Common Questions for Financial Managers
Finance Office Services
The UITS Finance Office provides comprehensive financial and administrative services, including:
- Financial: budgeting, accounting, financial analysis and reports, financial systems, and Activity-Based Costing (ABC).
- Internal procurement
- Travel arrangement
Budgets
Indiana University is on a 12-month fiscal year cycle (July 1-June 30). The OVPIT and UITS budget preparation cycle typically takes place each spring, beginning in late January and concluding in April.
The Finance Office prepares a toolkit that consists of templates, examples, guidelines, references and other information every year. This toolkit is intended to make it easier for Managers, Directors and AVPs to prepare their budgets. The Finance Office also conducts an orientation and training session for each division to begin the budget preparation cycle.
Glossary
Base Budget: Budget streams expected to recur every year. Typically, budgets are funded from campus- or university-level appropriations or student technology fees. Income from services that are billed directly to departments or individual users may be regarded as "base" if there is a history of stability over a period of time. For example, accounts which have recurring expenditures such as salaries, wages and benefits may be budgeted.
One-Time or Non-Base Budget: These are allocations that are not expected to recur every year for an indefinite period of time. These budgets are typically allocated for initiatives that have discrete completion periods, or are expected to be absorbed into on-going operations at a definite point in time. These funds may not be committed for recurring expenses such as salaries and benefits unless employment terms explicitly declare the length of time that funding can be guaranteed.
Life Cycle Funding: A recurring funding stream that is expected to fully fund the modernization or replacement of technology over its expected life cycle is referred to as life-cycle funding.
Examples of average lifecycles for technology
- Desktop computers: Three years
- Servers and high-end printers: Four to five years
- Fiber and copper wiring infrastructure: 10-15 years
The simple way to calculate life cycle funding is to establish the cost of a piece of technology and divide it by the number of years of its expected productive life. The resulting number is the amount that needs to be budgeted every year to ensure the technology can be replaced at the end of its expected productive life.
Understanding Sub-Accounts
The smallest budget entity is the sub-account. Sub-accounts contain detailed budgets that show revenue and expenditure types associated with object codes.
Sub-account managers
Each sub-account has a manager. This person is usually the line manager in charge of the funded service or operation being funded by the sub-account. Sub-accounts can be consolidated at the group manager level using reporting codes.
References
List of UITS sub-accounts and managers
Object codes and descriptions
Financial Reports
The Finance Office prepares and publishes monthly financial reports and delivers them to sub-account managers and directors via email. The reports contain the following information:
- Budgeted
- Cleared
- Encumbered
- Forecast
- Budget variance
Managers and directors are expected to actively manage their budgets. The Finance Office will solicit their input in preparing forecasts. If potential problems are revealed in the budget variance analysis, the Finance Office will contact the managers or directors involved and initiate a process of preventing or solving the problem.
Budget Variance
Budget variance is the difference between the budgeted amount minus actual transactions (cleared), pending transactions (encumbered), and projected transactions (forecast). The Finance Office will notify managers and directors if a budget variance analysis reveals potential problems, and work with them to prevent or solve the problem.
UITS Financial Systems
UITS FS: A sub-environment of the Kuali Financial System (KFS) that lets departments customize structures and reports to meet special requirements.
Personnel Budget Report (PBR): Provides real-time personnel data from university systems via a database designed and maintained by the Finance Office.
Vendor Solicitations
Please act in accordance with university and OVPIT/UITS policies and procedures when processing solicitations from potential vendors through Requests for Information (RFI), Requests for Proposal (RFP), or Requests for Quotation (RFQ).
OVPIT/UITS Policies and Procedures
- Submission to Purchasing for distribution to vendors requires approval by the manager, director, and UITS Finance Office.
- Submit electronic copies of final documents to the UITS Finance Office.
- Conduct all communications or interactions with vendors strictly in accordance with university policies and procedures.
- Awards must first be approved by the Finance Officer and the Vice President as necessary.
University Policies and Procedures
University policies
Protect IU: IU Public Safety & Institutional Assurance
