General Ledger Transfer

Overview

The General Ledger Transfer (GLT) is used to adjust, transfer, or correct transactions that have posted to the general ledger. Pending transactions, including General Ledger Transfers, cannot be selected. 

The GLT prevents transactions from being transferred multiple times. It also prevents partial transfers and transfers for more than the original transaction.

Users can transfer entries that are eligible to be corrected based on origin code, document type and balance type.

General Ledger Transfers route to the Fiscal Officer or Delegate assigned to the accounts used on the document and optionally route to Organization Review, Object Code Review, Sub-Fund and Contracts & Grants. 

NOTE: There is an issue with Firefox. When entering an account and clicking the Search button an error re: the account name briefly displays, but the search results open. If you tab out, the account name displays correctly. 

How the GLT can help you do your job

"I need to adjust one or more existing transactions to a different chart, account, object code or amount."

The GLT is the perfect tool for transferring transactions. These adjustments may be straightforward, where one transaction is adjusted to one new transaction. Or you may have to split or merge transactions with different amounts. Splitting and merging may also require moving transactions to different charts, accounts, or object codes. The GLT even supports transfers across object types.

"I need to make sure transactions are associated to the right charts, accounts and object codes."

If there are adjustments to be made, or errors to be corrected, the GLT is the best tool to facilitate those changes.

Like all transactional documents that affect account balances and the general ledger, the GLT requires responsible parties, such as fiscal officers, to certify that transactions are appropriate for the associated charts, accounts, and object codes indicated.

"I need to keep my institution in compliance with rules and regulations, especially those related to late adjustments or activity on specific sub-funds."

One of the most significant features of the GLT is that it prevents duplicate transfers. The GLT allows a transaction to be transferred only one time. It also prevents transfers of transactions that are pending approval.

If your organization follows rules or regulations related to the timing of transfers, the GLT can be configured to require explanation for such changes.

See Late and Prior Year Transfers in this article for more details.

Using the General Ledger Transfer

The most common use-cases for the General Ledger Transfer follow a simple three-step process:

1. Pull transactions into the GLT that need to be transferred.
2. Enter new accounting information such as chart, account, object code, and amount
3. Submit for approval.

Step 1: Pull transactions into the GLT

Use the Accounting Lines Lookup section of the GLT to search for existing transactions to transfer. You can search by fiscal year, fiscal period, chart and account or document number, or use all the options, including object code, to drive your search results.

NOTE: Due to the large volume of transactions that could be returned, you will be required to enter the Fiscal Year and Fiscal Period, unless you have entered a Document Number, if you enter a document number, you can clear the Fiscal Period on the search page in order to find your transaction. 

When you have found the transactions you want to transfer, select and return them to the GLT, where they will show up in the Accounting Lines FROM section of the document.

Note: Amounts will be positive in the FROM section regardless of the debit / credit indicator. When General Ledger Pending Entries are created, the debit / credit will be the opposite of the current transaction debit / credit in order to reverse it.

See Detailed Instructions for Accounting Lines Import in this article for more details about finding existing transactions and pulling them into the GLT.

Step 2: Enter new accounting information

Use the COPY ALL button in the FROM section to pre-fill information in the TO section of the Accounting Lines. Then you can start filling in values for chart, account, object code, amount, etc.

You can use features like Split and Copy Down located in the Actions colum in the TO section to facilitate this step.

• Split turns one accounting line into two and copies all the information from the original.
• Copy Down lets you choose a field and copy the value in that field to all the lines below it. The copy down icon will only display when there is a line below. You can choose which fields you would like to copy down and you can start copy down from any line. The following displays after you click the Copy Down icon:

Make sure the transaction amounts for each origin code and reference document number on the FROM side equal the amounts for each origin code and reference document number on the TO side.

Note: All amounts on the TO side must be positive. The debit / credit indicator will be the opposite of that on the FROM side.

Step 3: Submit for approval

After you submit the document, the following approvals may be required:

1. Fiscal Officer
2. Organization Review
3. Sub-Fund
4. Contracts & Grant

As with all documents in Kuali Financials, you can use ad hoc routing to involve specific individuals that may not be included in the approval workflow.

Detailed Instructions for Accounting Lines Import

This section offers more detailed instructions on finding existing transactions and adding them into the General Ledger Transfer.

Find Existing Transactions

The most common way to start searching for transactions to transfer is the Accounting Lines Lookup section of the GLT. To use this lookup, enter either a chart and account or a document number. You can use all three. You can also use object code to narrow your search even more.

When you press 'Search' from the Accounting Lines Lookup in the GLT, you will be directed to the General Ledger Entry Lookup where you can see transactions in the Search Results section of the page. 

