Finance

Getting Started

Take the first steps to become proficient with basic navigation with these learning resources: self-study and instructor-led courses, Wiki documentation, videos, and office hours. See Basic Navigation for details and links to enroll.

Dashboard Deep Dive

In this section, each of the Financials dashboards is shown with sample questions that can be answered using the various reports contained in the dashboard. There are links to the Wiki documentation where you can learn about the prompts and reports, how to interpret the data in the report, and special considerations. Where available, you’ll also find links to job aids and recorded webinars. Dashboards:

General Financial Reporting

Specialty

Other

Job Aids and Articles

Finance Dashboard Comparison compares the Financial Management, General Ledger, and Multi-Year Reporting dashboards.

Tying Data in Finance Dashboards and Reports describes how data ties across the reports within a dashboard and timing issues including multi-year reporting, full and partial year reporting, and inception to date.

Financial Management Reporting

The Financial Management Reporting dashboard is recommended for Finance professionals who work with CalPlanning and review finances periodically. Data in this dashboard is loaded from Berkeley Financial System (BFS) and ties to the CalPlanning SRECNA reports. 

Report Sample Questions That Can Be Answered
SRECNA
  • Do I have a surplus or a deficit? What is my unit’s overall health?
  • What types of funds do I have available? Am I mostly working with restricted or unrestricted funds?
  • What are the types of revenues and funding I receive?
  • Why is this number particularly high or low?
Summary by Chartfields
  • What is my balance available for spending?
  • How much money has come in so far? How much has been spent so far?
  • What were the types of expenses incurred?
By Month
  • How much has my unit spent each month so far this year on Compensation? On non-compensation expenses?
  • Why is this month’s spending particularly high or low?
  • How much has my unit spent in a specific category?
Revenue & Transfers
  • Do I see the funds I was expecting to receive?
  • Which students’ tuition fees have I received?
Compensation Expenses
  • Did my staff get paid?
  • What is the information I need to provide if I need an expense corrected?
Non-Compensation Expenses
  • What expenses were incurred this month?
  • What are the reference numbers for purchases I made through BearBuy or with my BluCard?
Transactions
  • What are all the transactions that happened this month?
  • Do I see the funding or expenses I was expecting to post?

General Ledger Reporting

The General Ledger Reporting (GLR) dashboard contains campus-wide financial data from the campus general ledger, Berkeley Financial System (BFS); data is refreshed nightly. This dashboard can be used to research transactions from the general ledger including authorized budget amounts and encumbrances as well as actuals.

Report Sample Questions That Can Be Answered
General Ledger Summary
  • How much is available to spend on a specific contract or grant fund?
  • How much has my unit spent year to date by account or account category for a specific chartstring?
By Accounting Period
  • How much has my unit spent each month so far this year on Compensation? On non-compensation expenses?
  • How does that spending break down by Chart1?
Compensation by Accounting Period
  • What were the compensation and benefits expenses for the employees in my entity each month so far this year?
  • What were the compensation and benefits expenses for a specific employee by fund and Chartfield 1?
  • Why is a specific employee’s expense particularly high or low?
General Ledger Detail
  • Which expense journals were prepared by a specific employee during a specific date range?
  • Which revenues posted in July of this year for the Contracts & Grants fund group?
  • What was the effort percentage posted for a specific employee for a particular pay period?
  • Do I see the funding or expenses I was expecting to post?
  • What is the information I need to provide if I need to do a direct retro?
Prior Vs Current
  • How much of the fund’s total activity was incurred in the selected period range?
  • What were the fund’s transactions for the selected period range?
  • How much of the fund’s Authorized Budget was used in the selected period range?
Encumbrances
  • What are the encumbrances within my unit, fund, CF1, or CF2?
  • What is the remaining encumbrance on a PO?
  • Are there old encumbrances that I can close out?
Transaction Verification
  • What transactions that impacted my chartstring were initiated outside of my entity?
  • Are these supposed to be posted to my unit?

Multi-Year Reporting

The Multi-Year Reporting dashboard contains campus-wide financial data from the campus general ledger: Berkeley Financial System (BFS); data is refreshed nightly. This dashboard is designed to allow for reporting multiple fiscal years at once as well as in between fiscal years at either the general ledger summary or transaction detail level. This is useful for contracts and grants projects that span multiple years as well as analyzing trends to plan for future budgets.

Report Sample Questions That Can Be Answered
Multi-Year Summary
  • What is the trend for spending in a specific account over the last X years?
  • For a specific point in the fiscal year, what is the trend for encumbrances in a specific account?
  • What has the annual revenue for student fees and tuition been for my unit over the last 5 years?
  • What is the complete activity of a contract and grant fund over the last 5 years?
By Start and End Month
  • What is the trend for spending in a specific account over the last 18 months?
  • Over the past 5 fiscal years, when does my GSI spending tend to peak and tank? I would like to know when to divert funds from other projects to this and vice versa.
  • What is the spending on a contracts and grants fund over the past 14 months?
Multi-Year Detail
  • What are the total compensation expenses for a specific grant since inception by month and year?
  • What are all of the transactions associated with a specific purchase order over the last 3 years?

