Custom Account Description

Overview and Form Instructions

OVERVIEW

System Maintained Descriptions
Each Account value in the system has associated with it two descriptions, a long one that is 30 characters in length and a short one, an abbreviated version of the long one, which is 10 characters in length. Financial Reporting & Accounting maintains these descriptions.

The long description (30 characters) is the one that appears on both the Web and hard copy Management Reports and will continue to be the default description if a custom description has not been created.

Example:

Account – 60000
Long Description – TRAVEL-DOMESTIC, OUT-OF-STATE
Short Description – TRV-DOM OS

Custom Descriptions
A Custom Account Description can be established for each unique Activity/Account or Project/Account combination. The same Account value used in separate Activities or Projects may have different custom descriptions. Each Custom Account Description will consist of the system maintained short description for the specified Account value (10 characters) followed by a “:” followed by up to 19 characters determined by the Responsible Person (or designee) of each Activity or Project.

Examples:

Activity – 12345 Account – 60000
Long Description – TRAVEL-DOMESTIC, OUT-OF-STATE
Short Description – TRV-DOM OS
Custom Description – TRV-DOM OS: PROF. SMITH

Activity – 12345 Account – 60001
Long Description – TRAVEL-DOMESTIC, OUT-OF-STATE
Short Description – TRV-DOM OS
Custom Description – TRV-DOM OS: PROF. JONES

Activity – 45678 Account – 60000
Long Description – TRAVEL-DOMESTIC, OUT-OF-STATE
Short Description – TRV-DOM OS
Custom Description – TRV-DOM OS: SEMINARS

Project – 51012345 Account – 60000
Long Description – TRAVEL-DOMESTIC, OUT-OF-STATE
Short Description – TRV-DOM OS
Custom Description – TRV-DOM OS: PAPER PRESENTATION

Accounts in the following ranges are administratively controlled and are not allowed to have custom descriptions.

10400 – 12092
20099 – 20099
22000 – 39999
49000 – 49085
90000 – 99999

FORM INSTRUCTIONS

Purpose
The purpose of the Web form is to prepare a request for Custom Account Descriptions that will be sent to either Financial Reporting & Accounting or Research Accounting who will setup the custom descriptions. A separate request must be sent for each Activity and Project. Up to 15 Accounts may be listed on each request. If more than 18 Custom Account Descriptions are needed for an Activity or Project, a second request will need to be sent. It is not necessary to create Custom Account Descriptions for all Accounts in each Activity and Project. Please be judicious with your request.

Process

You will need to provide information on 2 pages.

Page 1

Steps:

  1. Identify yourself by providing your name, department name, your phone number and optionally, your email address.
  2. Type in the Activity or Project number.
  3. For Activities, identify the Business Unit the Activity is in. This defaults to Business Unit 01.
  4. List only the Accounts for which custom descriptions are to be created, changed, or deleted. It is not necessary to list them in any order.
  5. Click on the “Go to Descriptions Page” button. (Clicking on the “Go to Descriptions Page” will make sure you have entered all required information and that the Activity or Project and the Accounts listed are valid values.)
  6. Clicking on the “Reset Activity (Project) & Account” button will retain the Person Requesting information and clear the other fields.

Errors:

  1. If the error is an invalid Activity or Project, a message will be displayed indicating the invalid condition. The Activity or Project number and all Accounts entered will be cleared and you will start over at step 2.
  2. If an invalid Account(s) was entered, the invalid Accounts) will be listed in an error message at the top of the page. Valid Accounts remain in the “List of Accounts to customize” at the bottom of the page. Invalid Accounts are those that do not exist in the Account table or are specifically excluded from being customized (see Overview).
  3. You can add other Accounts to the list at this time. To revalidate the revised list and advance to the Descriptions Page, click on the “Go to Descriptions Page” button again.

Page 2

Steps:

  1. Information provided on the previous page will be brought forward to this page. Accounts will be listed in numerical sequence.
  2. The user-defined portion of the custom description will be in a box on the far right of each line. Blank boxes indicate that a custom description currently is not defined. If there is a current custom description, it will appear in the box.
  3. Change the content of the custom description box to what is desired. Please enter information in upper case.*Filling in a blank box will create a new description.*Changing the content will change the description.*Deleting the content (making it blank) will delete a description.
  4. Print this page and send or fax a copy to the office indicated at the bottom of the page to have the Custom Account Description created.
  5. If you need to submit another request, click on the “Reset and Re-Enter Activity (Project) and Accounts” button at the bottom of the page and repeat the process.