Funds Available

Funds available refers to the amount of money remaining in a cost centre at any given time. If you’re responsible for a cost centre, you have financial responsibility for managing the cost centre balances prudently.

Should a cost centre go into a deficit balance, every effort should be made to resolve or clear the deficit as soon as possible. If you manage a cost centre, you’re encouraged to view funds available on a regular basis to stay informed of balances.

Viewing funds available in the financial system

There are two ways to view funds available balance in the Financial Information System (FIS) — by viewing the funds available inquiry screen or by running the RU Revenue Expense 3 selection report or TMU Revenue/Expense - 3 selections report.

To view your cost centre's funds available in the financial system, you'll need to complete a set of required fields. These fields tell the system which budget’s funds you want to view and how you’d like your screen customized.

To help you proceed, here's an explanation of each field in the Funds Available Inquiry in the financial system:

Field name	Explanation
Ledger	Identifies the main financial set of books
Budget	Refers to a department budget for the fiscal year or project budgets
Period	The last month you want included in your inquiry
Amount type	Tells the system how to calculate the funds available. You can choose from: Year-to-date extended Period-to-date Project-to-date Quarter-to-date
Encumbrance type	Allows you to see the funds reserved for goods or services ordered but not yet received or paid for. Choose from: All encumbrances Specific encumbrances Obligation (P.O.), which displays goods ordered from suppliers but not yet received Commitment (P.R.), which shows requests by departments for goods or services not yet ordered from the supplier Salary, which refers to salary funds to be paid out for the remainder of the fiscal year or project
Account level	While you have the option of changing this field, please leave this option on the default “All” as you’ll have the opportunity to view your report in “summary” or “detail” formats in the chart of accounts window, which comes in the next step.

Once you complete the Funds Available Inquiry, you’ll be prompted to fill out the chart of accounts.

Viewing the RU Revenue/Expense 3 selection report

This report measures budgets against expenditures and encumbrances to determine funds availability. The report displays detailed as well as summary-level information, including:

Field name	Explanation
Original budget	Represents the approved budget as of May 1 of each fiscal year
Revised budget	This column is the total of all budget transactions in your cost centre. This includes original, base and temporary budget transactions.
Encumbrance	This column is a total of all encumbrances in your cost centre. Encumbrances can be for salary, benefits and/or goods and services committed but not paid for.
Actual	This column represents all actual transactions posted to your cost centre. This could include salary, benefits, payment to vendors and journal transfers.
Funds available	This column shows the funds remaining in the cost centre. The formula is revised budget, less encumbrances, less actuals = Funds available

A Funds Available number in brackets represents a deficit balance and needs to be reviewed.

Fund description	Fund summary	Fund	Amount type
Ancillary	AN	14, 15, 16	YTDE
Operating	OP	11, 13	YTDE
PACAR	PR	36	YTDE
Prof. Devlp	PD	12	YTDE
Capital project	CP	84	PJTD
Miscellaneous	MS	35, 37, 38, 39	PJTD
Project	PJ	51	PJTD
Special activity	SA	33, 34	PJTD
Trusts	TR	60-62	PJTD

For more information on the chart of accounts, visit the Understanding TMU’s Chart of Accounts page for an explanation of chart categories.