.100 General

This subsection provides an overview of the internal budget process of the University.  The Office of Budget Management is responsible for producing an annual operating budget which matches an organizational unit's needs with available resources.  These needs are usually defined by the University's master plan and/or by state mandated program objectives.

.200 Definitions

This subsection provides definitions of terms used in the budget, budget revision process.

.300 Operating Budget Process

There are four phases of the internal budget cycle which must be coordinated with the state's biennium budget cycle. Any participants' degree of involvement will vary through the phases as major policies are established and staff and implementation requirements shift.

.310 Central Planning

The central planning phase involves the Office of Budget Management and the Office of the Vice President for Administration and Finance. During this phase, which typically occurs October through February, the Office of Budget Management follows legislative actions which may cause changes to the University's appropriations.  The budget staff interprets these legislative actions and determines internal resource requirements.  At the same time the staff is reviewing other programmatic resource requirements such as utility and insurance increases which may or may not be funded by legislative action.  The budget staff keeps the Vice President for Administration and Finance and the Associate Vice President for the Office of Budget Management apprised of internal funding requirements compared to legislated funding.  The objectives of this phase are as follows:

• Establish base budgets for each organizational unit.
• Identify and allocate resources to reflect the impact on organizational budgets of legislated mandates, legislated funding and any internal funding requirements such as central issues.
• Issue guidelines and detailed forms to individual organizational units for budget preparation.

.320 Organizational Unit Preparation

This phase of the operating budget involves the Office of Budget Management and all appropriate offices in each organizational unit.  During this phase of the operating budget process, which usually occurs October through January, the individual organizational units prepare budget requests.  The objectives of this phase are as follows:

• Provide organizational units the opportunity to review base budgets and any centrally funded issues, which have been indicated by the Office of Budget Management, for accuracy.
• Provide organizational units the opportunity to address the need for additional resources required to achieve objectives of the university if such resources are available.
• Provide organizational units the opportunity to reallocate the limited available resources in order to achieve objectives.

.330 Central Review

This phase of the operating budget process involves the university's Division Heads, President, Board of Visitors, and the Office of Budget Management. During this phase of the process, which usually occurs in February and March, the requests of the individual organizational units are reviewed. Reviews are conducted by appropriate Vice Presidents who make recommendations to the President. Budget meetings may be held with individual units, especially those Auxiliary Enterprise units which are responsible for generating revenue. Also, during this phase, tuition and fee recommendations are made to the Board of Visitors for their approval. The objectives of this phase are as follows:

• Provide Division Heads the opportunity to review allocations or reallocations of resources within their divisions to meet requirements related to divisional objectives.
• Provide Division Heads the opportunity to make divisional recommendations to the President relative to resource allocations.
• Provide Division Heads the opportunity to review tuition, fee, and other revenue implications of resource allocations, especially for Auxiliary Enterprise units.
• Provide the President the opportunity to review Division Heads' recommendations for resource allocations.
• Provide the Board of Visitors the opportunity to review tuition and fee implications of the recommended resource allocations.

.340 Execution and Evaluation

This phase of the budget process involves the Office of Budget Management, the Controller's Office and all appropriate organizational units.  At the beginning of this phase, which occurs during July, an official budget for the new fiscal year is distributed to organizational units.  During the rest of the fiscal year, expenditures are made against this budget.  Revisions to the budget are made as plans change during the year.  The objectives of this phase are as follows:

• Provide organizational units with a beginning budget to expend against during the fiscal year.
• Provide the total university operating budget to the Controller's Office for inclusion in the University's Financial Accounting System for financial control, analysis, and reporting.
• Provide organizational units with the opportunity to reflect changes in their financial plans through budget revisions.

.400 Budget Controls

The JMU Office of Budget Management is responsible for producing an annual operating budget which matches an organizational unit's needs with available resources.  These needs are usually defined by the University's master plan and/or by state mandated program objectives.  After a lengthy review process which includes all division heads, the President, Board of Visitors, and the Office of Budget Management, the budget is adopted.  The office of Budget Management enters and uploads into PeopleSoft the original budgets for each organization at both a detail and summary account level.  The detail information is provided to all departments on the Monthly Budget/Expenditure reports.

