Annual Financial Plan

Fiscal Year 2005-2006

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CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SAN BERNARDINO

BUDGET POLICIES

FY 2005/2006

The following budget policies affect the allocation and expenditure of funds for Fiscal Year 2005-2006.  Any changes to the policies and/or exceptions require the approval of the President.  For more information on budget policies and processes, refer to "Meeting Goals of the University Plan".

POSITION FUNDING

1. Personnel are appointed as permanent, part-time faculty, temporary management/staff or student assistants.
   1. Permanent positions are permanent authorized positions, which are classified as Faculty (Academic Salaries –601031), Staff (Support Staff-Salaries-603030) or Management (MgmtSprvserSal-602030) for cost reporting and receive baseline allotments in these line items as appropriate for each department.  The Human Resources Office has the responsibility to determine the proper classification and salary level for all staff positions.  Academic Personnel will be responsible for the proper classification of Faculty, Department Chairs and Educational Coordinators.

      During FY 2005-2006, vacancies in permanent Staff or Management positions may not be filled unless approved by the President.

   2. Temporary Staff, Student Assistants and Part-time Faculty may be allocated as “pool” line items in departmental budgets.  They are not allocated as positions. The monitoring of these funds is the responsibility of the applicable department.

   3. Employees may be temporarily reassigned to a position in a higher classification to perform the duties of that classification.  Employees may also be given higher-level duties in their current position on a permanent basis.  If, in either of these situations, a change of classification is required, the Human Resources Office is to be consulted for the correct classification.  The source of funds to pay for either of these personnel actions is the responsibility of the department making the change.

   4. Costs incurred by a department to provide reasonable accommodation for a newly hired employee with a disability may be taken from vacant position salary savings.  Costs incurred to provide reasonable accommodation for a current employee with a disability are the responsibility of the department. 

EMPLOYEE POSITION INFORMATION

All employees are assigned to a specific classification and position number through the use of a Human Resources Position Document.  This process allows the campus to identify all costs (e.g. salary and benefits) associated with the position.  An explanation of the position number is discussed below.

Position numbers are assigned an HR Account Code that indicates where their payroll expenditures will be posted. 

Each employee is assigned the following information for tracking of his or her salary information:

Empl ID—Used for unique identification of an employee.

Position # (may be assigned to a “pool” number for Temp Staff, Part-Time Faculty or Student Assistant.)—Used to assign an employee to a specific, permanent position or temporary (“pool”) position within a department. 

HR Account Code—Identifies to what chartfield string the employee’s salary/benefit costs should be posted and is based on position number used.

Transfer of funds between budget line items is permissible with the following exceptions.  When allowable, refer to the custom Excel spreadsheet titled “Budget Journal Import Template”.  (See Budget Office Web Page.) http://adminfin.csusb.edu/finance/budget_office.htm.

1. Funds budgeted for the following items/programs cannot be transferred to another account without Chancellor’s Office approval:
   1. Educational Equity Funds
   2. Student Financial Aid Grants
   3. Deferred Maintenance

2. Budgets established in Reimbursed Activities (Fund BDxxx) may not be transferred to a General Fund (Fund ADxxx, or any other Fund) account and vice-versa.  See the section on Reimbursed Activities for more information on the purpose and function of these accounts.

The current financial accounting system, PeopleSoft, which tracks Budget and Actual activity, uses a series of associated chartfields to track assets, liabilities, fund balances, revenue and expenditures.  These chartfield “strings” record Budget, Purchase Order and Actual expenditure activity for the campus.  This information is used in report format by campus departments, Administrators, the Chancellor’s Office and other state entities to monitor financial status at various levels.  A general explanation of each chartfield, its function and structure order is provided below. 

Chartfields and chartfield strings are established and assigned by the Chart of Accounts Administrator (CoA) at departmental request and as directed by the Chancellor’s Office to conform to their requirements. 

