455CASE STUDY III-4
The Kuali Financial System: An
Open-Source Project
The Kuali Financial System is an open-source enterprise
financial information system for colleges and universities
developed by seven higher education institutions for free
and unrestricted use by anyone, including the entire higher
education community.
The Kuali Financial System (KFS) consists of the fol-
lowing modules: Chart of Accounts, Financial Transactions
and General Ledger, Workflow, Capital Assets, Budget,
Labor Distribution, Accounts Receivable, Purchasing and
Accounts Payable, and Research Administration/Contracts
and Grants. A higher education institution can choose
whether to install all or just some of these modules, so the
system can be tailored to suit the needs of institutions of
varying size and complexity ranging from small colleges to
large multicampus research universities.
The KFS chart of accounts is table driven and is
therefore very flexible and can be tailored to the needs of
any institution. The system makes it possible for an institu-
tion to produce all its GASB^1 -required financial statements
including segment reporting. Also, on demand one can
produce reports such as a snapshot of the financial status of
an auxiliary organization or a report for a dean on the total
travel expense across all funds within a college. The work-
flow engine is a general-purpose electronic routing infra-
structure. Client applications use the workflow engine to
automate and regulate the routing and approval processes
for the transactions/documents they create. It starts with an
eDoc (electronic document) that users compose in a client
application such as one of the other modules of the KFS or
some other Web application which requires routing and
approval of documents. The workflow engine routes the
eDoc electronically to the attention of designated individu-
als, based on university or departmental business rules and
policies. For example, the Business School may route a
transaction directly to an administrative officer while the
College of Arts may route the same type of transaction first
to the department chair and then to the dean’s office. This
routing is table-driven so that it can be easily tailored to the
characteristics of the transaction and organizational unit
without modifying the software code; you just change the
table values. Therefore the workflow engine can be used
by any institution, and when there is a reorganization, the
workflow may be easily changed to suit the new organiza-
tion structure.
Not only is electronic workflow much more efficient
than the old paperwork system, but users are also enthusi-
astic about how they can follow the documents through the
processing cycle. Jon Stockton, Chief Financial Officer,
Colorado State University College of Agricultural
Sciences, agrees:It is very exciting to have a system where you can see
the document immediately. You can see it and know
that it is there. You can look at a document, whether it
is approved or not, and see what is floating out there.History of the Project
The Kuali Financial System (KFS) was developed by staff
from Cornell University, Indiana University, Michigan
State University, San Joaquin Delta College, the rSmart
Group, the University of Arizona, and the University of
Hawaii, with guidance from the National Association of
College and University Business Officers (NACUBO). In
March 2005, the initiative received a grant of $2,500,000
from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The University
of California Office of the President, along with University
of California campuses at Davis, Irvine, and Santa
Barbara, joined the project in 2006. The KFS is based on
the proven design of the Indiana University Financial
Information System. Built on open standards and featuring
a robust enterprise workflow engine that enables effectiveCopyright © 2010 by E. W. Martin. Reproduction, storage in a
retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electron-
ic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise is prohibited with-
out permission of the author. 1
GASB is an abbreviation for Governmental Accounting
Standards Board.