Resources

Budget revisions (income related) that require Board of Trustees (BOT) approval are not posted by the Provost Budget Office (PBO). After review by the representative, they are given to the Administrative Support Associate who prepares a summary of all transactions requiring BOT approval. The summary and the revisions are given to the Assistant Provost who reviews them with the Associate Provost. Once approval is obtained from the Assistant Provost, the Administrative Support Associate sends the revisions to the University Budget Office (UBO) via the SAP workplace. Once BOT approval is obtained, the UBO posts the transactions and notifies the PBO via letter.

Current BOT dates are available by clicking here.

Budget Transactions (Transfers and Revisions) are received centrally by the Administrative Support Associate via the SAP Workplace from Provost Area units. On a daily basis, the Administrative Support Associate checks the SAP Workplace and prints all received transactions for review and approval. The printed transactions are given to the Administrative Staff Officer II to be reviewed and posted. Please see the Budget Office Team page for unit assignments.

Cost/Funds Center forms to create/change/delete items are received via a central email account (provostbudgetoffice@uky.edu). All cost/funds center forms are thoroughly reviewed to ensure that they have been completed fully and correctly.  Then the forms are submitted via email scan to General Accounting. Information related to how to assign a funding category code is available by clicking here. Requests for income supported funds centers with the exception of Budget Family 14 should be approved by the Assistant Provost.

Request for income supported funds centers should include the following:

1. A copy of a contract, agreement or event brochure documenting the need.
2. A statement as to usage and the programmatic necessity of the funds center.
3. A statement as to how the fund’s revenue will be received and managed.

Proposal Stage

• Review sponsor guidelines to verify is cost share is required
• Review proposal to see if there is committed cost sharing
  • Note: Cost sharing is considered committed if it’s committed in the budget, budget justification or in another portion of the proposal
• Review the Cost Share Policy in the University of Kentucky Business Procedure Manual, Section E-50-2

Post-Award

• Review proposal and PADR to see what was proposed as cost share
• If a percentage of effort was proposed for the faculty, staff, students, post docs, etc., then that percentage of effort should be reported on the WBS element and cost share fund
• Verify that there is a cost share fund in the GMGRANTD transaction code in SAP under the dimensions tab. This is a 10 digit number and begins with 001189
• Faculty effort – The distribution of effort (DOE) should be revised in the Faculty Effort System (FES). The cost share effort will need to be in the “Shared Effort” column of the payroll distribution/AVC check tab.
• Staff effort – A cost distribution (0027) screen will need to be completed in SAP/HR to charge the WBS element and the cost share fund
• Payments using the procurement card, RFP, SAG form, JV, Travel, SRM, RA Tuition, service/recharge center must charge to the WBS element and cost share fund 
• Review ledgers on a monthly basis to verify that the expenses were posted to the cost share fund
• Fund cost share on a monthly or quarterly basis
  • Option to use automated cost share funding or fund via JV
• Verify that the cost share is funded at fiscal year end and at the project end date
• Verify that the cost share match is being met (if required)

The Provost Budget Office has a delegated approval grid for processing documents flowing through the PBO.

A staff member in the PBO has been assigned as a resource for the Provost Area units to address issues with faculty deferred pay. The Administrative Staff Officer II works directly with the units on problems, issues or questions related to deferred pay. Issues that require assistance from the IRIS team are forwarded to Debbie Zoll.

Recent and current university budgets have included designated pools for faculty retention, commonly referred to as the "faculty fighting fund."  The justification for setting aside these funds is to minimize the loss of valued faculty who are being lost to competitive offers at other institutions at an unacceptable rate. The guidelines are intended to be consistent with that justification.

1. Proposals for allocation of fighting funds for a faculty retention offer should be submitted by the dean to the provost by email.
2. These funds may be used for salary and benefits only and for tenured or tenure-track faculty only.
3. The funds are by default for making counter-offers against actual external offers. The college/department should have some internal process for vetting whether an individual merits a counter-offer (not the details, but an endorsement of the value of keeping the individual). The dean should indicate that such vetting has been undertaken. An offer from a lower-ranked institution is not as compelling as one from a higher-ranked one.
4. Pre-emptive offers are considered exceptional, and apply only when a highly valued faculty member is actively being recruited by a well-ranked department. The dean should make a case both for “highly valued” and “actively being recruited.”
5. After a college has exhausted its annual allocation from the fund, proposals may be submitted for appropriation from the following year’s allocation or from the provost’s reserves. In such cases, higher expectations will be applied with regard to both the value of retention and the risk of departure.

The university policy on fixed-price agreements (AR II-1.0-3) allows a residual cash balance to be transferred into an unrestricted general fund discretionary cost center (a ledger 3 cost center (102317****) set up specifically as a Fixed Price Residual (FPR)) cost center for a specific principal investigator) when:

1. All appropriate direct and indirect costs have been charged to the ledger 304; and
2. The actual expenditures are reasonable in relation to projected expenditures and the requirements of the project.

In the Provost area, when ledger 304 cost centers close with appropriate expenditures, the residual balances will be transferred to the Provost FPR holding cost center (102317****). When the Provost Budget Office (PBO) receives the transfer documents from Sponsored Projects Accounting (SPA), a Budget Transfer (BT) and Journal Voucher (JV) are prepared to transfer the budget authority and the cash balance of the cost center to the principal investigator’s FPR cost center. (If a FPR cost center has not been set up for this PI, the unit will need to set up an cost center at this time) The PBO will send a copy of the BT (through SAP workplace) to the college budget officer and/or department manager at the time the transfer is completed. The corresponding JV will be referenced on the BT, so that the department/unit may print out as needed.

(Although this policy was established in 1992, a number of departments have not developed procedures to manage expenditures on fixed-price cost centers while they are active. The result is the routine use of late cost transfers that jeopardize the integrity of the university accounting system and the distribution of effort reporting certifications.)

Policy for Transferring Residual Balances When Ledger 304 Cost Centers Close Without Appropriate Expenditures

The Office of Controller and the Office of Sponsored Projects Administration has adopted a policy to manage fixed-price residual balances on cost centers that have ended without proper expenditures on the ledger 304 cost centers. Of particular concern are cost centers that ended in a prior fiscal year and have problems that have not been resolved. The usual problems on the ledger 304 are lack of principal investigator salary charges and/or an unusually large and unexplained cash balance at the end of the project date.

The procedures outlined below are not a change in policy but rather a means to resolve problems on cost centers that have closed without appropriate expenditures.

• Sponsored Projects Accounting (SPA) will not re-open a closed fixed-price ledger 304 cost center to allow late cost transfers.
• If expenditures are reasonable, OSPA will forward the Fixed-Price Agreement Budget Form to SPA and indicate that the total cash balance should be transferred to a general fund income (1011******) cost center in the Provost office. (The college budget officer always receives a copy of this JV from SPA.) When this occurs, it is the responsibility of the college budget officer and/or dean to request these funds be returned to the college.These funds are only returned if there is sufficient justification and explanation of extreme circumstances as to why the ledger 304 was not appropriately expended against (including a list of what expenses should have been charged to the grant, by expense, type and the total of these expenses.) Such memo of justification should accompany this request and be sent to the Provost Budget Office for approval. If approved, these funds will be returned to the college into a non-discretionary ledger, 1013XXXXX fund center or budget authority will be transferred to the college into a ledger 1012XXXXX fund center, whichever the college prefers. The necessary transfer documents will then be completed by the Provost Budget Office and sent to General Accounting for processing. A copy of the transfer document will be sent to the college budget officer.

G/L Account Change/Create forms to create/change new general ledger accounts in SAP are received via a central email account (provostbudgetoffice@uky.edu).  After processing, they are submitted to General Accounting for creation.

Listed below are the different types of HR transactions the Provost Budget Office reviews.

• Nepotism Requests
• Phased Retirement Requests
• Professional Improvement Study Leave Requests
• Hiring Proposal forms (New Hires, Lateral, Demotion, Re-Evaluations, Transfers, Promotions) for over 20% of base, over the mid-point of the salary range, lateral transfers with increases
• Staff Overloads
• New Position Descriptions on “state” funds

All the documents listed above are received through Integrated Employment System (IES) by the Provost Budget Office. The documents are reviewed for accuracy by the Administrative Staff Officer II and then approved by the Budget Director.  Key points that are reviewed are the recommended salary/salary scale, combined education experience, grade level, and comparable positions.

Budget authority is also reviewed when new positions are being requested.  The signature process for most documents is the college/unit level, HR, and then the PBO signature.  Once the signature of the Budget Director is obtained, the documents are emailed back to HR, or to the corresponding college/unit.  All HR documents that are over the maximum salary of the grade level are forwarded through the Provost to the President’s office for approval.

There are many cost/funds centers under the responsibility of the PBO. These cost centers are reviewed monthly by various staff in the PBO. The ledger sheet reconciliation grid identifies the cost/funds center, who is responsible for reconciling, and who reviews the reconciliation reports. The reconciler and the reviewer are required to sign each report to document review.

Please refer to the delegated signature authority document for information on policy exceptions.

The Provost Budget Office Small Grant Group collaborates with College, Program, and Central units to provide tools which will enable departments to achieve operational and strategic goals through guidance on best practices with regards to pre and post award grants management. 

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) has been developed to provide guidance and maintain consistency with entering faculty payments. Attached is the final version and ready for full execution by colleges and units. The attached document includes SOP’s for the following areas:

• Summer Research
•  Summer Teaching
• Summer Administration
• Winter Intersession
• Other Payments
  • Lump Sum​
  • Wethington Awards
  • Other Awards
  • Internal Overload

Please click here for step-by-step instructions on transferring positions across organizational units.