Some transactions, such as salary transactions and offsets, cannot be transferred by a General Ledger Transfer. These transactions will not be displayed in the Search Results. For the transactions that are displayed, those that are available for transfer with the GLT will have a checkbox. There may be some transactions without a checkbox. This indicates that they have already been transferred. The Search Results will show the document number that was used to transfer these transactions.

Select Transactions & Add Them to the GLT

There are a few options for selecting transactions to transfer. The most basic is to individually select transactions by clicking the checkbox on the line. To select transactions in bulk, you can use the 'Select All from This Page' or 'Select All from All Pages' controls.

Once you have selected the transactions you would like to transfer, press the 'Return Selected' control. You will then be put back in GLT. The Accounting Lines FROM section of the GLT will be filled in with the transactions that you selected. The information in the FROM section is not editable.

GLT Special Cases

The following sections provide information for special cases related to the General Ledger Transfer.

Error Correction

The GLT cannot be error corrected or copied. If a transaction is error corrected using the Error Correction button on another document, neither the transaction that was error corrected or the error correction entries will be available for transfer.

If any accounting line on a document has been transferred using the GLT, the document can no longer be error corrected and the remaining entries will need to be corrected using the GLT. A note will be added to the document indicating that the one or more transaction has been moved and the document can no longer be error corrected.

The GLT cannot be copied because transactions must be selected from a lookup screen to ensure that a transaction is not transferred twice.

Partial Transfers

The amount on the FROM side cannot be changed. If you need to move part of a transaction, select the transaction, copy it down and then use the split icon  to split the transaction. The amount will be split 50/50. You can split a transaction as many times as you like. You can then change the accounting information on the amount to be moved and update the amounts. Moving the entire expense helps with visibility - you can see the transaction come in, go out, and a new partial amount coming in.

Expired Accounts

If you are transferring from an expired account, the transaction will be added to the FROM side and the expired account checkbox will be checked. It cannot be changed. If you are transferring TO an expired account, you will receive a warning letting you know that the account is expired. You will be asked if you would like to override the account expiration, or if you would like to use the continuation account. If you would like to override the expired account warning, check the box, if not, change the account.

Refer to the article General Ledger Transfer (GLT) Administration for information about how to override continuation account logic.

Adding Additional Information to Accounting Lines

There will be times when you might need to add additional color to an accounting line, such as, sub-account, sub-object code, project code or organization reference ID. The primary accounting line data (chart, account, object code and amount) are not changing.

If you add additional details and do not change the primary accounting line data, the GLT will route only to the Fiscal Officer for approval. All other route nodes will be skipped. The exception to this rule is when you add a cost share sub-account. If you use a sub-account where the sub-account type code is CS, normal routing will occur.

Capital Asset Transactions

GLT can be used to modify and create capital assets, similar to other Financial Processing documents. If there are capital asset object codes on either the FROM or TO side, the Accounting Lines Capitalization tab will open and a Generate button will display. When you click this button, the FROM and TO accounting lines with capital object codes will become read only and you will have the option to Create or Modify Assets. Click Delete to make the FROM and TO lines editable.

When checking for unique lines on the GLT, the reference origin code and document number are included in addition to the other accounting string elements. 

Refer to the article Accounting Lines Capitalization, Create and Modify Assets tabs for details. 

Late and Prior Year Transfers

Prior year transactions cannot be transferred, unless excepted by Fund or Sub Fund Group.
If a transaction is over a specified number of days, then you may be required to complete the Late Adjustment Certification tab. Exceptions to the default can be established by sub-fund.

If any field in this tab is completed, all fields must be completed.

The Fiscal Officer or delegate will be prompted to acknowledge the following attestation when they approve the document, or, if they are the initiator of the document, on submit. A note authored by KFS will be added to the document noting the approver's attestation. 

I hereby certify that these expenses were incurred for the goals, objectives, and benefit of the grant/contract, and that the expenditure transfer is correct and proper. In the event of a subsequent audit disallowance of this expense transfer for any reason, the Principal Investigator, Fiscal Officer and Department Head agree to be jointly responsible for handling this expense in a manner which is consistent with the institution’s policy.

Refer to the article General Ledger Transfer (GLT) Administration to find out how to establish late adjustment defaults and exceptions.

Year End

The GLT will be using the Accounting Period drop down functionality to process transactions in the 13th period as part of closing the year. To post an adjustment to the 13th period, select “Closing <FY>” from the Accounting Period drop down.

Refer to the article General Ledger Transfer (GLT) Administration for additional details related to the accounting period drop down.