Glossary - A to Z

Updated March 2023

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y Z

A

Administrative Overhead (AOH)

An annual charge for administrative services to units that generate some of all of their budgets from income-producing or revenue-producing activities. The current assessment rate is 5.5% of the income generated from outside the campus. The AOH assessment (expense) is levied against the fund combination that generated the original revenue. This fund is included in the group of allocated funds in the General Fund Allocation.

Administrative Supplement

Administrative Supplement applies to faculty. The administrative supplement, often referred to as "admin supp," represents an additional amount paid to a faculty member who is serving in an administrative capacity, such as Dean, Vice Provost, or department chairperson. The amount can be defined as a flat amount or a percentage. The administrative supplement amount or percentage is critical and should be referenced correctly in the budget, because the admin supp amount is not uniquely identified in HR/Pay records.

All Funds Budgeting

To meet needs such as annual salary increases, competitive pay, facility maintenance, inflation, and strategic priorities, the KU Lawrence/Edwards campus has implemented an all-funds budgeting approach that will focus on all funding resources, not just general fund revenues.

Annual Billable Invoices

(collected at the same time as the AOH each year)

The budget office bills units annually for designated purposes in which general use funds were not transferred. The units pay these bills typically using non-general use funds. The designated purposes include Center for Excellence (CFE), Shared Services Centers (SSC), Adobe Enterprises Contract, Information Technology Centralization and Data Port.

Annual Budget Request (ABR)

The budget submitted by each state agency, including the University of Kansas – Lawrence Campus, to the State Division of the Budget to request state funding for the next Fiscal Year.

Appropriation

A field that allows users additional reporting functionality between Primary ARSP and cost center levels. (Note, this concept is used within the KU Financial System and does not pertain to the Appropriations process used by the Kansas Legislature.)

ARSP (also called Primary ARSP)

A 4 digit code to uniquely identify the departments (and/or cost centers) under the control of a senior administrator (a vice provost, academic dean, or position of greater/equivalent responsibility). The Primary ARSP denotes a level of accountability at which:

year-end expenditures are tracked and monitored
budgetary allocations are made by the provost or chancellor
sign-offs for HR actions and payroll transactions are approved.

B

Block Grant

A designation for Appropriations made by the Kansas Legislature from the State General Fund to the universities governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The block grant is set independently from the amount to be collected from tuition and fees. The Legislature may increase the block grant from year to year but does not adjust it to offset changes in tuition revenues. The Board of Regents has typically allocated incremental block grant funding on a pro-rate basis compared to SGF amounts for each of the Regent's institutions.

Budget Collection Process (BCP)

Is a critical component of the budget process during which each school/unit updates Planning and Budget Cloud Solution (PBCS) Planning with salary, fringe, and other operating expenses plus appropriate funding information for the upcoming budget year. The budget collection process or budget collection phase (BCP) timeframe for the future year budget can begin as early as September and be completed in June to be effictive in the fiscal year budget beginning July 1.

Budget Cycle (link)

See Operating Budget

Budget Load

Budget load describes the process of interfacing data from PBCS (next year's pperating budget information) to Orical Analytics Clous (OAC)

Budget Transfers

Budget transfers are the mechanism by which you can move budgeted dollars from one chartfield string to another in order to better utilize available dollars. All non-project budget transfers must be submitted to the Budget Office for processing into FITC.

Budget Transfer Form (BTF)

See Forms

C

Cost Center

Is a 7 digit number used for tracking and reporting receipts and expenditures, subordinate to an appropriation. A cost center can also be called a DeptID. Other attributes of the cost center include: program code - used to identify the function (e.g. instruction, research, public service, administration) associated with the cost center and Primary ARSP.

Chartfield1 (CF1)

An optional field that departmental users may implement to track expenditures or revenue. Not currently included within PBCS working budget preparation.

Course Fees (formerly differential tuition)

Additional tuition per credit hour charged by the following schools and programs in addition to the base tuition rate:

School of Architecture
College / Urban Planning
School of Business
Masters Level in Business
School of Education and Human Sciences
Edwards Campus Programs
School of Engineering
Engineering Edwards Campus
School of Music
School of Journalism and Mass Communications
Law School
Pharm D Program
School of Social Welfare

D

Department

Is an entity defined as "the smallest organizational unit of the University recognized by the central administration which has one or more positions, a budget, and sovereignty (meaning the Department has its own mission, authority over its own budget, and authority over its own operations)." Departments will be the lowest level to which budgets are allocated by the University administration. The FITC - Financials in the Cloud- attribute named "Appropriation" is a close approximation of department.

