The Statewide Financial System (SFS) provides for the preparation of financial statements prepared on both a budgetary and GAAP-basis of accounting, subject to appropriation/segregation controls. Utilizing various reports and reporting tools that provide revenue, expenditure, receipt, and disbursement information, the reporting functions depend on accurate account coding on all transactions within the SFS.

Preparation of Financial Statements

The General Ledger is the basis for financial statement preparation. It consists of a chart of accounts that reflects the assets, deferred outflows of resources, liabilities, deferred inflows of resources, fund balance, revenues, and expenditures for each fund. The State’s financial statements will only be as accurate as the accounts coded on accounting documents. Please refer to Chapter V, Section 3.D - Accounts of this Guide for a summary of the range of account values assigned to account types.

Current account values are viewable in the SFS Chart of Accounts Tree Viewer. As noted in Chapter V, Section 3.D - Accounts of this Guide, there are two Statewide Account Reporting Trees: one to capture the budgetary basis of account groupings (RPT_SW_ACCOUNT); and one to capture Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)-basis account groupings (RPT_SW_ACCT_GAAP).

The Tree Viewer is a read-only component of the SFS Tree Manager folder. All SFS users have access to Tree Viewer, regardless of their General Ledger Business Unit (GLBU) or module security. The Tree Viewer page displays the information for the tree name that was selected. No changes can be made to trees via Tree Viewer.

Tree Viewer can be accessed by using the SFS search tool and typing ‘tree viewer’.

Appropriation and Segregation Control

The Statewide Accounting System provides for appropriation/ segregation control at any account level. Segregations are typically controlled at the highest account level and must conform to the levels of control as contained in appropriation bill copy which is governed by State Finance Law §24, subdivision 1.

Although appropriations and segregations can be established at lower account levels, this section of law requires a “minimum” itemization level within the Executive Budget and prohibits lump sum appropriations for non-Federal State Operations, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and the Environmental Protection Fund.

For non-Federal State Operations, all appropriations shall be made by agency, by program, and by fund type, where practicable. In addition,

• For Personal Service appropriations, separate appropriations shall be made for:
  • Regular Personal Service;
  • Temporary Personal Service; and
  • Holiday/Overtime Compensation pay.
• For Non-Personal Service appropriations, separate appropriations shall be made for:
  • Contractual Services;
  • Travel;
  • Equipment;
  • Supplies and Materials
  • Indirect Costs; and
  • Employee (Fringe) Benefits, as appropriate.
• Any appropriation for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), and the Medical Assistance Program (Medicaid) shall only contain itemized appropriations which shall not be in the form of lump-sum appropriations. For the purposes of Medicaid, itemized appropriations shall consist of categories-of-service with separate appropriations for hospital inpatient, hospital outpatient and emergency room, clinic, nursing home, other long-term care, managed care, pharmacy, dental, transportation, and other non-institutional services.

Account Reporting

Various Statewide Financial System (SFS) reports and reporting tools provide revenue, expenditure, receipt and disbursement information needed for analysis and the preparation of financial statements. The accuracy of these reports and the financial statements depends on the accuracy of the account codes used on the accounting transactions processed in the SFS. Therefore, extreme care should be taken by State agency personnel to accurately classify State revenues and expenses in all transactions processed in the SFS.

Guide to Financial Operations

REV. 01/05/2021