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Financial Operations

Budget Overview

The annual budget development cycle begins in mid-October and runs through June, though managers should expect to submit their requests by early November.  Managers are notified when the BannerWeb forms have opened, and have approximately 4-6 weeks to complete their requests, though individual VP's may request to review them prior to final submission.

Once the forms have closed, all requests are reviewed for accuracy and for reasonability relative to actual spending and the explanations provided.  If appropriate, recommendations may be made for re-allocations, reductions, increases, and/or other changes.  The information is presented at a January retreat for the President, the Cabinet, the Controller, and the Budget Manager, and the budget is balanced before presentation to the Board of Trustees. The University mission is discussed, priorities are set, and various adjustments are agreed upon.

Further discussions take place over the course of the next several months as additional information becomes available and the budget is fine-tuned.  Once the high-level changes have been affirmed, preliminary budget reports are posted to ePrint for final review by managers, who are are given the opportunity to reallocate their approved funds.

The final step in the process is to update salary budgets to include annual merit increases and the numerous changes in staff that have occurred since the requests were submitted.  Once that has been done, final budget reports are posted to ePrint, and no further changes are accepted.

The annual operating budget is considered to be the financial plan of the University and is implemented to achieve management's goals and objectives.  It is the responsibility of department managers to remain within their budgets, and to review spending regulary using Banner reports (i.e., WGPBDSC, WGPBVSA, WGPOSTA, etc.) posted to ePrint each month.  If a department has overspent in one area, it is expected that they will compensate by spending less in another.  When/if that is not possible, the unbudgeted expense must be reviewed with the manager's VP to determine how it will be covered within the division.  These variances must also be reported in the department's quarterly forecasts.

The Office of Financial Operations is available to assist all new cost center managers with an overview of the process, instructions on use of the forms, Banner reports and other relevant information.  Feedback and questions are always welcome.