Annual Operating Budget

Each year, beginning in the fall the University begins to prepare the annual operating budget for the coming fiscal year. The budget, once prepared by the individual departments and reviewed by upper management, must ultimately be approved by the Board of Trustees. The University’s intent is to create a budgeting process whereby strategic resource allocations can fund mission critical activities and new initiatives.

The preparation of the budget, and any subsequent revisions is the Budget Department Office’s responsibility. The budget preparation process may be modified each year to reflect improvements in the process.

The budget managers prepare their budgets online and submit them to their Budget Liaison/Vice President. The Budget Liaison or Vice President will forward the approved budget to the Budget Department Office by late February. Vice Presidents may determine that departments can send their online departmental budget files directly to the Budget Department office.  Additional time is allotted for the preparation of the Special Requests and the expense justification worksheets. Once budgets have been completed online, meetings will be set up in March with all the Vice Presidents to discuss and clarify issues regarding their submitted budgets and supporting documentation.

In early April after the VP meetings have taken place and all of the allotted changes have been made, the Budget Department Office will combine the departmental budgets for the entire university into a proposed budget. The department will also review estimated expenditures, estimated revenues, special request, expense justifications, and supporting documentation as it begins to prepare reports for the Cabinet’s review.

The Cabinet reviews the proposed budget in April, paying particular attention to special request with significant financial consequences. In its May meeting, the Board of Trustees is asked to review and approve summaries of the proposed operating and capital budgets. After the approval of the Board is obtained, budgets are loaded into the Banner GL module and by June, the Budget Department Office informs all departments that online reports are available for the upcoming fiscal year.

Click on the link below in order to view the timetable for the current/next fiscal year’s projection/budgeting process.

FY 2XXXX Budget Time Table

Annual Operating Budget Proposal Preparation

The online submission of the budget proposal and any subsequent revision is the individual departmental budget manager’s/liaison responsibility.  At the beginning of each budget process, the Budget Department office provides budget training for new budget managers. Budget managers who have attended in the past, and wish to attend as a refresher, are also welcome to do so.

In mid-December the Budget Department Office notifies the budget managers and liaison’s that the online budget system is available to input budgets and projections.  Below are items that need to be completed as part of the annual operating budget process.
1. Current year projection amounts
2. Proposed budget amounts for new fiscal year
3. Expenditure line justification file
4. Return of supporting documents
5. And occasionally special requests File (Item 5 is only needed if additional funds are needed and the organization or the VP’s reserves do not have sufficient funds for the expenditure(s). Below are instructions for the completion of each, as well as attached samples to assist budget managers/liaisons in the process.

How to obtain instructions on how to navigate through the online Budget module:

1. Sign onto Banner Self-Service
2. Select Finance Menu
3. Select Budget and Forecasting Menu
4. Click on  the blue question mark in the top right corner of web page
5. Select the FY 2XXX instructions (This will walk you through the online budgeting process)

Special Requests File:  The actual forms are located on the online budget page in the lower left corner of the web page.

• Enter the Organization and account code for each item that additional funding is being requested.
• Please copy additional blocks if needed, to provide details for more than four records.
• Please ensure that such amounts are not added in the proposed budget column of the Departmental Budget worksheet file.
• If additional funding is required for operational purposes and other organizations or the VP reserve within this same area doesn’t have sufficient funds then a special request form will need to be prepared. Please fill out the worksheet and attach it to the organization that needs the special requests in the online module. Please also email special request to the Budget Department Office.
• Select if the request is a one-time request or a permanent request.
• Provide org name/number, account number, amount of request in Section I.
•  Give a brief description and also report the dollar amount in Section II.
• Input the current budget allocation in Section III.

Below is a link to the special request form and all areas of this form need to be filled in by the requesting department.

Special_Request_Template

Expenditure Line Justification File: The actual forms are located on the online budget page in the lower left corner of the web page.

• Separate written justifications are required for all part time salary (616xxx) and expense (7xxxx) account codes with proposed budgets over $10,000. This amount must equal the dollar amount that was shown as your proposed budget for the new fiscal year in the online Budget module.
• We strongly encourage financial managers not to use the miscellaneous expense account code (#73201) to bundle expenses. If you do budget to this account, you must provide detailed justification for such items over $1,000.  
• Please enter the organization and account code for each item that you are justifying.  Dollars justified should be entered in Column B.
• Please copy additional blocks if you need to provide justification for more than six records.

Below is a link showing the areas that need to be filled out on the expenditure justification.

Sample – Expenditure Justification