Goal of the Budget Maintenance Process:
Annually, the Budget Department Office initiates the budget process in order to prepare for the upcoming fiscal year. Budgets should be submitted at that time in a systematic and thoughtful manner to reflect anticipated revenue and expenses, as well as any anticipated changes that may occur within the given department. However, there may be times throughout the fiscal year during which adjustments may need to be made in order to reflect changes in the day-to-day operation of the institution. It is the responsibility of the budget manager to submit a Budget Change Order to reflect such changes. By doing so, the Budget Department Office can update the financial system to reflect such changes.
Types of Off-cycle Adjustments:
There are a variety of circumstances that require budget amendments. They may include:
- Reorganization or consolidation of positions or departments
- An unanticipated change in specific revenues or expenses
- Transfers between line items within or across departments to cover for overage/underage of revenues and expenditures
- Award of a new grant or start-up of a new program/activity.
Budget Change Order Forms:
In order for any changes to be made to a budget, a Budget Change Order Form must be submitted to the Budget Department Office.
Required Information:
The following information is required on the Budget Change Order Form:
- Transaction Date: This is normally the date on which the Budget is written up. This can be past or forward dated so that it is reflected in an appropriate month’s budget report in the General Ledger. This is different from the data entry date.
- A Permanent Budget Adjustment is one whose effect is carried forward into a future year’s budget. ATemporary Budget Adjustment is effective only for that particular fiscal year. The effect of a temporary budget adjustment is not carried forward into future fiscal years.
- A Detailed Narrative is required to provide additional background on the reason for which the budget changes are being made.
- A Brief Description of the change is to be used to enter the information into the Banner Finance System. This is not to exceed 34 characters (this is what is entered in the Banner system in the transaction description field, which is limited in size).
- Include the Organization number, account number, and activity code (if applicable) for which the changes are being made.
- Enter the title of the organization and the account description for which the changes are being made.
- Enter a plus ”+” sign if you are increasing the budgeted amount for a revenue (5xxxx) or expense(61xxx or 7xxxx). Enter a minus “-“ sign if you are reducing the budgeted amount for a revenue or expense.
If you are increasing a recharge account (68xxx), enter a minus sign; if you are decreasing a recharge account, enter a plus sign.
- Enter the dollar Amount of the increase or reduction for the given Organization/Account number.
- The name of the Director responsible for the department budget and the divisional Vice Presidentshould be filled in in the Approval section. The Director and Vice President’s signature must be obtained before forwarding the budget change order form to the Budget Department Office.
- The name of the individual who prepared the Budget Change Order Form should be filled in the “Entry Written By” section in case the Budget Department Office needs further information regarding the changes.
The following fields will be filled in by the Budget Department Office:
- Document #
- Keypunched by
- Entry date
- Internal Approval signature