Budgeting for Administrative Departments

As an administrative department, your spendable balances are primarily—and in some cases completely—set by General Fund and Institutional Expense Fund expense budgets that are planned in Hyperion. Across all administrative departments, more than 80% of total activity is charged to these two centrally managed funds.

A subset of administrative departments have a portion of their total activity supported by departmentally managed endowments and other funds. The guidance below pertains specifically to budget and planning practices for the centrally managed General Fund and Institutional Expense Fund totals in these departments. View the departmentally managed funds section for  balance-setting and planning practices specific to those groups.

Administrative Departments’ General Fund (A0000) Expense Budgets

As announced by the Provost in the fall of 2019, most administrative departments’ budgets from FY20 on will follow a new method that is intended to provide a margin of General Fund budget flexibility and discretion each year. Eligible departments will receive a supplemental ongoing budget adjustment on top of the standard salary inflation and benefits rate changes applied to your prior-year base budget.

Spring

Each spring, expense budget changes for the upcoming fiscal year (such as salary inflation, benefits rate, and the supplemental budget adjustment) will be communicated to the office of the Vice President or Dean of each administrative area. Before the first budget posting in July, the Office of Planning, Budget, and Analysis will provide a template that Administrative Vice Presidents and Deans can use to reallocate General Fund expense budgets to more specific departments, accounts, and programs under their management umbrellas.

July

In July, reallocated expense budgets, and all other General Fund budgets, will be posted on Information Warehouse reports. 

November

Following a second General Fund budget reallocation period in the fall, updated budgets will be posted and spendable balances will be updated in the Information Warehouse reports in November.

Details on the timing and process for these reallocations are communicated via notices from the Office of Planning, Budget, and Analysis to the Office of the Vice President, or Dean of each administrative area.

Administrative Departments’ Institutional Expense Fund (A0018) Budgets

Depending on your department, you may manage Institutional Expense Fund budgets to support expenditures on behalf of the University. Approved costs recorded on this fund include utilities, property taxes, and activities mandated by law. Balances on the Institutional Expense Fund:

  • Do not accrue to the detriment or benefit of the managing departments;

  • May not be assigned or transferred from the chartstring in which the budget is posted; and

  • Do not roll over from year to year.   

Working with the relevant administrative organizations, the Office of Planning, Budget, and Analysis prepares annual updates of projected institutional expenditures recorded on Fund A0018. These updated projections are posted on Information Warehouse reports as part of the November Revised Budget update each year. Please contact your department’s budget analyst if you have questions about changes to the budgeted institutional expenses in your area.