The Fiscal Year
The Hendrix fiscal year begins on June 1 and ends the
following May 31. Remember that all
expenses must be reimbursed from the budget year in which the expense
occurs. In the case of travel expenses,
the budget year is considered to be the year in which the travel occurs rather
than the year in which each particular expense occurs. For example, an airline ticket purchased in
March for a trip in July would be posted as an expense in the July fiscal year
not the previous year when the ticket was purchased. Each
spring the Business Office communicates a date in May beyond which no
additional purchases should be made in that fiscal year. All faculty should consult the Business Office Guidelines for detailed information about accepted practices of using funds from the college.
Submitting Budgets
Department budget requests (including capital budget requests) will be due in either January or early February for the following fiscal year budget. The due dates are provided in the Faculty and Chair Calendar. Department chairs should work with their department members and consult with the Provost, as needed, in order to have clear and reasonable requests. Department chairs will be notified of the outcome of the requests after these are approved and finalized by the Business Office.
Managing Budgets
Department chairs are responsible for monitoring their budgets. This includes communicating with their department members about budget issues or consulting with the Provost about any needs or changes that occur over the fiscal year. Department chairs should also review closing budgets each year to make sure that they are spending funds appropriately and staying within the allocated funds.
Department chairs are encouraged to keep track of capital
budget needs and to notify the Provost of needs that arise that are outside of
the regular budget cycle. There are
times when it is may be possible for the college to provide funds at other
times, so it is helpful if the Provost has a list of these needs available that
can be shared with the Business Office.
Departments with large capital and maintenance needs, such as those in
the Natural Sciences, are strongly encouraged to keep records that provide the
college with information about maintenance schedules that will provide
information to help with long term planning in this area.
For departmental budgets, it is useful if department chairs
carefully consider what the basic needs of the department are as well as a
“wish-list” of what would be helpful for their program in the future. This information can be included as part of
the budget request process.
Department Use of Indirect Cost Return Funds
Funds provided to departments from indirect
cost returns from grants are limited in their use to the following purposes:
- To
support student-faculty research, including conference travel, contract
services, required institutional match, etc.;
- To
purchase, repair, or replace relatively low-cost equipment, whether for
research or teaching purposes, especially if the need is too urgent to await
funding from capital funds.
All
or part of the department’s share of the indirect cost return may be reserved
for the grant’s principal investigator, but the same restrictions apply.