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Funds Available

Funds available refers to the amount of money remaining in a cost centre at any given time. If you’re responsible for a cost centre, you have financial responsibility for managing the cost centre balances prudently.

Should a cost centre go into a deficit balance, every effort should be made to resolve or clear the deficit as soon as possible. If you manage a cost centre, you’re encouraged to view funds available on a regular basis to stay informed of balances.

Viewing funds available in the financial system

There are two ways to view funds available balance in the Financial Information System (FIS) — by viewing the funds available inquiry screen or by running the RU Revenue Expense 3 selection report or TMU Revenue/Expense - 3 selections report.

To view your cost centre's funds available in the financial system, you'll need to complete a set of required fields. These fields tell the system which budget’s funds you want to view and how you’d like your screen customized.

To help you proceed, here's an explanation of each field in the Funds Available Inquiry in the financial system:

Field name

Explanation

Ledger

Identifies the main financial set of books

Budget

Refers to a department budget for the fiscal year or project budgets

Period

The last month you want included in your inquiry

Amount type

Tells the system how to calculate the funds available. You can choose from:

  • Year-to-date extended
  • Period-to-date
  • Project-to-date
  • Quarter-to-date

Encumbrance type

Allows you to see the funds reserved for goods or services ordered but not yet received or paid for. Choose from:

  • All encumbrances
  • Specific encumbrances
    • Obligation (P.O.), which displays goods ordered from suppliers but not yet received
    • Commitment (P.R.), which shows requests by departments for goods or services not yet ordered from the supplier
    • Salary, which refers to salary funds to be paid out for the remainder of the fiscal year or project

Account level

While you have the option of changing this field, please leave this option on the default “All” as you’ll have the opportunity to view your report in “summary” or “detail” formats in the chart of accounts window, which comes in the next step.

Once you complete the Funds Available Inquiry, you’ll be prompted to fill out the chart of accounts.

Viewing the RU Revenue/Expense 3 selection report

This report measures budgets against expenditures and encumbrances to determine funds availability. The report displays detailed as well as summary-level information, including:

Field name Explanation
Original budget Represents the approved budget as of May 1 of each fiscal year
Revised budget This column is the total of all budget transactions in your cost centre.  This includes original, base and temporary budget transactions.
Encumbrance This column is a total of all encumbrances in your cost centre. Encumbrances can be for salary, benefits and/or goods and services committed but not paid for.
Actual This column represents all actual transactions posted to your cost centre.  This could include salary, benefits, payment to vendors and journal transfers.
Funds available

This column shows the funds remaining in the cost centre.

The formula is revised budget, less encumbrances, less actuals = Funds available

A Funds Available number in brackets represents a deficit balance and needs to be reviewed.

Fund description

Fund summary

Fund

Amount type

Ancillary

AN

14, 15, 16

YTDE

Operating

OP

11, 13

YTDE

PACAR

PR

36

YTDE

Prof. Devlp

PD

12

YTDE

Capital project

CP

84

PJTD

Miscellaneous

MS

35, 37, 38, 39

PJTD

Project

PJ

51

PJTD

Special activity

SA

33, 34

PJTD

Trusts

TR

60-62

PJTD

For more information on the chart of accounts, visit the Understanding TMU’s Chart of Accounts page for an explanation of chart categories.