Link to the KFS Production Environment?

This is the production environment. Login with your NWU number and Network password.

Process to follow when encountering a problem in KFS

Follow this process when encountering a problem in KFS.

Useful information per module

Some useful information per module.

Important dates?

VV - Departmental Card Application form

Link to the KFS Test Environment?

This is the test environment used by the Change Champions and will be used for training purposes as well. Login with your NWU number and use your NWU number as password.

What is KFS?

KFS is an acronym for Kuali Financial System. KFS is the new financial system to be used by the NWU from 5 January 2015.

When are we going live with KFS?

5 January 2015.

When will Oracle FIN be switched off?

Oracle FIN will be switched off on 19 December 2014 allowing the experts to do the necessary tasks before we go live with KFS on 5 January 2014.

What about KFS training?

Training will be provided from September to November 2014 and will be arranged by the different Change Champions.

Will my Oracle username and password be carried over to KFS?

No. You will login with your NWU number and Network password (This is the same username and password you would use for GroupWise).

Will my activities and cost strings stay the same?

No. In Oracle the format was Campus.CostCentre.Account.SOF.Activity (e.g. 01.61819.24110.2.RN69577). In KFS the format is Chart.SOFandAccount.Object (e.g. P.2S12345.2553).

Account

Identifies a pool of funds assigned to a specific university organizational for a specific purpose. A unique 7-digit number identifying accounts by their nature and according to certain criteria.

Account Manager

An individual who has the responsibility for ensuring that funds are spent and managed according to the function identified for the account. The Account Manager is the owner of an account and is populated on the Account for inquiry and reporting purposes.

Account Type Code

An attribute of account that categorizes (or groups) accounts for reporting purposes. The Account Type is represented by the alphabetic characters in the Account number.

Accounting

The systematic recording, reporting, and analysis of financial transactions of a business.

Accounting Combination

An unique 12-character string used in financial transactions. The combination consists of the following fields: Chart (1) - Account (7) - Object (4).

Accounts Payable (AP)

A system which integrates department and vendor information with purchasing, general ledger, capital asset management and departmental systems.

Accounts Receivable (AR)

The system which provides all departments a non-student revenue receivable system which formats bills or invoices, and processes payments while performing all of the accounting work. It also provides reports stating the current status for a department's receivables.

Accruals

An accounting term that indicates that an expense or revenue will be recorded at the time that it is incurred rather than when cash is paid out.

Ad Hoc Routing

To route a document to a user or role that normally would not receive it for special approval, or for information only (FYI). The routing returns to the prescribed path after the Ad Hoc Routing is complete.

Add-on

Items which are not complete in themselves, and are attached to a capitalized or expensed equipment item. Add-ons are usually assigned a component asset.

Advance End Date

Indicates the date at which an advance should be covered by another voucher/document.

Agreement

A contract duly executed and legally binding as affected by applicable rules of law. The university engages in commodity agreements and price schedule agreements.

Appropriation

1. An amount allocated for expenditure. 2. A sum budgeted for a department, unit or activity to identify a limit on the amount that can be expended under a particular account fund/sub budget.

Asset

The term used for equipment/property owned by the university.

Asset Number

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Asset Representative

The asset representative is the NWUKFS user assigned to and responsible for the physical inventory of the assets for a custodial code.

Attributes

Characteristics of all Chart of Accounts elements that include, among other things, the purpose and description.

Bank Draft

This is a check drawn on a bank in a foreign country in a foreign currency and mailed from Accounts Payable.

Billing ID

A four-character ID number used by several campus service units for billing departments. Billing IDs are created and maintained by departments, and provided to a service unit at the time a service is requested. Each Billing ID is associated with a single Account. It may also have a Sub-Account and/or Project associated with it.

Blanket Order

A purchase agreement in which the purchaser contracts with a vendor to provide item(s), and/or service(s), on an "as required" and frequent basis. Such agreements have a limit on the period of time for which they are valid, and the amount of money that can be spent in that time.

Budget

An estimate of income and expenditure for a set period of time. Handled by IDU.

Capital Asset Management (CAMS)

The module in NWUKFS used for the financial accounting and physical tracking of university equipment.

Chart of Accounts (COA)

Chart of Accounts (COA) is the set of tables that define financial information, such as the codes and coding structures within KFS, including attributes like Accounts, Organizations, and Object Codes. The COA module exists primarily to support and validate entries into the General Ledger (GL).

Commodity Code

An alphanumeric classification code for an acquired item. The commodity code selected drives the object code and description field in Purchasing documents.

