Segment Structure & Order

The Chart of Accounts (COA) Redesign Project will provide greater visibility into the accounting structure for Ohio University. As of October 2015, the Assessment Phase of the current COA usage was completed and a series of future state design sessions were held. In these future state design meetings, the Core Project Team reviewed internal and external reporting requirements, looked at best practices in designing a new COA, gathered information from other universities’ Chart of Accounts to determine leading practices and to propose a new COA structure. Data from campus interviews and a University wide survey to assess current state COA usage was collected in September 2015 and resulted in recommendations for the COA segment structure and definition. On October 6, the proposed structure was reviewed with the RC Strategy and RC Technical Groups to validate and determine the order of the segments. This new structure and segment order, which meets the “Who, What, Why, Where, and How” requirements, is detailed below.

Current Chart of Accounts Segment Structure

The new COA Segment Structure

Designed based on current state survey results, Campus interviews, COA Core Project Team research, and input from the COA Partner Group, RC Strategy and RC Technical Groups. The new Chart of Accounts will introduce two unique account strings, one for the General Ledger and a separate for “Grants”. The Oracle Grants Accounting Module will be used to track what is currently tracked in the Projects module - capital projects and sponsored projects; the Grants module can also be used to track internal awards (research incentives, start-up funds, professional development grants, etc.). Utilizing the Oracle Grants Accounting module will provide the flexibility to track activity both by fiscal year and project period. There will also be a Grants reporting dashboard that will enable faculty and staff to view the status of their projects and awards within OBI.

General Ledger Segment Structure

More detailed information is available for each segment:

• Entity definitions
• Source definitions
• Organization definitions
• Activity definitions
• Function Overview
  • Function definitions [Excel]
• Object definitions

Grants Accounting Segment Structure

Segment Values are currently being determined by the Core Project Team and the Chart of Accounts Partner Group. The values will be shared and validated with the RC Strategy and RC Technical Groups and will continue to be fine-tuned throughout the project as the detailed mapping exercise with Planning Units began in December 2015.

Send questions, feedback and input to coa@ohio.edu