Net balance cleanup being performed by Central Finance in May and June 2021 – no action required

In March 2021, Central Finance suspended use of revenue category (RC) on the net balance allocation that posts during the month-end close process. RC073: Other Income will no longer be part of the detailed chart of accounts (COA) for net balances on ledger account 31001. For consistency, all prior year net balances and fiscal year to date net balances will be adjusted to remove this RC. To accomplish this, in May and June 2021, the Controller’s Office will post cleanup journal entries to remove RC073 from ledger account 31001. No action is required by departmental staff. You may see additional transaction activity, but it will net to zero at the detailed COA level and will not change ending net balances.

Background

Shortly after conversion from Oracle to Workday, an inconsistency in the COA model used for converted net balance data and booked-in-Workday net balance data was identified. Ledger account 31001 is a balance sheet account. Balance sheet ledger accounts neither natively “go” with, nor require a Revenue or Spend Category. This partnership is required only on statement of activities (SOA) ledger accounts.

The converted net balances from Oracle do not carry an RC. The balances that have been booked in Workday through February 2021 contain an RC. As a result, we have:

a) An inconsistent model in the general ledger, and

b) Where a COA combination with pre- and post-conversion net balance has been “cleared” to zero, the zero balance will continue to show in workday reports. This is because at the journal line detail level there are unique lines with and without RC.

Corrective actions by central finance

Effective with the March FY21 month-end close, the allocation definition for net balance was modified to remove the RC on the net balance entry.

During the May and June FY21 periods, the Controller’s Office will post cleanup journal entries to remove RC at the detailed COA level. No other COA segment will be changed (LA, Gift, Grant, YD, CC, PG, PJ, Assignee). The entries will be posted using the journal source, Business Solutions Operations Use Only (BSOUSE). The journal memo will be “Remove RC from 31001”.

Example:

If there is a debit balance in YD1.CC0077.PG01234.PJ000001.FD01.EB484.RC073 of $50, the journal entry for that COA combination will be:

Dr. $50  31001.YD1.CC0077.PG01234.PJ000001.FD01.EB484
Cr. $50  31001.YD1.CC0077.PG01234.PJ000001.FD01.EB484.RC073

No action is required by departments. Please keep the following in mind:

• Distributed management-view reports in Workday, interactive reports in the DataMart, and YBT reports do not use booked net balance; reports calculate the ending balance based on expense, revenue, and transfer activity.
• This cleanup work does not change net balances at the detailed COA level.
• For any COA combination where an FY21 balance report shows two lines (both with a beginning and ending balance of zero) resulting from this RC inconsistency, when the FY21 year-end close is fully complete, the FY22 reports will no longer show a line for this cleared COA combination.

Example of balance before/after cleanup entries:

Example of behavior in reports from FY21-JUN ending balance to FY22-JUL beginning balance:

Questions regarding the journal entries or net balance may be directed to General Accounting at controller.genacct@yale.edu. Reporting questions may be directed to Financial Systems and Solutions at askfinance@yale.edu.