Credit (to an account)

An increase in income or a decrease in expense. For balance sheet accounts, an increase in fund balances or liabilities, or a decrease in asset accounts.

Debit (to an account)

An increase in expense or a decrease in income. For balance sheet accounts, an increase in assets, or decrease in fund balances or liability accounts.

Delegate

A KFS user role that allows another user to approve documents at the Account Review level of routing as if they were the Fiscal Officer of an account. Fiscal Officers can delegate approval authority to other users based on attributes of a transaction, such as document type and amount.

Disbursements Voucher (DV)

Ad-hoc payments not transacted through the Purchasing/Accounts Payable module. In Oracle it is called invoices for Employees and students.

Distribution of Income and Expense (DI)

A DI document is used to distribute income, expenses, assets and liabilities from one account to one or more appropriate account(s) when one account has incurred expenses or received income on behalf of one or more other accounts.

Document Initiator

The NWUKFS user who opens and completes an electronic document.

Document Type

All documents in NWUKFS are identified by a document type - e.g. the Vendor Invoice is identified as VI. Document type can be used to narrow the results of a search for a particular document.

E-Doc

An electronic document (online screen) used to process a business transaction. Eg. DV, DI, PREQ etc. Replacing the paper (hard copy) versions.

Encumbrance

A reservation of funds to cover obligations arising from purchase orders, contracts, etc. that are chargeable to, but not yet paid from, a specific account. Encumbrances project future expenditures and provide fiscal officers with a more accurate representation of an accounts available balance.

Equipment

Generally, equipment is classified as a free-standing item having an acquisition value of R3000 or higher, and a normal life expectancy of one year or longer. Equipment can only be purchased on a Requisition.

Expenses

The cost of goods delivered, or services rendered, which are recorded as charges to the accounts.

Fabrication

Inventorial equipment physically constructed by a University activity or department. If this is classified as an asset it will be take on in the NWU Asset register (CAM).

Financial Processing (FP)

The Financial Processing (FP) module of the Kuali Financial System (KFS) allows users to create and maintain documents (including disbursement vouchers) that support central financial operations.

Fiscal Period

Defines the various periods to which General Ledger entries can be posted. Months of the year are the most obvious examples, but other periods include beginning balance (BB) and period 13 for closing transactions.

Fiscal Officer

A role assigned to an individual who is responsible for the financial transactions of a particular account. Most documents will route to the Fiscal Officer for approval. The Fiscal Officer has edit permissions that allow him/her to change accounting lines involving the account.

Fund Group

The broadest category of funds. Used for reporting and business rules. The Department of Higher Education and Training requires fund accounting reports. For example, Designated or Restricted funds.

General Error Correction (GEC)

An E-doc used to correct accounting string data for General Ledger entries generated from other financial transactions.

General Ledger (GL)

The official repository for the University's financial and budget information that stores account balance and budget information for multiple fiscal years as well as detailed records of all financial transactions.

Hierarchy

Organizational structure used for reporting, routing, review, and approval of transactions.

Higher Education Function Code

Classifies the purpose and activities of an account such as instruction (tuition), research, or community services.

Honorarium

Payment or award in recognition of special service or distinguished achievement for which custom or propriety forbids any fixed business price to be set. A gratuity paid for lecturing or similar service, usually not directly related to the value of service performed.

Income

All income received by NWU for example subsidy, student fees, contracts and grants.

Input Tax

VAT paid on purchases or expenses and which is claimable as a VAT credit.

Invoice (Vendor)

A request for payment (bill) from a vendor for specific materials or supplies furnished or services rendered to the University.

Journal Voucher (JV)

An electronic accounting document for recording certain transactions that cannot be done by any of the other financial transaction E-docs. The Journal Voucher usually contains entries, explanations and evidence supporting the entries.

Journal Entry

Debit and/or credit entries to process transactions.

KFS

An acronym for Kuali Financial System.

Legacy System

The previous accounting system. Often used to refer to older systems.

Line Description

A short description that was entered when the transaction was captured explaining the purpose or motivation of the transaction . This description will be displayed in GL.

Maintenance Documents

Online KFS screens used for the setup and maintenance of data stored in the reference tables (e. g. account, organization, etc. ).

Module

A logical grouping of electronic documents used in a specific business function (such as Purchasing or Accounts Payable).

NWUKFS

Acronym for the North-West University Kuali Financial System.

