Resources & FAQs
Financial Budgeting Resources
The Financial Budgeting Resources below provide the tools, training, and scheduling needed to plan, implement, and maintain operating budgets and financial plans that support the mission and goals of The University of Texas at Arlington and of the UT System and to prepare legislative appropriation requests. The Resources below also meet compliance requirements and provide useful information to the University's department/cost center managers.
Communications
Frequently Asked Questions
The Office of Budgets, Planning, and Analysis (BP&A) at the University of Texas at Arlington is overseen by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. BP&A is comprised of three divisions: Budgets, Planning, and Analysis. BP&A collaborates with university leadership to provide financial information that facilitates the goals and initiatives of the university.
Year-end balances are brought forward into the new fiscal year during the carry forward process. BP&A coordinates with Accounting Services to ensure the accuracy of balances and cost center speed types provided by the respective responsible fiduciaries and ultimately executes the transactions to bring ending balances from the prior year into the beginning balances of the current year.
The BP&A Office leads the university community through the annual operating budget creation. Working directly with the departments setting their own budgets, BP&A orchestrates to ensure the meeting of UT System deadlines, and ultimately the approval by the Board of Regents. A link to the calendar can be found on the resources page of the BP&A website.
The Budget Allocation Model is the University’s tool utilized to distribute revenues from Education and General (E&G) Appropriations, Research Appropriations, Designated Tuition, and AP Program Fees. It provides increased transparency into sources of revenue and expenditure and insights into budgetary decisions. Additional detailed information can be found on the Budget Allocation Model link on the CFO's homepage.
The Forecast Model is the university’s tool utilized for projecting the next fiscal year’s tuition and fees revenue. The BP&A office also orchestrates long-range planning, monthly year-end forecasting, and various other financial modeling initiatives and needs of the Office of the CFO. Focused on financial transparency and innovation of processes, the approach is steeped in attention to collaboration and accuracy that breeds a breadth of scenarios needed for informed stewardship.
Please see detailed instructions in the UTA Policies and Procedures document linked here.
An eForm is an electronic form solution within UT Share that provides a secure and efficient way for processing various human resources, payroll, and position funding transactions. See the support documents linked here for additional information.
Errors are exceptions that have failed budget checking because they do not conform to the rules established for that control budget. Transactions with errors stop at the budget check stage and do not proceed until they are corrected or overridden and are budget checked again. Please see details for possible solutions here.
Please see the budget transfer rules document here.
Please see the details here.
Financial Process for Unit or Departmental Reorganizations
Overview
A unit or departmental reorganization could involve new cost centers, new department numbers, or new unit numbers.
The most common example of a reorganization strategy would be a new department with new cost center(s) created to report directly. Accounting Services, the Office of Budgets, Planning, and Analysis (BP&A), and the Office of Talent, Culture, and Engagement (TCE) must make system changes for a reorganization request.
Steps
Step 1 – New department, unit, or cost center numbers
A unit or department should initiate the request for new department, unit or cost center numbers through Accounting Services by completing the form BF-AS-F-10 Request for New Cost Center.
If a new department is created, new cost centers will be created to report under the new department.
Step 2 – Tree Updates
The ALL DEPTS Tree (Accounting Services), Budget Tree (BP&A) and HCM Tree (TCE) will need to be updated.
Once the tree changes are made by Accounting Services, a speedtype is set up and a combo code will generate overnight in UT Share.
If a department submits a request to inactivate existing cost centers, the speedtype will be deleted by Accounting Services. The old combo codes associated with existing cost centers are deactivated via a separate process.
Step 3 – eForms
Once the new combo codes and chartfields are in place, any positions associated with a reorganizational move will need eForms created to first change the owning department. Second is to update the funding source.
An eForm to change only the funding should never be submitted prior to changing the owning department. The changes can be accomplished on a single eForm if the form processes through correctly.
Another item to look out for is many departments will create two separate forms but submit them at the same time. There is no way to control which one processes through first. We encourage areas to either submit one form or submit the owning department form first and wait for it to process to completion and then submit the funding change form.
BP&A advises all eForms relating to a reorganization be made effective for a future date and preferable on the first day of the month.
Step 4 – Budget process
If a reorg occurs prior to the EPM position pull including all eForms processed through to completion, the assigned budget resource will need to adjust the position budgetary funding tabs (BFT) for the new combo code/chartfields so they pull correctly into EPM to begin the next fiscal year budget planning. It is important to understand that the BFT must be on the same department number that owns the position according to the HR data. If there is a mismatch, it will not pull into the EPM load file.
If a reorg occurs during the department budget planning stage of EPM, departments need to let their budget resource know to request the new departments and/or cost centers are added to EPM. Only after the new dept/cost centers have been added to EPM can the department move the positions in EPM. eForms will still need to be completed for the updates to be in UTShare (reference Step 3).
If a reorg occurs after completion of the EPM budget planning process but before end of fiscal year, 2 eForms will need to be completed; one for the current fiscal year and one for the new fiscal year (reference Step 3).
Step 5 – Budget transfer
If a reorganization occurs mid-year, the department will need to process budget transfers to fund the new department/cost center(s) setup. These budget transfers must follow the same guidelines for any other budget transfer.
Problematic Situations
Failure to follow the outlined steps in order will net an unfavorable result that will be difficult to unravel.
Retroactive reorganizations are not advised. Results will again not be favorable because the retroactive payrolls will not pickup the changes. UTShare will not update records backwards. It is advised to plan well in advance the activity and steps that are necessary for a reorganization.
Please refer to Step 3. BP&A advises all eForms relating to a reorganization be made effective for a future date and preferable on the 1st day of the month.
Ex. Accounting Services has created and added a new department and cost center during the month of January. eForms relating to position moves should be effective dated February 1st and completed prior to the first payroll for February.
Suggestion for Success
When a reorganization is planned, BP&A requests open communication be established with the unit’s assigned budget resource to provide continued guidance and avoid and undo confusion thereby attaining the desired result.
The department should notify the budget resource when new departments/cost centers have been created.
Action Items Checklist
- The Department notifies Accounting Services of their intent to reorganize.
- Accounting Services creates new department and cost centers.
- Tree Updates:
- Accounting Services updates the ALL DEPTS Tree.
- BP&A updates the Budgets Tree.
- TCE updates the HCM Tree.
- The Department submits the eForms.
- BP&A adds new cost centers to EPM.
- BP&A updates the budgetary funding tab (BFT).
- The Department moves their position in EPM after position pull date.
- If mid-year, the Department transfers their budget to move funding.