Issue/Question
- Why is the data from the Operating Ledger and the Transaction Ledger sometimes not equal for my index?
- Why is a transaction missing from a report?
- How do I look up a transaction?
Environment
- Oregon State University
- CORE
- Data Warehouse
Explanation
Some times people will ask why two CORE reports do not agree on the transactions for an index, fund, org, etc. The usual cause for this is that the reports they are looking at are based on different ledgers, usually the transaction ledger versus the operating ledger. These ledgers contain different types of documents on which transactions are carried out at OSU.
Documents are ways of moving money within OSU or paying an external vendor. An example of a document is a check the University writes to pay a vendor for a service or good. There are many other types of documents that can be used such as Purchase Orders (POs) or Journal Vouchers (JVs) though.
The reason operating ledger reports and detailed transaction reports sometimes do not reconcile is that most detailed transaction reports only have transactions for invoices, journal vouchers (JVs), and cancelled checks, not including most associated F&A (Facilities and Administration, formerly Indirect) cost transactions. Fixed asset accounting adjustment documents (gain or loss on the sale of fixed assets (surplus goods), depreciation, etc.) are not included. Encumbrance documents are also not included.
Fixed Asset adjustments are the most commonly used when a unit sells something through the surplus store and is reimbursed by the surplus store for their percentage of the sale. This is the most common type of transaction that will cause a disagreement between reports based on the transaction ledger and reports based on the operating ledger.
| Ledger Type |
Documents Included |
| Operating Ledger |
Invoices, JVs, Cancelled Checks, Fixed Asset Adjustments, Purchase Orders, General Encumbrances, all F&A costs |
| Transaction Ledger |
Invoices, JVs, Cancelled Checks, excluding most F&A costs* |
* The reason that certain documents are not included in the transaction reports is because they are designed to match the old financial data warehouse. In the former financial data warehouse, only invoices, JVs, and cancelled checks were included in the transaction ledger, with the exception that most associated F&A cost transactions were excluded.
Resolution
You can tell the type of ledger a financial report is using by looking at:
- The title of the report will often say if it is transactions or operating based (e.g. FIN1909 (Transaction Details by Index and Account) vs. FIN1858 (Operating Statement by Index or Activity Code)
- The description of the report will often times say the type of ledger the report is based on
- In the report click on the blue question mark next to the report title to see the report metadata. In the report metadata you can see the ledger the report is pulling from in the report's SQL code:
- Transaction Ledger name in report SQL: MFY_TRANS_LEDGER
- Operating Ledger Name in report SQL: MFT_OPERATING_LEDGER
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Note: All transactions for all document types can be viewed using FIN1906 Transaction and Document Lookup.
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Assistance
For assistance, contact the UIT Data Team.