For a transaction to be processed in PeopleSoft, the transaction must pass an organization control check at the summary account level.  During this Organization Summary Control Check, PeopleSoft verifies budget for an available row for each organization at the levels:

If there is not a summary account row available or there is no funding available at the NPS control level within an organization, PeopleSoft will not process transactions (ATVs, invoices, etc.) for that organization until a budget revision transaction has been entered into the system.  The detail account information is only used by PeopleSoft to create the monthly Budget/Expenditure Report.  The budget revision form allows the user to request budget changes at the detail account level.  

.500 Revisions to Operating Budgets

This subsection describes the use and preparation of the Budget Revision E-form with the Budget Workflow System.  This system allows the user to request budget changes at the detail account level.  It also electronically generates the summary account level information; maintained and only visible to the Office of Budget Management.

.510 Control Responsibilities

Listed below are the control responsibilities of the organization, the Budget Workflow System, and the Office of Budget Management.

.511 Organization

• • Maintains departmental records to substantiate the entries made on the Budget Revision E-form.
  • Prepares the Budget Revision E-forms in accordance with the Budget Workflow System Training (IT615) and the instructions available on the Office of Budget Management website.
  • Electronically submits the Budget Revision E-forms.
  • Verifies that transactions are correctly entered on FIS Budget Summary Transaction report in accordance with internal control requirements.

.512 Electronic Budget Workflow System

• • Restricts movement of funds from one fund group to another.  Fund groups included are Educational and General; Student Financial Assistance; Financial Assistance for Educational and General Services (Grants); Auxiliary Enterprises; and Local/Agency Funds.
  • Monitors and/or restricts movement of personal services funding to non-personal services expenditure areas.
  • Requires and/or prompts the inclusion of full-time personal services information including associated benefit costs and position number.
  • Monitors and/or restricts the movement of revenue.
  • Electronically gathers approval “signatures” in accordance with the JMU Signature Authority (Budget).
  • Restricts access of organizational unit’s budget information to users with authority.
  • Promotes net-zero revision totals.
  • Monitors and/or restricts Federal Work Study funding movement to its specific expenditure account.

.513 Office of Budget Management

• • Reviews and approves Budget Revision E-forms.
  • Supervises posting of FIS journals created from the approved Budget Revision E-forms.
  • Restricts movement of equipment funding in E&G instructional accounts.
  • Confirms funding availability.
  • Determines status of revisions - permanent vs. temporary.
  • Monitors and maintains Budget Workflow System for reference, audit and internal control purposes.
  • Responds to organization inquiries and/or concerns.
  • Prepares monthly reconciliations.

.600 Budget Revision E-Form in the Budget Workflow System

This section provides information regarding the Budget Workflow System through which Budget Revision E-forms are submitted and approved for posting in the FIS.

.610 Budget Revision E-Form

The Budget Revision E-form is required to record all revisions to an organization’s original budget.  Budget Revision E-forms are initiated and approved electronically.  The electronic approval path for each revision is facilitated by JMU’s Signature Authority

.611 Access to the System

Users responsible for entering revisions into the system (Initiators) will require Peoplesoft Finance with Budget Workflow System access.  This access is granted following the attendance of a specified training session and the completion of an IS Access request form.    

.612 Organizational Initiations/Submissions

Users will initiate (Initiator) the Budget Revision E-form in the Budget Workflow System through the Peoplesoft Finance system.  Users will approve (Approvers) the Budget Revision E-form through the Peoplesoft FIS and/or MyMadison using their eID and password. 

.613 Organizational Approvals

Users responsible for approving revisions (Approvers) require Signature Authority - Budget over the organizational unit(s) for which they are approving and access to MyMadison.

.614 Office of Budget Management Approvals

OBM is the final approver for all revisions before they are posted in nightly batches in the FIS system..  

.615 E-forms Initiation Instructions

Following are detailed instructions for the initiation and submission of the Budget Revision E-form.

.616 Approvals

Budget Revision E-forms are routed electronically through the Budget Workflow System which is driven by the JMU Signature Authority according to the organization that is transferring budget funding out of their budget.

All Budget Revision E-forms require two digital signatures.  One signature is provided by the department, college, unit, or division; the second is provided by the Office of Budget Management.

Budget Revision E-forms that fall under the purview of the division of Academic Affairs require one additional signature of approval either at the department, college, unit, or division level.

Once fully approved, Budget Revision e-Forms are batch posted in the FIS nightly.