Feeders

Scope

This policy applies to any University of Missouri campus department who would like to establish a data feed into the PeopleSoft General Ledger.

Reason for Policy

This policy provides guidance for initiating a campus Feeder System and the subsequent responsibilities of the Feeder System Owner and other University units once the Feeder System is in operation.

Policy Statement

Within the University of Missouri System, there are many separate databases or systems to comply with management and business requirements.  Transactions and/or data from these databases or systems can be fed into the General Ledger (GL) through a data feed.  The accounting data that is fed into the GL may originate from a third party vendor system, an in-house system, a PeopleSoft module, or an Excel spreadsheet. The process of uploading the feeder file to the GL may be an automated or manual process. The file may be organized by either a MoCode or ChartField.

Requesting Approval to Initiate a Feeder System
Each campus accounting office should establish campus procedures for departments to follow when requesting a new GL Feeder System. At a minimum, the request from the department to the campus accounting office should include the following information:

• Name of the department responsible for the Feeder System
• Feeder contact person
• Feed Type: MoCode or ChartField
• Feed frequency: Daily, Weekly, Monthly
• Estimated volume per feed (estimated average number of lines per file submission)
• Describe feed content, purpose for feed, and benefits to be gained by implementing this feeder

After the feeder is approved by the campus accounting office, the UM System Controller’s Office will review for adequate controls before the feed becomes operational.  Once approved, the Controller’s Office will determine a 3-character journal source code within PeopleSoft for the feeder. After two successful tests of the feed, the Feeder System Owner may then submit feeds to the PeopleSoft production environment. The feeds will create journal transactions in the GL and if a detail feed, will populate tables for reporting purposes.

Feeder Journals
Feeder System Owners are responsible for ensuring that the data they feed to the GL is authorized, accurate, and timely. Feeder System Owners must also ensure that the data will be fed to the correct accounting period (must be an open period) and has not been previously submitted. The journal header and journal line description fields should contain sufficient information for the department end user to readily identify the transaction when reviewing their financial reports.

Before each feed is submitted to the GL, the department processing the feed must have received prior approval from an authorized individual (authorized signer) before processing a charge to a particular department ChartField.

Internal Controls
The Feeder System Owner must maintain appropriate internal controls. Each time a feed is processed, the Feeder System Owner should review the feed for completeness, timeliness and accuracy of the processing. The following business day after a success feed into the GL, the Feeder System Owner should review the journal created from that feed to assure that the amount intended to be fed equals that amount posted in the GL. Feeder System Owners are required to maintain records of their transactions and provide them to recipients of their charges as requested.

Definitions

General Ledger (GL) Feed - the transfer of accounting data from an external computer system, a PeopleSoft module (e.g., Accounts Receivable/Billing, Accounts Payable) or similar interface to the GL is called a GL Feed.

Feeder System - a database and/or dedicated system in a campus department or a PeopleSoft module that contains the information that will be transmitted to the PeopleSoft General Ledger

Feeder System Owner - the University employee and/or department responsible for the Feeder System.

UM System Controller’s Office:

• Review and authorize the use of a feed to PeopleSoft
• Establish source codes for new feeds

Campus Accounting Office:

• Approve requests for new feeder request for business need
• Approve internal controls established by the Feeder System Owner
• Work with UM System Controller’s Office to establish feed

Feeder System Owner:

• Establish and maintain internal controls for each feed
• Reconcile the feed was successfully completed in PeopleSoft each time the feed is run.
• Ensure the accuracy and authorization of transactions being included within the feed.
• Ensure that all transactions fed into the GL are in accordance with University business policies and comply with applicable regulatory agency policies.
• Reconcile posted transactions after each feed is processed
• Correct any errors in transactions from the feed and resubmit the file

Departments:

• Review transactions posted to their ChartField regularly and report any inaccurate postings to the Feeder System Owner.

Additional Details

Forms

Related Information

Controller’s Office Financial Information Systems site on Feeder Systems: www.umsystem.edu/ums/fa/controller/infoservices-feeder

History

Formerly Accounting Policy Manual 2.20 – Feeders (revised 8/1/2007)

Procedure

Feeder Upload Documentation Resource: https://webappscf.umsystem.edu/gl_coa/download/download_menu.cfm