SUBJECT:

Financial Accounting Improvement Project

The Financial Accounting Improvement Project (FAIP) began in 2004 to improve the quality of our financial information and accounting processes. Issues being addressed include streamlining the selection of appropriate accounts and limiting access to "miscellaneous" and "other" account codes (e.g. 637200, 638000). These initiatives will improve cost accounting accuracy to improve compliance with federal Cost Accounting Standards and accuracy in Facilities and Administrative rate development.

Recommendations from the FAIP team include enhancing:

- Online transactional processes to simplify the selection of accounting elements

- Expenditure account code hierarchy to simplify the selection of accounts

- Organization code hierarchy to represent campus organizational levels

- Financial reporting processes

Activities in progress include:

- Simplifying commodity code and account code selection

- Streamlining appropriate expenditure account code identification

- Developing new account codes that clearly define goods and services and eliminate obsolete account codes

- Reducing the inappropriate use of "miscellaneous" account codes

The target date for implementation of improved account code usage is July 1, 2005.

Please consult http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/faip for more information and project updates. If you have any further questions regarding the project, please contact Bill McCarroll at (858) 534-4736 or wmccarroll@ucsd.edu.

Don Larson Controller