Center |
| 3140 | 2 | 20300 | Workforce Education | F3140 | Workforce Dev Services |
What Do Those Letters Mean?
For accounts that we determined were fee related, the leading character of the program is an “F” with the remaining digits being the FMS org. Since S&A accounts contained letters in their orgs, we were unable to maintain the connection to the FMS org. Their programs begin with an “S” and then have been assigned a four-digit number allowing for room for growth. Similarly Parking, Conference Services and the Bookstore’s FMS orgs utilized letters so we renumbered their programs beginning with the letter “A”. Grants and contracts have programs that begin with a “C” but are a special creature that we will devote an entire email to in the future.
Handy Reference Guide
In my February 23 email to campus, I shared the current FMS org to ctcLink PeopleSoft department and program crosswalk for you to reference. Soon, it will be posted and regularly maintained on the Finance department website.
What about the “149-082” and the “149-043” part of the budget you ask? In FMS, we labeled the “149” as the appropriation and the “082” and “043” as the program but that too has changed in our new world. In our next lesson, I am planning to share more about those differences and how the sub-object field (EA, EG, ER, etc.) translates to PeopleSoft.
For Cathy Cartwright’s next lesson, see her March 2 message.
Ask Delta Dog
Who is this blue dog? Learn why Delta Dog has been our trusty companion on the journey to ctcLink. She will stay by our side as we fully implement the new system.
If you have questions about ctcLink, ask Delta Dog.
You can also view the Frequently Asked Questions page.
For information about the statewide ctcLink project, visit the SBCTC ctcLink page and read the blog, ctcLink Connect.