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Emory College Finance Guidelines

For Department Chairs & Program Directors

• Accounting
• Budget
• Extra Budgetary Request Process
• Unbudgeted Funds
• Purchasing
• Grants and Contracts
• Faculty Research Funds
• Moving Expenses
• Department Chair’s Fiscal Responsibilities
• The College’s Role in Financial Approvals
  
  

Accounting

Emory University's financial accounting system is called FAS.  The system has several types of accounts.  General ledger accounts (0-ledgers) are used for large financial accounts like endowments and for financial reporting.  Department transactions take place using sub-ledger accounts (1, 2, 5, and 6-ledgers).  Below is a general description of these accounts:

1-ledger accounts: budgeted accounts, for example department personnel and non-personnel accounts.  Funds in these accounts must be spent in the fiscal year that ends on 31 August.

2-ledger accounts: unbudgeted “designated accounts,” for example faculty research accounts or special program accounts.  Funds in these accounts roll over at the end of the fiscal year.  Deficits in 2-ledger accounts are not allowed.

5-ledger accounts: grants and contracts accounts, such as research accounts funded by federal agencies.  These accounts must adhere to a budget end date specified by the funding agency.

6-ledger accounts: unbudgeted "restricted accounts," such as endowment spending accounts, restricted purpose gift accounts, or foundation grant accounts.  These accounts may adhere to a budget end date specified by the funding agency or donor.

Budget

The University’s budget process begins in the fall of the year prior to the budget year.  The College prepares its budget proposal in the fall and presents it to the Provost in January.  After considering the proposals from all the University units in light of the fiscal environment for the coming year, the Provost’s office modifies the unit budgets as they see fit and presents a University operating budget to the Board of Trustees in the early spring.   Once the Board approves this budget, it is fixed for the coming year.  The College must work within this fixed sum to allocate funds for faculty and staff salary increases, new faculty and staff hiring, and non-personnel funds.  This allocation process continues until mid-July when the detailed budget, by department, is entered into FAS for the new fiscal year that starts on 1 September.  Budget and salary details are provided to department chairs in late August.

The College provides salary funds for each faculty member whose appointment home is in the department.  The College provides funds for staff salaries, including any approved additional staff lines.  The intention is to completely provide for personnel expenses in the department.  Unspent salary funds due to departures, retirements, leaves, etc. flow back to the College, so that unused salary funds are available to fund temporary faculty hires and for other needs of the College.  Similarly, the College provides for the charges that the Network Communications division bills the department for network access (datalines).  A baseline number of network lines was set in 2005.  The College provides additional funds for new datalines that result from approved new hires.  Any incremental datalines added by the department must be funded by the department from its pool of non-personnel funds.  Surplus dataline funds will be recovered by the College.  

Several of the items in the non-personnel budget are calculated based on the number of faculty in the department.  Those calculations are as follows:

*Faculty holding endowed professorships receive their own research funding, so the amount provided to the department for these faculty is reduced.

Each department copier must be converted to a leased copier when the service life of existing machines expires.  The College provides funds for the copier lease.  The department must pay for the copier maintenance from
its non-personnel budget pools.

Departments must end the fiscal year with its budgeted accounts at zero or with a positive balance.  Deficits will be subtracted from the next fiscal year’s budgeted amount and transferred from the department account; surpluses are not rolled over into the next year.

Extra Budgetary Request Process

All requests for funds that are not included in the budget are considered extra-budgetary requests and must come from the department chair/program director.  Requests will be reviewed twice each year, in October and February.  Deadlines for consideration are October 1st and  February 1st or the next business day in the event these dates fall on a weekend.  The Dean will notify the department chair/program director in writing of his decision regarding the request.  If approved, these extra funds will not appear in the budget, but instead will be transferred into the appropriate account during the fiscal year.

Use the Request for Extraordinary Funding Support form (Secure Web). Contact Diana Krause (dkrau01@emory.edu) if you have questions.

Unbudgeted Funds

Departments are responsible for many 2, 5, and 6-ledger accounts.  Expenditures from these accounts should receive the same scrutiny as those from the department’s budgeted 1-ledger accounts.  In the case of endowment spending and other restricted accounts, special care should be taken to ensure that the restricted purpose of the account is being fulfilled with each expenditure.  The College’s Chief Financial Officer can assist with determining an account’s restrictions.  Except for extraordinary timing issues, unbudgeted accounts should end the fiscal year with a zero or positive balance

New accounts can be created if new restricted gifts are received or new endowments or special purpose programs are created.

Purchasing

Most purchases should be accomplished using either the online purchase requisition process (EPIC) or a Purchase Card (P-card).  Direct reimbursements to employees usually result in a higher cost and payment of sales taxes.  Faculty and staff should make use of the University’s preferred providers for the following goods and services:

Significant discounts have been negotiated with these vendors.

Grants and Contracts

The Department Chair is responsible for reviewing and approving grant proposals from their department faculty, for the post-award accounting, and for reviewing and signing faculty conflict of interest certifications. The College Office reviews proposals and assists departments with proposal preparation.  The College Office will also assist department staff with post award accounting and effort certification.

All grant proposals must be submitted to the sponsor via the University's Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP).  This includes grants to corporations and foundations.

For more information see the Emory College Grants and Research policies and procedures.

Faculty Research Funds

As part of many faculty members’ employment offer, research funds are provided.  Other faculty members in named/endowed professorships receive annual allotments of research funds.  These funds are transferred into 2-ledger accounts, managed by the departments.  Research funds are used at the discretion of the faculty member to pursue their scholarly interests.  Examples of appropriate expenses are books, travel, conference fees, and equipment.  Department chairs review and approve these expenses in the normal course of departmental business.

Moving Expenses

Moving expense reimbursement is included in many faculty members’ employment offers.  These payments are intended to reimburse the faculty member for non-taxable moving expenses such as moving household goods and personal effects from the employee's old residence to the new residence and traveling (including lodging but not meals) from the old residence to the new residence.  It is often the case that the faculty member’s move is completed over a period of time which may cross fiscal year boundaries.  The College’s commitment to pay for moving expenses will normally continue up to a year after the faculty member begins their appointment.  The amount specified in the offer letter is a maximum reimbursement amount.  Moving expenses above this amount must be borne by the faculty member.  Original receipts must be submitted with the reimbursement requests.

Department Chair’s Fiscal Responsibilities

Department chairs are responsible for reviewing the expenditures from their department accounts.  Staff and faculty in the department should select the department chair's name from the list of authorized signers when filling out online reimbursement requests and the department chair or their designee should sign all requests personally before forwarding the requests to Accounts Payable.   Department Chairs should be familiar with the University Policies regarding reimbursements and should ensure that reimbursement requests are appropriate and timely.  (See https://www.finance.emory.edu/external/polprod/index.cfm). The department chair should ensure that University Purchase Card (P-card) expenditures are routinely reviewed and posted to the correct accounts. Finally, the department chair will sign and approve purchase requisitions.

The College’s Role in Financial Approvals

The Dean or his designee (Chief Financial Officer) will approve reimbursements and travel expenses for department chairs' personal reimbursements.  The College Office must sign or approve the following documents:

• Account Create requests
• Purchase Requisitions over $10,000
• Retroactive Salary Transfers (RST)
• e.journals for fund transfers for grant accounts
• Grant Proposals
• Journal Entries more than 90 days past the actual expense
• Exceptions to Cost Accounting Standards for federally funded grants