Required chartfields must be used on all transactions.  Optional chartfields are assigned only as needed (or requested) to separately identify budget/expenditures.  NOTE: Once optional chartfields are assigned as part of a complete chartfield string they must be used consistently in all transactions to record budget and expenditures correctly. 

The combination of chartfields in a string is controlled by a series of 4 system rules called “combo rules”.  These rules allow specified combinations of chartfields to be valid.  If an invalid combination is entered on a requisition, PO or journal, an error message will be generated and the item cannot be saved or processed until the error is corrected. This is to assist in the accuracy of system reporting of data.

The four rules are:

• Fund_Account--Allows specified Accounts to be used in combination with specified Funds.

• Fund_Dept—Allows specified DeptIDs to be used with specified Funds.

• Prog_Dept—Allows specified DeptIDs to be used with specified Program chartfields.

• Fund_Scenario—Allows specified Budget Scenarios to be used with specified Funds.  Only applies to Budget Transfers.

Dept-Program

As of January 2005, a 1-1 relationship exists between Dept-Prog when used with Expenditure accounts in General Fund (AD2xx and Trust (Rxxxx).  For a complete list of Dept-Prog to be used with General Fund and Trust Expenditure accounts as of January 1, 2005, see the Budget Office web site at:  http://adminfin.csusb.edu/finance/budget_office.htm.

Class and Project

The Class and Project chartfields are not part of the rule structure.  However, they do have a few structural parameters for use.

• Class—Used at the discretion of the department to further differentiate spending within the Fund-DeptID-Prog structure.  However, once used, it must be used consistently for accurate reporting of expenditures and budget entries.  No error message will occur if it is not used.

  SPECIAL NOTE: A Class beginning with XRxxx, XTxxx, or XCxxx MUST be used with all departmental entries to Funds BDxxx and BFxxx.  These Classes should not be used with any other Fund.  The Billings/Receivables department in Accounting uses the XR, XT, and XC Classes when generating a report for Reimbursed Activity billing and reconciling.  If the appropriate Class is not used the expense or receipt will not be picked up by the report resulting in an out-of-balance situation that must be reconciled.  These Classes along with the Funds mentioned above, are used to specifically indicate Reimbursed Activity expenditures and receipts.

  Beginning July 2003, most Reimbursed Activity transactions will be using only Funds BDxxx and BFxxx along with class XRxxx.  If you are using a CRxxx Fund or Class XTxxx this year, please contact the Budget Office for analysis and assistance. 

  Any valid Class can be added to a Fund-Dept-Prog chartfield string (with the exception noted above).  It is the department’s responsibility to choose a relevant Class for their purposes and use it consistently to record expenses correctly.

• Project—Like Class, the Project chartfield is used to differentiate expenditures within the Fund/Dept/Prog structure.  It can be used with or without a Class chartfield.  It is used to further differentiate Class expenditures in Reimbursed Activities when several expenditure strings are covered by one reimbursement account and they all have the same class.  Project would be added to the expenditure chartfield strings to indicate different areas.

  As with the Class chartfield, Project should be selected with the advisement of the COA Administrator and used consistently once assigned.  No error message will occur if it is not used.

For a complete list of chartfields, please run the following queries or refer to the Ledger or Budget Inquiry panels in the system.  These queries may be run on the system or to Excel for sorting preferences.

For a list of selected queries useful to campus departments, please refer to the on-line query list with titles beginning with SB_DEPT…, which can be found at the CSUSB CMS web site under PeopleSoft Training: http://cms.csusb.edu/peoplesoft.asp or the Financial Operations Office Web page, PeopleSoft Newsletter section: http://adminfin.csusb.edu/finance/01_02/Newsletter/peoplesoft_news.htm#Budget.  A list of these queries is also included at the end of this section.  For additional information on how to run selected queries as well as a list of queries with information on parameters and results, refer to the CSUSB CMS web site as listed above. 

