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Budgeting in SoarFin - Frequently Asked QuestionsTable of Contents |
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General/Auxiliary Funds - BudgetsThe following questions and answers were assembled to provide information
to departments regarding how budgets will be managed in the SoarFin General
Ledger. This document focuses on General and Auxiliary Fund Budgets (budgets
with Fund Codes beginning with a 10, 12, or 13). What are the different types of budgets in the SoarFin General Ledger?The Can a department review its budget online?If departmental personnel have been to training, they can get a logon and
password to the SoarFin General Ledger that will allow them to inquire online,
view the status of their budgets, and see transactions that have been
processed against the budget in real time. Departments will not be able to
change their budget online. A Budget Revision Form with the appropriate
approvals will need to be submitted to revise budgets. How does a person get training and access to SoarFin?Employees can sign up for SoarFin workshops at the following Web-site: https://soar.usm.edu/.
For budget information, attend the SoarFin Financials workshop "View Budgets
." If you do not have your Soar password please contact the HelpDesk at
266-HELP. What types of positions are budgeted in the salary and wage categories?All fixed positions of the university will be budgeted in the salary
category of the budget. Therefore, positions, other than miscellaneous pooled
position funds, that were included in the wage and pooled position budget
book reside in the budget book with all other positions. This means
that exempt and nonexempt (monthly and biweekly paid) employees will be shown
together. The only item that will remain in the wage and pooled position
budget book will be the miscellaneous wage amount that departments use to pay
student workers, overtime worked, temporary workers, and part-time faculty. How are funds used that are budgeted in the categories called mandatory and nonmandatory transfers?Departments may break out funds that are budgeted as transfers as either
nonmandatory or mandatory. Mandatory transfer funds are committed for either
debt service or grant matching requirements, and departments cannot freely
use these funds, whereas nonmandatory transfer funds generally do not have
restrictions. Funds budgeted in either of these categories can be transferred
to other fund types, such as designated, restricted or plant funds. Will departments have the flexibility to spend over in some categories as long as the total budget is not expended?Yes. The university is utilizing the appropriation and organization budget
features within SoarFin to accommodate this flexibility. How will appropriation and organization budgets work in SoarFin?A definition of an appropriation and organization budget in SoarFin
will help explain these types of budgets. An appropriation is the highest
level of budgeting in SoarFin. The term appropriation is a SoarFin term
and should not be confused with the appropriations received by the University
from the state of An organization budget can be linked to an existing appropriation
budget or stand-alone. The organization budget will show budget categories at
a more detailed level than that of an appropriation budget. Budgets will be
displayed by the major categories: Salaries, Wages, Fringe Benefits, Travel,
Contractual Services, Commodities, Equipment, Capital Outlay (library only),
Purchases (auxiliary only), Mandatory Transfers, and Nonmandatory Transfers.
Does this mean a department will have two budgets?Yes. For General and Auxiliary Fund budgets, there will be an organization
budget linked to an appropriation budget. This does not mean the budget is
doubled. It just means the budgets are linked, and they should equal each
other in total. The only difference will be the level of detail. Can you provide a visual illustration to demonstrate how these budgets will work?
NOTE: The Personal Services category is comprised of the budget categories of Salaries and Fringe Benefits. The Other category is comprised of all remaining budget categories. These categories include Wages, Travel, Contractual Services, Commodities, Equipment, Capital Outlay (library only), Mandatory Transfers, Nonmandatory Transfers, and Purchases (auxiliary only). In this example, note that the department exceeded the budget amount for
the Fringe Benefits and Contractual Services categories in the organization
budget. In addition, this department did not even have funds budgeted in the
Equipment category but had expenditures that were charged against that budget
category. However, this is not a problem since the categories are combined in
the appropriation budget, and the department still has sufficient funds in
the related categories of Personal Services and Other. The term budget checking is used in SoarFin. What does this term mean?SoarFin utilizes the concept of controlled budgets. This feature is important
for two reasons. First, a department should not spend money that is not
budgeted. Second, the chart of accounts for the university can have numerous
combinations across campuses. As such, by using the controlled budget
feature, this will prevent invalid chart of account combinations from being
improperly charged and keeps the financial system from having inaccurate
information. Currently the controlled budget feature is used only to prevent
transactions from being processed against an invalid budget or chart field
combination. While the system has the capability to stop transactions that
exceed budgeted amounts, this functionality is currently not being used. As
such, departments can spend more than is budgeted. Revenue estimate budgets were mentioned earlier. Do departments need to be concerned about this type of budget?No. Departments should not be concerned about developing revenue estimates
for General Fund budgets. The University Budget Office
will develop these estimates. The revenue estimate budget for the auxiliary funds will equal total related expenditures,
and should be taken into consideration during the budget and planning process.
. How do I find out what my department's budget chart field string is?The University Budget Office prints the SoarFin budget chart field information consisting of the Fund, DeptID, and Program, as well as the HR DeptID (ten (10)-digits beginning with a letter representing the campus location followed by 9 numbers) in the Annual Operating Budget. In addition, a department can go to the website, http://www.usm.edu/controllersoffice/eagleVision/ppscr/dept_cr/index.php, to key in certain fields and retrieve the related chart of account information that will be used in SoarFin. All other transactions, such as requisitions, procurement card vouchers,
remittance vouchers, travel vouchers, and centrally processed
interdepartmental invoices should use the entire chart field values of Fund,
DeptID, and Program. Whom do I contact if I have further questions?Questions concerning General/Auxiliary Fund Budgets should be directed to:
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Maintained by the University Budget Office
Last modified: Sept 01, 2009 2:55 p.m. | Questions or comments?
The University of
Southern Mississippi | Page URL:
http://www.usm.edu/budgets/faqs.html | AA/EOE/ADAI
