Accounting 101

Fund Overview 

  • Income Fund Reimbursable (IFR) 
  • State University Tuition Reimbursable Account (SUTRA) 
  • Dormitory Income Fund Reimbursable (DIFR) 
  • Revenue Offset 

Income Fund Reimbursable (IFR)

  • Account numbers begin with 90 or 91 
  • Funded by student fees, miscellaneous revenue generated by campus departments 
  • Operates on a cash basis, balance will carry year to year 
  • Indirect Costs:
    • 15% overhead on originating revenue 
    • Fringe on non-student labor

State University Tuition Reimbursable Account (SUTRA)

  • Account numbers begin with 96 
  • Funded by summer and winter session tuition, Overseas Academic Program (OAP), and contract courses 
  • Operates on a cash basis, balance will carry year to year 
  • Indirect costs
    • Overhead on originating revenue 
      • 20% for Summer and Winter session main accounts 
      • 15% for Non Summer and Winter session accounts
    • Fringe on non-student labor

Dormitory Income Fund Reimbursable (DIFR)

  • Account numbers begin with 87 
  • Funded by allocation based on expected revenue from housing charges 飦 Account balance will not carry year to year 
  • Indirect Costs:
    • Fringe on labor expense, not shown at the account level in BI

Revenue Offset

  • Most account numbers begin with 86, some begin with a 4/5/6/7 
  • Funded by allocation based on expected revenue from tuition and college fee, state tax support, and interest 
  • Account balance will not carry year to year 
  • No indirect costs are assessed

Fringe Benefit Assessments

  • Transferred to System Administration for employee benefits 
  • Not assessed on student payroll expense 
    • Sub objects 521830 TA Non-Instructional, 524830 TA, 526980 GA, 526990 Student Assistant 
  • Monthly assessment on IFR, SUTRA, and DIFR accounts 
    • DIFR fringe is not displayed at the account level in BI 
    • Amount is based on activity that posted for the prior month 
      • Ex: January labor expense will be the basis for the February fringe amount 飦 
  • Rates are set by NYS Division of Budget and SUNY

Fringe Benefits in BI

Administrative Overhead

  • Transferred to a campus account to fund infrastructure
  • Monthly assessment on cash basis IFR and SUTRA accounts 
    • Amount is based on originating revenue activity posted in the prior month 
      • Ex: January originating revenue (exclude balance transfers) will be the basis for the February overhead amount 
  • Rate is set by campus leadership

Administrative Overhead in BI

Sub-Accounts

  • All account numbers consist of a 6-digit parent account, plus a 2-digit sub-account
    • Example: 900760-01
  • If an account is not sub-accounted, use -00 
  • Sub-accounts -01 through -98 are used for expenditures 
  • -99 is used for revenue and allocation 

Allocation

  • Funded by State taxpayer support and campus generated revenue from tuition, fees, and interest 
  • Distributed to campus by SUNY System Administration 
  • Locally allocated to divisional and departmental units through campus budget process 
  • Funds lapse with fiscal year (July 1 鈥 June 30) 
  • Allocation must be placed in the budget associated with an expenditure

Allocation in BI

Expense

  • Three major objects
    • PSR 鈥 Personal Service Regular 
      • Faculty and staff labor costs
    • TS 鈥 Temporary Service 
      • Students, adjunct faculty, and hourly labor costs 
    • OTPS 鈥 Other than Personal Service (all non-labor costs) 
      • Travel 
      • Contractual 
      • Supplies and Equipment 
      • Student Aid 15 
      • Recharges (department chargebacks)

Expense Terminology

  • Encumbrance 鈥揂mount department has reserved for payments 
    • Purchase requisition 
    • Salary commitments 
  • Expenditure 鈥 Amount department has used/spent 
    • Completed purchases 
    • Payroll 
  • Disbursement 鈥 Actual payment to vendors or employees

Payroll

  • Four payroll agencies, indicated by Payroll Agency Desc field in BI 
    • Administrative 
    • Graduate Assistant/Teaching Assistant (GATA) 
    • College Work Study (CWS) 
    • Student Assistant (SA) 
  • Payroll posts bi-weekly with Administrative and GATA posting on alternate weeks from College Work Study and Student Assistant 
  • SUNY generated encumbrance activity includes most payroll types 

Expenses in BI

Chargebacks

  • One campus department provides goods or services to another campus department and seeks to recover the costs of those goods or services 
    • No profit motive 
    • If the activity is not internal nor federally sponsored, then it鈥檚 not a chargeback and likely needs to follow university fee process and protocol 
    • Subset of SUNY Fee policy 7804 
  • Internal cost recovery is processed monthly via expenditure transfer in both departments鈥 IFRs 
    • Sub-object will start with a 9 
    • List of approved rates is available on the Accounting Website 
    • Cannot pay with p-card
  • Chargebacks

Chargebacks in BI

Revenue

  • Revenue only posts to -00 or -99 sub-accounts 
  • Originating revenue is deposited through Student Accounts 
    • Student billing collections 
    • Miscellaneous revenue (deposit transmittal) 
  • Revenue is posted to IFR and SUTRA accounts twice per month 
    • Revenue collected the 1st through the 15th will post sometime after the 16th 
    • Revenue collected the 16th through the last day of the month will post sometime after the 1st of the following month 
    • Timing is based on university cash flows 
    • Revenue will post to account in aggregate at the revenue class level 
      • Use Revenue Web Application or SAS Visual Analytics reporting tools to see detail by student or deposit receipt number

Detail Codes

  • Banner鈥檚 accounting system 
  • Detail codes are tied to specific IFR or SUTRA accounts 
    • Contact the Accounting Office for your account鈥檚 specific detail codes
  • Billable 
    • Will show in revenue reporting tools by student B-number 
    • Typically all 4 characters are alphabetic 
      • Ex: BIOL 
  • Miscellaneous 
    • Will show in revenue reporting tools by Banner receipt number 
    • Always begin with 鈥淚鈥 followed by three numbers 23 
      • Ex: I901