REIMBURSED ACTIVITIES

Reimbursed accounts and associated budgets are established by general fund departments to accept reimbursement for services to non-state activities in support of the University's educational mission.  Prior to establishing these accounts, an agreement must be made on the source of reimbursement, billing process and rate of charges.  In most cases, reimbursement is not completed until after the service is delivered.  Consult Budget Office for Agreement documents and information.  Forms available on Budget Office Web page: http://adminfin.csusb.edu/finance/budget_office.htm.     

Unlike regular General Fund accounts (ADxxx.), Reimbursed Activity accounts determine their own budget based on the agreed upon reimbursement commitment from a non General Fund source.  This area records expenditures in a chartfield string that uses the BDxxx Fund, DeptID, Program 1100 and Class that begins with an XR.  (Class is required for these chartfield strings.)  The associated reimbursement uses a BFxxx Fund with the same remaining chartfields as the expenditure side.   Expenses incurred in reimbursement expense accounts should be entirely reimbursed in the year they occur and therefore, do not have a direct impact on the General Fund budget.  However, should a department spend more than the agreed upon reimbursement, the excess expenditures amount will be moved and charged to the department's General Fund account.  In most cases, budgets in BDxxx and BFxxx with a Class of XRxxx are for planning purposes only.  Budgets cannot be transferred to regular General Fund or any other Funds. 

Reimbursed expense chartfield strings beginning with "BDxxx" must have a Class that begins with XR.  These strings receive the actual expenditures by departments.  The "BFxxx" chartfield strings must have the same Class as the corresponding BDxxx string.  The BFxxx string reflects the reimbursement from non-state sources.  The same budget amount is established for both accounts with the BFxxx budget entered as a credit or "negative" amount.  It is possible for more than one BDxxx chartfield string to be linked to a single BFxxx chartfield string.  In these cases, the Project chartfield is used to differentiate the strings.  They would all use the same Class.  Although budgets are established for Department planning purposes, it is the Actual Expenditures in the BDxxx fund that must be covered/offset by the Actual Reimbursement in the BFxxx Fund.  The Actuals column in the chartfield strings should add up to zero at the end of the fiscal year.  It is the responsibility of the controlling Department staff to monitor these accounts and refer any questions to the Budget Office. 

The most common sources of reimbursement are:

Reimbursement from GRANTS

Faculty members submit proposals for grant funded research projects.  If the grant is accepted, the source agrees to reimburse the campus for the cost of the faculty member's time and operating expenses associated with the research project.  The Foundation receives the funds and administers the grant.  When the college uses the grant funds to cover release time for the faculty member by hiring Part-time Faculty on state payroll, a portion of the grant funds are transferred to a Reimbursed Activity receipt chartfield string with Fund BFxxx.  The Part-time faculty payroll is then charged to the corresponding BDxxx chartfield string up to the amount of the reimbursement.  Budgets for these accounts are established (and increased) as requested by the departments and reflect the portion of the grant that is being transferred to the BFxxx chartfield string.  If a Reimbursed Activity chartfield string does not currently exist for the college/project, a request must be made to the Budget Office along with the appropriate agreement documents.

Reimbursement from AUXILIARY FUNDS

Housing, Parking and College of Extended Learning all use General Fund supported resources.  Utilities, custodial service, payroll, duplicating and computer support are some examples.  Expenses are charged to a BDxxx chartfield string and reimbursement is made to a BFxxx chartfield string for the appropriate department.  Budgets are established by the department and may be based on a specified amount or an estimated usage amount, which could change during the year.

Reimbursement from TRUST ACCOUNTS

Reimbursed Activity Accounts for Trust funds do not need to be set up since the trusts are allowed to receive charges directly for payroll, telephone, duplicating and other charges previously requiring a Reimbursement intermediary.  This allows departments to reconcile their trust cash balance and other transactions quickly and easily within one fund, track their expenditures within the trust itself and in the appropriate expense line.  It will also reduce the amount of billing and processing work/time required by General Accounting.

