Need for Project Identified


Departmental Projects Process Overview Departmental Projects introduction Need for Project identified Set up Project Manage Project Transactions Maintain/Amend Project Reporting, review and reconciliation Project closedown Key Financial Controls

The decision to handle an activity as a ‘departmental project’ must be agreed jointly by the department and the divisional finance team.

  • A departmental project in Oracle is a project set up to collect cost information that is not Capital Building or Research related, although the Oracle functionality is very similar. Costs are collected in the projects module and then posted normally to the General Ledger overnight.
  • The main benefits of managing departmental projects through the grants and projects module are for reporting over the lifetime of a project rather than on a calendar year basis and in tracking costs especially when there is a series of activities within a project.

A departmental project could be externally funded or departmentally funded.

If the answer to any of the following questions is YES, then departmental projects via the grants and projects module may be appropriate:
  • Is a high level of expenditure control required?
  • Will the activity cover more than one financial year?
  • Is detailed financial analysis/reporting required?
  • Expecting more than 10 invoices during the life of the activity?
  • Is there the possibility of more than one department being involved?
  • Is the activity involved a one off project rather than recurrent?

Alternatively, the activity could be managed through the General Ledger, either by cost centres or source of funds.

Note: Departmental project functionality must specifically not be used for:
  • Internal trade (activity 28)
  • Sales invoicing (this will be done via AR)
  • Projects involving income generation
  • Residual research awards
Costs must not be posted to the Pre-Award account for this type of project.