Planning and Three-Year Budget Forecast Manual
The Planning and Three-Year Budget Forecast Manual is designed to assist the Dean, Director or Senior Business Officer in preparing for the annual budget cycle. Contact the Office of Budget & Planning to obtain a copy of the latest manual.
Budget Amendments
Refer to the Workday Hub here for more information regarding operational budget amendments.
REQUESTING USE OF PROVOST RESERVE FUNDS
Under responsibility center management, annual surpluses generated from an academic unit’s current unrestricted activities belong to the academic unit and are accumulated under the program work tag known as Provost Reserves.
The purpose of Provost Reserves is to provide units a source of funding for strategic initiatives such as faculty start-up costs, capital construction, facility improvements, new program launches, etc. Unused Provost Reserve balances roll forward from year-to-year, available to support schools’ academic missions. Provost Reserve funds are available for one-time or discrete multi-year expenses and are not a funding source for recurring operating costs, such as salaries and wages.
To utilize Provost Reserve funds, academic units must seek and obtain approval from the Provost’s Office. Instructions for drawing down Provost Reserves are provided below.
- Download and complete the Provost Reserve Request form provided here. Please direct questions on how to complete the form to the Office of Budget & Planning.
- For use of provost reserves that span multiple years, for example to support a multi-year faculty start-up package, please state in the request approval is being sought for the entire multi-year drawdown, identify the amount needed by year, and provide a grand total for all the years. If the request is approved, this will serve as the support OBP needs to process the fund transfer without further action from the school or the Provost’s Office in later years. In these instances, a supplementary Excel schedule in addition to the completed Provost Reserve Request form is needed as support documentation for the request.
- Email the completed form to the Vice Provost for Academic Operations in the Office of the Provost and please copy the Assistant Vice President of Budget in the Office of Budget & Planning. Any other parties the school deems relevant to the request may also be included in the email communication.
- If the completed form is submitted by the dean, then the school’s senior business officer should be copied in the email message. If the form is submitted by the school’s senior business officer, then the dean should be copied in the email message.
- Once written approval is obtained from the Vice Provost for Academic Operations, the Office of Budget & Planning will execute the Provost Reserve transaction to fund the program or project based on the information specified in the completed form and will notify the school’s senior business officer.
Under no circumstances can Provost Reserve funds be utilized without prior written approval from the Vice Provost for Academic Operations or the Provost. Additionally, schools are not permitted to pre-emptively transfer anticipated current unrestricted operating surpluses to a fund other than the Provost Reserve. Current unrestricted surpluses should only be transferred by the Comptroller’s Office at fiscal year-end to the academic unit’s respective Provost Reserve account.