Budget Maintenance Post Adoption

During the fiscal year, a Budget/Review Officer may have the need to request the creation of a new organization, fund, and/or account to properly manage the financial activities under their authority.

The Chart of Accounts (COA) structure in Banner is made up of a FOAPAL string comprised of six elements. FOAPAL is used to categorize each financial transaction posted to Banner.

	F	O	A	P	A	L
	Fund	Organization	Account	Program	Activity (limited use)	Location (limited use)
Example	A2000	102144	3690	20440
Fund	Identifies the source of funding and segregates cash and other resources designated for specific purposes.
Organization	Identifies a unit of budgetary responsibility. It is normally used to define “who” spends the money.
Account	Identifies natural classification of a finance activity or “what” the funding is being spent on.
Program	Identifies the organization objective that is being accomplished or “why” the money is being spent.

New organizations can be requested through the University Budget Office by submitting the request form to your Budget Analyst. Requests to establish a new fund or account are processed by Financial Operations.  Please note that all relevant sections of the form must be completed and signed to be considered for processing.

A Budget/Review Officer can use the Budget Adjustment Form to request Budget Transfers or the Creation of New Budget Authority. These changes only impact the “planning” of how financial resources are intended to accomplish goals/responsibilities through your budget and business plan. Requested changes to your budget will not impact actual expenditures or revenue collections.

 Budget Transfers

A budget transfer is an action to re-align your budget by transferring existing budget authority from one org./fund/account and placing it in a different org./fund/account. The transfer then provides the required budget authority to pursue procurement of OOE (Other Operating Expenses) or personnel expenses.

Budget transfers are often processed for a few common reasons:

• Existing budget authority is in the wrong account
  • Even the best business plans change over time. For example, you may have planned to have a contractual vendor deliver a service, but then later choose to not pursue the service from a third party, but instead paid overtime to existing staff to deliver the same service. In this case, the Budget/Review Officer will need to process a budget transfer from the OOE contractual account to the classified and/or unclassified overtime accounts of 1020 and 1160.
• Responsibilities have shifted from one College/Department/Org. to another
  • Occasionally, the area responsible for delivering a service on campus changes. When this occurs, the existing budget authority funding those services must be transferred to the new area of the university now delivering the service.
• A new service is funded
  • After the budget is adopted, campus administration may choose to fund an activity or service that wasn’t originally part of the adopted budget. If that new activity is to be funded with General Use (GU) funding, then this will often result in a budget transfer to the College/Department/Org. that will implementing the new service.

Important things to know:

• Transfers must include an increase and a decrease in the budget in equal amounts and can only occur on existing, unexpended budget authority.
• General Use (GU) Budget Transfers:
  • Budgetary changes regarding GU funding is always addressed through a budget transfer. You should never need to create new budget authority.
  • Transfers must be within the same GU fund (e.g., A0003 to A0003 or A2000 to A2000). Transfers cannot cross GU funds.
• Restricted Use (RU) Budget Transfers:
  • Budgetary changes regarding RU funding may need to be a transfer, or you may need to create new budget authority, depending on the circumstances.
  • RU budget transfers are traditionally processed only within the same RU fund. Budget transfers between RU funds is rare because each fund is its own unique representation of financial activity and operational purpose. Perhaps an easier way to think of it is as if each fund is a separate “checkbook”. As a result, if an actual expense is to occur in a different fund from where the actual revenue was collected, then those resources must be placed in the other fund to offset the expense. This is accomplished through a “cash transfer” processed through Financial Operations and submission of budget adjustments to the Budget Office in support of the new financial activity occurring within both of the funds.

Budget Adjustments - Creating New Budget Authority/Reducing Existing Budget Authority – Restricted Use (RU) Funding Only

New budget authority or reductions to existing budget authority should be requested by a Budget/Review Officer in the following key instances:

• A new service or expansion of an existing service is occurring.
• Restricted Use (RU) revenues are now expected to exceed the original estimates included in your adopted budget and you plan to use all or a portion of the new resources. The opposite is also true, if RU revenues are expected to be less than budgeted, a Budget/Review Officer must re-align their budget by reducing anticipated revenue collections and reducing budgeted expenses by an equal amount. If the org./fund has adequate positive RU cash balances, a Budget/Review Officer may choose to utilize the existing cash balance as a temporary option to address the reduction in revenue collections.
• RU revenue projections have been revised down, and the Budget/Review Officer is now preparing to re-align budget expectations for the year.
• A previously unbudgeted cash transfer between RU funds is occurring.

Important things to know

• Fringe Benefit Calculations
  • Most changes to fringe benefits are automatically calculated in the Budget Adjustment form, with exception of health benefit costs. These must be manually entered.
• Revenue and Expenses must be balanced
  • When creating new budget authority, the request by the Budget/Review Officer must be balanced. This means that if you add new expenses, you must also add new budgeted revenue to fund the new expense.
• Use of cash balances to fund a new expense
  • Often, this budget authority already exists and does not require any budgetary action to fund a new expense. When the adopted budget is loaded to Banner, the university’s standard practice has historically been to automatically budget the cash balance carried-forward from the previous fiscal year. This allows you to utilize the cash balance for OOE expenses that may not have been included in your adopted budget, without submitting a budget adjustment form. These transactions are posted on the revenue side in account R70002 – Prior Year Carried Forward and on the expense side in OOE account BALFWD – Balance Forward-Budget Only (please note, actual expenses should never be posted to this account).