E

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary is a printed document that includes the summary of the Operating Budget by area of responsibility (ARSP), funding and department.

F

Fiscal Year

A 12-month period beginning July 1 and ending June 30 of the following year that is used as the state budget, accounting, and appropriation period.

FITC - Financials in the Cloud

Financial system used by KU-Lawrence. It is an Oracle cloud-based system used for distributed accounts recievable and billing, procurement, asset management, payments, transferring funds between budgets, creating requisitions for purchases (shopping), and sponsored project award management (Grants).

Full Time Equivalent (FTE)

The percent of time a staff person is appointed to a position in the university. For example, 100% payroll appointment equals 1.0 FTE. 50% payroll appointment equals .5 FTE.

Funding/Position/Job ("FPJ")

Elements of a budgeted position that may update the HR/Pay system when new budget year data are uploaded from PBCS Planning to HR/Pay. Degault -- most positions are marked with Y indicators for FPJ_F, FPJ_P, and FPJ_J which implies the budget Funding (fund/cost center/KUEA combo and funding distribution), Position (standard hours), and Job (budgeted compensation rate) are undated when the budgeted information is uploarded into HR/Pay. If the F or P or J indicators are set to N (no), that particular component of the interface is suppressed. FOr instance, if FPJ_F = N and both FPJ_P and FPJ)J and Y, the budget load would update Position and Job information - but not the Funding in HR/Pay.

Fund

A self-balancing set of accounts. Each fund has its own revenues, expenditures, transfers, assets, liabilities, and a fund balance. A change in fund balance represents the difference between fund additions (revenues and transfers in) and deductions (expenditures and transfers out). A fund balance is identified as the net difference between a fund's assets and liabilities. Attributes associated with KU Fund codes are included in the Fund Dimension Reference from Oracle Analytics Clous OAC.

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G

General Fees

Tuition (fund 099) collected from students, tuition KU Edwards Leavenworth (fund 067), tuition KU Edwards JCERT (068), tuition KU Edwards (069), tuition Education – Everspring (073), tuition Business-Everspring (076), tuition Engineering expansion (084), tuition Business expansion (086), differential tuition Urban Planning (087), technology fee (088), School of Arts differential tuition (089), Social Welfare (090), Journalism differential tuition (091), Fine Arts differential tuition (092), Education differential tuition (093), Engineering equipment fees (094), Architecture differential tuition (095), Business differential tuition (096), PharmD program differential tuition (097), and Law School differential tuition (098). Required campus fees are excluded.

General Fund Allocation Funds

The General Fund Allocation funds are a group of funds included in the five-year campus financial plan and described as the Operating Budget. THese funds are uniquely monitored because they are deemed general to the university and distributed through an allocation process approved by the Provost and CFO. THe funds unclude the Operating State Appropriation (003, 006, 007), Tuition & Fees (067, 068, 069, 079, 088, 099) and Other funds (540, 714, 730, 731).

General Fund Allocation Method

The general Fund Allocation Method distributes the annual operating budget to the academic and administrative units. Its goal is to create a simple, fair, and stable financial methodology that is transparent, predictable, and strategic which empowers units to make long-term financial plans.

H

I

J

Jobcode

Unique 6-digit code assigned to each job title description and is maintained by HR.

K

L

Longevity

Bonus payments made to eligible USS employees based on $50 per year of service times the number of years of state service. Minimum eligibility is ten years of state service, and the maximum payment is $1,250 or 25 years of service. Longevity is paid on employee anniversary date.

M

N

O

Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC)

OAC is the reporting tool for University of Kansas and displays various decision-support information related to academic, financial aid, financials, human resources, and research.

Other Operating Expenditures (OOE)

Expenditures other than salaries and fringe benefits. While there are several expense account codes used on actual financial transactions within FITC, the expense account code used on actual transactions roll up to a Non-Project Budget Category. Units budget for their OOE in the more summarized Non-Project Budget Category.

P

Pay Group

An element within the HR/Pay System (and included in the Planning and Budgeting Cloud Solution Budget System) to assist in the interface to designate appointment types.

