Fund ChartField

Design

Fund is used to segregate and capture specific activities or classify certain objectives in accordance with special regulations, restrictions, or limitations (e.g., restricted Fund). Fund values are five (5) characters in length and are based on values established by the Legislature. Fund is self-balancing, meaning that debit amounts must equal credit amounts in order to maintain a balanced set of accounts for that Fund. Balancing lines are automatically created by the system in all modules excluding the General Ledger.

Fund can be classified as one of the following types:

• Budgetary Funds – used on budgetary transactions only to store appropriations, releases, and reserves budgets in the Commitment Control module; not accessible or viewable in source modules
• Transactional Funds – used to record financial accounting entries or budget entries for budget allotments and revenue estimates

The structure of the Florida PALM Budgetary Fund values begins with the one-character SF followed by the three-character Fund value, as established by the Legislature. Florida PALM adds a zero as the fifth character for consistent value length. Budgetary Fund values are configured for use on budgetary transactions (i.e., GAA appropriations, budget amendments) and reporting to the Legislature and EOG/OPB.

The structure of the Florida PALM Transactional Fund values begins with the last three characters of the Fund value, as established by the Legislature. Florida PALM incrementally numbers the remaining two characters. The Transactional Fund values can be used to subdivide or segregate Funds to meet agency transactional or reporting needs. The SF value is captured as an Attribute on each Transactional Fund value.

The table shows an example mapping of the LAS/PBS fund and the FLAIR fund to the Florida PALM fund codes:

The following design considerations are applied when defining a Fund in Florida PALM: 

• Fund values are standardized statewide
• Fund values are configured under the statewide TableSet Control
• Fund values must be uniquely numbered
• Fund is required on all transactions
• Attributes are defined when Fund values are established to aid in reporting. Fund attributes are listed in Appendix 1.
• The tree feature is used to create and maintain hierarchical relationships between appropriate Fund values. A listing of configured trees can be accessed via the Tree Viewer functionality in Florida PALM.

For the Fund ChartField, a tree allows for roll-up reporting at summarized levels and the translation of budget from the Budgetary Fund values to the associated Transactional Fund values. A simplified example of a Fund Reporting Tree is shown in the table, which shows the relationship between Budgetary and Transactional Fund levels.

All Funds

Fund ChartField values are assigned to designated financial reporting entities. In Florida PALM, fund values are assigned to non-Consolidated Revolving Funds (non-CRA), Capital Assets, Long-Term Debt, and Component Units. These are collectively referred to as Fund Groups. All values assigned within a Fund Group are Transactional Fund values and are not associated with a Budgetary Fund value. Fund Group values will only reside on trees designated for financial reporting.

The structure for these Transactional Funds does not follow the standard as described above but will be structured as follows:

• Revolving Funds – first two characters will be ‘RF’ followed by a three-character numeric value (i.e., RF001). This naming convention is applicable to non-CRA funds only. CRA funds will be reflected as described in the table above.
• Capital Assets – first two characters will be ‘CA’ followed by a three-character numeric value (i.e., CA017)
• Long-Term Debt – first two characters will be ‘LT’ followed by a three-character numeric value (i.e., LT010)
• Component Units – first two characters will designate the presentation type for the component unit followed by a three-character numeric value:
  1. DP – Discreetly Presented (i.e., DP023)
  2. BD – Blended (i.e., BD008)

Fund ChartField values are assigned to designated investment participants. These are Transactional Funds classified in Florida PALM as a Subfund. Subfunds provide the DFS Division of Treasury an additional mechanism to track detailed investment activity. The naming convention for Subfunds will contain the letter “A” as the first character following by a four-character numeric value (i.e., A0009).

Assumptions

The following assumptions are considered when defining a Fund:

• Budgetary Funds are established by the Legislature and
• Transactional Funds, including Fund Groups and investment participants, are requested by agencies for approval through DFS
• Agencies supply the DFS Bureau of Financial Reporting (BFR) with additional information via the Fund Questionnaire form. A completed Fund Questionnaire is required to set up a Transactional Fund value in Florida PALM.

Maintenance

Fund values in Florida PALM are centrally maintained by DFS. Agencies are not able to add or modify Budgetary Fund values, however, agencies can request new Transactional Fund values using the ChartField Structure Request and Fund Questionnaire form. As Fund values are added, or inactivated, the applicable Tree will be maintained to ensure accuracy of transactions and reporting.

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