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Uniform School Accounting System (USAS)
User Guide
USAS Chart of Accounts

The Uniform School Accounting System (USAS) uses the chart of accounts established by the Auditor of State's Office. There are four types of accounts that track the expenditures and revenue transactions of school districts. The four types of accounts are:

• Cash Accounts
• Appropriation Accounts
• Budget Accounts
• Revenue Accounts

The cash, appropriation and budget accounts are updated when purchase orders, invoices, and checks are processed in USAS. The cash and revenue accounts are updated when receipts are processed.

The accounts are composed of various account dimensions that contain up to thirty digits. Some of the account dimensions are assigned by the Auditor of State, while others are assigned at the district level. The Auditor of State's Office has a manual titled "Uniform School Accounting System" where every dimension except two are defined. The two dimensions not defined in the manual are defined by the school district using special programs designed to enter their own valid codes.

The four types of accounts will be explained and the dimensions needed for each type will be identified.

CASH ACCOUNTS

Cash accounts are established to track the actual amount of cash that the district has in the bank. As expenditures are made, the cash is decreased and as receipts are posted, the cash increases. The cash accounts are composed of the following account dimensions:

Table 2-1 Examples of Cash Accounts

Cash Balance Account

A cash balance account tracks the expenditures and receipts for a particular fund. The Special Cost Center (SCC) for a cash balance account is 0000. If budget and revenue accounts are allocated SCC's between 0000 and 8999, inclusive, then expenditures and receipts with these special cost centers are posted against the cash balance account of all zeros. In the above example, the cash account of 00 001 0000 is a cash balance account.

Cash Control Account

A cash control account means that you want to establish an account to track the cash of a particular fund separate from the other SCC's in that fund. In order to accomplish this, you must establish a cash account that has a SCC of 9000 or greater. In the above example, the cash account of 00 514 9096 is considered a cash control account because the SCC is 9000 or greater.

APPROPRIATION ACCOUNTS

Appropriation accounts are the expenditure accounts used when the school district is audited. An appropriation account is used to track the estimated and actual expenses incurred by the school district. The appropriation accounts are composed of the following account dimensions:

Table 2-2 Examples of Appropriation Accounts

Most of the processing programs will prompt you for a budget account, not an appropriation account. The budget account is converted into an appropriation account internally by the programs. The appropriation accounts are practically invisible to you in most circumstances. However, you do have the ability to generate reports on appropriation accounts, and you can also look at appropriation accounts through inquiry programs.

BUDGET ACCOUNTS

Budget accounts provide a further breakdown of estimated and actual expenditures than what the appropriation accounts provide. Auditors are interested in the expenditures at the appropriation levels, but the school administration might want to track the expenditures at a more detailed level than the appropriation level.

In most districts, the budget and appropriation accounts are "linked", meaning that the total dollar amount on the budget accounts equals the total dollar amount on an associated appropriation account. This is controlled by the way your district's USASDAT files are set. You might have three, five, or many budget accounts associated with one appropriation account. The budget accounts are composed of the following account dimensions:

One note that should be made regarding job assignments is that these are not verified against the job assignment codes from the Auditor of State. This means that this dimension could be used for a unique situation in a district where user defined codes are needed.

Table 2-3 Examples of Budget Accounts

REVENUE ACCOUNTS

Revenue accounts track the estimated and actual receipts for a school district. The revenue accounts are composed of the following account dimensions:

Table 2-4 Examples of Revenue Accounts

It is possible to generate a report to show the valid account dimensions defined by the Auditor of State's Office. The program name is REVEDT. When you run the program, select the report option.

It should be noted that subject codes are not included on the REVEDT report. You will need to look at the Auditor of State's Manual or the Appendix C of the EMIS Guide to obtain the valid subject codes for budget and revenue accounts.

Examples of Expenditure Accounts

Below are examples of accounts that were created for a district. The appropriation account is more general in comparison to the budget accounts. There can be many budget accounts associated with each appropriation account.

The budget accounts specify exactly what the account is being used for. Note how the budget account identifies exactly which building and grade level the expenditures are being incurred for. Again, this type of detail may be very useful in making management decisions. However, the auditors are only interested in the more general information in the appropriation accounts.

