Prerequisites
Prior to reading the instructions on the BUY.IU PO Encumbrance Detail report, it is beneficial to review the following sections of the IU Accounting Standards Book to gain foundational information along with report requirements and best practices:
- Accounting Fundamentals Section
- Chart of Accounts and General Ledger Section
- Income Statement Section
Overview
The BUY.IU PO Encumbrance Detail report is an ad hoc report that allows fiscal officers to monitor BUY.IU encumbrance balances and highlight discrepancies between purchase order (PO) balances in BUY.IU and the general ledger (GL). This report is beneficial when gauging the remaining funds set aside for a specific PO or supplier, and it ensures both BUY.IU and the GL reflect the proper amounts encumbered and invoiced for those suppliers and at the account level. The BUY.IU PO Encumbrance Detail report should be run monthly to ensure proper reconciliation between PO encumbrance balances in BUY.IU and the general ledger. Additionally, purchase orders with an open status that do not have BUY.IU or GL encumbrances should be closed.
Understanding the BUY.IU PO Encumbrance Detail Report
There are five tabs within the report, four of which, display encumbrance balances differently:
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BUY.IU PO: The first tab in the BUY.IU PO Encumbrance Detail report provides a list of purchase orders (PO) by PO number, including information such as supplier name and number, PO revision number, and PO status, as well as if it is a recurring payment PO and recurring payment end date. The remaining columns on this tab calculate the BUY.IU Outstanding Encumbrance, the difference between the BUY.IU Outstanding Encumbrance and the GL Outstanding Encumbrance, and the cause of that difference. An explanation of “The PO status is open but the BUY.IU Encumbrance and GL Encumbrance do not match. Please review and notify University Accounting and Reporting Services at uars@iu.edu if not resolved by 6.30.(current fiscal year)” in the final column indicates there may be a timing difference or issue. These explanations are intended to provide guidance for users and alert fiscal officers to issues that may require monitoring.
Note: Only amounts that impact encumbrances appear in this report. Adjustments made outside of the line item level (shipping, taxes, and discounts applied at the header level of the PO/invoice) are not encumbered; therefore, will not display as encumbered amounts or invoiced amounts relieving those encumbrances.
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BUY.IU PO Line Item: This tab takes an in-depth look into the PO line item detail, including line item number, BUY.IU PO product type, chart of accounts information, description, and the associated encumbrances. This tab does not provide encumbrance differences because encumbrances are posted to the general ledger at the PO level not the line item level. In the event users need to look at the PO in BUY.IU to gather further information, the PO number on this tab links to the PO within the BUY.IU system.
Note: Users must be logged into the BUY.IU environment to utilize the direct links to BUY.IU purchase orders.
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BUY.IU Account: The Account Data tab allows users to view total PO encumbrances by account. Like the BUY.IU PO Data calculations, this tab calculates any differences between the BUY.IU Open Encumbrances and the GL Outstanding Encumbrances at the account level, but does not provide any explanations for the differences since individual PO data is not displayed. Users may click on the account number within this tab to jump to the Account Line Item Data tab for an in-depth look at the account.
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BUY.IU Account Line Item: By viewing this tab, users can easily see which POs make up the encumbrance totals found on the BUY.IU Account Data tab. All the line item information found on the BUY.IU PO Line Item Data tab is replicated to supply consistency between the two tabs. Clicking on the PO number within this tab also takes users directly to the PO within BUY.IU.
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Report Parameters: Summarizes the parameters selected on the BUY.IU Encumbrance Detail report parameters page, including chart code and account information, report specific parameters, and run date.
The BUY.IU PO Encumbrance Detail report can be accessed from this page - refer to the top right blue button labeled "Go to Report" which will automatically redirect users to the report within the Controller’s Office Reporting Tools.
In addition, the report can be found in One.IU.To find the report, search for “Controller’s Office Reporting Tools” in the search bar, and select Controller’s Office Reporting Tools (Report Center) in the drop down menu. Mark this task as a favorite by clicking the heart icon next to the start button and then select Start or click on the title.
Once in the Controller’s Office Reporting Tools, users will see all available reporting tiles. Navigate to the Expense, Encumbrances & Payments folder.
A new tile opens, which displays all the available reports. Select BUY.IU PO Encumbrance Detail.
Running the Report
Define the search parameters to return results relevant to your organization, account, PO number or supplier. The search parameters available in the BUY.IU PO Encumbrance Detail are divided into three parameter types: Chart of Account report parameters, Report Specific parameters. and Display parameters.
Reach out to your (RC) fiscal officer or campus office with questions related to running the report, reviewing results, and campus specific requirements related to quarter closings.
Chart of Accounts parameters include Responsibility Center Code, Organization Code, and Account Number. These parameters are optional, however, omitting them may result in a long report run time.
If unsure, several of the parameters have a valid values function which displays the available codes and corresponding descriptions.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Chart of Accounts | Used to limit report to one or more specific chart of accounts. For help figuring out your chart code, refer to KFS chart search |
| Responsibility Center Code | Used to limit to a specific RC. Users are encouraged to use this parameter in conjunction with a chart of accounts code. For help finding your RC code, refer to KFS RC search |
| Organization Code | Used to limit report to a specific organization code. Users are encouraged to use this parameter in conjunction with a chart code. At this time, Buy.IU is not configured to allow organizational hierarchy reporting. For example, if the user entered BA-RPAS the report would not return any results. To see all the data for BA-RPAS, the user would need to enter all the individual organizations. However, a user can save the parameter set (with all the individual organizations) for the next time they need to run the report to avoid having to rekey them each time |
| Account Numbers | Used to limit report to one or more specific account(s). |
| Sub-Account Numbers | Used to limit report to one or more specific sub-accounts. |
| Financial Object Codes | Used to limit report to specific financial object code(s). |
A report specific parameter is a parameter that is limited to a single or small group of reports. For example, on the BUY.IU PO Encumbrance Detail users would expect to see a parameter to isolate the report by PO Number, but that is likely not going to be applicable on most other reports.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| PO Number | Used to limit report output to a specific PO number. |
| BUY.IU Supplier Number | Used to limit report output to a specific supplier. |
Display parameters are parameters that define and restrict the visual presentation of the BUY.IU PO Encumbrance Detail report. They are found on the lower part of the parameters.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Include Subtotaling | Check/Uncheck - If the user checks the Include Subtotaling box, subtotals will display without the user having to use the Subtotal feature in Excel. |
| Select the Output Format | Check/Uncheck - Selects whether the report is generated in Excel or HTML format. Users only have the option to select Excel format for this report. |
| Select the Output Destination | Once the report has finished generating in the background, a pop-up box will appear on the screen allowing you to access it. If the report takes too long to generate, the system will automatically send it to your email. |
Click Save Parameter Settings to save your parameters for future use of this report. For instructions on how to save settings, review the Save Parameter Settings document on the Controller's Office Reporting Tools page.