The General Ledger (GL) is a set of alpha and/or numbered account segments used to keep track of all financial transactions and to prepare Stanford University annual financial reports. Within the GL account structure, object codes are used to track assets, liabilities, revenue, and expense. Preparers and approvers must properly record these transactions using the correct object codes in Oracle Financials.
This page describes object code categories and their standard numeric format, how they are used at Stanford, and how to find specific object codes.
The type of object code used depends on the type of transaction, as described in the following sections.
Assets and liabilities
Assets are classified in the GL using 1XXXX object codes and liabilities are classified using 2XXXX object codes. The university’s Statement of Financial Position, also known as the Balance Sheet, is a financial statement that reports the balance of the university’s assets, liabilities and net assets at a particular point in time.
University departments with asset or liability account balances are responsible for reconciling and reviewing the account balances on a quarterly basis. Refer to Balance Sheet Account Balance Reconciliation and Balance Sheet Account Balance Reconciliation Attestation for more information.
Revenue
University operating revenues are derived from a variety of sources, with sponsored research support, health care services, endowment, and other investment income being the most significant. Additional sources of revenue include student income, gifts, and other income.
Revenue is classified in the GL using 4XXXX object codes. Common revenue codes used by school and department users include 46XXX revenue object codes. 49XXX transfer object codes are used to transfer funds from one PTA to another.
Reporting: For information about revenue and fund management reporting from the GL, including detail on fund statement, journals, and transfers use, refer to the OBI Revenue and Fund Management (RFM) Dashboard.
Expenses
Salary and non-salary expenditure transaction details are recorded in the Oracle Grants Accounting (GA) module and roll up into expenditure categories that map to objects in the GL module. Because of the rollup and mapping, there is a greater level of expenditure detail in GA than in GL. Expenses are classified in the GL using 5XXXX object codes.
For the most part, GA expenditure categories map to the same number GL object code; however, there are some differences. Most notably, 531XX capital equipment expenditure categories in the GA module map to 1XXXX asset object codes in the GL module, which may result in report users seeing slightly different totals in GA versus GL.
These following object code lists can help financial analysts and finance managers interpret financial reports and help department managers and finance leaders decide how to record transactions.
If current object codes do not meet the needs of a business unit, the unit may request new or updated codes.
OBI expenditure type and object code report
Anyone with access to Oracle Business Intelligence (OBI) Financial Reporting can use the OBI Reference Data and Inquiry Dashboard: Expenditure Type and Object Code Search report to pull data by a variety of parameters (e.g., object code begins with, object code description contains, effective date). The report returns a number of attributes, including information about the object code’s account type code (e.g., asset, liability, revenue), description, effective dates, and iJournals authority level for usage.
Full list of object codes
Two comprehensive lists of all active and inactive object codes are downloaded from Oracle Financials on a monthly basis and time stamped with the date it was last run. The lists include the account type code, object code, name/description, long description, and financial system usage indicators.
46XXX revenue object code list
46XXX revenue object codes: Listing of 46XXX revenue, special program fees, and other income codes.