Submitting Your Request

Both Budget Transfers and Creating New Budget Authority can be submitted through the “Budget Adjustment” form, which can be found here on the Financial Services Form Index.

After completing the form, the Budget Review Officer for the impacted organization should email the form to their assigned Budget Analyst.

 Using the Form

The form is designed so that when a user enters a fund/organization/account code, the name will populate automatically. In the instance that the name does not populate correctly, a user can unprotect the form by going to “Review”, and then selecting “Unprotect Sheet” to then be able to manually enter the correct name.

If the request requires additional rows, the form includes expansion buttons to the left of the worksheet to expand the number of rows available within each section. Prior to selecting the expansion button a user must unprotect the form by going to “Review”, and then selecting “Unprotect Sheet”.

For Restricted Use (RU) requests involving personnel, the form will calculate the impact on fringe benefit accounts based on the rates included in the “Benefit Rates” tab. Keep the following exceptions in mind:

• Health Benefits: Because health benefit costs vary based on the type of benefit selection chosen by each employee, as well as the timing of when the budget change is effective, this entry must be manually entered.
  • A safe methodology for estimating these costs is to assume the employee(s) has selected the most expense benefit option of Family (single + dependent) and then to estimate the remaining costs based on the number of months remaining in the fiscal year. Another methodology is to use the average cost per FTE from the adopted budget.
• Retirement: This is estimated based on the Regents retirement rate. The real retirement rate can vary depending on the type of employee or their chosen selection.

All fields at the top of the form must be completed, including a brief outline of the purpose/reason for the request.

The excel workbook includes a “Common Account Search” tool. If you’re not certain of the correct account to use in your request, this tool can make it easier to identify the correct selection(s).

Completed Form – Simple Example of a completed form transferring budget authority between OOE accounts within the same org. and fund combination.

A cash transfer is the reallocation of collected Restricted Use (RU) revenue from one Org/Fund to another.  Cash transfers occur primarily as a result of revenue collections being deposited in a single Fund and Org, while the operational expenses related to the collection of the revenue are occuring in multiple Orgs/Funds.  Another common reason for a cash transfer includes when one area of the university agrees to help fund the operations of another area thru their RU revenue ollections.

Cash transfers are processed by Financial Services and the form can be found on their Form Page here: https://www.wichita.edu/services/controller/fobt_forms.php

Note: General Use fund numbers must never be used on this form. The Budget Adjustment form is to be used for the transfer of General Use funds. This form should also not be used to pay for services or to transfer safekeeping funds.

Personnel Changes must be requested differently depending on what is changing and if the position is filled or vacant.  Below is an outline of which form might be required based on these specifics, please reach out to your Budget Analyst, hr.servicecenter@wichita.edu or epaf@wichita.edu if you have any questions.  All Forms can be found on the Human Resources Forms Index (link below), with more detailed instructions as well.

https://www.wichita.edu/services/humanresources/Forms/Index.php

 

Non-Benefits Eligible Employee (Temp or Student Position)

                Vacant Position

• Request to hire: Non-Benefit Eligible Hire Form
• Request to change funding: Funding Change ePAF or reach out to hr.servicecenter@wichita.edu if a new position number is needed.

                Filled Position

• Request to change hours or pay rate: Change of Status ePAF
• Request to change funding: Funding Change ePAF or reach out to hr.servicecenter@wichita.edu if a new position number is needed.
• Needing to submit a termination: Termination ePAF

Benefits Eligible Employee

                Vacant Position

• Request to hire: PAR Form
• Request to change funding: OHR 200 Form (Or OHR 220 Form if Research Funded)

                Filled Position

• Request to change hours/FTE only: OHR 200 Form (Or OHR 220 Form if Research Funded)
• Request to change pay rate or position title: PAR Form
• Request to change funding distribution only: OHR 200 Form (Or OHR 220 Form is Research Funded)
• Needing to submit a termination: Termination ePAF

*Positions in the Division of Industry and Defense Programs do not follow these processes; please reach out to your Human Resources Team if you have questions at: hr-niar@niar.wichita.edu .

Shrinkage is a reduction to the University budget for salaries and wages as a result of vacancies that occur throughout the fiscal year. It is a reduction imposed by the state on general use funded budgets. As result, the total budget required for salaries and benefits is reduced by a percentage factor as determined through the appropriation process. The shrinkage rate for Wichita State University is 2.28%.  Absent the shrinkage reduction, University departmental budgets are funded fully for salary and fringe benefit requirements.

