SMU’s undergraduate student/faculty ratio is 12:1. Sixty percent of all undergraduate lecture sections have fewer than 25 students.

SMU Chart of Accounts

SMU's financial system accumulates and reports financial information to those responsible for administration of University funds. The University's financial accounting system, PeopleSoft Financials for Public Sector, is specifically designed to support the financial management of colleges and universities. In addition to the standard accounting functions of accounts payable, accounts receivable and general ledger, it also performs the specialized functions of fund accounting, encumbrance reporting and grants management. The system maintains a financial data base from which standard reports are produced. 

Accumulators known as ChartFields are used to track and report on transactions.  The chartfields are Fund, Account, Organization, Project/Grant, Program and Sub-Class. ChartFields are maintained by Financial Systems Support. 

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Fund

Funds segregate financial information for the purpose of carrying on specific activities and attaining certain objectives in accordance with regulations, restrictions, and limitations. They maintain a self-balancing set of accounts to record cash and other financial resources, together with related liabilities and residual equities or balances.

Length	2 characters
Type	Numeric
Use	Distinguish transactions for traditional fund accounting. Used by Grants & Contracts to distinguish funding source group.
Examples	10 - Unrestricted Fund  12 - Designated Fund 20 - Current Restricted Fund  25 - Plant Fund 30 – Endowment
Required	Yes
Quantity	26

Click here to download the complete list of Funds (SMU Community only).

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Account

Accounts classify transactions as expenditure, revenue, asset, liability, or equity (fund balance) transactions.

Length	4 characters
Type	Numeric
Use	Accumulate transactions by natural classification
Examples	Cash Accounts Receivable Accounts Payable Tuition Revenue Supplies Expense
Required	Yes
Quantity	627

Click here to download a complete list of Accounts (SMU Community only).

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Organization

Organization codes (Orgs) represent a department or discrete operating unit within the university.  Budgeting and reporting occur at the Organization level.  

Length	6 characters.
Type	Numeric
Use	Accumulate transactions for each individual reporting/budgetary unit
Examples	Office of the President College Anthropology Dean of Students Controllers Office
Required	Yes
Quantity	5,086

To view a list of Orgs for your area, contact your Financial Officer.

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Project/Grant

Project/Grant IDs segregate and track grant and project encumbrances, revenues and expenditures.    

Length	7 characters
Type	Alpha-numeric (alpha character(s) denotes type of grant, or responsible area for non-grants)
Use	Accumulate transactions for particular grants, projects or events (used instead of subclass when there is a specific start and end date or when payroll costs will be charged).  Also used to track costs of phases or segments within a larger project.
Examples	Electrical Magnets;  Dorm Renovation;  President’s Visit.
Required	Only for Grants & Contracts
Quantity	544

To view a list of Projects/Grants for your area, contact your Financial Officer.

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Sub-Class

Sub-Class is a flexible accumulator.  Sub-Class codes are utilized for a variety of purposes, depending on the situation.  For example, sub-classes are used to track individual travel receivables.  Individual schools or departments can tailor sub-class for specific reporting needs.  However, there are university-wide sub-classes to capture revenues and expenses for specific transaction-types such as University Donations and Training Costs.  

Length	5 characters.
Type	Numeric or Alpha-numeric
Use	(1)   sub-account to track individual receivables;  (2)   sub-account to further breakdown revenues and expenses;  (3)   accumulator for a particular event or type of expense that   repeats from year to year; (4)   accumulator for specific university-wide transaction-types not covered by an Account
Examples	Travel Receivables  Mock Court Trial Competition University Donations
Required	Only for Travel Receivable
Quantity	2,075

Click here to view a list of university-wide sub-classes.  To view sub-classes for your area, contact your Financial Officer.

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Program

Programs are groups of related activities directed toward the accomplishment of sets of identifiable objectives.  Program codes are not assigned by a user when inputting a transaction into the system.  A system process runs monthly that assigns program codes to transactions based on a set of criteria.  Program categories are used for financial and statutory reporting.

Length	5 characters
Type	Alpha
Use	System-populated on revenue and expense lines in the Ledger based on transaction criteria to provide reporting by functional category
Examples	INST - Instructional Support ACAD - Academic Support   STUD - Student Services
Required	Yes (but not at time of input)
Quantity	94

Click here to download the list of Programs. 

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Questions? Contact Financial Systems Support