• A detailed “all funds” budget prepared by each academic and administrative unit.  Revenues and expenses associated with unrestricted funds and restricted funds are budgeted in detail (including gifts, endowments and government grants and contracts). 

• Budgeting within the same chart of accounts used to record actual activity.  Budget-to-actual tracking against activity in the general ledger is supported throughout the year and at any level of aggregation.

• A standard format utilized across the University and related explicitly to the presentation of University financial information in its audited financial statements (specifically, the Statement of Activities). 

• Approved operating budgets are loaded into the accounting system to facilitate standard monthly reports of actual activity against budget estimates during the year.

• Separate fields for revised estimates support updating forecasts during the years without over-writing the original budget.

This set of methods and procedures has allowed for significantly improved reporting and analysis.  Each budget unit has updated its estimates of revenues and expenses at each quarter end, allowing greater visibility into financial operations across the campus and the ability to produce much more meaningful interim financial information for University leadership.  This has also facilitated preparation of budget versus actual statements at each quarter end.  These comparisons have revealed areas of opportunity for improvement in the quarterly closing process, thereby increasing the quality of interim comparisons.

The new budget process was enabled through the development of a set of analytical tools implemented two years ago.  Since then, these tools have been enhanced with greater reporting capability, and most importantly, have moved into a web based application that allows for efficient budget input, as well as real time update and monitoring, both at the local level and within the University’s Budget Office.  Budgeting efficiency has most recently been improved with the creation of a batch upload tool for users responsible for many accounts.