In the old shrinkage process, when a GU funded position was vacated/hired, funding related to the unspent/to-be-spent portion of the position’s salary (prorated based on the remaining payroll periods in the fiscal year) was transferred into/out of one of the college’s shrinkage accounts, based on the position’s org. assignment.  Because of a low shrinkage rate compared to actual turnover, this traditionally created a surplus of available “salary savings” to support other expenditures not incorporated by line in the adopted budget.

The current process assigns authority to central administration to appropriate any “salary savings” generated during the fiscal year, focusing on one-time projects of a strategic nature. At the beginning of each fiscal year, the total budgeted GU shrinkage cost at the state mandated 2.28% rate is transferred from adopted operating budgets and assigned to the Campus-Wide GU Shrinkage Pool.  As positions become vacant throughout the fiscal year, at the end of each payroll period, the Budget Office processes a capture of the budgetary savings generated for that single payroll period from operating budgets.  The budgetary monies captured are split in the following manner:

• 90% transferred to the Campus-Wide GU Central Shrinkage Pool.
• 10% transferred to a designated shrinkage org. for each division. The transfer is intended to serve as a funding source to:
  • offset compensation changes for new employees that exceed that of the previous position holder. These costs are reflected in the “Filled Shrinkage Org.” discussed below.
  • support miscellaneous and smaller scale personnel related expenditures.
• Each division/college possesses a Filled Shrinkage Org. that captures salary changes on filled positions. This could include the hiring of a position at a higher or lower salary than budgeted, an offcycle pay-raise, or funding assignment changes on a filled position through an HR200. It is the responsibility of the Division/College to monitor the balance, and if necessary supplement the balance, in order to make sure it does not go negative.
• In the case of a faculty member placed on Research Release, the College retains the position’s generated savings to support a teaching overload, hiring of a graduate student or lecturer, and to incentivize research efforts. These savings are placed in the Colleges Research Release Shrinkage Org.
• Division/College Shrinkage Organizations and types can be found here.

In addition to processing the shrinkage actions referenced above, the Budget Office also processes the following shrinkage related actions.

• Vacation payout: for GU employees leaving WSU, but not retiring, their vacation payout is paid by the Campus-Wide GU Shrinkage Pool. No action is required from the College/Dept.
• Military/FMLA Leave: if a GU funded employee is on leave, the College/Dept. may request the position be backfilled with a temporary employee or encounter additional overtime expenses. To fund the additional cost, the College/Dept. can submit a form outlining the position on leave, anticipated cost, and supporting documents to the Budget Office.  The Budget Office will then process the transfer from the Campus-Wide GU Shrinkage Pool to their operating budget.
• Campus-Wide GU Shrinkage Pool Requests: approved central shrinkage requests will be processed to the Organization and GU Fund indicated on the request form. Acceptable central shrinkage requests include: one-time purchases, start-up costs for new programs or initiatives, additional compensation or other controllable salary expenses due to employee absences or turnover.

Colleges and departments that contribute to the GU shrinkage balance are allowed to request use of the balance to cover expenses specifically related to the vacancy of a GU funded position. These would generally include:

• Overtime
• Lecturer expense
• Additional compensation
• Temporary staff

Additional types of requests are possible, but please visit with your assigned budget analyst prior to submitting the request. Requests are approved by a Central Shrinkage Review Committee, which includes the VP for Finance and Administration, Executive VP and Provost, Associate VP for Financial Services, and University Budget Director.  The submission form can be found here.

 

Division/College Shrinkage Organizations by Type

 

Division Filled Position Shrinkage Orgs

101551            President - Shrinkage Filled

101552            Academic Affairs - Shrinkage Filled 

101554            Admin & Finance - Shrinkage Filled         

101573            NIAR - Shrinkage Filled                    

101577            RTT - Shrinkage Filled                     

101555            Student Affairs - Shrinkage Filled

 

College Filled Position Shrinkage Orgs

101570            Shrinkage - Barton School                

101558            Shrinkage - Applied Studies

101528            Shrinkage - Engineering  

101571            Shrinkage - Fine Arts

101572            Shrinkage - Health Professions           

101574            Shrinkage - Library                                           

101567            Shrinkage - Liberal Arts                 

 

Division Vacant Position Shrinkage Orgs        

101593            President - Shrinkage Vacant

101591            Academic Affairs - Shrinkage Vacant

101592            Admin & Finance - Shrinkage Vacant         

101596            NIAR - Shrinkage Vacant                    

101594            RTT - Shrinkage Vacant                     

101598            Student Affairs - Shrinkage Vacant

                                   

Research Release Shrinkage Orgs

101560            Acad Affairs - Shrinkage Res Rel         

101562            Barton School - Shrinkage Res Rel  

101565            App Studies - Shrinkage Res Rel          

101564            Engineering - Shrinkage Res Rel          

101563            Fine Arts - Shrinkage Res Rel            

101566            Health Prof - Shrinkage Res Rel

101561            Liberal Arts - Shrinkage Res Rel         

101568            Library - Shrinkage Res Rel