Object Code

A four character code assigned to transactions to classify the transaction as a specific income, expense, asset, liability or fund balance transaction. They are used at all campuses for consistent reporting purposes.

Object Consolidation

An attribute of Object Level that is used to group similar object levels into categories for reporting. Each Object Level belongs to a single Object Consolidation.

Object Level

An attribute of Object Code that is used to group similar object codes into categories for reporting. Each Object Code belongs to a single Object Level.

Object Type

An attribute of Object Code that is used to identify its general use, such as income, asset, expense, liability or fund balance.

Order Type

A specific two character code used by the Purchasing department to identify a type of order (e.g. purchase delegation).

Organization

Represents a unique identifier assigned to units at many different levels within the institution (for example, department, responsibility center, and campus). This structure creates the hierarchy used for reporting, routing and approvals.

Organizational Hierarchies

The structures that define organizational reporting relationships in NWUKFS. All organizations report to the a higher level organization.

Output Tax (VAT)

VAT collected on sales or services rendered and payable to SARS.

Payee

Can be an Employee, Student, Vendor, Debtor etc.

Payee ID

Vendor number or Employee number. In Oracle it is called Supplier numbers.

Payment Request

Invoice in AP to match to Vendor PO. In Oracle it is called a invoice.

PDP Processor

Payment of Disbursements and Payment Requests is done in the Pre-disbursement Processor. In Oracle it is called payments. In both KFS and Oracle is includes batches and format of batches for payments.

Permissions

These are the actions KFS needs to authorize users to perform. This might be anything that KFS or other Kuali applications restrict, such as who can initiate a certain type of document or who can change the account number on an enroute financial document etc. Permissions are associated with a Role.

Prepayment Disbursement Voucher

In KFS it is a Disbursement Voucher to make prepayments to Employees and Vendors. In Oracle it is called Prepayment Invoices.

Pre-encumbrance (PE)

Allows users to add encumbrances using an E-doc. These transactions give fiscal officers the ability to earmark funds for which unofficial commitments have been made.

Purchase Order/Business Agreement (PO)

The document used by Contracting Services to formalize a purchase/business agreement transaction with a vendor.

Reimbursement

A repayment, commonly for out-of-pocket expenses incurred by an employee, such as for travel.

Reimbursement Voucher

It is an E-doc used in KFS to finalize prepayments. In Oracle it is called the process apply/unapply prepayments.

Requisition

The document used by departments to order goods and services through the Purchasing department.

Responsibilities

These are workflow-related actions KFS needs users to perform. These can be approvals, acknowledgements or FYI reviews. Responsibilities are associated with a Role.

Restricted Funds

Funds, the use of which must be made in accordance with restrictions, directions, or instructions placed on them by donors or outside agencies.

Revenue

Inflow of funds from sales, services, fees, gifts, or other sources.

Reviewer

A KFS user who acts on a document that has arrived in his/her action list.

Routing

The process of sending electronic documents to others for approval or information.

Role

Roles aggregate permissions and responsibilities. Roles can be assigned to Persons or Groups. So instead of “Persons” being assigned permissions directly, the permissions are assigned to Roles and the roles are then assigned to Persons. It’s not uncommon for a Role to be associated with more than one permission or responsibility.

Service Department

A University department which supplies goods or services to other departments, such as the vehiclepark, Graphikos, Protection Services etc. Costs incurred for these goods or services are recharged to the departments using them.

Special Conditions Routing

A form of document routing used when "special" approval is required, such as transactions involving certain sub-fund groups and/or object code levels. For example when purchasing capital assets.

Supply

Generally, a supply item is classified as being expendable with an acquisition value under R3000, and a normal life expectancy of under a year.

Third Stream Income

Funds received under grants, donations, or contracts from sources (private, state, research, etc. ) outside the university. Excluding grants received from research councils.

Transaction

A transaction is a business event that has an impact on an Account’s financial status, and is recorded as an entry in its accounting records.

Transfer of Funds

An E-doc used to transfer funds as a contribution, cover an overdraft or fulfil a funding commitment.

Unallocated Funds

Funds held temporarily in suspense (not available for use) pending final allocation.

Vendor

An individual, partnership, or corporation that sells something or charges for a service.

Workflow

Electronic document routing, approval and tracking. Electronically routes an e-doc to its approvers in a prescribed sequence, according to established business rules based on the e-doc content.

Wire Transfer

This is an electronic transfer of funds from the NWU bank to the bank account of the vendor. Funds being wired can be US Dollars or foreign currency to either US Bank or Foreign Bank.