Finance Foundations – Lesson 1
Finance Basics
In this lesson you will learn:
- Spending and Receiving at Macalester
- Tracking Expenditures and Revenue
- What is a FOAPAL?
- Finance Approvals
(under construction)
A FOAPAL is a combination of numeric elements of categorizing Macalester’s various financial transactions to track spending and revenue. Each letter in the acronym represents a different category.
Fund – Organization – Account – Program – Activity – Location
FFFFFF-OOOOOO-AAAAAA-PP-AAAA-LLLL, for more detail on each element of the FOAPAL, see What is a FOAPAL?
Choose an Account code from this list to complete the AAAAAA if you have an EXPENSE to code.
Choose an Account code from this list to complete the AAAAAA if you have REVENUE to code.
Macalester Finance Approvals Explained
Guide to Document Codes, FOAPAL Syntax, Fiscal Periods and general account categories can be found at
Go to Finance Foundations at Macalester to find additional lessons.