Academic Year Appointments
For faculty and GTA positions that in pay status during the academic year. For payroll purposes, this is a 272-day period (including weekends) from August 18 to May 17 (or May 16 for leap years).
Fiscal Year Appointments
Includes CUX (exempt, salaried); CUN (non-exempt, hourly)

PBCS

Planning and Budgeting Cloud Solution is a complete planning, budgeting, and forecasting solution developed by Oracle to provide budget functionality and data integration with HR/Pay as well as Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) financial reporting.

Includes budget preparation tools and tools for scenario planning for non-grant funds.

Pools

Pool ID is a number in the HR/Pay system to assign temporary positions (required) and for some regular positions (lecturers and instructors who are not named in the University Budget) that have the same funding (account code and funding split). They are also used for Additional Payments. This is used to simplify the allocation and tracking of monies by appointing several to one funding source when position allocation is not required. The pools must be associated with a “True HR” Department on the setup table.

In addition to the HR department, the Pool ID also includes a "smart coded" alpha-numeric portion where the first letter of the code (followed by numeric values) identifies the employee category for the pool type.

Cxx - USS
Gxx - Graduate Assistant
Lxx - Lecturer
Rxx - Graduate Research Assistant
Sxx - Student Hourly
Txx - Graduate Teaching Assistant
Uxx - Unclassified
Vxx - Vice Lines

Positions(s)

An element shared by the Budget and HR/Pay which is used for the interface between the two systems.

Primary Area of Responsibility - Primary (ARSP) - 4 digit

A code to uniquely identify the departments (and/or cost centers) under the control of a senior administrator (a vice provost, academic dean, or position of greater/equivalent responsibility). The Primary ARSP denotes a level of accountability at which:

year-end expenditures are tracked and monitored
budgetary allocations are made by the provost or chancellor
sign-offs for HR actions and payroll transactions are approved.

Program Classification Structure (PCS)

A set of categories and related definitions, which allows its users to examine the operations of a post secondary education institution as they relate to the accomplishment of that institution's objectives. Top level categories include:

Instruction
Research
Public Service
Academic Support
Student Services
Institutional Support
Operations and Maintenance of Plant
Scholarships and Fellowships

Definitions for each of the categories can be found here: Program Classification Structure | Procurement

Project

An identification code assigned to a structure to manage various activities:

Sponsored research grants
Research contracts
Construction projects for KUCR
Internal seed research projects

Promotion and Tenure (P&T)

As part of the annual budgeting process, promotion bonuses (base adjustments) are awarded to tenure-track faculty who have been promoted (e.g., from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor; or from Assosiate Professor to Professor) and/or tenured (in most cases the promotion from Assistant to Associate Professor also comes with an award of tenure). When the Board or Regents approves the university's recommendations, the Office fo Faculty Affairs notifies the Budget Office which faculty members will be impacted. The choices that the University makes in granting promotion and tenure are vital to its endeavors toward academic excellence.

R

Recon Database

A task form is available in PBCS Planning which is used during budget preparation to collect updates to the budget from the previous year. These updates reflect total dollar and FTE changes to the filled base, such as employee turnover, new hires, notice of non-reappointment, retirements, etc and merit allocations. The primary functions of the database are 1) to track the movement of monies from one ARSP and/or category to another, 2) verify that the totals appearing in the detailed budgets (position/pools/OOE) are consistent with expected control totals.

Restricted Use

Restricted use funds are those available for financing operations but the use is dependent upon the conditions under which the funds were received. For example, federal grant funds are restricted and are expended only for the purpose for which they were awarded.

S

Secondary (ARSP) - 5 digit

A code to categorize the departments (and/or cost centers) within a Primary ARSP for which budgetary allocations are made by a more senior administrator (a vice provost, academic dean, or position of greater/equivalent responsibility). The groupings are made at the discretion of the senior administrator, and for example, groupings may include a collection of departments that report to an associate dean or associate vice provost; OR departments that perform similar functions; OR a group of departments with some other affinity as determined by the Primary ARSP, etc.

Shrinkage

The concept of shrinkage is based on the notion that not all dollars budgeted for salaries will be spent due to position vacancies, turnover, leave without pay, and other personnel transactions. The amount of shrinkage for a fiscal year is typically calculated by applying a predetermined percent to salary dollars. Although the shrinkage calculation has changed over time, the underlying principles have not. The state funds salaries net of shrinkage. Because university departments “paid” the shrinkage requirement on a permanent basis (between FY 1998 and FY 2000), the university’s operating budget no longer includes the shrinkage adjustment. However, since the concept still exists at the state level, shrinkage is included in the Annual Budget Request (ABR).