As a result the XTxxx Class is no longer used.  In certain Trusts where a Class is needed to further differentiate the expenditures, the Class Txxxx series has been created.  This new Class series will allow Trust Funds that covered more than one Reimbursed Account to also differentiate those charges within the Trust.  Departments with Trust funds who previously used Reimbursed Activities Funds (BDxxx-…-1100-XTxxx and CRxxx-…-5000-XTxxx) for reimbursement should make arrangements to have payroll, duplicating, postage, campus stores, and telephone charges post to their Trust fund directly.

Reimbursement from CHANCELLOR'S OFFICE FOR SPECIAL PROJECTS

Based on requests submitted to the Chancellor's Office (CO), the campus receives notification of funding for special projects on Chancellor’s Office Purchase Orders.  The notification specifies the total amount that may be spent for the project.  A Fund BDxxx chartfield string is established and the project amount is posted for the budget.  Expenses for the project are posted and a bill is generated to the CO for reimbursement.  When the CO is billed, a credit entry is posted to a corresponding BFxxx Fund chartfield string.  These Purchase Orders are generally issued for the current fiscal year. 

AUXILIARY ENTERPRISE FUNDS-Housing, Parking, Parking Fines, College of Extended Learning, Health Center

Housing, Parking, Parking Fines, College of Extended Learning (Trust) and Health Center programs operate on a cash basis independent of the General Fund and its budget. 

Enterprise Funds are responsible for generating sufficient revenue to cover their operating expenses as well as any program construction projects or ongoing maintenance and repairs.    Auxiliary Enterprise Fund revenue is generated from operations and posted.  The related cash is remitted to the State Controller’s Office (SCO) for deposit into the appropriate Fund (except for those using Trust Funds).  Based on the cash remittances, expenditure authority is given at the State level via a “cross-posting” process.  At the campus level, a budget entry equal to the cash remitted, is posted for expenditure budget.  Any unspent expenditure budget at year-end is “rolled” forward for use in the next fiscal year.  These programs have a separate Fund chartfield to indicate revenue, expenditures, construction projects and maintenance and repair.

Example:

The different Enterprise Funds are used with designated DeptID, Program and Account chartfields to record revenue and expenditure transactions.

Assembly Bill 2812 allows Parking, Parking Fines, Health Center, and College of Extended Learning to move operations from the SCO fund to a trust structure.  Health Center/Health Facilities has moved part of their operations.  The College of Extended Learning began operations from Trust in September 2001.

OTHER FUNDS

Lottery - Trust

The lottery fund receives funding from the Chancellor’s Office each year, which is distributed to departments by program and by campus policy.  Unspent monies remain with the chartfield and are “rolled forward” for use in the following year.  Beginning July 2002, the Lottery program began operating from the Trust Fund, (Fund RYxxx) and receives their funding via check - not Allocation Order as in the past.  Unspent funds remain on campus for distribution/use the following year. 

Construction projects receive funding from allocation orders issued by the CO.  Funds are available for a designated amount of years (usually 3) after which, unspent funds revert to the SCO.  Campus Fund chartfields are established based on the source of funding and to track projects separately. 

Trust (SCO Fund 948)

Trust accounts are established to receive non-state fees (lab fees, materials fees), ticket sales, event revenue, and other non-state sources of income such as student grant funds.  Expenditures of these funds must be associated with supporting the program, which generated the income.  No budgets are posted.  Operation is on a cash basis.  Unspent cash is “rolled forward” for use in the next fiscal year.  The AVP of Administration and Finance must approve new trust funds. 

Lottery and College of Extended Learning (CEL) operate from the trust. 

Beginning July 2003, trust funds became able to receive payroll, duplicating, postage, telephone and most other charges directly.  For Trust Funds existing prior to July 2003, it is the department’s responsibility to make the necessary changes to their processes to ensure charges are posted correctly.   

Note:  Any query that includes “KK…” in the description must be run with the “schedule” option