The Fiscal Year Budget vs. Actual Report. Reference Guide. Report Basics. (Excludes A0000, Sponsored Research and Capital Funds)

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1 Report Basics What is the purpose of this report? The Fiscal Year Budget vs. Actual Report compares fiscal year to date (YTD) actuals, summarized by standard Account Categories, to original and revised budgets for a given Department/Fund/Program/Site combination(s). This report does not display financial information for General Fund (A0000), Sponsored Research Funds, and Capital Project Funds, which are not budgeted on a fiscal year basis. What key business questions does this report answer? How are actual revenues and expenses tracking against budget? Have we exceeded budget to date? If so, by how much? How much have we spent in a particular Account Category (e. g., BWB salary) this month and year to date? What is the year end total expense for this Account Category? How much of our departmental budget have we transferred out this year? Who uses this report? Individuals with Financial Management functions at any level in an academic department program or center, or an administrative or central department. How often is the report refreshed with data? Nightly How do I navigate to the report? 1. Log into the Prime Portal ( 2. Click the Reporting button to open the Cognos application. 3. Click the Financial Management folder. Where do I go for additional help? For technical and business questions: o Until September 30, 2014: Prime Support Center (PSC) Phone (609) prime@princeton.edu o Starting October 1, 2014: Financial Service Center or OIT Help Desk For training materials, go to the Prime portal ( and navigate to Information & Training > Training & Step by Steps > Financial Management & Reporting. Revision 00 Page 1 of 6

2 Using the Report What key prompts should I use to run the report? Field Description Fiscal year Accounting period Department Fund Account Program Site Project Required field. The 12 month period used for Princeton financial reporting beginning July 1 and ending June 30. You cannot run this report for a period that spans multiple fiscal years. Required field. The month in which certain financial events took place. July is period 1, August is period 2, September is period 3, and so forth. The report will return data from the beginning of the fiscal year through the accounting period selected in the prompt. This will also drive the data that is populated in the Current Period column on the report. Organizational unit responsible for revenues and expenses, and typically contains people and a budget. You can run this report for one or more Departments. When no selection is made, the report returns data for all Departments to which the user has access. Used to track the source of funding. You can run this report for all or selected Funds. When no selection is made, the report returns data for all Funds. The natural classification of revenues (tuition, grant), expenses (salaries, supplies), assets (cash, property), liabilities (accounts payable, accrued liabilities), and net assets. You can run this report for all or selected Accounts. When no selection is made, the report returns data for all Accounts. An activity owned and managed by one or more departments, academic programs, or individuals. The activity typically spans Funds, Accounts and Departments while aggregating expenses and revenues around a common purpose. Program does not necessarily have a specified beginning and end date. You can run this report for all or selected Programs. When no selection is made, the report returns data for all Programs. Tracks buildings and properties that have a need to capture income and expenses (i.e., property or building where the revenue is generated and costs incurred and/or being performed). You can run this report for all or selected Sites. When no selection is made, the report runs for all Sites associated with the selected Department(s), Program (s), Fund (s) or Project(s). A collection of detailed transactional information related to grants, non grant sponsored research, and capital projects with specific beginning and end dates. You can run this report for all or selected Projects. When no selection is made, the report returns data for all Projects. Revision 00 Page 2 of 6

3 Sample Report Note: Sample report displays test data. Revision 00 Page 3 of 6

4 Sample Report (continued) Note: Sample report displays test data. Revision 00 Page 4 of 6

5 How do I interpret the report? Column Name Account Category Budget: Original Budget: Revised (A) Actual: Current Period Actual: Year to Date (B) Actual: Encumbrance (C) Actual: YTD + Encumbrance (D) = (B + C) Variance: Pos/(Neg) Variance (A D) Variance: YTD + Encumbrance as % of Budget (D / A) Description A roll up of lower level general ledger accounts used on summary financial statements to simplify analysis. Budget that was initially allocated at the beginning of the fiscal year It is typical for this column to show no dollars because the University s policies do not require that budget be allocated for non A0000, capital or grant funds. Dollars will show in this column only if a department specifically submits a request to the Budget Office for a budget allocation to be made through the Hyperion Planning system. Original budget plus any downwards/upwards revisions made to the budget since the beginning of the fiscal year through the accounting period selected on the Prompt page. The Revised Budget will be same amount as the Original Budget when no revisions have been made to the budget. Actual Revenues and Expenses incurred in the accounting period selected on the Prompt page. Actual Revenues and Expenses incurred in the selected fiscal year up to the accounting period selected on the Prompt page. Unpaid commitment on purchase orders and Labor Accounting lines as of the selected accounting period. Commitments that are not recorded in the financial systems do not constitute an encumbrance, therefore, are not included. Actual Revenues and Expenses incurred in the selected fiscal year up to the selected accounting period plus encumbrance. Difference between the Revised Budget and Actual YTD + Encumbrance. Note that the variance is Actuals minus Budget for Revenues and Budget minus Actual YTD + Encumbrance for Expenses. Actual Revenue and Expenses reflected as a percentage of the total Revised Budget. Revision 00 Page 5 of 6

6 What else should I consider? Item Grouped by Description Account Category Totaled by Beginning Balance Pos/(Neg) Total Revenues after Transfers Total Expense (includes subtotals for Personnel and Non Personnel Expenses) Subtotaled by For Revenue: o Operating Revenues o Income Transfer and Assignment For Expenses: o Personnel Expenses o Non Personnel Expenses Additional totals Fiscal Year Balance Increase/(Decrease) Ending Balance Positive/(Negative) Balance in Assets Balance in Liabilities What tips & tricks can help me use this report effectively? When you perform a search on the Prompt page, you can enter a wildcard (%) at the beginning, middle, and/or the end of your search criteria. Wildcards are used in place of unknown characters if you do not know the exact value for a prompt. To specify a Fund(s) or Department(s), you can use the Select and Search prompt. Or, to select multiple Funds or Departments (or an entire Organization), use the Tree Prompt to drill down through the hierarchy. Select one of the View in Excel Options to download the report in.xlsx or.csv format. Using Excel features, reformat the report output as needed. For more information about navigating the Prompt page, refer to the Cognos basic navigation courses. For more information about chartstrings and ChartFields, refer to the Choose the Right ChartField page on the Prime Portal. Drills to which report(s) Account Summary Revision 00 Page 6 of 6