FIS Review

FIS is at the heart of the global economy’s commerce and financial transactions. We are dedicated to advancing the way the world pays, banks, and invests, serving over 20,000 clients and over one million merchant locations in over 130 countries. Fis is a financial technology firm that specializes in asset and wealth management, retail and institutional banking, payments management, risk and compliance, consulting, and outsourcing. FIS is a global provider of payment processing, financial software, and banking solutions in over 130 countries. FIS is made up of three SAP modules. This section focuses on how they function independently and with one another.

All financial transactions are recorded in general ledger accounts for assets (i.e., A/R), liabilities (i.e., A/P), revenues, and expenses in financial accounting. FI also produces the financial statements for the University. The term “funds management” refers to the process of identifying and controlling the source of funding (i.e., budget dollars). The transaction posting in which there are scarce budget dollars will be prevented by FM. Controlling (CO) is a method of tracking revenue and expenses based on specific reporting requirements, such as department or activity/project. These components will provide a code for each revenue or expense transaction processed within FIS. FI is considered the core of the Financial Information System for central reporting purposes. It is the only component that tracks balance sheet activity such as assets, liabilities, and retained earnings in addition to revenue and expense activity. The Business Officers responsible and Financial Services Department for Ancillary Operations is the main FI user groups for reporting purposes. Part of their responsibilities includes the generation of complete financial statements. FI provides account codes for recording revenue, expense, accounts receivable, and accounts payable activity for divisional or departmental purposes. The ledger and subsidiary ledgers both have these account codes. The general ledger is used to record and categorize all financial transactions as assets, liabilities, revenue, or expenses. Accounts Receivable is a sub-ledger of General Ledger that contains a collection of individual customer accounts used to track money owed to UofT. Accounts Payable is a collection of vendor accounts used to keep track of amounts payable by UofT. It is a subsidiary ledger to General Ledger.

The Business Area is a FI code that allows multiple sets of financial statements to be prepared within a single company. UofT uses this code to distinguish Ancillary Operations from the University’s business activity. It is included in the transaction coding when a posting to FIS is made. The business area code is never to be entered or changed in a transaction being posted in FIS unless it is related to Ancillary Operations. FIS has been programmed so that the business area will be selected automatically for most transactions, requiring no action on the user’s part. FM responds to the questions “what is the source of my funding (i.e., money)?” and “what is the source of my funding?” “as well as “how much money do I have left?” FM also has a feature that isn’t found in FIS. It prevents a transaction from being posted if there isn’t enough budget to cover it. The “Funds Availability Control” feature will discuss in the section How FM Controls Spending. Funding, which refers to the sources of budget dollars at UofT, can come from several places. Research granting agencies, Various governments, private donors, and sponsoring companies to provide UofT funding. UofT also raises money by selling goods and services, either through departmental initiatives or, more commonly, through Ancillary Operations. UofT must track and report on various funding sources and their associated spending to meet management and statutory reporting requirements.