General Ledger

Overview

The M-Pathways General Ledger (GL) module allows the University to record and report financial transactions.  It is the authoritative data source for:

• Fiscal planning and analysis
• Internal and external financial reporting
• Management and control of the University’s financial resources

Some of the common uses of the GL by University departments include:

• Submitting and reporting budget data using journal entries or the Reporting Budget Ledger.
• Reconciling financial activity online using eReconciliation
• Correcting transactions posted to the GL and/or moving funds among ChartField combinations using journal entries.
• Recording encumbrances for reporting using Unit Defined Commitments.

General Ledger Reporting

The General Ledger records financial activity by the University’s fiscal year and an accounting period.

U-M Accounting Periods

Month	Accounting Period
July	1
August	2
September	3
October	4
November	5
December	6
January	7
February	8
March	9
April	10
May	11
June	12

The Fiscal Year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30.  The Accounting Periods represent the months within the fiscal year. 
Financial activity for an accounting period usually concludes on the fourth (4th) business day of the subsequent month. 

• The Monthly Business Cycle Calendar shows when transactions are posted to the General Ledger during an accounting period. 
• The month-end close identifies when all financial activity for an accounting period has been recorded in the General Ledger.

This information helps you determine when transactions appear on your Statement of Activity (SOA) and when you can reconcile. 

SOA reconciliation is a common example of General Ledger reporting for most University departments.  It is expected that you will regularly reconcile financial activity for your unit and/or project/grant, per U-M’s Standard Practice Guide (SPG 500.1).  "Reconciling regularly" is commonly defined as reconciling monthly, at least.

The M-Pathways General Ledger module is supported by the AIS - Financials department within ITS.  Contact the ITS Service Center for further assistance.

The following central offices support the business processes for recording, reporting, and analyzing financial data through the General Ledger.

• Financial Operations (Fin Ops)
• Internal Controls
• Treasurer’s Office

Resources

The table below contains links to various General Ledger resources by their location.

General Ledger Resources by Location

Location	Resource	Description
Financial Operations	Accounting Services	Contains business process information for ChartFields, journal entries, reporting, and more.
My LINC	"Run a report" procedures Mac users** Windows users**	Provides instructions to run any M-Pathways report, including the Statement of Activity.
	"Financial reports package" procedures **	The Statement of Activity reconciliation process involves the SOA and various transaction detail reports.  Collectively these reports are called the "financial report package."  You can run the package in M-Pathways Financials by: Combined SOA By Dept or Dept Manager By P/G Contact (e.g., Principal Investigator or Administrative Contact)

** Click the link to go to the My LINC Activity page, then click the arrow to open the resource.