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Read and Reconcile Budget Allocations and Transactions

Revised: April 4, 2005

The steps below outline how to read and reconcile budget allocations and transactions. Click on each step to view instructions and definitions.

Using the Web Financial Reports

Step 1
Open Web Financial Reports
Step 2
Open Financial Summary Reports
Step 3
Review Posted Personnel Services Transaction
Step 4
Review Operating Expenses
Step 5
Recognizing and Reconciling Other Purchases

Step 1 - Open Web Financial Reports

Go to the Financial Services website and click on the Web Financial Reports link or click here.

Why use Web Financial Reports instead of FRS Web?

  • Web Financial reports are monthly reports designed for monthly reconciliation and analysis.
  • Web Financial Reports are downloadable.

Step 2 - Open Financial Summary Reports

Click on By Subcode Within Account to view account totals according to each subcode charged.

Use this view option for detailed listing of all adjustments, allocations, and expenditures organized by subcode for Personnel Services and Operating Expenses.

Personnel Services
This section contains the total Personnel-related costs and is the first section of Financial Summary Reports.

Operating Expenses
 This section contains the total Supplies and Services.

Click on 6-digit Account to view account totals only.

Organization Unit Codes What do they mean?
Digits 1-3 Represent the Division.
Digits 4-5 Represent the School or Director.
Digits 6-7 Represent the Department.
Digit 8 Sub-group.
Digits 9-11 Not used for descriptive purposes.
* An asterisk may be used as a wild card symbol. Use this view option for a summary view.

Financial Summary Report Terms, Column Heading and Notations
Report Term What is it? Notes and Special Situations to Consider
Account Six-digit account number of Department or Unit.  
Title Six-digit account title of Department or Unit.  
Responsible Person Account Responsible Person This is the NT-system username for the individual who bears the responsibility for ensuring that all transactions, approvals, and reconciliations are handled in accordance with all applicable policies, guidelines, and procedures.
Orig Budget Baseline budget for the account, from the beginning of the fiscal year. In some cases, the final baseline budget from the prior or current fiscal year may become the initial budget for the new fiscal year.
Rev Budget This is the budget after permanent adjustments plus any one-time adjustments. This is also the number used to calculate the Budget Balance Available (BBA).
Actual Actual dollars expended (or received, as in the case of revenues) Reflects year-to-date posted expenditures or revenues.
Enc/Req Encumbrances Totaled Funds committed but not yet expended.
BBA Budget Balance Available Revised Budget minus actual fiscal year-to-date expenditures and open encumbrances.

Additional Budget Terms
Term What is it? Notes and Special Situations to Consider
Baseline or Base Budget Authorized ongoing departmental budget Troubleshooting Tip: Position reclassifications are funded from existing base budgets. Reclassification actions do not confer additional funding for the reclassification.
ABR Automatic Budget Reallocation Automatic financial mechanism that will reallocate funds to cover the expenditures made, as they are made.
Liquidated Expenditure Amounts Paid Following all necessary processing, amounts encumbered from accounts to cover authorized expenditures are paid or "liquidated".

Automatic Budget Reallocation (ABR)

How will I recognize if it is turned On or Off?

A good clue that the ABR is turned off is if you see a negative number appear in the BBA column for expenditure items with a subcode value of 4500 to 7999 (with the exception of subcode 6000). The usual campus General Fund procedure is to have the ABR turned on. There may be a very few exceptional instances when the ABR should be turned off, in which case the Division Financial Manager and the Budget Office would have to coordinate in advance.

Step 3 - Review Posted Personnel Services Transaction

Click on Financial Transactions

Options for Reports:

  • By 6-Digit Account (For Month) (use for reconciling).
  • By 10-Digit Account (For Month) (use for analysis).
  • By Reference 1.

Troubleshooting Tip

If there are budget allocations and/or transactions that have not been posted, or if there are budget allocation transactions posted for which you have no record or about which you were not aware/anticipating, then email your inquiry, including specific information/details about the allocation or transaction to budget@fullerton.edu.

Personnel Services (Personnel-related costs)

Look at the Financial Summary Reports first. If you see personnel costs regarding these costs/expenditures, look to the Position Management Reports (if you have been delegated authority to view these reports).

Troubleshooting Tip

It is possible that with some new employees, benefit deductions may appear as a separate line expense under the 3700 subcode in Personnel Services. If this happens, immediately send an email to budget@fullerton.edu.

Payroll expense records are updated only once a month, even for FRS/real-time reports (for example, April payroll expenses/salaries for student and intermittent or temporary staff employees will not be posted until the end of May).

Step 4 - Review Operating Expenses

Operating Expenses (Supplies and Services)

  • Review each transaction.
  • Verify against your receipts, invoices, internal records or other documentation.
  • If you have questions about the transactions reported, then send an email to budget@fullerton.edu.

Explanation of Column Headings for Transaction Reports
Report Term What is it? Notes and Special Situations to Consider
Account Six-digit account number for Department or Unit - - -
Responsible Person Account Responsible Person This is the NT-system logon for the individual who bears the responsibility for ensuring that all transactions, approvals, and reconciliations are handled in accordance with all applicable policies, guidelines, and procedures.
Date   - - -
Subcode Four-digit expense code Identifies the type of expenses made.
Fastrans Description FAS Transaction Description Identifies payee, transaction activity, or vendor.
Ref1 Up to 8-digit field which refers to the transaction Used to identify source document reference and can be used to identify related transactions.
Ref2 Up to 8-digit field which refers to the transaction Used to identify whether a transaction is from a prior year, another account, or how it originated.

Reference Tables

Step 5 - Recognizing and Reconciling Other Purchases

Procurement Card Purchases

  • Fastrans Description will read "JPMC--RSMITH" for Procurement cardholder Robert Smith.
  • Sequence will read as "PCDxxxxx" where "P" represents Procurement and "CD" represents Card.
  • Each transaction is a summary of all Procurement Card expenditures made that month, according to subcode.
  • Utilize the PaymentNet™ online system to review and reconcile expenses.
  • Review each transaction, as necessary.
  • A wide variety of reports is available in the PaymentNet™ system.

OfficeMax System Purchases

  • Sequence will read as “MX5xxxxx” where MX represents OfficeMax purchases, 5 represents the fiscal year 05/06, and xxxxx will be the first five letters of the shopper’s last name. As an example: For shopper Robert Smith the Fastrans Description will read “MX5SMITH” for OfficeMax fiscal year 05/06.
  • Utilize OfficeMax Order History feature to obtain order information (amounts indicated in the OfficeMax reports reflect final actual expenditures of the order).

How to download data from Web Financial Reports

  • From the "Report Catalog" (the main report menu), open the type of report you want to work with (Financial Summary Reports, Financial Transactions Reports, etc.).
  • When the menu option screen opens for the type of report you want, click on the question mark "?" in the gray box.
  • Once the question mark "?" in the gray box has been clicked, you will see a variety of report viewing options (by 6-digit account), by 10-digit account, etc.) and two gray buttons entitled "View Reports" and Export to Excel."
  • Click on the "Export to Excel" button. You will automatically be prompted for a location on your computer to save the report in an Excel format. Select a location (such as your Desktop), save the report, then re-open as an Excel worksheet.