A primary benefit of the NCAS is that it allows the state to maintain consistent financial information, while simultaneously meeting the needs of individual agencies. To accomplish this, the Office of the State Controller (OSC) has entered standard information in the NCAS that is either general to the state or specific to an agency. Because the system uses this information as a standard, it is considered policy. Before an agency can enter warehouse information, certain inventory policies must be established for the state.

The NCAS policy carries forward or defaults information from one screen to the next. This default information conforms to a hierarchy in the NCAS. The policy hierarchy, illustrated by the following diagram, represents the levels at which inventory policies are established and maintained. As you review the policy hierarchy, bear in mind that the overall state policies are established at the top of the hierarchy. At the highest level, the module policy acts as an umbrella under which general, statewide inventory policies are established and maintained. As you progress down the hierarchy, each layer represents an opportunity to override previously established policies with data that is specific to the transaction on which you are working.

Click on a policy block below to see a definition of the policy: