1. ctcLink Chart of Account (CoA) Redesign
BAR Council Update
Yakima Valley College
May 3rd, 2018

2. who is the Finance Lead now?
Who am I?
Emmett Folk ctcLink Project Manager for Finance & HCM Christyanna Dawson ctcLink Finance Team Lead
who is the Finance Lead now?

3. What are we talking about today?
The Chart of Account Redesign Purpose/Approach
Preliminary Recommendations for Change
Redesign Next Steps – Global Design Review

4. Redesign Purpose & Approach
Why was this project started?
A wealth of new PeopleSoft product and process knowledge has been obtained by college and ctcLink project staff since the original decisions shaping the current PeopleSoft Chart of Accounts were made. Additionally, the practical use of the current Chart of Accounts by both Tacoma Community College and the Community Colleges of Spokane have identified areas of inefficiency and concerns regarding the scalability of certain Chartfields as more colleges are brought onto PeopleSoft.
This redesign effort is to evaluate structural and organizational aspects of the various PeopleSoft Chartfield segments to determine ways the current structure could be augmented to improve the long term use of the foundational Chart of Account design.

5. Redesign Purpose & Approach
What’s happened so far?
February
Petition BAC to support a “Preliminary CoA Redesign Workgroup”
Receive BAC approval and list of Workgroup participants
March
Preliminary Workgroup meets at Cascadia College (2 days)
Preliminary Workgroup meets at the State Board Olympia office (2 days)
Internal ctcLink review and follow up for preliminary recommendations
April
Report Workgroup Progress to BAC
Preliminary Workgroup meets at Pierce College (4 days)
Internal ctcLink review and follow up for preliminary value definition work

6. Preliminary Recommendations
Update the Account Chartfield Value Framework
Issue(s):
The current organization of PeopleSoft Account values doesn’t fully leverage PeopleSoft capabilities, especially in terms of reporting, and there have been concerns expressed that the original value ranges don’t provide enough space for us to grow once in the new PeopleSoft system.
Recommendation(s):
We are recommending that a new financial statement based framework for structuring an organizing Account values be used. It is also recommended that the length of PeopleSoft Account values be increased if necessary to provide adequate ranges of available values for growth (e.g. increasing all Account values from the current 6 digit length to 7 digits).

7. Preliminary Recommendations
Redefine the Use of Chartfield 1 (Sub-Account)
Issue(s):
Chartfield 1 (CF1) –currently called Sub-Account – is a locally defined, optionally used Chartfield that houses college Sub-Sub-Object codes. This usage does not fit into the overall PeopleSoft accounting structure and results in a situation where the Chartfield itself is both underutilized and difficult to use consistently across the different pillars in its limited capacity.
Recommendation(s):
We are recommending that Chartfield 1 no longer be used to house Sub-Sub-Object codes. Critical Sub-Subs would be created as new PeopleSoft Expense Accounts (similar to what was done with Revenue Sub Sources). Chartfield 1 would remain a locally defined, optionally used Chartfield, but would be renamed to “College Defined” and would have no pre-determined use or framework.

8. Preliminary Recommendations
Eliminate Restrictions in the Department Framework
Issue(s):
An earlier redesign effort that was focused only on the Department Chartfield resulted in the creation of a standard Department framework that grouped college Department values into pre-defined functional range bands (e.g. values for “Executive” functions). This framework places limitations on how colleges can implement the Department Chartfield and does not provide added value when the larger chart of accounts is taken into consideration; the reporting advantages it provides are redundant with the Class Chartfield.
Recommendation(s):
We are recommending that the Department framework requirement set earlier be eliminated with the exception of a range of values ( ) that would be reserved for use in specific system-wide accounting processes or configuration where a standard value is required across all colleges. College would work with the ctcLink project teams to help determine what framework best suits that individual college.

9. Preliminary Recommendations
Separate PeopleSoft Fund Values into Funds/Approps
Issue(s):
The original PeopleSoft chart of accounts design combined Legacy Fund and Appropriation values into one Chartfield in PeopleSoft: Fund. This has resulted in different accounting requirements in terms of transaction balancing, and concerns have been raised around the ease of roll-up Fund level reporting out of PeopleSoft.
Recommendation(s):
We are recommending that values currently defined in the Fund Chartfield be divided into Fund values and Appropriation values. Fund values would remain in the Fund Chartfield, but Appropriation values would be moved to a separate “Appropriation” Chartfield. All PeopleSoft transactions will still require a Fund Chartfield value, and Combination Edit Rules would be used to enforce what transactions require both a Fund and Appropriation Chartfield value.

10. Preliminary Recommendations
Clean Up Class Chartfield Values and Framework
Issue(s):
Concerns have been raised about how Legacy Program Index values have been copied into the Class Chartfield. The current value definition also doesn’t utilize roll up values consistently and includes some local reporting items that conflict with the global usage of the Chartfield.
Recommendation(s):
We are recommending that certain sets of redundant Chartfield values (redundant within the Class Chartfield or other aspects of PeopleSoft) be cleaned up as part of the redesign deployment. This clean up process will be done in tandem with ctcLink conversion and conversion validation activities. Roll up values will also be better defined to help with consistency in the overall organization and use of the Class Chartfield.

11. Next Steps – Global Design Review
What is the Global Design Review (GDR)?
The Global Design Review is a series of workshop days focused on providing education to college SMEs about global configuration items in PeopleSoft and also on addressing outstanding global design decisions with the broader college audience.
The Global Design Review workshops run Monday-Thursday from May 14th to May 25th, 2018
There will be workshops for all three pillars, and session details can be found through the main ctcLink Canvas site:
The Chart of Accounts Redesign Session is currently scheduled for Monday, May 14th, and will run all day

12. Questions?

13. Thank you for your time today!