Accessing the PRISM General Ledger

Overview

General Ledger is the ultimate repository of all financial data. Payroll, Purchasing, Payment Processing, and the other financial applications all feed data into the General Ledger application. Monthly online financial activity reports, known as Level Reports, are generated from General Ledger data. End users of the application can look up account activity, create journal entries, and run reports.

Detail

Determining Access

You will need to apply for access if you will be responsible for any of the following:

Monitoring departmental accounts
Moving charges between accounts
Entering Interdepartmental Charges (IDC's), i.e. charging other departments for goods or services you provide to them, e.g., food/beverages, copying/printing, or laboratory testing services
Entering Cash Reports, i.e. reporting income to your department generated from the sale of goods or services, e.g., ticket sales to athletic events, fees for a continuing education program your department sponsors
Running financial reports

Applying for Access

Complete the first two pages of the PRISM Department User Access form, and page 5 if applying for 02/03 Budget Modification requests (on-line BMRs). Normally, this form is completed with the assistance of a department business administrator.

General Ledger Responsibilities

The form instructions provide detailed descriptions of the General Ledger Responsibilities, and notes the entities to which the Responsibilities grant you access. Also, check whether you will need data entry or inquiry access for each Responsibility selected. The form will not be processed without an Authorized RC signature. Check with your department business administrator to determine your authorized RC administrator.

You will be sent an email from FIS Business Solutions when your access has been activated.

General Ledger Training

Visit the PRISM Training page to register for a course and view training manuals.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I prevent incomplete Journal batches from being posted?

When saving a Journal Entry that is not yet complete, make sure “1” is in the Control Total field at the Batch level to indicate the entry should not be posted. Remember to include the correct Control total when the entry is completed. If the Control Totals do not match the batch will not be posted.

How do I change a GL period on a Journal Batch?

Changing a period on an unposted batch becomes necessary if a previous period is still open (first three working days of each month), and a transaction must be applied to the previous period. To change the Period field on an unposted journal entry perform the following steps.
N > Journals > Enter

Enter Batch Name
Click the Find button
Click the Review Batch button
Click the Change Period button
Enter the new Period
Click the OK button

How do I Query a Batch in GL?

Please see the detailed guide on Batch Query.

How do I Query a BMR Batch in GL?

Please see the detailed guide on BMR Batch Query.

How do I drill down to payables information from the GL application?

N > Inquiry > Account

Enter Accounting Periods From and To (e.g. MAY-15 to JUN-15)
Enter Account
Click the Show Balances button
Select the desired line
Click the Journal Details button
Select the desired Payable batch line
Click the Drill Down button
Click the View Transaction button to view invoicing, payment, and distribution details

Why does the Journal Control Total change or double after posting?

If your journal entry contains multiple entities (02, 04, 05, etc.) the system will automatically add Intracompany Balancing Lines during the posting process to bring the entities into balance. You do not see the Intracompany lines the system adds because they do not hit departmental accounts, but the result of these lines being added is that the Control Total doubles. No action needs to be taken to modify these transactions.

How do I request a new account number?

The PRISM Account Request Application (PARA) is a web-based application developed to enable departments to submit a request for a new PRISM Account (except for Entity 04 Endowments and RDFs, Entity 06 Plant, and Entity 05 Research Accounts).

Instructions are available.*

What are my report output options when a PRISM printer is not available?

If you do not have access to your PRISM printer, we recommend that you set the default print option to stop the automatic printing of reports. PRISM report output can be viewed on-line and shared with other user electronically in various ways. Documentation for these options and setting the default print can be found here.

Where can a find a paper journal entry form?

If you need to submit a paper journal entry because you do not have on-line PRISM GL application access, please download the form here. Depending on your browser, the link may display a warning message but you can download the form from the site and open it in PDF format to complete the manual entry.

In order to sign and submit this document with DocuSign, you will first need to complete the form and then print the completed form to a new PDF document using the "Microsoft Print to PDF" option in Windows or "Save as PDF" in Mac OS. This new saved document can be then loaded into DocuSign. The original download document cannot be signed in DocuSign, we are working on a permanent solution for the University Business Form however given the current remote work environment, please use this work around.

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Article ID: 315

Created

Thu 8/10/23 11:22 AM

Modified

Wed 4/3/24 9:34 AM

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PRISM

FINANCIAL AND PROCUREMENT SYSTEMS Pitt's Real-time Integrated Solutions for Management (PRISM) is the University of Pittsburgh’s financial Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to streamline University business processes and transactions.

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