PROJECT/OPERATING ACCOUNT CREATION
This service is to request the creation of a new Operating Account or Cash Project. The General Accounting team, Academic Affairs, & the Budget Office have discretion over the appropriateness of new Driver Worktags and may request additional approval or information as needed. Common examples of when to use this service are:
- Request for a new Professional Development Account from Academic Affairs for new faculty or faculty moving into a new leadership position.
- Request for a new Research Development Account from the Office of Research Administration (ORA) or Academic Departments.
- Request for a new Auxiliary Project to replace a previous Project, create a new Internal Service Provider, or establish a Project.
- Request for a new Operating Account from the Budget Office.
This service should NOT be submitted to request new Grants/Awards nor Foundation Projects.
- To request a new Grant/Award please contact the Office of Research Administration (ORA) directly at ora@mines.edu.
- To request a new Foundation account please contact the Colorado School of Mines Foundation directly at csmfoundation@mines.edu.
FAQs
What is an Approval Authority? Per the Mines Financial Policy, an Approval Authority is defined as “The person within the Organizational Unit that is responsible for ensuring financial transactions recorded against an Index are appropriate.” In practice, this means the individual who has authority to approve financial transactions for a specific Driver Worktag; for example, this individual would approve Expense Reports or Invoices paid against the new Project or Operating Account in question.
What is a Driver Worktag? Formerly known as an INDEX, a Driver Worktag is used to assign a unique combination of Fund, Function, & Cost Center within Workday when recording transactions.
What is a Project? When we say Project Driver Worktag we are referring to Professional Development (PD), Research Development (RD), Auxiliary, and Foundation Accounts. These Driver Worktags can start with a “1”, “3”, or “6”. For this service specifically we refer to Cash Projects which include all of the above except Foundation Accounts.
What is an Operating Account? When we say Operating Account Driver Worktag, we are referring to funding sources tied to the General Fund which are based on an annual budget. Most commonly this would be the department’s Operating Account. These Driver Worktags start with a “2”.
What is a Fund? When we ask for the Project or Operating Account Fund, we are referring to the categories of university monies that are grouped by their level of spending restriction. Funds can be used to pull all activity related to any Driver Worktag regardless of Cost Center or Function
What is a Function? The Function designation helps to categorize financial activity based on codes established by The National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO). The intent of a Function is to standardize reporting for comparability. At Mines, each Project and Operating Account have a default function allowing all related activity to automatically post to the correct function code, which facilitates accurate reporting. Below are the function codes in use at Mines. For more information on each one you can visit the Function Codes Article on MAPS HELP CENTER.
- 1100 Instruction
- 1200 Research
- 1300 Public Service
- 1400 Academic Support
- 1500 Student Services
- 1600 Institutional Support
- 1700 Operations & Maintenance of Plant
- 1800 Scholarship & Fellowship
- 1900 Auxiliaries Expense
What is a Cost Center? Formerly known as an Organizational Unit. A Cost Center categorizes subsets of the University based on their operational activity. These can be Departments or Centers/Institutes. Cost Centers are part of the Financial Chart of Accounts. Characteristics of a Cost Center per the Mines Financial Policy are “Organizational Permanency; Programmatic Autonomy; and an annual operating budget that is fiscally independent.” (Appendix A).
Completing the Service Request:
Requestor: This is the individual listed as the person asking for service detailed within the ticket. If used as a filter in a report, the filter allows for a lookup search.
- This is a searchable field, if logged into Mines Help Center when submitting your service request, it will auto-populate with your own name, but you can override this to submit the request on behalf of someone else. =
- Acct/Dept: This field will auto-populate based on the Requestor selected.
- What type of Driver Worktag? You must select one of the options from the list.
- Project- Select this option if you are requesting the creation of a Cash Project, defined above. Examples are Professional or Research Development Accounts and Auxiliaries.
- What type of Project? You will only see this question appear if you select Project and then you must select one of the four options below.
- Research Development (1XXXXX)
- Professional Development (1XXXXX)
- Auxiliary (3XXXXX)
- Other/Unsure- If you select this option, a text field will appear to allow for more details on the specific situation.
- Operating Account- Defined above, these requests should come from or after a conversation with the Budget Office. For specific budget questions please email budget@mines.edu.
- Foundation Account- As mentioned above, this service is NOT used to request new Foundation accounts. Please contact Colorado School of Mines Foundation via email at csmfoundation@mines.edu.
- Grant/TSA- Like Foundation Accounts above, new Grants or TSAs (Technical Service Agreements) are NOT requested using this service. To request a Grant/TSA please email the Office of Research Administration directly at ora@mines.edu.
- Name of Project/Operating Account: This will be the name displayed in Workday and while there is not a character limit it should be concise to allow for easier searching or sorting within Workday.
- Description: This is a multi-line textbox where the more detail you can provide the better. Here we ask you to include the business purpose, whether it will be generating revenue, the types of anticipated expenses, and if applicable, the expected end date. This information helps to ensure the correct Project or Operating Account is created and limits the need for additional review/approval by other administrative departments.
Worktag Information if known: For the fields below, if you are unsure what the values should be please include any details or similar projects/operating accounts in the Additional Notes text box below.
- Fund: You will select from a drop-down list. For more information see the definition of a Fund in the FAQ above.
- Function: You will select from a drop-down list. For more information see the definition of a Function in the FAQ above.
- Cost Center: You can type in the name and of number code if know. This is not a drop-down field so if you are unsure between two options feel free to list both. For more detail on Cost Centers refer to the definition in the FAQ above.
- Who will be the Project Approver or Operating Account Manager? Please provide the full name and Campus ID number, if known, for the individual or role that will be the Approval Authority, see definition in the FAQ above, for the new Project or Operating Account.
- Additional Notes: The full details of a ticket, including any appropriate circumstances or supplementary information that may aid in resolving it.
- You can include text, tables etc. in this field. Please provide any additional information that will help in creating the new Project or Operating Account.
- Attachment: Please include any email or documentation including, if available, approval for a new Project/Operating Account.
- As mentioned in the description, the General Accounting team in conjunction with other administrative departments have discretion on the creation of new Operating Accounts or Cash Projects and may request additional approvals/documentation. If you have approvals in an email form and or context regarding the need for a new Project or Operating Account, make sure to include it as an attachment.