ChartField Definitions

This job aid contains a summary table of ARC's ChartFields. For more details on code descriptions and values, refer to the ARC Codes and Tools webpage.

Last Revision: June 2026

ChartField Definition

ChartField: Business Unit
Characters (Length): 5 (e.g. COLUM - Columbia University)
Definition: Legal entity for which financial statements are produced.
Required on Transaction: Yes

ChartField: Account
Characters (Length): 5 (e.g. 40000 -TUITION)
Definition: Used to capture the natural classification of the transaction. Accounts begin with numbers 1-7: 1 = Assets 2 = Liabilities 3 = Fund Balances 4 = Revenue 5 = Salaries and Fringe 6 = OTPS 7 = Internal Transfers
Required on Transaction: Yes

ChartField: Department
Characters (Length): 7 (e.g. 0102102 - PRE Office of the President)
Definition: Hierarchical breakdown to track financial activity within the organizational structure.
Required on Transaction: Yes

ChartField: PC Business Unit
Characters (Length): 5 (e.g. CAPTL – Capital Projects)
Definition: High level project type. There are three PC Business Units to select from: • Capital • Sponsored Project • General
Required on Transaction: Yes

ChartField: Project
Characters (Length): 8 (e.g. CP001005 - AR AUDITORIUM)
Definition: Associates expenses with a specific funding source. Projects are set up for the following reasons: • Funding is externally restricted in purpose or time • Funding is unrestricted or internally restricted and is of a significant nature (e.g., used to fund several uses) and for which fund balance is carried forward Project to date reporting is required and is different from fiscal year reporting • Project has a defined beginning and end
Required on Transaction: Yes

ChartField: Activity
Characters (Length): 2 (e.g. 01 – AR AUDITORIUM)
Definition: Work break down structure for the associated Project.
Required on Transaction: Yes Note: For fiscal year projects the activity will always be 01.

ChartField: Initiative
Characters (Length): 5 (e.g 41116 - BUS Master of Business Admin)
Definition: Used track financial activity related to Academic Programs or Business Activities.
Required on Transaction: Only required for revenue, expense, and internal transfer transactions *If the transaction does not call for a specific initiative, use the undefined initiative value: 00000

ChartField: Segment
Characters (Length): Max 8* *UNIs can be fewer than 8 characters (e.g. atj510 - Dr. Albert Jones; 51000105 - BUS London Intl Seminar)
Definition: Used to track components of Academic Programs or Business Activities, usually a person or thing.
Required on Transaction: Only required for revenue, expense, and internal transfer transactions *If the transaction does not call for a specific segment, use the undefined segment value: 00000000

ChartField: Site
Characters (Length): 4 (e.g. 1002 - BROADWAY RESIDENCE HALL)
Definition: Building Number or Country Code
Required on Transaction: Only required for Capital projects but should be used when applicable

ChartField: Fund
Characters (Length): 2 (e.g. 01 – General Unrestricted Fund)
Definition: Fund Type Defaults
Required on Transaction: Defaults from other ChartFields

ChartField: Function
Characters (Length): 3 (e.g. 010 – TUITION)
Definition: Categorization of revenues, expenses, and internal transfers for all Profit and Loss (P&L) transactions. This is the COB line and the categorization of functional expense on the Financial Statements.
Required on Transaction: Defaults from other ChartFields

ChartField Definition

Users with Procurement and/or Financial Inquiry Access can look up ChartField descriptions by following this navigation:

Main Menu > Setup Financials/Supply Chain > Common Definitions > Design ChartFields > Design Values > ChartField Values

This screen will then appear, and users can click on a particular ChartField link to see the descriptions.

ChartField Definitions

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