Tools – Funds

FIMS provides two special tools that allow you to change the Fund ID code or the main Fund record codes (Division, Class, Type, and Sub Type).

The four main Fund record codes are critical for Fund categorization and rolling up account balances in General Ledger reports. The codes initially applied to the Fund record become "hard-coded" segments of the General Ledger Account Key, which identifies the Fund’s General Ledger accounts. Once the Fund’s General Ledger accounts are built (and General Ledger is active), FIMS does not permit direct editing of the Fund codes on the Fund record.

The Change Fund Codes utility changes a specified code in the General Ledger Accounts (for specified years), General Ledger Journal History, unposted General Ledger Journal, General Ledger Account Keys on unposted transactions in Pledges, Gifts, Accounts Payable, and FACTS, and on the Fund record itself.

Before you change any of these codes, consider why you want to change them. If the Fund was miscoded from the start, the code should be changed for all General Ledger years. If you are changing codes because the Fund is changing categories, you should consider creating a new Fund (with a new Fund ID code), transferring the balances, and retiring the old Fund. This is the only method you can use if the re-categorization of the Fund takes place in the middle of a fiscal year.

Even if you change codes for the entire current year (but not past years), you should understand that while the Fund ID will remain the same, the codes on the Fund record will change and current year General Ledger accounts will change (but not prior year GL accounts). This can have some unanticipated reporting ramifications. For example, if you change the Sub Type from F (Field of Interest) to D (Designated, a Gift History report for the prior year totaling Gifts to designated Funds would include the Gifts to the changed Fund, even though it was a Field of Interest Fund at the time. A roll up of Gift revenue to Designated Funds for the same year would not include those Gifts, because the General Ledger coding was not changed for that year. For this reason creating a new Fund results in more consistent reporting.

Note: Take special care with Fund Class code changes. Just changing the code is not enough, because different Fund classes have different General Ledger accounts. You should re-run the Autobuild G/L Accounts utility and the Calibrate General Ledger Account Types utility and then make a final check of the Fund’s Chart of Accounts. Please contact FIMS Support for help in this situation.

This Change Fund ID Code utility changes a Fund ID throughout FIMS, including history, unposted transactions, General Ledger, and the Fund record itself. Since there are so many records to be changed, you should run this program when no one else is using FIMS, to avoid record locking issues. If this routine is stopped for any reason before it finishes, some records may be changed while others are not. Run it again using the same parameters and it will finish the job. The Fund record is changed last.