What Is a Funding String?

A funding string identifies both a specific source of funding, as well as the type of expense for an individual transaction. This allows us to allocate expenses to various types of funding and to track and budget spending in various categories.

Graphic of a UW-Madison funding string

Anatomy of a Funding String

The pieces of the funding string can be arranged in any order.

Department ID

This 6-digit number indicates the school, department, and sub-department (DOM divisions):

  • First 2 digits = division or major school/college (53 = School of Medicine and Public Health)
  • Middle 2 digits = department (42 = Department of Medicine)
  • Last 2 digits = sub-department, or "00" if none (20 = Allergy)

In some cases, the letter ‘A’ precedes the 6 digits. This letter identifies the UW System Campus, and A = Madison. You will also hear the Dept ID referred to as the UDDS code, which was a previous name that signifies University (A), Division (53), Department (42), Subdepartment (20) = A534220.

Program Code/Mission Code

This 1-digit number indicates which mission the expense most closely aligns with: clinical, research, education, public service, or general administration. DOM uses a combo of Dept ID + Program Code to indicate the mission. Contact your divisional accountant for questions on which mission code to use for specific projects or transactions. In DOM, we only use codes 2, 4, and 5.

Fund

This 3-digit number indicates the general source of funding, or type of money being spent. Each funding source has different requirements/restrictions on how it is spent, or what it is spent on. Though there are a number of funds, these are the fund numbers you will see most often:

101 – State funds – General Purpose Revenue (state taxes) and Student Tuition
133 – Non-federal grants - research grants, sponsored by companies such as Merck or Pfizer
136 – Revenue producing activity - revenue from patents, services (DOM IT Helpdesk), or if a department puts on a conference and collects registration fees
144 – Federal grants - research grants - for DOM, this is mostly from National Institutes of Health
233 – Gifts – donations, often through the UW Foundation or UW Medical Foundation

Project Number/Project ID

This 7-character alpha-numeric “number” indicates a very specific source of funds. It can be tied to a specific principal investigator (PI), or be generally tied to a department or division. Some are open indefinitely, while others have specific start and end dates. You may see project numbers in several formats:

Image

**All 133, 144, and 233 projects will have a fund+project number as part of the complete funding string. However, most 101 funds will not use a project number, and 136 projects may or may not have a project number. In this case, the project number would be left blank.

Account Code

This 4-digit number identifies the type of transaction (travel, lab supplies, computer purchases, meals, etc). Visit UW's complete list of searchable account codes.

Fiscal Year

UW runs a fiscal year from July 1 through June 30, to match the academic year. For example, Fiscal Year 2023 runs from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023.

For more information. visit Using Funding Codes and Strings at UW-Madison Division of Business Services