Account Dashboard Overview

Accounting Dashboard Overview

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What is a dashboard?

A dashboard is an interactive user interface that organizes and presents information in a way that is easy to read. The information on the CBS Accounting Dashboard displays constantly updated information of real time balances for college and department planning. The Accounting Dashboard highlights the balances on accounts with departments and business centers working in tandem to forecast revenue, expenditures, commitments and allocations.

CBS Purpose and Goals

The purpose of the CAHNRS Business System (CBS) web application is to provide a centralized enterprise-wide database system for managing all CAHNRS related data and reports. This financial management tool will facilitate the daily activities in the management of real-time account balances and reconciling forecasted shadow account activity against actual AIS accounts to avoid under-allocating and overspending. The ability to accurately track and analyze all CAHNRS financial activity in both the AIS systems and CAHNRS shadow accounting systems enables employees to better communicate financial planning and budgeting goals and meet their required reporting obligations. Consequently, this will enable the faculty to meet legal reporting requirements for grants and other accounts.

Accounting Dashboard Menu

Accounting Dashboard Field Descriptions

Name: Name of account, Parent and Shadow Accounts

Budget, Project, Fund, Sub, Prog: Account structure

Obj: Allowable objects on the account from Report 15 AIS BALANCES

Balance: AIS Balance of account.

Forecasted: Forecasted balance totaling all forecasts on the Parent account and any Shadow Accounts.

Total: Summary of the AIS Balance less Forecasted amount on account resulting in the account real time balance.

PI: Principle Investigator name from Report 15 AIS BALANCES, if one is listed. This field is modifiable for Shadow Accounts. You can NOT change the name of a PI on the Parent account. You CAN add and change the name of a PI on a shadow account.

Start and End date: Editable field to enter start and end dates for Shadow Accounts

Org: Organizational number associated with an account

Forecast: This true/false column indicates whether the system should treat the shadow account as a forecast or as an account. If set to true the forecast amount will show a negative version of the balance, effectively removing the shadow account balance from the overall account total. This will also exclude that account balance from roll up reports. This option exists so that reconciling against a large forecast can be streamlined. For information on how this streamlines the reconciliation process please consult with your Business Center.

Options:

Click on the links in the dashboard to access various overlays of information.

Postings: ‘Account Postings’ AIS activity that has not been reconciled.

Activity: ‘Account Activity’ AIS activity that has been reconciled and includes forecasts to account, automatic from the Purchasing Module and manual from data input via the Transaction option below.

Transaction: Forecasts, Transfers and Adjustments-links to perform the following:

Transaction Types and Definitions:

Forecasts: Used for keeping track of anticipated expenses. We can forecast an expected expense (debit) or allocation credit) from the parent (AIS) account to a shadow account, or across AIS accounts. These transactions are shown in the forecast column and affect the AIS account balance shown at the top of the account list but the rolled up balance total for the account shown at the bottom remains the same as the AIS balance amount.

Transfers: Used for recording an immediate debit or credit of funds from the parent account to one of the shadow accounts. Can also be used to debit or credit funds from different AIS parent accounts, providing the foundation for a system to request and record transfers before they are processed through AIS.

Adjustments: Arbitrarily add or subtract a fixed amount in either the parent account or the shadow account to rectify errors or adjust balances. This is designed as a function that will help correct small balances in rare annual occasions.

Archive: Used to archive Parent or Shadow accounts after they have been closed and zeroed out then flagged as ‘inactive” in AIS. Archiving a shadow        account will transfer all of the account activity back to the parent account. Data warehouse will continue to upload closed and zeroed accounts as long        as that active flag is still on the account. These records can be accessed at another time to review history. CAUTION! Archiving an account is global; no        other users will be able to see the account.

Delete: To delete a shadow account that has ended and all commitments have been met. The shadow account will be permanently deleted. If you        would like to view the history in the future choose to Archive instead. A parent account cannot be deleted.

Reconcile Multiple option...

...is discussed in the reconciliation material on the Wiki https://wiki.cahnrs.wsu.edu/pages/alltags . Documentation will open a new tab to view the Accounting Dashboard documentation for quick reference.

AIS Account Balance view while in CBS:

Click on the budget project link to display the AIS Report 01 screen; this view will open another tab in your browser. Note: Grant accounts 11-14 do not show prior year allocation and expenditure history in CBS, however Encumbrances and the Balance will be the same on the Dashboard and AIS. State accounts 01-10, 15-17 will show allocations. This does not affect the balance in CBS.

Accounting Dashboard Search, Sort and Filter Tips

Search for Transaction Type: Use the first letter for Forecast, Reconciliation, Transfer, or Adjustment. If you type more than the first letter your search will not call up information. To view only shadow accounts from the dashboard type an “s” into the Name field. To view only parent type a “p”.

Here is more information on searching, sorting and filtering in CBS.