Annual Operating Budget Process

Annual Operating Budget Process Overview and Scope

Each year beginning in January, 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 budgeting parameters document, and any subsequent revision, is the responsibility of the Controller’s Office. The budget preparation process may be modified each year to reflect improvements in the process.

Annual Operating Budget Process:

The process may be generally described as follows:

During the fall semester, the VP for Business Affairs’ office compiles information for the submission of proposed increases in tuition, and room and board rates for the next fiscal year. Based on the information compiled and planned rates budgeted for in the University’s Five-Year Strategic Planning Model, along with preliminary estimates of expenditures to be incurred for the next fiscal year, the University’s management presents its recommendations for tuition, and room and board levels for the next fiscal year to the Board of Trustees at its January meeting. Broad-based budgeting parameters are also presented to the Trustee Finance Committee during the January meeting sessions.

In late January/early February, the Controller's Office e-mails to each budget manager the materials necessary for preparation of a new budget, including: budgeting instructions; a Departmental Budget spreadsheet file listing the previous year "actual" and the current year "budget" for each of the expense categories authorized for the department; an Incremental Operating Expenditure Requests File; and an Expenditure Line Justification File. At this same time, meetings are initiated with departments for information sharing and training.

The budget managers prepare their budgets and return them to their Vice Presidents, who review the budgets and forward them to the Controller’s Office by late February. Vice Presidents may determine that departments can send their Departmental Budget worksheet files directly to the Controller’s Office. Please note that all budget worksheets and supporting schedules must be submitted in electronic format (MS Excel). No hard-copy formats will be accepted. Additional time is allotted for the preparation of the Incremental Requests and the Budget Justification worksheets. Once budgets have been returned to the Controller’s Office, meetings will be set up with all the Vice Presidents to discuss and clarify issues regarding their submitted budgets.

By mid-March, the Controller’s Office compiles all the individual departmental budget requests and, having compared estimated expenditures with estimated revenues, begins to prepare reports for the Cabinet’s review.

The Cabinet reviews the proposed budget in April, paying particular attention to incremental expenditures with significant financial consequences. At 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 mid-June, the Controller’s 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 12 Budget Time Table

Annual Operating Budget Proposal Preparation

The operating budget proposal process serves as the primary planning and control tool for the linkage of mission-based programs and the financial resources necessary for their success. To ensure that resources are available to meet the programmatic priorities of the University, it is important that all revenues and expenses be budgeted (planned) in a comprehensive manner.

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

In late January/early February, the Controller’s Office prepares a budgeting package, which is e-mailed to each departmental budget manager. There are three documents that must be completed as part of the annual operating budget process.

They are:

• Departmental Budget file
• Incremental Operating Expenditure Requests File
• Expenditure Line Justification File.

Below are instructions for the completion of each, as well as attached samples to assist budget managers in the process.

How to Prepare the Budget Worksheets:

Please click on the link below to see a sample budget worksheet. Click on the headings at the top of each column for descriptions and explanations of each item.

Sample Operating Budget Worksheet

• Incremental Operating Expenditure Requests File:

• If additional funding is required for operational purposes that is not covered by (or partially covered by) inflationary increases and the VP Expenditure Increase Pool, please fill in the worksheet in the Incremental Operating Expenditure Requests File.
• Provide details about your request in the box in Column A.
• Dollars requested should be entered in Column B.
• Enter the Organization and account code for each item for which additional funding is being requested.
• Please copy additional blocks if needed to provide details for more than six records.
• Please ensure that such amounts are not added in the proposed budget column of the Departmental Budget worksheet file.
• The completed Incremental Operating Expenditure Request file must be returned to your Vice Presidents, who will review all such incremental expenditure requests and assign divisional priorities to them. Divisional Vice Presidents will directly communicate the due date for submission of such requests to their respective office. Please do not forward your incremental requests directly to the Controller’s Office.

Below is a link to an example of the Incremental Operating Expense Request.

Sample - Incremental Operating Expense Requests

• Expenditure Line Justification File:
  
  • 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 Departmental Budget worksheet file.
  • 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 to an example for the expenditure justification.

Sample - Expenditure Justification

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