Foundation Reporting

The Foundation Reporting dashboard contains financial data from the Foundation ledger. It is used to produce the balance sheet for the Foundation ledger as well as reconcile balances at the fund level.

Report Sample Questions That Can Be Answered
Combined Report
  • What are the assets, liabilities, net positions (fund balance), revenues, and expenditures for the Foundation?
Trial Balance
  • What amounts have posted to the Foundation Ledger for the accounts for my Fund?

Gift/Endowment Reporting

The Gift/Endowment Reporting dashboard contains financial data from the Campus ledger, Foundation ledger, and Cal Advancement Data System (CADS), the database of record for the UC Berkeley advancement community.

Report Sample Questions That Can Be Answered
Gift/Endowment Terms and Balances
  • How can I use the money in a fund?
  • What are the terms in the Cal Advancement Data System (CADS)?
  • Who are the unit administrators for my fund?
  • What is the entire fund balance cumulative of activity across campus?
  • What are the funds my unit administers?
  • What is the true fund balance available for use?
  • How much money comes into the fund every year?
Current-Use Reconciliation
  • What are the remaining balances for my unit's current-use gifts?
  • Did our unit receive the transfer(s) we are expecting from the Foundation ledger?
  • What are the transactions that make up the amount transferred from the Foundation ledger?
  • How do I break down a gift by donor?
Foundation Funds
  • What are the transactions posted to the Foundation ledger?
  • How do I see funds that exist only in the Foundation ledger?
Gifts in Suspense Accounting
  • What gifts am I expecting that haven't been processed yet for spending?
  • How long has a gift been waiting for processing?

Gift Fund Accumulation

The Gift Fund Accumulation dashboard provides relevant information to Chief Development Officers, Deans, and Divisional Finance Leaders in a format that facilitates their use of funds in a timely manner as specified by the donor to maximize benefits to the University. Using data from the enterprise data warehouse and Cal Answers, this dashboard replaces the report that was manually produced by the UDAR team, allowing users real-time access to see unused gift funds from multiple perspectives.

Fund Deficits Reporting

The Fund Deficits Reporting dashboard displays funds that have a deficit balance; use it to identify funds with deficits that need to be cleared. The Deficits to be Cleared report lists funds by Org Level4 with these measures: Beginning Funding Balance, Change in Net Assets, Ending Funding Balance, Recharge Tolerance, Waiver Amount, and Deficit to be Cleared.

Report Sample Questions That Can Be Answered
Deficits To Be Cleared
  • What are the deficits that need to be cleared for my fund?
Waivers and Tolerances
  • Do any of the funds in my unit, regardless of whether they are currently in deficit or not, have a deficit waiver amount associated with it?
  • Do any of the funds in my unit have a recharge tolerance?
  • What are the Recharge Tolerances and Waiver Amounts for my funds?

Telecom Billing

The Telecom Billing dashboard provides recharge costs and details for services performed by Information Systems & Technology (IST). Each month, a unit is charged for the cost of providing the service (recharged) for certain services provided by IST. This dashboard provides the basis for these charges. Some are based on usage, others are recurring monthly charges, and some are one-time charges for a particular service.

Report Sample Questions That Can Be Answered
Summary
  • For a Billing ID, how much has service has been used and what are the one-time and recurring charges?
  • For a chartstring, how much has service has been used and what is the amount charged?
By Month
  • For a service item, how much has my unit been charged each month?
  • How much of a given service has my unit consumed each month?

Transactions
  • What building and/or room code is associated with this phone line?
  • Is there a work order associated with a particular call?

Telecom Usage

The Telecom Usage dashboard provides very detailed phone usage information for the selected department. Access to the Telecom Usage dashboard is restricted by Organization. Request access to the Telecom Usage dashboard.

Report Sample Questions That Can Be Answered
Recharge Telecom Summary What are the total number of calls, minutes, and charges per day for each employee in my unit?
Transactions

For each phone calls made by an employee during a specific period of time, what is the destination phone number called, destination city and state, date, time, minutes of each call and type of call (local, toll, or toll-free)?

What are the transaction details for calls made by my unit over a period of time?

Current Employee CBR

The Current Employee Composite Benefit Rates (CBR) dashboard contains data from Human Capital Management (HCM), the campus human resources system. The Current Employee CBR report can be used for budget planning purposes.

Report Sample Questions That Can Be Answered
Current CBR
  • Are there any employees with a job in my department that also have other jobs that cause a different CBR account and CBR amount that I should consider when budget planning?
  • What benefit rate is being charged for each employee in my unit?
  • What chartstring(s) is being charged for the employee’s benefits?
  • My employee recently had a benefit rate change. Are they now showing the most current rate?

Chartfield Lookup

The Chartfield Lookup dashboard reports present all levels of the tree or hierarchy for chartfields and other data used in Berkeley Financial System (BFS), the campus general ledger. The reports can be used to identify the rollup or drill-down details for a chartfield member. Reports include: Account, Fund, Organizaton, Program, Chartfield 1, Chartfield 2, Speedtypes, and PC Mapping.