FAQ

The Office of Budgeting, Financial Planning & Analysis has many responsibilities including:

• Prepare the university's annual operating budget.
• Monitor over-expenditures of salary and operating budget lines.
• Process budget changes including transfers, supplements, and carry forwards.
• Provide training, advice, and assistance for account managers and their assistants.
• Prepare special studies and financial models that support financial decision-making and planning activities.
• Coordinate budget systems and procedures with Payroll, Human Resources, Accounting, Faculty Records, and other related departments.
• Prepare Legislative Appropriations Requests to submit to the state.

An account is usually made up of three identifiable numbers:

• Fund - identifies the source or nature of funding for the account.
• Funds Center - identifies the area of the university in which expenditures occur.
• Funded Program - identifies a particular program or project within an area of the university for which expenditures occur (some accounts are not funded programs, so the third number may be NR, for not relevant).

It is the combination of Fund/Funds Center/Funded Program that makes up a unique account.  You may have multiple accounts for different functions and expenses.

Primary Fund Group is the name of a certain group of funds that are funded primarily by appropriations and tuition (both statutory and designated).  Accordingly, Primary Fund Group excludes accounts funded by other fees, income generated from sales and services, or restricted gifts and grants.

Primary Fund Group includes most (but not all) State or E&G accounts (fund numbers beginning with 1XXXXXXXXX).  It does not include organized activities (which are income-generating accounts), nor does it include Coordinating Board grants.

Primary Fund Group also includes the Designated Method fund (20000110XX).  The operating lines (student wages, travel, maintenance & operations, and capital) for most Primary Fund Group fund centers have been budgeted in Designated Method.  Transfers between an E&G account and a Designated Method account must be initiated by the Office of Budgeting, Financial Planning & Analysis.

That depends upon how “budget” is defined.

Texas State’s operating budget is made up of accounts in the Current Unrestricted fund groups (Educational & General, Designated, and Auxiliary Enterprises).

Restricted accounts (funded by gifts, grants, and contracts) are excluded from the operating budget because of the restricted and uncertain nature of their funding. The best estimate for the Restricted budget in the current year is Restricted expenditures in the prior year.  Include that amount if you are including all research funds and funded student aid (not unfunded student aid, or "discounts") in your definition of "budget."

Plant funds are not part of the operating budget either, since they are not spent on current operations.  Even so, the annual funding for capital improvements is an important use of current funds so transfers for capital improvements are included in the operating budget.  Include this amount if your definition of "budget" includes capital expenditures.

To see actual operating budgets for current and previous fiscal years, look under the Budget Numbers tab for the Operating Budget webpage.

Copies of the detailed Salary Report are available in the Alkek Library and the Faculty Senate office.

The University charges administrative overhead to all Current Unrestricted accounts except Primary Fund Group accounts (those accounts funded by appropriations and tuition).  This charge ensures that the cost of operating the university is borne by Primary Fund Group and non-Primary Fund Group sources.  It is a charge for administrative services such as Information Technology, Accounting, Purchasing, Human Resources/Payroll, Budgeting, Student Business Services, and general administration which are paid by Primary Fund Group.

Administrative overhead is calculated on revenues collected at a rate of 1.94% of revenue.

Process:

The traveler or their travel assistant submits a travel request through the save-and-send-for-approval function. TRAVELTracks will check budget and activate workflow, with the first step in the workflow directed to the account manager. At the time the request was saved a statistical encumbrance is created. A statistical encumbrance does not actually consume any budget. However, the travel amount will be reflected in the B2A report AND the Budget Balance report. Since the encumbrance is statistical, the system balance will be greater than the B2A balance by the amount of the statistical encumbrance. And, because the budget is actually still available, other offices (such as payroll, purchasing, AP, accounting-IDTs, etc.) could post to the account and consume the budget “statistically set aside” for the travel request. The Travel Office is the last step in the travel approval workflow, so there is a chance that when they go to approve a request, they will get an overbudget notification. Travel Office staff will coordinate with the Office of Budgeting, Financial Planning & Analysis staff when this occurs. The Office of Budgeting, Financial Planning & Analysis staff may contact departments to resolve budgeting issues.

Once a travel request's workflow routing is complete, meaning the Travel Office has approved the request, the statistical encumbrance is eliminated and a real encumbrance is posted.

Reporting:

The B2A and Budget Balance reports will reflect a statistical encumbrance immediately when the creator hits “save.” To determine which encumbrances are statistical from the budget to actual, you must drill down into the documents in the encumbered column in GL 710096 – 710099. When you drill down from B2A, you’ll see the document numbers and from there you’ll drill down to the actual request in PDF form. The document has possible three statuses that you can see immediately upon opening them:

♦ Saved (NOT released for approval) - Statistical

♦ Released for Approval - Statistical

♦ Approved - Real

Another way to view the actual document in SAP is with the All Postings report (ZFMRP_RFFMEP1AX):

Choose the particular range of GLs (710096 – 710099) and Value Type 52 (Business Trip Commitments) and enter the account you’re looking at.  Enter /STATTRAVEL as the layout.  This layout subtotals by document number and has a specific column for the statistical indicator. If there is only one line for that document with an X in that column, the posting is statistical. A real posting will have, by document number, a minimum of three lines: a positive and a negative line with the statistical indicator, and then a posting line with that column blank.