How to Run a Finance Query in Self-Service

Finance Query is now available in Self-Service on the Financial Management menu. Finance Query allows users to: 

• View detailed budget vs actuals data 
• View detailed data for asset, liability, and fund balance 
• View data for the current fiscal year, the future fiscal year, and up to 5 closed fiscal years
• drill into the data down to the source document (transaction) level
• Export Finance Query data to a .csv format

Additionally, filter functionality allows users to:

• filter financial data using GL account components
• sort and subtotal by component piece
• filter for actual transaction data by a specific date range
• specify a default filter as well as save filters

Step-by-step Guide 

1. Log into Valparaiso University Self-Service using Valpo credentials

2. Select the "Financial Management” module

3. Select "Finance Query"

4.  Select the fiscal year. The query can be set to retrieve data for the current year, the next fiscal year, or the past five closed fiscal years 

5. Click "Filter" to filter information by the general ledger account number(s) to which you have access 

6a. Information for the following filters may be entered by selecting the drop down caret next to each category

• Fund - First two digits of the GL number (i.e. 10-xxxxxxx-xxxxx)
• Department - Second group of digits in GL number (i.e. xx-0965000-xxxxx) *Note: Must be seven numbers.
• Object - Last five digits of the GL number (i.e. xx-xxxxxxx-50312)
• Project - Leave blank; project accounting is not in use at this time
• Include Active Accounts With No Activity - Yes

Click "Apply Filter."  Once the filters are applied, data will populate on the right side of the screen.  

6b. Cost pools are denoted by a “U” (Umbrella) to the left of the general ledger account number.

7. Clicking on the drop down caret next to the "U" will reveal the individual account numbers that are within the cost pool.  These line items are denoted by a “P” (Pooled).

8. To drill into transaction details, click the GL number you’d like to research

9. A summary screen will display showing blanket and open purchase orders.  Document numbers that are underlined may be clicked on to drill even further into the transaction.

10. The detailed screen provides a helpful summary of the activity. Note, all of the associated documents (vouchers) are hyper-linked for review. This is the same when detailing in on a Blanket Purchase Order (BPO is linked to the voucher and line items within the voucher). 

11. When presented with the task of analyzing information or creating an ad-hoc report, it may be useful to export the data within Self-Service Financial Management to a .csv file.  To do so, click the “Export” button in the top right of display. There are two options: Download CSV or Detail CSV.  The Download CSV will provide a report similar to the Colleague GLBR report. The Detail CSV will provide a report similar to the Colleague GLBS report.  For reference, the Download CSV (GLBR) option will provide a high-level summary of actual and budget information.  While the Detail CSV (GLBS) option will provide transaction details.  

Note:  If the object code parameter is left blank, all object codes will be pulled into the report.  If the object code 50900 is entered, all of the pooled accounts are shown on the screen.  However, when downloading the csv detail, the information for the pooled accounts is not provided.  There are two options:  1) leave the object code parameter blank to pull all of the accounts, export the csv detail, and then delete the line items not needed or 2) enter all of the object codes within the operating expense pool and then export the csv detail.  If using option 2, remember to save your filter criteria.

12. Click on the option you prefer and the report will download to your computer.