Account Masks

An account mask is a combination of account number placeholders containing numbers, letters, and/or question marks. The numbers or letters represent values in your account number data.

The question marks represent variables or “wildcards.” The more numbers or letters (and fewer wildcards) you put in a mask, the more restrictive it becomes.

You can use account masks in the General Ledger program when filtering reports and when defining allocations.

To explain, we will first illustrate a generic data mask (by applying the concept to telephone numbers) and then discuss the use of account masks for General Ledger reports and allocations.

Generic Data Masks

An ordinary telephone number (e.g., (859) 367-7480) has three “segments”: area code, prefix, and number. The area code of our example is 859. The prefix is 367. The number segment is 7480.

The formatting of a data mask (the type, placement, and number of the characters) must match or “mask” the formatting of your data. A mask for telephone numbers would have to match the three segments, like this: (???) ???-????. It would also contain only numbers and question marks, not letters, because there are no letters in phone numbers.

Assume you had a hypothetical database of nation-wide telephone numbers and that you were running reports from that database. You could use a mask to define which phone numbers you wanted to see on a given report.

To create a mask for filtering a report, you would put actual values – values defining the data that you did want to see – into some of the mask placeholders, while leaving the rest as wildcards. The report would return only phone numbers that matched the values in your mask, regardless of what was in the part of the number represented by the wildcards. If you used the mask, (8??) ???-????, for example, the report would show all phone numbers that begin with “8.”

If you wanted to see all phone numbers in the 859 area code, your mask would define 859 for the entire area code segment: (859) ???-????.

If you wanted to see all phone numbers with the 367 prefix, your mask would define the prefix segment and leave the rest as wildcards: (???) 367-????. This would return all numbers with this prefix, regardless of area code (because you had wildcards for the area code segment). It would return (859) 367-7480, but also, for example, (502) 367-6874, (309) 367-5076, and (402) 367-8243.

If you wanted to see only phone numbers that had the 367 prefix in the 859 area code, you would have to define both the area code and the prefix in your mask: (859) 367-????.

Masks for General Ledger Reports

When you are running reports in the General Ledger program, account masks work just like these examples. The difference is that you are dealing with account numbers instead of phone numbers. Account numbers have a different set of segments, such as fund, line item, and project. This means the masks will be formatted differently, as well. They must match your agency’s formatting of your account numbers.

If you wanted to include in a report all accounts for fund 200, for example, you would define in your mask only the fund segment of the account number. It might look something like 200.????.??.???.

Hint: Our example assumes the fund segment is three digits and is the first segment of the account number. Your agency’s mask for one fund might look very different, because your agency defines the length and location of the different segments within your account numbers. See "Planning Account Segmentation" and See "Maintaining Account Segments".

If you wanted to report on electricity expenditures (usually line item 4320) for all funds, your mask would define only the line item segment. It might look something like ???.4320.??.???.

If you wanted to report on electricity expenditures for only fund 200, you would define both the fund and line item segments in your mask: 200.4320.??.???.

Masks for General Ledger Allocations

Masks for allocations follow these same principles, but behave a little differently.

Instead of pulling existing data into a report, allocations distribute a new revenue or expenditure item (a JE) across multiple accounts, funds, projects, or cost centers. Agencies usually use allocations to distribute administrative and payroll expenditures.

Using allocations in the General Ledger program is a two-step process. You must first create your allocations in Setup, which pre-defines how each allocation distributes JEs. Then you can apply allocations as needed to individual JEs.

One option you have in Setup when defining an allocation is to use a set of two or more account masks. For each of the allocation’s masks, you will define an account, fund, project, or cost center and its percentage share of the allocation. Each mask will define only that portion of an account number directly pertaining to the allocation, leaving the rest as wildcards. The combined percentages of all the masks in the allocation must total 100%.

Using masks for allocations makes your job easier because it allows you to distribute JEs appropriately without either 1) having to pre-define every possible combination of accounts that could use each allocation or 2) having to create multiple transactions to distribute each JE manually.

As an example, assume you wanted to distribute your agency’s administrative costs between your Public Housing and Section 8 funds, 60% to Public Housing (say, fund 100) and 40% to Section 8 (fund 200).

You would create one allocation entitled “Administration.” It would contain two masks, one for each fund, and each mask would define only the fund segment of the account number. Defining the allocation in this way would allow you to apply it to a JE for any line item.

The mask for Public Housing might look like this: 100.????.??.???. You would designate it to receive 60% of the allocation. The mask for Section 8 would then be 200.????.??.??? and would receive 40% of the allocation.

Hint: Remember that your actual masks might look very different, depending on your agency’s formatting of your account segments.

When you apply an allocation to a JE, you must select both the allocation and one specific account number. If the allocation uses masks, the program selects the multiple accounts that will receive portions of the JE by combining each mask individually with this chosen account number.

The program selects the first account by retaining the fund, project, or cost center defined in the first mask and combining it with only that portion of your chosen account number not defined in the mask (the portion corresponding to the mask’s wildcards). It assigns the resulting account the percentage of the JE designated for the first mask. The program repeats this process for each mask in the allocation.

Continuing our example, assume you had a $300 travel expenditure (usually line item 4150) for a conference and that you wanted to use the Administration allocation you had just created to distribute this expenditure 60% / 40% between Public Housing and Section 8.

In the new JE, you would select the Administration allocation and either account 100.4150.00.000 or account 200.4150.00.000. (For purposes of the allocation, it would not matter which account you chose. We will see why in a moment.) Let us assume you chose account 100.4150.00.000.

To calculate the Public Housing portion of the expenditure, the program would take the Public Housing mask, 100.????.??.???, and combine it with only that portion of your chosen account number not defined by the mask, xxx.4150.00.000. The resulting account number, 100.4150.00.000, would receive 60% of the $300 expenditure ($180.00).

Hint: Do not be confused by the fact that this resulting account number is the same as the one you chose. Remember that the first three digits came from the mask, not from your chosen account number.

The program would calculate the Section 8 portion of the expenditure in exactly the same way.

It would take the Section 8 mask, 200.????.??.???, and combine it with only that portion of your chosen account number not defined by the mask, xxx.4150.00.000. The resulting account number, 200.4150.00.000, would receive 40% of the expenditure ($120.00).

For help on defining allocations in Setup, see Setting Up Allocations.

For help on applying allocations to JEs, see Creating Manual JEs, Vouchers, or Batches.