The Colors of Money

Banner Chart of Accounts

Letter Meaning Description

• F - Fund : Internal Fund Accounting Categories (e.g., Overhead Fund)

• O - Organization : Internal Organization (colleges & departments)

• A - Account : Describes what the money was spent on (salaries, supplies, travel etc.)

• P - Program : Richmond codes describing the purpose of the expenditure

• A - Activity : Department controlled additional attribute on a transaction (optional)

• L - Location : Used only in certain central offices

Educational & General (E&G)

• Educational and General funds, sometimes called 208 funds

• Intended for supporting the instructional mission of the university

• Every department has separate E&G fund numbers in place for salaries, operating and budget distribution

• Departments can request additional fund numbers for startups or operation expenses

• Budget is allocated from scratch every July, and must be used by June 30th

• E&G money is used mostly for faculty and staff salaries and fringe benefits

E&G Fund Examples:

• 123456 - Operating

• 124567 - Salaries

• 125432 - Dept 108 Budget Pool

• 127654 - Dept 108 Salary Pool

Overhead

• Overhead activity is also called Indirect or F&A (Facilities & Administrative)

• Money that came from research sponsors

• Intended for general support of research endeavors

• Every department has a default overhead fund number that receives a monthly or quarterly budget distribution based on grant activity

• Departments can request additional overhead fund numbers for purposes like payroll or credit card kick-outs, PI overhead share, startups and other categories they want to monitor separately

• Unspent balances carry over automatically at year-end

Overhead Fund Examples:

• 232900 - Payroll Corrections

• 232566 - Swift Overhead

• 232769 - Foster Startup

Sponsored

• Holds money provided by external sponsors (government or commercial) for specific research grants or contracts

• Falls under a parent grant which has its own period of performance, statement of work, budget, and contract stipulations

• Financial management is governed by federal regulations and "uniform guidance"

Sponsored Fund Examples:

• 345698 - Blockbuster 1990's Time Machine

• 450280 - New Superpowers

• 456978 - Something Special Project

Auxiliary

• Provides extra services and operates as a separate self-supporting financial entity

  • Examples are athletics, dorm and dining, and the bookstore

• Holds revenue and expense figures for specific Auxiliary unit

• In addition to tracking Expenditure Budget vs Actual, the Auxiliaries must also track Revenue Budget vs Actual, and balance expenditures to revenue

• Auxiliary fees, plans, budgets, and other operational procedures are reviewed and approved annually by

the VT Chief Financial Officer

Auxiliary Fund Examples:

• 150012 - Revenue, Tailor Shop Auxiliary

• 153018 - Tailor Operation

Cost - Share

• An agreement made at the onset of a sponsored project that VT will spend some of its own money on the project

• The fund is created in Banner as an E&G fund to track the VT expenses

• Typically, budgets are NOT placed in these funds, and they are used to record expenses (about 95% salaries & fringes)

• Cost-Share expenses may also be recorded in other funds (e.g.: State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV))

Cost-Share Fund Examples:

• 138440: Cost Share for 416589 - S. Seckers

Virginia Tech Foundation Research

• Set up by transferring money from VT Foundation

• Support professorships and projects

• Look like sponsored projects, but are NOT

• Money comes from private donations which cannot require deliverables or reports

• Behave like Various fund and the money carries forward

VTF Research Fund Examples:

• 441998: Fescue Toxicity

• 441177: VT Sheep Center

• 441976: Thornhill Professor Operating

State Council for Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV)

• Terminology: Equipment Trust Fund (ETF); Higher Education Equipment Trust Fund (HEETF)

•  Used to purchase equipment which must be approved in the Budget Office ETF system and assigned an ETF item number

• Follows a calendar from when VT receives annual ETF allocation to when money should be spent

• Equipment must be kept on active inventory for seven years

• Each department gets a single new Banner fund each fiscal year, and money may not be transferred in or out of the ETF Banner fund

• The ETF Banner fund acts as its own NSF "bucket" and unspent balances use rule code B03 to roll forward into new fiscal year

SCHEV Fund Examples:

• 20818xxxx1

Service Center

• Self-supporting operation in a department that relies on money through recoveries (interdepartmental payments)

• Rates are used to cover costs and are reviewed annually by the Controller's Office

• Service center funds use overhead fund numbers, but are excluded from the Overhead NSF pool

• 50/50 salary vs. operating

Service Center Examples:

• Nanoscale Characterization and Fabrication Lab

• AOE Wind Tunnel

Tuition

• Holds money to pay tuition for students on Graduate Student Assistantships

• Also called Instructional Fee Scholarship (IFS) funds

• Tuition is awarded when a student is placed on payroll (no fund is specified)

• After the semester, IFS money has arrived; the administrator goes back and "funds" the tuition by naming the specific Banner fund

• Year-end remaining balances do NOT carry forward the next fiscal year

Tuition Fund Examples:

• 997040: Tuition Rem Biology

• 998203: Tuition Rem Biology- Alt

Non-Sufficient Funds Control (NSF)

• NSF control blocks HokieMart orders and other non-salary spending when budget balance falls below zero and the Controller can switch NSF on or off for E&G and Overhead

• Typically, NSF is turned OFF in late June and turned ON again in August after colleges have distributed

E&G budgets

• BAVL = Budget Availability; can be thought of as a "bucket" of funds within a department; if there is money left in the bucket, any fund in the bucket can continue spending, even if its own balance is negative; BAVL Balance = the running balance kept by Banner to determine if funds are sufficient

• Two Types: single Banner Fund and summarized balance of a group of Banner funds (E&G vs. Overhead)

Various

• Various funds are created using residual or unspent money left over at the end of a fixed cost sponsored contract

• The direct portion of the residual can be placed in a various fund by sending a Residual Request Form to OSP

• Various funds look like a sponsored fund in Banner, but it is NOT tied to a scope of work, begin, or end date and they are identified in the Banner Data Warehouse with code 03

Various Fund Examples:

• 440795: Various: Nelson, Douglas J.

• 440795: Residual funds: Ng, Wing Fai

Local & Agency

• Tracks activity within the university not supported by any of the normal funding sources

• The Banner fund allows use of the accounting system for expenditures

• Funds operate on a CASH basis: money comes in as revenue rather than budget

• Many are fellowships or scholarships; others are for specific groups or events that get outside money

Local & Agency Fund Examples:

• 656139- Fellowships-VTF-876358 Kinney

• 659847- Summer Arts Festival

• 653848- Marching Virginians

• 654189- CEE Career Fair

Foundation

• The Virginia Tech Foundation is a related corporation with an endowment of almost $800M

• It operates as a separate financial entity with its own accounting system

• Many VTF funds are endowment or income funds related to scholarships and professorships

• VTF funds can be spent on social events, alcohol, gifts, publications, renovations, and software development

Foundation Fund Examples:

• 883527: JB Jones Chair- Endowment

• 883965: Pierce D Angell Endowed Scholarship

Industrial Affiliate

• Allows industries to help sustain research and teaching outside Sponsored Programs

• VT has approximately 30 Industrial Affiliate partnerships with commercial industries

• Each program is created to support a particular avenue of research

• Contributions come through the VT Foundation and are transferred to Banner funds

• Contributions are subject to a 7% fee (whether VTF or OSP), but no Overhead is charged

• IAP (Industrial Affiliates Program) funds have Fund Source 23396 in Banner

Industrial Affiliate Examples:

• 500105: UAV Physical Security Vulnerabilities

• 441514: Future Electronics