Cost Objects: Cost Centers and WBS Numbers

When talking a funding source, University business staff use the first two digits together. For example, if a person mentioned a "21" funding source, they would be talking about a UNL state-aided fund. The first digit provides the Campus to which the funding belongs and the second digit indicates the funding source. This is true for both cost centers and WBS numbers.

State Aided Funds

UNL state-aided funds primarily consist of state funds appropriated by the Unicameral and tuition revenue. Cost centers the represent state-aided funds start with 21. There are a few types of State-Aided funds that begin with 21, but their last four digits identify their specific funding source. Details are provided in the Cost Centers: Last Four Digits section of this guide.

Revolving Funds and Auxiliary Funds

Both revolving and auxiliary funds are self-supporting, meaning the revenue is earned and used by University entities that perform some type of fee-based activity.

Revolving funds are typically earned by an academic department whose primary mission is academic, but which incidentally earns revenue.  Examples of revolving funds include funds earned by providing a good or service to the campus or to external entities, registration fees charged by a department hosting a conference, funds received from student lab fees, or the incidental remainder of grant funds after completion of the grant-funded project. In each instance, the revenue is posted to the earning department's revolving cost center, which starts with a 22.

Auxiliary funds are earned by non-academic, self-supporting entities whose reason for existing is to provide their specific service to faculty, staff and students in a personal capacity. Examples of auxiliary funds are housing and parking fees charged by Housing and Parking Services, revenue from athletic ticket sales, and revenue earned by Campus Union service providers. Cost centers that provide goods or services for internal customers are designated as Service Centers. Additional information on Service Centers is available here.

Subprograms and Departments

The third through sixth digits of both Cost Centers and WBS numbers identify the subprogram and department that owns the cost object.  

The sub-program is a 2-digit code that identifies the college or vice chancellor. The department is also a 2-digit code used to identify a specific department. The department code is always used in conjunction with the sub-program code. For example, department 12 can exist in multiple sub-programs so it is not useful to just look for department 12. Instead, look for department 12 within a specific sub-program. See below examples:

0512 = College of Arts & Sciences, English 

4312 = Business & Finance, Budget 

The complete sub-programs and department list is available in Sapphire. Viewing this list requires TrueYou authentication. 

Parent vs. Child Cost Centers

When creating new cost centers (used for State-aided, revolving, auxiliary funds), UNL Accounting uses the last four digits of the cost center number to distinguish parent cost centers from child cost centers. Parent cost centers are assigned numbers ending in digits less than 1000 and may include several associated child cost centers. Child cost centers are assigned numbers ending in 1000 or greater, allowing for more detailed tracking of specific transactions.

This structure—commonly referred to by UNL Accounting staff as “the 1000 Rule”—helps consolidate transactions under a parent cost center for easier financial analysis while still providing detailed tracking through associated child cost centers.

Exceptions:

Some State-Aided cost centers do not follow the 1000 Rule. In these cases, the last four digits are used instead to identify the funding source, as described below.

State Aided Funds

Cost centers for UNL state-aided funds start with 21. For some state-aided funds, the last four digits indicate the area of use as shown in the table below. 

Note: When creating a name for some state-aided fund cost centers, the name must include specific words as shown below. The name of a cost center cannot include commas, quotation marks or semi-colons.

Find Parent/Child Relationship

The SAP transaction code Y_UNS_83000191 provides a report that shows all the child cost centers that belong to a parent cost center.  After entering the transaction code, enter the cost center of interest.

WBS numbers are used to identify grants, contracts and Foundation funds. Like cost centers, WBS numbers are smart numbered and each digit has meaning.  WBS numbers have 13 digits. Their smart numbering is similar to that of cost centers, except for the 10-13 digits.

Digits in positions 1-10

• The first digit indicates campus -- UNL funding starts with a 2;
• The second digit indicates the funding source:
  • 4s and 5s indicate federal grants, 
  • 6s identify contracts or any grant that is NOT federal, meaning it could be from the State, another university, or a company that is funding UNL research.
  • 7s are typically Foundation funds. However, some departments hold their Foundation funds in a 26 WBS.
  • 9s are either loan funds – meaning they are funds reserved for student loan programs -- or plant funds which are used for construction and renovation of University facilities. 9s are managed by the functional Accounting Office and will not impact departments.
• Just like cost center numbering, the third and fourth digits identify the subprogram and the fifth and sixth digits identify the department, and all four digits are always used together.
• The seventh through tenth digits are used to uniquely identify the grant, which SAP calls “a project."

10 digits plus 3 digits

Unlike cost centers, WBS numbers have 3 additional digits, making them 13 digits long. These last three digits are known as a "WBS element" and they identify sub-parts of the grant.

When pulling financial reports in SAP, it is important to understand how the first 10 digits and the last three digits of a WBS number are used. The first 10 digits of a WBS identify the project as a whole. The last three digits allow the grant manager to track sub-parts of the grant. 

Example of WBS Numbering Use

For example: if a faculty member receives a grant from the USDA to study grains, all funds related to that grant would have the ten digit project number. However, assigning specific WBS elements to each sub-part of the project makes it possible to track funding and spending at a more refined level of detail. For example, in this instance, a separate WBS element could be assigned to parts of the grant related to corn, milo and wheat. 

Sometimes WBS elements are used to track spending for multi-year grants. For example, if spending on a 3 year grant needs to be tracked by the year, a WBS element can be assigned for each year of the grant. 

The additional granularity of data provided by WBS elements can help grant managers refine financial reports in SAP to make them more useful and informative.