 
 
Cash   00 001 0000          - General Fund 
Acct 
 
Approp 01 001 1100 100 0000 - Regular Teachers' Salaries 
Acct 
 
Budget 02 001 1100 111 0000 000000 001 01 000 - First Grade Salaries 
Budget 02 001 1100 111 0000 000000 001 02 000 - Second Grade Salaries 
Budget 02 001 1100 111 0000 020000 001 00 000 - Elem. Art Salaries 
Budget 02 001 1100 111 0000 020000 002 00 000 - Middle School Art Salaries 
Budget 02 001 1100 111 0000 030000 003 00 000 - H.S. Business Salaries 
 
    
Approp 01 001 2200 500 0000 - Library Supplies and Materials 
Acct 
 
Budget 02 001 2222 510 0000 000000 004 00 000 - Lib. supplies, hs, ms, elem 
Budget 02 001 2222 530 0000 000000 004 00 000 - Books 
Budget 02 001 2222 540 0000 000000 004 00 000 - Periodicals 
Budget 02 001 2222 543 0000 000000 004 00 000 - Audio Visual Supplies 
 
 
 

Based on the above accounts, here is how an expenditure would take place on the system. First, it should be noted that when an expenditure occurs in USAS, the cash, appropriation, and budget accounts will all be updated.

• A purchase order would be issued. When entering a purchase order, a budget account that you want to charge would be entered. At this time, the encumbrances in the budget account would be increased. Once a check is created, the expenditures in the budget account would be increased while the encumbrances would decrease.

• The USAS programs would automatically convert the budget account and charge the correct appropriation account. There are internal routines which convert the budget account to an appropriation account. For example, if the account 001 2222 543 0000 000 were being charged, the programs would turn the budget into an appropriation as follows:

  TI	01	-	Appropriations are always 01.
  Fund	001	-	Use the fund number from the budget account.
  Function	2200	-	The function code on an appropriation account will only have two levels of significance. Therefore, the function code on the budget account of 2222 would be changed to 2200.
  Object	500	-	In most cases, the object code on an appropriation account will only have one level of significance. The 543 would be changed to 500.
  SCC	0000	-	Use the SCC from the budget account. If the SCC on the budget account is between 0001 and 8999, the SCC would be changed to 0000.

The program would then look up the appropriation account and increase the expenditures. The same logic takes place with the cash account.

The expenditures would then be increased on the cash account and the available balance would be reduced.

Examples of Revenue Accounts

Revenue accounts are less complicated than the expenditure side of the accounting system because they deal only with revenue and cash accounts. Some examples of revenue accounts follow:

    
    
    Cash    00 001 0000 - General Fund 
 
    Revenue 03 001 1790 0000 000000 000  - Driver's Education Lab Fees 
    Revenue 03 001 3110 0000 000000 000  - State Foundation 
 
    Cash    00 003 0000 - Permanent Improvement 
 
    Revenue 03 003 1111 0000 000000 000  - Real Estate Taxes 
 
 

When a receipt is posted on the system, the revenue account and the cash account are both updated. As you enter the receipt into the processing programs, the correct revenue account is entered. For the example of a receipt being posted to account 001 3100 0000 000000 000, the program would use the following steps to get the correct cash account.

Expenditures and Receipts: How They Affect Cash Accounts

As mentioned earlier, the cash accounts reflect how much cash the district has in the bank. Both expenditures and receipts update the cash accounts. The cash accounts must be balanced to the bank statement at the end of the month. If we were to look at the general fund cash account for a school district, we would see an account that looks something like this:

Sample Cash Account:

         
     
Fund number                    TI Fnd Spcc 
                             : 00 001 0000 
Fund Description             : GENERAL FUND                                 
July 1 Cash Balance          :   1.944,413.09 
Current Encumbrances         :     231,018.96 
Current Payables             :           0.00 
Year-to-date Receipts        :     358,364.71 
Fiscal YTD Receipts          :   3,811,221.48 
Month-to-date Receipts       :     358,364.71 
Year-to-date Expended        :     413,999.16 
Fiscal YTD Expended          :   3,545,272.70 
Month-to-date Expended       :     413,999.16 
Current Fund Balance         :   2,210,361.87 
Current Investments          :   1,371.179.33 
Unencumbered Cash Balance    :   1,979,342.91 
Current Avail. Cash Balance  :     839,182.54 
Bank Code                    :               
 
 

As expenditures are made for the general fund, the three Expended fields are increased, and the Current Avail. Cash Balance field is decreased in the cash account.

The budget and appropriation accounts are also updated. If a reduction of expenditure is processed, the Expended fields would decrease and the Current Avail. Cash Balance would increase.

As receipts are processed for the general fund, the three Receipt fields are increased and the Current Avail. Cash Balance field is also increased in the cash account. If a refund of receipt is processed, the Receipt fields are decreased and the Current Avail. Cash Balance is decreased. The revenue accounts are also updated in both cases.