Purpose

This guideline provides standard expectations and best practice to follow for academic Org Unit business officers to evaluate when a faculty cost center chartfield number (1000 to 8999 range) may be requested to be updated, reassigned or a new number is established. The intent is to ensure consistent data integrity, clear financial reporting, and avoidance of co-mingling of financial activity between individuals within the same fiscal year. 

General Principles

  • Faculty cost center numbers are assigned by academic Org Units, as they deem fit, to individual faculty members when the Org desires to track financial activity for reporting.
    • Due to the limited availability of unused numbers in the faculty cost center range per Org Unit, It is highly recommended that these numbers only be assigned to faculty. Tracking for non-faculty employees or for other purposes should utilize other chartfield elements, E.g.; sub-department, organizational account, etc.
  • Each number should be assigned to one faculty member at a time.
  • Cost center faculty codes may be used for the same individual, across Org Units and departments. One individual should only be assigned one faculty cost center number regardless of the Org Unit financial transactions are recorded to.
  • Reassignment vs. Submitting a Request for a New Number: While new numbers are still available in an Org Unit’s assigned range,  requests for new faculty should continue to be submitted in the Request for GL Chartfields & WhoKeys application until all numbers are exhausted.
  • Reassignment of a cost center should only occur after a clear separation of financial activity is established and adherence to this guideline is followed.

Standard Naming Convention and Updating Existing Descriptions

To promote standardization and consistent reporting across Org Units, the cost center faculty descriptions must follow the format below. This format is also used in the Request for GL Chartfields & WhoKeys application for new Cost Center requests:

Lastname Firstname MiddleInitial (Middle Initial optional, no commas)

  • Do use a single space between name elements.
  • Do use special characters as appropriate that are part of an individual’s name, e.g., apostrophe, hyphen, etc.
  • Maximum length: 30-characters
  • Description updates for the same individual (e.g., spelling correction or legal name change) should be made using the same number they were assigned. If the current description is incorrect or needs updated for the same individual, then send an email to afr-chartfield-whokey@uiowa.edu. Include the cost center number, current and requested description, ensuring the 30-character limit is applied.
    • Note: There is not a need to retroactively change a Cost Center description as this will not impact any prior reporting. In other words, the effective date of the change will be the first of the month of when it is completed by AFR.

Criteria for Reassignment of Cost Center Numbers 

A faculty cost center may be considered for reassignment to another faculty due to events such as the individual’s departure from the University of Iowa, retirement, death, a role change, or unknown individual. Accounting and Financial Reporting (AFR) highly recommends as a best practice to complete the following research before requesting a number be reassigned: 

  • While we are providing these best practices, check with your Org Unit Business Officer for any specific rules for each college.
  • Financial activity review and minimum time frame not used - Review current fiscal year activity, regardless of the Org Unit associated with the cost center, to verify that no activity has posted to the general ledger. If there is activity in any Org Unit, then the number should remain unused/not reassigned to another individual within the same fiscal year to prevent co-mingling of financial data for two individuals.
    • For example, if the last posted activity to a cost center number was July, 2026 (FY 2027) then it should remain unused/not reassigned until July, 2027 (FY 2028) at a minimum.
    • For assistance with options to query for activity, email afr-chartfield-whokey@uiowa.edu.
  • Faculty cost centers may appropriately be used to record transactions in multiple Org Units, not just the Org Unit the number is part of the range listed in the ACM.
  • Life-to-date (LTD) asset and liability balance sheet balances (I.e., Iacts 1000 – 2399) can remain in the original cost center number that the individual was assigned. Fund balance (Iacts 2500 – 2999) activity posts through a central process to only 0000 cost center number.
  • Encumbrance review - Verify there are no open encumbrances (e.g., purchase orders, payroll,  facilities management work orders, or F & A  commitments). If encumbrances exist, they must be cleared by working with the appropriate central department.

System Dependency Review

Review feeder systems to confirm the number is not actively being used for single or recurring charges. Examples of types of charges or systems to review include:   

  • HR monthly and biweekly appointments, and special compensation;
  • Open positions in Position Management;
  • Purchasing and Accounts Payable orders, Pcard and travel charges;
  • Facilities Management work orders;
  • Other internal services like copier and printing charges, General Stores orders, inventories, recording accruals, and GLJE appropriated transfers, etc.;
  • Health Care Org units with monthly allocation charges

Cross-Org Unit Use Considerations

  • Faculty cost centers may appropriately be used to record transactions in multiple Org Units, not just the Org Unit the number is part of the assigned range listed in the ACM.
  • If unexpected cost center activity has posted in the current fiscal year to WhoKeys outside of the assigned Org Unit, the number should not be reassigned until a mutual agreement on usage has been reached between the Business Officers or their delegates, of the impacted Org Units. 

Eligible for Reassignment and Submission Requirements 

A cost center may be requested to be reassigned after completion of the tasks previously described. There are two reassignment options:

  • Future reassignment (holding status) - Provide the number, current description and requested description to be updated to “OPEN”. This allows units to clean up existing assignments that are no longer accurate and to then easily identify available cost centers for future use.
  • Immediate reassignment - Provide the number, current description, and requested replacement faculty name in standard format using the 30-character limit.
    • Note: While new numbers are still available in an Org Unit’s assigned range,  requests for new faculty should continue to be submitted in the Request for GL Chartfields & WhoKeys application until all numbers are exhausted.

Send an email to afr-chartfield-whokey@uiowa.edu with the required information. This can be completed in the email itself for a single/small request or by attaching an Excel file for bulk updates. AFR will verify there has been no expense, revenue, or encumbrance activity for the current fiscal year for any reassignment request. If there is activity, the request will be handled differently depending on the type of reassignment:

  • Update description to OPEN intended for later reassignment – If activity has posted, Accounting and Financial Reporting will notify the requester to confirm they still want to make the update.  
  • Immediate reassignment to new faculty - If activity has posted, the requester will be notified and the reassignment denied until the criteria has been met.

Cleanup of Existing Numbers and Ongoing Maintenance

The cost center faculty range assigned by Accounting and Financial Reporting to each academic Org Unit is the only range available for use by each Org Unit. With limited numbers available, each Org Unit should review their existing numbers set up in GL, identify those meeting this guideline for reassignment, and notify Accounting and Financial Reporting. 

  • After initial cleanup, an annual review is recommended to maximize the availability of numbers assigned per Org Unit that are eligible for reassignment.
  • All existing numbers in the faculty range that are set up in GL will remain Active and Open.
  • All existing numbers will either be assigned/reassigned to a faculty member, with their name in the proper format, or have a description of “OPEN”.

Usage of Cost Center range 9000 – 9999

The Open Access cost center numbers in the 9000 – 9999 range may also be used to track faculty activity as needed for each Org Unit. However, please note that:

  • The same number can be used by any Org Unit for additional break down of any type of activity as they deem important to track.
  • Any number used in this range must be tracked by the Org Unit outside of the General Ledger for the description. The generic description of “Cost Center” is assigned in GL for each number in this range.

Last Updated: 07/23/2026