Chart of Accounts

**UPDATED 4/2025 - COA Closures & Hierarchy changes - FY25 year-end timetable.**

The Chart of Accounts (COA) is a set of codes used to classify and record financial transactions in meaningful ways. It provides the structure for reporting and monitoring financial activity at Yale. The COA consists of segments and descriptive attributes that help the University organize financial information for:

• Internal reporting and financial management
• External reporting and compliance
• Effective management of restricted funds

Different COA segments tell us information such as:

• How an activity was funded
• Who is responsible for financial oversight of the transaction (i.e., which department incurred the expense or earned income)
• What is the activity in which the unit engaged (i.e., mission, line of business and detailed activities)
• How to “account” for something purchased or sold

Consistent use of the COA on transactions is crucial to enable consistent and meaningful reporting for faculty, staff, University leadership, and external users.

View detailed information and resources about the COA.

FY2025 Year-end Timetable for Reorganizations (hierarchy changes)

Below please find the timetable for Cost Center and Cost Center Hierarchy changes.

Please also note that COA segment closures do not take place during the year-end period close. As such, the last segment closures occur with the May month-end in calendar June. Closures generally resume with the September month-end in calendar October.

Please submit all closure / reorganization requests to COA or YSM Controller no later than Friday, May 23, 2025.

Winding Down:

• May month-end (calendar June) – Last opportunity for cost center reorgs

No Cost Center Modifications:

• June month-end (calendar July)
• July month-end (calendar Aug)
• Aug month-end (calendar Sept)

Resuming Activity:

• Sept month-end (calendar Oct) – Resume ALL Workday cost center reorgs – (both within and between Planning Units)

COA Validation Tool

This is a web-based tool that validates Chart of Account (COA). This tool can be used for validating both a single set of COA charging instructions or a batch of COA charging instructions. In addition to validating each individual COA segment, the validator also looks at the combination of certain COA segments to ensure they are valid. The tool shows a set of pre- determined validation error messages upon validation of segments. Note: The tool validates INDIVIDUAL SEGMENTS ONLY to indicate if that segment is valid for transactions in Workday. The tool is unable to perform all of the transaction-based validations that exist in Workday. As a result, it is possible that the segments will indicate valid in the tool and could result in an error upon transaction process/import in Workday.

• User Guide- Enter
• User Guide - Batch
• COA Validator and Integration Hub Access Request Form