Q: There is an acronym I do not understand. What is the full acronym?

A: Check out the Glossary of Acronyms for an alphabetical listing of acronyms that are most commonly asked of us.

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Q: What do the different funds mean?

A: EDUCATIONAL AND GENERAL:
Source: Tuition and other non-tuition revenues.
Use: Educational & General and other current unrestricted revenues and expenditures. Activities related to the institution's educational objectives, such as instructive research, public service, academic support, student services, institutional support and maintenance of physical plant.

AUXILIARY ENTERPRISES:
Source: Student Fee funds and enterprise self-generated revenues.
Use: Auxiliary Enterprises (current unrestricted revenue and expenditures) are activities that exist to furnish goods or services to students, faculty and staff.

SPONSORED PROGRAMS:
Source: External funding from sponsored programs activities.
Use: Sponsored programs current restricted expenditures, such as grants, contracts or other externally funded activities.

FINANCIAL AID:
Source: State Graduate Financial Aid funds.
Use: State Graduate Financial Aid (restricted)

CAPITAL OUTLAY:
Source: State Appropriation, Auxiliary Enterprises funds, Revenue Bonds.
Use: Capital Outlay expenses (restricted); i.e., facilities construction.

INDIRECT EARNINGS:
Source: Indirect earnings on sponsored programs activities.
Use: Research and related current unrestricted revenue and expenditures.

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Q: How can I gain access to viewing my financial reports over the internet?

A: Only those staff who are either listed as the responsible person at the account, department or division level, or are designated as a delegate for that individual, may have viewing access to a particular account. Any turnover in staff with regard to access privileges should immediately inform the Office of Budget and Planning. Please contact Barbara Maddox at bmaddox@gmu.edu with these security issues.

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Q: What is the difference between a Journal Voucher, Budget Transfer/Reallocation and Personnel Reallocation?

A: A journal voucher, or JV, is a request to move a specific charge from one organization to another. For example, if unit "A" purchases an item that should be charged to unit "B", a JV would be submitted requesting the movement of that item from one organization to another. These requests should be sent to Fiscal Services. Journal voucher requests should be submitted no later than the 20th of the month in order to be credited to that month. If the journal voucher involves sponsored programs funds exclusively, please submit the request directly to the appropriate team member in Sponsored Programs.

A budget transfer is the movement of funded dollars, either on a temporary or permanent basis, from one organization to another. For example, unit "A" supports unit "B" on a joint initiative. Unit "A" requests that $500 be transferred into the direct expenditures line for one of unit "B"'s organizations to offset any photocopying, etc. that might be involved related to this initiative. Again, the Office of Budget and Planning notifies all affected Units of the transfer. Budget transfer requests should be submitted to the appropriate budget analyst no later than the 25th of the month in order to be processed for that given month. Budget transfers can occur only within the same source of funds. You cannot transfer funds between two different sources of funding. Please contact your budget analyst should you have any questions. If you are unsure as to who your analyst may be, check out the Responsible Analyst Listing by Unit.

Personnel reallocations are requests to move specific personnel charges for a given individual from one organization to another. Here is a link to the latest reallocation deadline schedule. The Office of Budget and Planning will notify the affected units when a reallocation has been completed. If any portion of the reallocation involves a sponsored programs fund, the reallocation should be submitted directly to Sponsored Programs.

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Q: Why do capital outlay projects appear in both General Fund and Non-General Fund budgets?

A: Capital outlay projects that require the University to sell bonds to finance a project are captured in the Non-General Fund budget. Capital projects that receive support from the General Assembly (such as new academic buildings, etc.) is usually captured as a General Fund budget item.

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Q: Who determines how much George Mason University is funded in General Fund money from the Commonwealth?

A: The Governor for the Commonwealth of Virginia submits a budget recommendation for approval by the General Assembly based on our requests. If specific items that we requested are not included in the recommendation, we request amendments during the legislative session. The legislature makes the final decision as to what General Fund support will be designated for George Mason University.

