The following statements will provide an overall context for what the Chart of Accounts Redesign project is trying to accomplish and are divided into business goals and project goals.
Business Goals
- Growth – Ability to accommodate growth and adapt to changing business requirements
- Budgeting – Analytical review of operational budgets and overall enhanced budgeting abilities
- Reporting – Timely and transparent financial reporting for leadership
- Consistency – Ability to use a consistent financial language across organizations
- ERP – Optimized functionality and intended use of Banner ERP
Project Goals
- Establish a foundational chart of accounts structure that enables robust reporting and analysis of Mason’s financial operations at multiple levels
- Enable streamlined usage of Banner functionality by deploying consistent definitions of COA elements across the university
- Establish COA definitions and governance that allow for the maintenance of reporting structure over time
- Establish linkage between the reporting structure in Finance, HR, and Academic modules of Banner to enable consistent reporting and analysis across datasets
- Establish consistent guidelines for utilization of COA elements to allow meaningful consolidated reporting and analysis with capability of drilling down to more granular layers by school/unit
- Identify opportunities to utilize delivered Banner functionality to streamline and standardize processes and reduce reliance on externally maintained non-centralized systems and manual processes