Budget Office Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between one-time and ongoing funding or expenses?

• Ongoing refers to funding anticipated to be received, expense(s) that occur, or other activity that takes place each fiscal year in perpetuity.
• One-time refers to funding received, expenses that occur, or other activity that happens in a single fiscal year only.

What is the difference between E&G and non-E&G funds and budgets?

• E&G (Education & General), also known as State Appropriated funding, is made up of tuition dollars and funding appropriated from the State of Utah. State Appropriated/E&G funding is subject to audit, with specific rules regarding the budgeting, adjustment, spending, and reporting of these funds.
• Non-E&G includes funding from any source other than State Appropriated/E&G funding. Non-E&G funding includes grants, contracts, revenue from sale of goods or services, etc. Non-E&G funding may be restricted or unrestricted based on the source of those funds.

What is a Fund Balance?

• Fund balance is the available cash in a given fund. A fund balance will only increase as new money is deposited into a fund, or will decrease as money is being spent. Creating a budget does not affect the fund balance, but a budget is required to authorize spending from any fund balance.

What is a Budget?

• Budget is a plan/projection of anticipated revenue and expenses. At SUU, budgets lapse and need to be reviewed and updated/resubmitted each fiscal year. Any requisitions that undergo a system budget check will not be processed without an adequate budget in place.

What is a FOAPAL?

• FOAPAL is an acronym for Fund, Organization, Account, Program, Activity, and Location.  A FOAPAL is an ID assigned to transactions and budget records that allow the records to be organized and searchable in Banner.
  • Fund codes are six digits in length, and are used to identify one source of funding from another. 
  • Organization codes (or org codes), are five digits long, and are used to differentiate budgets and transactions between multiple departments or projects. 
  • Account codes are four digits long, and identify individual transactions by assigning a general category, such as revenue, liability, expenses, transfers, etc.
  • Program codes are two digits long and are mainly used by USHE to compare SUU’s operations to other USHE institutions.
  • Activity codes (optional) can be up to six characters long (alphanumeric), and can be used to further distinguish transactions for more detailed activity-based costing/analysis.
  • Location codes (optional) can be up to six characters long (alphanumeric), and are used to identify physical assets of SUU.

What is the difference between fund transfers, budget transfers, expenditure transfers, and payroll redistributions?

• Fund transfers are completed through Accounting Services. These are used to transfer available cash from one fund to another (different fund codes). 
• Budget transfers are completed through the Budget Office, and are used to transfer budget between org codes within a single fund. Budget cannot be transferred between separate funds/fund codes. 
• Expenditure transfers are completed through Accounting Services, and are used to correctly assign or reassign expenses that have already been posted in Banner.
• Payroll redistributions are used to correctly assign or reassign labor expenses that have already occurred and posted in Banner. These are reviewed by the Budget Office and processed by Payroll.