An accounting transaction is a business event having a monetary impact on the financial statements of a business. It is recorded in the accounting records of the business.
FAMIS uses the concept of transaction codes (or T-Codes) in order to classify and determine how to post an individual transaction to the General Ledger (GL) and Subsidiary Ledger (SL).
In FAMIS, transaction codes are three-character codes. In most cases, the first two characters are significant (in that they impact the posting to the ledgers) and the third character is most often used solely for documentation.
Although it is not made explicit in FAMIS, FAMIS groups transaction into four major groups, and these groups can be thought of as journals.
Transaction Codes 03x, 04x, 06x, and 098 (Actual journal)
The Actual journal is transactions that impact the balance of assets, liabilities, fund balances, expenditure and deductions, and revenues and additions in the FAMIS GL and SL.
FAMIS has four core types of transactions that impact the actual journal:
- Receipt transactions: used to record inflows or revenue into the FAMIS GL and SL accounts. Receipt transactions follow the pattern 03x, where x is either user-defined or used to specify the origin of the transaction from a specific integration.
- Receipt transactions credit the account specified on the transaction and automatically perform an Indirect Transaction debit to the claim on cash of the related GL account.
- Disbursement transactions: used to record the outflow or expenditure of funds from the FAMIS GL and SL accounts. Disbursement transactions follow the pattern 04x, where x is either user-defined or used to specify the origin of the transaction from a specific integration.
- Disbursement transactions debit the account specified on the transaction and automatically perform an indirect transaction credit to the claim on cash of the related GL account.
- Journal entry transactions: general-purpose transactions in which both the debit and credit side of the transaction is specified. Journal entry transactions follow the pattern 06x, where x is either user-defined or used to specify the origin of the transaction from a specific integration.
- GL beginning balance 098 transactions: used to record journal entries at the beginning of the fiscal year. These can only be posted to asset, liability and fund balance account subcodes.
The Actual journal uses full double-entry accounting.
Transaction Codes 05x (Encumbrance journal)
FAMIS uses transaction code 05x to record activity in the Encumbrance journal. The Encumbrance journal records increases, releases and adjustments by FAMIS SL accounts. Examples would be the commitments of funds for a purchase order or the commitment of funds to support a new position that was recently filled.
In FAMIS, Encumbrance transactions can only be posted to an SL account. Encumbrance transactions are posted and kept in summary in the SL account.
- 057 Encumbrance transaction codes indicate the encumbrance was a carryover from a prior year.
- All other 05x transactions impact the current year and current month in the SL account.
The Encumbrance journal uses a single-entry accounting method.
Transaction Codes 02x (Budget journal)
FAMIS uses transaction codes 02x to record activity in the Budget journal. The Budget journal records increases, decreases and transfers to FAMIS SL Accounts.
In FAMIS, Budget transactions can only be posted to an SL Account.
- 027 Budget transactions codes indicate the budget amount is carried over from the prior fiscal year.
- 022 Budget transactions indicate the transaction is budget transfer. Two transactions will be recorded with a “from” and “to” account.
- All other 02x transactions impact the current year and month only for a single account.
Like encumbrances, Budget journal uses a single-entry accounting method.
Transaction Code 090 (special Bank journal)
In addition to the GL and SL accounts, FAMIS keeps a summary Bank Ledger to keep balances in FAMIS bank accounts. The FAMIS Bank Ledger augments the GL account by keeping bank balance totals across all GL accounts.
Transaction code 090 is a special transfer transaction code that posts a bank transfer between two banks in the Bank Ledger.