Chart of Accounts Project

For the past three years various individuals and committees in the District have been working on a plan to restructure Lone Star College System’s general ledger chart of accounts (budget account codes). As one can imagine, this is no small undertaking. The goal of the restructuring project is to establish consistent use of these codes across the district, reduce and simplify the number of codes in use, and, improve and expand our reporting capabilities.

Conversion of the old chart of accounts into the new structure is technically challenging and will require the complete shut-down of Colleague to all users for about 4 business days. The Go LIVE date for the conversion is June 28th – July 5th. The timeframe of late June to early July was carefully chosen in consultation with college administrative and instructional leaders to minimize disruption to operational activities. The conversion window occurs during a holiday period when there are no major registration activities, summer hours are in effect, and many employees will be on vacation.

In order to better prepare District staff to utilize the new chart of accounts when the conversion period ends on July 5th, the 2007-2008 budget training and budget building will be conducted using the new chart of accounts. Accordingly, all budget officers and staff who have access to the budget module in Colleague are advised that budget training for 2007-2008, scheduled to begin in March, will be mandatory.

Presentations to major councils and workgroups about the project have begun and will continue through March. You can expect to receive periodic email updates from the project team. They will share project news and the web address where critical information about the project will be posted.

This is an exciting project for the district that could not have been undertaken without district-wide participation and support. I personally would like to thank all of the many people who participated, and to praise Ken Lynn, Cindy Hiza, and the District IT staff for all of the many hurdles they worked over, around, and through.

Cindy Gilliam
Vice-Chancellor of Business Affairs & CFO
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007