USAS User’s Manual –
Chapter 12 – Understanding Financial Tables (continued)
Financial Tables – (continued)
Purpose of Primary Tables
The main purpose of the primary tables is to facilitate the fund control process by:
- Performing funding edits, that is, comparing transaction amounts with existing budgets and cash to prevent over-expenditures.
- Allowing the user to inquire online into the most up-to-date budgetary and financial balances.
About Primary Tables
Primary tables are summary-level financial tables, which means they group, or summarize, transactions in order to maintain the financial data they store. These tables store only the financial data they were designed to maintain. For example, if you entered a transaction to set up an original appropriation budget, the financial data for that transaction would post to the Appropriation table, not to the Cash Control or Grant tables.
Secondary Financial Tables
The Secondary financial tables in USAS are:
- General Ledger table
- Accounting Event table
General Ledger Table
The General Ledger table maintains the General Ledger records for the state. The table summarizes transactions (according to General Ledger account) at the lowest level of the classification structure entered on the transactions.
Accounting Event Table
The Accounting Event table stores the lowest level of detail for each transaction. The table provides the transaction details required for financial reporting and online inquiry of the transactions entered in USAS. This table is the most detailed financial table in USAS.
Purpose of Secondary Tables
The secondary tables store a detailed level of every transaction entered. These tables provide agencies with a record of their accounting transactions. The Accounting Event table contains the lowest level of detail for every transaction entered (for example, document level and vendor information). The General Ledger table contains balances at the lowest level of the classification structure.
Generating Reports
USAS uses the data in the secondary tables to generate many reports. Specifically, USAS uses the General Ledger table for cash and GAAP reporting and the Accounting Event table for reporting the details of transactions.