Revenue in BI

Revenue Details in Dashboard

Account Summary Fiscal Year Reporting in BI

  • Allocation Total: Current fiscal year budget amount 
  • Expenditure Total: Expenses incurred during current fiscal year 
  • Pending Expenditure: In process payment or transfer 
  • Example: Accounting has completed an expenditure transfer and it is the process of posting 
  • Encumbrance Total: Funds in the process of being spent during the current fiscal year 
  • Pending Encumbrance: Estimated remaining expense 
  • Available Balance: Calculated field, balance including all actual and pending transactions; balance will not carry forward to future years

Cash Balance Reporting in BI

  • Beginning Cash Balance 鈥 Prior year鈥檚 ending cash balance as of 6/30 
  • Revenue 鈥 7/1-6/30 posted revenue total 
  • Fringe Benefit 鈥 7/1-6/30 posted fringe benefit assessment total 
  • Overhead 鈥 7/1-6/30 posted overhead assessment total 
  • Maintenance 鈥 7/1-6/30 posted maintenance assessment total (should be $0.00) 
  • Prior Yr Disbursements 鈥 Payment of prior year expenditures in current year
  • Current Disbursements 鈥 Payment of current year expenditures; will not include lapsed activity after 6/30 
  • Ending Cash Balance 鈥 Calculated field as of 6/30, balance including only posted transactions that will carry to future years 
  • Prior Yr Encumbrances 鈥 Open encumbrances from prior fiscal year, should be $0.00 after lapsing 
  • Current Encumbrances 鈥 Encumbrances and pending encumbrances; will not include lapsed activity after 6/30 
  • Fringe Accrued 鈥 Estimated fringe amount to be assessed the following month 
  • Overhead Accrued 鈥 Estimated administrative overhead to be assessed the following month 
  • Maintenance Accrued 鈥 Estimated maintenance overhead to be assessed the following month (should be $0.00) 
  • Prior Yr Expenditures 鈥 Prior year expenditures not disbursed by 6/30 
  • Current Expenditures 鈥 Expenditures that have not yet been disbursed 
  • Uncommitted Balance 鈥 Calculated field, balance including all actual and pending transactions

Transfers

  • Allocation 
  • Expenditure 
  • Revenue 
  • Agency 
  • Supporting documentation

Allocation Transfers

  • Must use the allocation transfer form available on the Budget Office website
  • Allocation will post to -00, or -99 if sub-accounted 
  • Must have sufficient allocation in original account 
  • Transfers must be within the same fund and fiscal year 
  • Transfers must use whole dollar amounts (no cents) 
  • Permanent adjustment to base allocation will carry forward in future years 
  • Temporary adjustment is one-time for that fiscal year only
  • Managing Budgets

Expenditure Transfers

  • Must use the expenditure transfer form available on the Accounting website 
  • Only previously posted expenses may be moved
    • Keep original sub-object unless the wrong one was used 
  • Expenses must be charged to the correct account in the organization where the cost was incurred 
  • Expense will post to -00 or any sub-account other than -99 if subaccounted 
  • Payroll transfers should not be requested until Human Resources has updated the employee鈥檚 labor distribution and it can be verified that new payroll cycles are posting properly 
  • Sub-object 3799 may only be used for year end closeout transfers

Agency Transfers

  • The Accounting Office and SUNY coordinate to transfer funds between other New York State agencies, including other SUNY schools 
  • Transfers can be either revenue or expense 
  • To pay another state agency, provide the Accounting Office with a copy of the invoice, and confirm the account and amount to be paid 
  • To receive funds, provide the Accounting Office with a copy of the invoice and confirm where the revenue should be posted

Transfer Supporting Documentation

  • All impacted departments must be on copy for all requests 
  • Transfers cannot be processed without sufficient supporting documentation
    • The transfer request form does not qualify as supporting documentation 
  • Backup ensures proper transaction posting and provides a sufficient audit trail 
  • Examples include: 
    • Screenshots or exported data from BI showing posted activity to be moved 
    • Revenue detail report 
    • Detailed breakdown of scholarship activity by student, account, and detail code 
    • Payroll transfer requests should include employee name and pay period detail 
    • Invoices, receipts, proof of payment 
    • MOUs and other written agreements (including email) 
    • Any other relevant information

Campus Financial Leads

  • Academic Affairs: Erin Neske/Sarah Kane 
    • CCPA: Tammy Behonick/Jon Roma 
    • DCNHS: Joanna Cotten 
    • Grad School: Yongabi Ngoh 
    • Harpur: Nancy Baudendistel/Wanzhu Fassett Liu 
    • SOM: Linda Reynolds 
    • Watson: Lisa Gallagher Pharmacy: Laura McDuffee/Amy Fish 
    • International Affairs: Pamela Williams 
    • Undergraduate Education: Dina Layish 
    • Online & Innovative Education: Budget Office 
    • Library: Jeanne Ball
  • Operations: Joseph Turdo 
    • Facilities Management: Rachel Talcott Advancement: Beckie Benner/Elaine Ji 
  • Athletics: Marisa Colonna-Garrow 
  • Student Affairs: Janice Bennett 
    • Transportation and Parking/Auxiliaries: Ashley Krizanek 
    • Dean of Students/University Union: Rosa King 
    • Recreation/Health & Wellness: Anne Saint-Juste 
  • Research Foundation: Lisa Gilroy
  • Communications & Marketing: Julia West 
  • President: Budget Office 
  • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Nicole Sirju-Johnson/Kate Hastings

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