Sources and Uses

Sources and Uses describes an OAC reporting packet that displays three years of prior year revenue (sources) and expenses (uses) along with current year sources and uses to include projected sources and uses for the current year. The carryforward balances are excluded from most of these reports to reflect the annual stability of the unit. These reports are reviewed and discussed in budget planning meetings in the fall referred to as the 4 8 meetings because that time, there are 4 months of actuals and 8 months of projections remaining for the year. In addition, there are discussed in a spring meeting referred to as the 8+4 meeting.

State General Fund (SGF)

The State’s fund for revenues is not earmarked for special purposes. It is used to finance governmental operations not provided for by other funds. The principal revenue sources for the State General Fund include individual and corporate income taxes, sales taxes, severance, and excise taxes, and interest earnings.

Summer Periods

Summer periods apply to faculty. They are a mechanism used to budget pay amounts for faculty outside the 272-day academic year. The days that fall outside the 272-day academic year are during the summer months.

PO1 Appt after Academic year: 14 days
PO2 Appt after Academic year: 15 days
PO3 Appt after Academic year: 21 days
PR1 Appt before Academic year: 14 days
PR2 Appt before Academic year: 15 days
PR3 Appt before Academic year: 35 days
PR4 Appt before Academic year: 39 days
POX Exception Summer Appt: after Academic year
PRX Exception Summer Appt: before Academic year

T

Twenty Seventh (27th) Pay Period

The 27th pay period is a phenomenon that occurs every eleven years. All State of Kansas agencies, including KU, make payroll payments on a biweekly basis - every other Friday - or 26 times a year in most years, equivalent to 364 (26*14) days per year. Because the calendar year has 365 days (or 366 days in a leap year), these additional days periodically create a 27th pay period within the confines of a Fiscal Year.

In the 2005 session, the Legislature approved a bill to direct all state agencies to annually pay into a fund to cover the general use funded obligations for the 27th pay period when it occurs. Restricted use funded obligations must be covered by the revenue generated by the units.

U

V

Vice Lines

Budget Pools with the “Vxx” naming convention are used to identify budgeted Vice Lines.

Information in italics (below) was taken from the policy library to provide a rationale for establishing a vice line:

Guidelines for Joint Appointments: Sharing faculty resources across traditional disciplinary lines and/or between budgetary units | Policy Library (ku.edu)

When an individual who is currently employed by the University in a tenured or tenure-track position accepts a temporary joint appointment (usually, but not always an administrative appointment), a position must remain secured in the unit in which the original tenure-track obligation was incurred. A "vice" line will be established for every currently employed faculty member who accepts a temporary joint appointment. (Before such an appointment is finalized, the academic or research unit should have a clear understanding, in writing, with the academic dean or director of all the budgetary implications of the "vice" line.)

An individual's initial appointment with the University may be as a tenured member of the faculty with a joint appointment in an academic unit and in an administrative or other non-academic position. Such initial joint appointments may involve a 100% administrative appointment and a 0% appointment in an academic or research unit (as is the frequent practice with the Provost, vice-chancellors, deans, and directors). In such circumstances, it is unreasonable to expect the academic or research unit to which the individual is nominally attached to establish a "vice" line, and it would not be financially possible for such a line to be established by the Office of the Provost or the Office of the Chancellor.

In such cases, the guidelines for joint appointments should be followed to the extent possible, but specific arrangements must be decided on a case-by-case basis. The consequences of not establishing "vice" line, and the restrictions on the flexibility of the individual and the units involved if a change in the appointment is desired in the future, should be considered. If possible, provisions for accommodating changes should be included in the written agreement.

W

Y

Z

Zero Dollar - Zero FTE Cross reference

A "zero dollar / zero FTE" funding row in the budget has no impact on salary nor FTE - but is a funding row included in the working budget as a cross-reference/informational item. The purpose is to show an affiliation of the position with another department that is not contributing toward the academic/fiscal year salary for the Fiscal Year.

Examples:
- Tenured Faculty Administrators (e.g., Dean, Vice Provost, Provost) - the positions are fully funded by the administrative department, but a "zero dollar/zero FTE" funding row can be added to indicate the faculty member's "tenure home".
- Distinguished Professors - the positions are cross-references to a Distinguished Professor, Foundation Professor, or University Professor cost center to provide a roster of individuals holding similar appointments with this honorific.