SchoolInsight’s Financials system uses fund accounting to keep track of how a school district’s money should be spent. Dimensions essentially act as an organization system, allocating money into different “buckets.”
By default, dimensions are set up to mirror Illinois’s budget requirements. Every transaction requires the first two dimensions, named fund and function by default. Additional dimensions may be used on certain types of transactions.
All dimensions can be viewed at Financials Main > Setup > Dimension Configuration. This page displays some basic information about each dimension, including the code length (defined by the state) and local code length (additional digits that the district may use to lengthen each code), and when each dimension is available for use.
Availability of Dimensions
There are three areas in which most dimensions are optional: Balance Sheet (comprising Assets, Liabilities, and Fund Balance), Revenues, and Expenditures. Fund and Function are always required, but the other dimensions may not always be used.
For example, Object is typically required on Expenditures and not available anywhere else, as in the image below. With these settings, you will not be able to save an expenditure without an object, and you will be unable to add an object to an entry in assets, liabilities, revenues, or fund balance transactions.
If you need to change anything about your dimension configuration, contact your district’s analyst or email financials@common-goal.com
View and Modify Dimensions
A SchoolInsight Financials analyst will have imported your existing chart of accounts already, but you may need to add new accounts or deactivate old accounts.
To configure your dimensions, use the links under Financials Main > Setup > Dimensions. Go through the pages for Funds, Functions, Objects, Responsibility Centers, etc. to modify each list of dimensions.
If a given dimension is no longer used, you may Edit the specific dimension to mark it inactive, which hides it from future use without affecting prior transactions. A Delete button appears if the dimension has never been used in SchoolInsight Financials and can be safely removed.
Functions and Objects
Functions and Objects are arranged in a hierarchy, with some items “nested under” others. The nesting allows the values in the lower-level dimensions to roll up and be included in the higher-level dimensions for certain reports. Use the arrow on the left to expand the hierarchy and see hidden dimensions.
Below is an example of some default IL asset functions. 100 is the top-level code, with a 110 nested underneath. Function 110 in turn has several more functions nested underneath. We can also say that 110 is a “child” of 100 and 111 is a “child” of 110. Reports can be run that either look at each function individually or combine all the 110 or 100 data together.
To place a new dimension within the hierarchy, click the Create Function or Create Object button to the right of the dimension that should be the “parent.”
There is a Create button at the bottom of the page, but it should rarely if ever be used for Functions and Objects. This method would add your new dimension as a top-level Function or Object, so it would not be included in state reports which look for specific top-level data.
Funds, Responsibility Centers, Locations, etc.
Other dimensions do not have a hierarchy, so the create process is simpler. Simply click the Create button at the bottom of the screen to add a new item to the list.