BUDGETS

Your department is provided with an operating budget for each fiscal year, which runs from July 1 to June 30. As department chair, you are the manager of this budget. Many chairs enlist the aid of the department assistant in the regular oversight of the budget.

TYPES OF BUDGETS

The operating budget consists of three types of funds that are not interchangeable:

• fungible budget
• student work–terms
• student work–breaks

The Fungible Budget. The fungible budget is comprised of funds for four categories of expenses:

• supplies
• equipment
• travel
• other

This budget is termed “fungible” because, as chair, you are free to use funds originally budgeted for one of those four categories for an expense in any of the other three. In essence, it is this bottom-line fungible budget that you have to work with to cover any and all non-compensation operating expenses for your department. Examples of the kinds of expenses that fall into each category are shown below.

• Supplies (5300's):
  - printing, office supplies, lab supplies, films, postage, subscriptions, etc.

• Equipment (5400's):
  - equipment repair, equipment purchases, equipment rental, equipment service contracts, capital purchases

• Travel (5800's):
  - airfares, field trips, travel for professional development, travel expenses for speakers, travel for training

• Other (5900's):
  - meetings and entertainment, fees, honoraria, insurance, long distance tolls, services, public relations, room and board, other.  The Dean of Students Office makes available funds for your use in entertaining students.  These funds are distributed to departments at the beginning of the academic year and in line 5997.  While intended to support interactions with students, once transferred to your budget, these are fungible dollars just like the other allocations int the "Other" category.

Student Work-Terms (5130). Your department is allocated a certain number of hours for student work that is performed during the three academic terms. Many departments occasionally find that they are unable to use all of the student work–term hours they are allotted. Unused funding in this category cannot be redirected to cover expenses in the fungible-budget categories of your operating budget (supplies, equipment, etc.), but can be shifted to pay for student work during breaks. This year, the term hourly rate is $9.28.

Student Work-Breaks (5140). Your department may have a small budget to support student work during breaks. Again, unused funding in this category cannot be redirected to cover expenses in the fungible-budget categories of your operating budget (supplies, equipment, etc.), but can be shifted to pay for student work during terms. This year the break hourly rate is $9.24 plus FICA.

Student work budgets do not carry forward.

CARRYOVERS

A carryover system, which applied to fungible budget categories only, was established in 1998 to provide flexibility and encourage prudent management of College budgets. Under this system, year-end balances, both positive and negative, carried forward into the next budget year. The Treasurer's division supports the principle of department/program carryovers, but does not guarantee them.  They will provide you with information regarding carryovers as the year progresses.  Negative carryovers encumber future departmental initiatives and may result in carryover reductions to other departments. Such cases should be avoided.

MANAGING YOUR BUDGET

Department expense reports are available on the web. They are accessible at any time of day from any computer with web access. The report you see reflects payments and purchase orders from July 1 to the previous day. The reports include summary and details of actual, budgeted (by general categories), encumbrances (items ordered on a College purchase order), and available amounts. The web tool allows you to select some or all expense categories. Purchases by your departmental credit card are included in the above report amounts in detail. The details of those purchases are also available at the purchasing card website: https://www.paymentnet.com/Login.asp each month, where you can modify the specific account to be charged prior to payment.

HOW IS THE BUDGET DETERMINED?

Ordinarily the process is as stated below.

In the fall you will receive information via campus mail and through the College website that includes College guidelines from the Vice President and Treasurer and instructions for submitting budget requests. Requests are submitted electronically by completing the Budget Request Form available at:
https://apps.carleton.edu/campus/treasurer/budget_request/

Requests for critical needs, new equipment, and additional student work hours can all be submitted through the electronic forms. Please include any explanation or justification for your budget either in the space provided in the Budget Request Form, or in a separate letter if additional explanation is necessary, particularly if you are requesting more in any category than the College guidelines specify.

You should use one of your early fall department meetings to consult faculty and staff in your department about plans for the next year. Consideration should be given to:

• new equipment needs,
• curricular changes, and
• department recruiting

Requests will be due approximately at the end of October. Please call on Associate Dean Grawe for consultation or assistance if needed.

College Council will vote on the budget upon the recommendation of the Vice President and Treasurer and the Budget Committee sometime in winter term. Final decisions are then made for department and program budgets. Following this schedule, we expect to inform you of your department or program budget in June.

If you haven’t already, take a minute to go to the website and pull up this year’s budget for your department. The 2011-12 budget will be viewable after July 1.

• From the Carleton Homepage, enter the Faculty/Staff section. Then click on The Hub Information Access section: For Employees (benefits, budgets, and more). Login with your netware password. Under Reports, choose budget manager reports.

You are now at the budget manager page.

• You can choose which year you wish to view
• Choose whether you want detailed information or a summary
• Choose which budget you'd like to review (your PDA will also be on the list)
• Choose all or some of the expense codes (ctrl-enter or shift enter to select them)
• You can view the results on-line or in an excel file

Your operating budget will be comprised of the following Expense Codes:

• 5250 – Carryover Funds (determined later in June)
• 53XX – Supplies Controls
• 54XX - Equipment
• 58XX - Travel
• 59XX – Other

If you experience problems viewing your budget reports, please contact Shari Mayer (x4022) in the Business Office.

If you have other questions about your budget(s), please contact the Associate Dean of the College Office at x4301.