Introduction to Construction Accounting

What is a Ledger?

A set of financial records. Multiple ledgers exist - CONSTC (Construction) and CONAPPN (Construction E&G money transferred from a department). Different ledgers have different rules. Carry Forward can only exist in CONAPPN. Ledgers contain budget and expense transactions (no deposit/cash or revenues in these ledgers).

General Ledger is ALL things UF.

What is a Journal Entry?

This is a direct entry into the general ledger. It bypasses the "normal" processing (the AP module). Who is allowed to create these? Only Deborah/Construction Accounting can do construction transactions. General accounting is not allowed, and departments are not allowed.

Journals get "posted," - and only certain people on campus can post journals. General accounting, C&G & Construction Accounting.

There are two main types of journal entries for construction:

Cash journal entries
- Examples are moving department money into a construction (5xx) fund or receiving cash from the state. Needed to actually pay invoices; however, some flavors of money UF fronts and gets reimbursed by the source agency (for example, federal money).
  A cash draw is when you ask for actual cash.
Budget journal entries
- This is more like a line of credit; this is needed for a project to start issuing POs; cash is not required. Not real money.

Funding Considerations

Department transfers are typically both budget and cash at the same time. Federal money works differently, we spend UF money and get reimbursed by the federal money. Deferred Maintenance and grants are two examples of federal money.

ACH and checks come in through the receivables system, which batches overnight and shows up in GL (General Ledger).

E2Es, E2Rs, and DPC (deposit correction) are all journal entires too.

E2R = Expense to Revenue (FS, EHS, UFIT, Animal Care, etc) - paying any internal department
E2E = Expense to Expense - changing how something is paid (or moving expenses from one chartfield to another)
DPC = Deposit Correction

What is the difference between cash and budget?

Budget = line of credit, Cash = money

What is the difference between budget and funding?

Budget is the estimate numbers in Tracker. Funding is what is actually being approved by BOT, etc (and what is setup in PeopleSoft as "budget").

What is Carry Forward?

Every department gets money every fiscal year - this money is called "CRRNT" (Current). If money is not spent in the current year gets rolled to the next fiscal year and put into a "CARRY FORWARD" source. This is only for E&G funds. Other funds do not move and are all considered current (CRRNT).

What Dept IDs are used for construction?

7501 - Major Construction
7502 - IFAS
7503 - Not Used (used to be PDC HSC)
7504 - Utility Projects
7505 - Not Used (PPDHC)
7506 - PDC Minor Projects
7507 - Housing
7508 - PK Yonge
7509 - FS Projects (not utility)
7510 - Scripps
7511 - Escrow (for Escrow projects)

What are account codes? Which ones are important for construction?

Anything with a 7xxxxxx means construction.

74xxxx - repairs & maintenance expense
787xxx - capital projects
7xxxxxx furniture & equipment
7xxxxxx lap supplies
7xxxxxx computers

What are construction funds, and what's the difference between them?

Bond funds, loan funds, federal funds, state PECO funds, research funds, General Revenue CITF - different funds determine what type of funding it is. Money is moved from a UF fund into a construction fund for tracking.

All construction funds start with a 5xx.

What rules govern construction funds?

Expenses must be on a 7xxxxxx account. In general, IDC money has to be spent on a research facility. 212 money also needs to be research. Sponsored programs has to approve 212 and other research money. 213 is Royalty money, has to be approved by Julie Rhee (CFO's office). 143 Continuing Education, Barbara Bennet has to approve this. 201/209 funds rules are set by the funding agency. Auxiliary money should be used to support auxiliaries. State money has a lot of rules, can't use that on auxiliary projects. Can't use state money to build "new space" (addition/new construction). Can't use state money on non E&G space (UF Health, Auxiliaries, etc). There are exceptions to all of these rules. E&G can only spend $1M on entire project (projects must be less than $1M, not E&G portion). Current can only be used for repairs & maintenance. Carry forward rules - Brenda to send flow chart.

What else don't we know that is important about construction accounting?

When a department adds funding and leaves something off, there isn't a way for Construction Accounting to edit that in Tracker.

Being involved in the beginning of the process (project creation), we need to review projects early to determine if funding sources are appropriate.

Closeouts - There needs to be good communication between PM and Construction Accounting. Lots of fiscal year-end activities have to occur.

Type of project - rules about capitalization - a pain point for CA - communication is difficult because they need to know if it's capitalized or expensed. PMs talk about "major" and "minor," which isn't relevant to Construction Accounting.

Capitalization - either a $250,000 budget or 25% of building value means the project is capitalized (or brand new space, always capitalized).

Quick response - Construction Accounting doesn't care about these and doesn't need them in the system. PDC seems to still be doing these. Less than $250k and with only one vendor. Some departments aren't allowed to do QR projects (Pharmacy and Vet Med always go through Construction Accounting). QR transactions are currently not currently tagged with a project number.

Change orders are done via Tracker currently. CA requests change orders, and Deb's group executes them in PeopleSoft.

Purchase orders - IFAS creates the requisition in myUFMarket, PDC PM creates the request in Tracker, and CA creates the requisition in myUFMarket.