You can define detailed Object Codes for expense categories, which are grouped by Object Sets (your Chart of Accounts). Moreover, you can use different Object Sets within one database. For instance, you could define different object sets for a university and associated hospital.

The typical installation may have a hundred or more object codes. If needed, you can change the term Object Code inside Department Manager to match your organization's terminology.

Before You Begin

Become familiar with the organizational codes available in Department Manager, as described here.
Have a plan or reference in place for code assignment. For instance, your central office accounting staff may have Object Code data available as a spreadsheet, which might be imported to your database.

How to Set Up Object Sets and Codes in the Personnel Module

Once you are ready to begin setup, follow these steps from your module's File menu:

Click File/Codes/Accounting. Object Codes will appear in a submenu of Accounting.
Click Object Codes. The Object Codes screen appears.
Click the Edit and Insert buttons to open a new record.
Enter the name for your desired Object Set, and fill in the corresponding Description field. (Recall that you can set up multiple object sets to correspond to different charts of accounts within one database.)
Enter the desired characteristics in the corresponding Code fields for Minor, Major, Budget, and Description, as defined.
Select the appropriate Group code from the drop-down menu.
Select the appropriate Type from the drop-down menu.
Select A for Active from the drop-down Status menu. (You will be able to select Terminated status during later maintenance tasks if needed.)
Enter an appropriate Label for report descriptions.
Select the appropriate Natural status to determine whether charges for this object code will be (CR) Credit or (DR) Debit.
Enter an appropriate Central Code to link Object Codes from different Object Sets for reporting.
Enter appropriate values for Budget 3 and Budget 4 if you will be using these additional rollups for management reports, or tab past them.
Select appropriate check boxes for Exclude, Trade, Direct Load, Hide in OM, and Group on Load fields.
Advance to the next row to enter the next record, or click Close to exit this screen.

Navigation Tip

Advance through the various Object Codes using the arrow keys located in the toolbar at the top of the Object Code screen.

Quick References for Field Descriptions

Organizational codes are necessarily detailed. You may find it helpful to consult your central office accounting staff, who may have relevant data, such as Object Codes, available as a spreadsheet to ease your task.

As you prepare to enter organizational codes into the system, you can consult this quick reference to field descriptions for the various codes.

Object Codes

Object Code Field	Object Code Description
Minor	The Minor Code is the individual object code, sometimes called the Chart of Accounts. This is a required field.
Major	This field can be used to group minor codes. These groups are sometimes called “roll ups”. For example, 3911, 3912, 3915, and 3919 may be different object codes, where 3910 is the major code for the category. In this example, you might define all object codes for office supplies, enabling you to report summary information on office supplies.
Budget	Like Major codes, Budget codes can be used to group minor codes or to provide another level of grouping for the major codes. For example, a Budget code could be used for all supply-related expenses, allowing you to run summary reports.
Description	This is a description field for the Minor Code.
Group	This is a required field. Valid Group types are: A-Asset E-Expenditure EQ-Equities L-Liabilities OC-Other Credit OD-Other Debit, and R-Revenue
Type	This is a required field. The Object Code type designates whether the Object Code is: F-Fringe I-Indirect Cost N-Non-Personnel, or S-Salary
Status	The status determines if the individual Object Code is active or terminated. This is a required field.
Label	The Label is a shortened description that is printed on some reports in the Projection system (up to 5 characters allowed).
Natural	Natural status determines whether the charges for this object code will be a CR-Credit or DR-Debit. This is a required field.
Central Code	The Central Code is used to link object codes from different object sets in reports that combine account information from different corporate entities. An example use of a Central Code is a medical school department that manages funds from university grants and contracts from a private hospital. Both the university and hospital are corporate entities and each uses different coding systems to track expenses (or different object codes). To generate a report that shows total personnel expenditures for the department, we must link object codes used to track personnel by both the university and the hospital. We define a central code that is the same for both organizations' personnel object codes to set up a link.
Budget 3	An additional rollup used by some management reports.
Budget 4	An additional rollup used by some management reports.
Exclude	Used by some custom recurring imports.

What's Next?

You can continue setup of organizational codes with School Codes.