Re: Financial Accounting System (Questions)4

From: "ALopez"
The software I've used does this by having a simple Account/Fund
structure ...

http://www.radile.com/rdweb/temp/gla100.html

I've been having a bit of trouble meshing "fund accounting" with the hierarchical structures you find in government organizations.

I'm making progress on a program for setting up "entities" and "entity accounts". The screen shots above depict a city government organization. Parks Department reports to Public Works, which reports to the City Manager, which reports to the City Council - for example. And a project manager in the Parks Department may be responsible for revitalizing Central Park.

It makes most sense (to me) to have project managers and department heads prepare budgets, and track revenue and expenses against budgets. Departments (entities) can be associated with "templates", which pulls in all accounts from the template, when you set up entities.

One problem I see in real life is that "funds" cross department boundaries - particularly the "general fund" in government. Making "everybody" responsible for a "fund" is a good way of making "nobody" responsible.

So my inclination is to budget and record financial activity by department. But in that case, I probably need some way to cross-reference back to the "general fund" which "nobody" is responsible for.

Anybody like to share an experience with this type of problem?

Nathan.