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Q: Does the Commonwealth increase our General Fund allocation when enrollment increases above budget targets?

A: No. The Commonwealth expects universities with enrollment growth to cover the first two percent of growth within currently approved budget levels. If growth is above two percent, a request must be submitted, but will not guarantee new funding support

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Q: It appears that the General Fund support from the Commonwealth only represents a portion of our total Operating Budget. Why is this the case and how do we fund the remaining budget?

A: The 2007-08 Operating budget is $747,833,000. Of this, we receive $213.8M or approximately 29%, in General Fund support. The remaining is funded with tuition and fees, auxiliary enterprises, private funds, state financial aid, auxiliary enterprise revenue, independent operations, capital outlay and equipment trust fund. The Commonwealth currently funds approximately 42% of our Educational and General budget. Tuition and other sources of revenue will provide the remaining 58%.

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Q: Does George Mason University have peer institutions for tuition funding comparison purposes?

A: Yes. George Mason University has been assigned a list of peer institutions which encompasses universities across the nation. Our list includes Loyola-Chicago, Temple, Syracuse, SUNY-Buffalo, Univ-South Florida and University of Cincinnati. For a complete list of peers, check out our Peer Listing.

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Q: Does the Commonwealth use a formula to determine the number of FTE (full-time equivalency) per category (i.e., instruction, student services, etc.)?

A: No. In the past there were formulas used for overall employee levels; however, this is not currently the case. The Commonwealth sets a maximum FTE level, and we determine the mix.

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Q: What are the procedures for converting wage dollars into a full-time classified position?

A: Units should work closely with their assigned budget analyst (click here to find yours) and human resource team member to accomplish this. Budget dollars will have to be shifted within the unit; again it is expected that this be covered within current budget levels. A request for FTE will need to be made. Again, it is important to work with your analyst when making these types of personnel changes.

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Q: What are the fringe rates for staff at George Mason University?

A: The average fringe rates for Educational and General for FY07-08, effective 06/25/07, are as follows:

Full-Time instructional faculty -- 30.69%
Administrative faculty -- 32.18%
Classified -- 42.11%
Part-time and Wages -- 7.65%

Again, these are average fringe rates that may shift based on benefits chosen by any given employee.

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Q: If a position is vacant for a period of time, how can the savings be used?

A: Salary savings can be used for a number of things. Again, please work with your analyst so that budget lines can be adjusted appropriately. Savings may be shifted to various categories such as wages or direct expenditures. The responsible person for the account should make this decision and inform the Office of Budget and Planning. In most cases, salary savings should be used for non recurring expenses.

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Q: If a position is vacant for a period of time, can the fringe savings be used?

A: Excess fringe in a given organization due to a vacant position cannot be used as "savings" for the unit. Fringe is centrally administered and is adjusted two to three times a year, upwards and downwards, based on actual costs. Units are notified when these adjustments take place.

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Q: Why are units responsible for leave payouts?

A: Units are responsible for leave payouts, but also are entitled to savings while the position is vacant. Often there is a gap between the time an employee leaves and a position is filled. Usually there are more than enough savings to cover both the leave payout and any wages/contractual services that may have been used to fill the vacancy temporarily.

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Q: If a faculty is teaching in a different unit than they are budgeted, should part time replacement dollars be shifted?

A: Given the great importance of showing teaching effort in appropriate colleges and institutes, it is important for faculty funding assignments to be correctly shown. For example, if Professor "A" teaches in Unit "B" for a semester, a TAD (Turn Around Document) should be submitted moving his assignment to Unit "B" for that semester. In turn, budget dollars directly corresponding to that assignment would be moved from Unit "A" to Unit "B". In turn, the Deans or Directors for those affected Units should reach an agreement as to what, if any, part time funds may be available to Unit "A" since the professor's assignment has been moved. Often, part time replacement dollars are shifted from Unit "B" to Unit "A" for this reason. But again, it is up to the affected units to reach these decisions and notify the Office of Budget and Planning.

