Cooperative Extension Service
Departments
Financial Services
Budgets
Monthly Reports •
Travel
Monthly Reports
Each department (or orgn in Banner lingo) receives a set of monthly budget
reports. A few reports are still distributed on paper, however, most monthly
reports are delivered electronically through ePrint. Instructions for accessing
your reports through ePrint are available
here.
Open commitments include any purchase orders that have been entered for your
department but not yet filled. For example, on March 28 we enter an order for
your department at a total cost of $300, we receive your order on April 5 and
pay the invoice April 10. Your March orgsumm report would show an open
commitment of $300 and the available balance would be reduced by $300. In April,
the open commitment amount would return to zero, current expense would be $300
and available balance would not change since that amount was already deducted in
March. Also included in open commitments are any travel allotments your
department receives. Because that amount is allocated for expenditure at the
beginning of the year, it is entered as an open commitment and reduces your
available balance. This allows you to see the travel budget you will have
available after subtracting the allotments.
The available balance column is the amount you have left to spend. By
deducting open commitments from your available balance we have hopefully taken
out the guesswork in deciding what is included and what isn't. Once we enter a
purchase request for your department, it is deducted from your available balance
so you don't have to wonder whether a particular purchase has been paid yet and
subtracted from the balance. In many cases the available balance for a
particular line item will show a negative balance. To allow you some flexibility
in operating your department, budgets are set by account types rather than for
each individual account. For example, maintenance and operating (M&O)
includes office supplies, copier leases, publications, and computer supplies
among other things. Because your needs fluctuate during the year and from year
to year, you have a budget to cover all M&O expenses that can be used in
whichever of those expense accounts fit your needs. For that reason, when your
expenditures are charged to a particular account there is no budget amount and
it appears to be a negative available balance. After each section of your report
(M&O, postage, official business travel, etc) are totals for that section.
This is the line to look at to determine how you are doing on your budget for
the year.
The second report department supervisors receive each month is Detailed
Listing of Charges. This report shows the individual expenses that make up the
current expense totals on the orgsumm report. You should review this report for
any charges that appear to be out of place. We work hard to make sure each
transaction is recorded correctly, however, mistakes do happen occasionally. If
you find an expense that you have questions about
contact
Financial Services. It would be helpful if you include the Banner Reference Number
listed on your report if you e-mail your question or have it available when you
call.
Other reports you may receive include the Open Commitment Report which
details the items discussed above, a Monthly Allotment Travel Report if your
department has travel allotments, and a Monthly Report of Non-Allotment Travel
for all other travel expenses.
Travel Expenses
Travel expenses are divided into the following categories:
Travel - Official Business - This budget pool represents both in state and
out of state travel expenses for carrying out your official duties. Any travel
submitted to the Financial Services office that does not specify that the purpose of the
trip is to attend a conference, training or seminar will be charged to this
budget pool.
Travel - In-Service/Other Conference
and Training - This budget pool represents
travel expenses for the purpose of attending a conference, training or
seminar including in-service training. If the purpose of the trip on your in-state travel expense report
indicates conference, training or a seminar or requires a registration fee, the
travel will be charged to this budget pool.
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