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Q: Why is the adjustment to the personnel encumbrance different than the payroll amount?

A: Encumbrances are estimated costs for personnel, whereas the payroll amount is the actual expense by pay period. Encumbrances are calculated based on the assignment to and funding of positions with variables such as start and end dates, salary amount and funding organization(s). Changes to any of these variables affect the encumbrances, which project personnel expenses from the current period through the end of the year, while the payroll reflects a single pay period.

For instance, if your personnel budget is $120,000 and your bi-monthly payroll is $5,000, in most cases your encumbrance adjustment would be a credit of $5,000. But let's say you had an employee earning $24,000 a year terminate 3 months into the fiscal year. First, as your payroll drops to $4,000 per pay period, so would your encumbrance adjustment. In addition, the portion of the terminated employee's salary that reflects what they would have been paid for the rest of the year ($18,000) would be a reduction to the encumbrance as well, so the total adjustment to the personnel encumbrance for that pay period would be a credit of $22,000. Conversely, if you hired a replacement at $24,000 three months later, the encumbrance for that person's salary for the remaining six months ($12,000) would net against the reduction for the pay period and there would be a debit of $8,000.

Upgrades, raises and leave without pay also affect the encumbrance adjustment as do funding changes. Another thing to keep in mind is the timing of the change in assignment or funding. Encumbrances are adjusted bi-monthly with the permanent payrolls. Adjustments to funding or assignments can take up to two weeks to show up in Financial reports.

It is important to review the overall encumbrance, more so than the individual transactions.

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Q: Is it true that approximately 1/3 of the tuition and fees per credit hour (in-state) goes toward "student fees only"?

A: Yes. For 2007-2008, In-state tuition and fees are $285.00 per credit hour. Broken down, $209.79 is for tuition and $75.21 is for fees.

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Q: Approximately how much of the Educational & General funding comes from student tuition?

A: For the 2007-2008 fiscal year, tuition makes up approximately 52% of the Educational & General funding.

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Q: What portion of Auxiliary Enterprises funding comes from student fees?

A: Approximately 29.1% of Auxiliary Enterprises funding comes from Student Fees.

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Q: How are Indirect Cost Earnings distributed?

A: Earnings are calculated on a monthly basis and are allocated quarterly. The current earning formula is as follows:

Example:

With a Sponsored Programs fund with indirect cost earnings of $100

Indirect organization receives 70% of these earnings, or $70 (and 30% goes to Educational & General revenue)

Of this $70, 50%, or $35, is given to the Provost for such activities as: faculty study leaves, summer stipends, and other research initiatives

15%, or $10.50, of the $70 goes to the Primary Investigator

10% , or $7.00, of the $70 goes to the Department Chair of the Primary Investigator

and, 25%, or $17.50, of the $70 goes to the Dean of the Primary Investigator

Occasionally, Deans/Directors/or PI's reallocate these earnings, or a portion of them, to co-PI's, etc. These are special agreements and Sponsored Programs needs to know about them prior to the allocations. These decisions will need to be identified when the grant award is received.

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Q: Can Foundation funds or Sponsored Programs funds be used for instructional faculty?

A: In order to accurately reflect student FTE and teaching support, we prefer to show all instructional faculty within Educational & General funds (instructional orgs). This is important when we prepare instructional reports for the Commonwealth. It is important that we accurately reflect our teaching efforts as the Commonwealth classifies teaching efforts within Educational & General.

Check out the Sponsored Programs web site for more information.

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Quick Links
Budget Request System
Budget Request System Instructions
Create a Position
Discoverer
FY09 Room & Board
FY09 Tuition/Fees
FY09 Summer Tuition/Fees
Payroll Schedules Reallocation Deadlines

Suggestions/Comments to: Kimberly Maze, kmaze@gmu.edu
Last Modified: Thursday, 19-Jun-2008

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