Frequently Asked Questions

In Peoplesoft Finance Production, go to Commitment Control then either to Budget Detail or Budget Overview.  Fill in the ledger group, department, fund and fiscal year. This is will show you your current budget, total expenses to date, encumbrances, and your budget balance available.

To transfer funds between funding sources the funds need to be like funding sources for example: GOF to GOF, Major fees to Major fees, Other Student Fees to Other Student Fees. If the funding sources are the same then you can fill out a Budget Transfer Form (XSLX) and email it to the Budget Office.

If the funding sources are not like sources: GOF to Other student fees, Major Fees to Miscellaneous a transfer cannot be done. However, you can move appropriate expenses from one fund to another.  For example, you need to move $1,000 of GOF to your major fee account. You would run a 7062 Detail Transaction Report for your MF account highlight the appropriate expenses that you need moved to your GOF account and submit it to the Accounting Office.

If the budget error is "No Budget Exists," then you will need to check the Chartfield string (department and fund) to make sure they are correct.   If they are the wrong combination then change it to what it should be and rerun budget check. If they are the correct combination, please contact the Budget Office to load a budget.

If the budget error is "Exceeds Budget Tolerance," this means you have overspent your budget. A couple of things can be done: You can change the Charfield information to an account that has the appropriate funds to cover the requisition or purchase order or, you can transfer funds from a like funding source to this account. Another option is to look at your encumbrances to see if any can be liquidated to free up funds.

Most expenses are encumbered, i.e. expenses generated by a purchase order, payroll, and fringe.  There are several expenses that are not encumbered:  Procard, Debt Service, and Chargebacks-Printshop, Postage, Stationary, Telephone, Campus Services, Chartwells, and TFA.  It is important to remember this because if your account has an available balance of $500.00 and you are going to create a requisition or need to increase a Purchase Order for this amount, but one of these non encumbranced expenses hits your account, your requisition or purchase order will not pass budget check.

The Trust Fund Administration (TFA) Charge for the UMass Dartmouth Campus was approved by the UMass Board of Trustees on May 9^th, 2000.  Certain Trust funds will be assessed an 9% charge on expenditures.  The rationale for the charge is to ensure that all trust funds are self-supporting and this includes its allocable share of central services.  This charge is consistent with those charged at the other UMass campuses.  The TFA Charge appears under the PeopleSoft Account Code 797500 (Overhead Assessment) as an expenditure.  This will be done each month prior to month end close.

The TFA charge will impact all funds except for the following:

• Indirect Costs
• State Appropriations
• Student Activity Fee
• General Operating (GOF)
• Major Fees

All other funds will be assessed the TFA charge including the following:

• Conference Center
• Dining
• Housing
• Miscellaneous Income
• Non-Sponsored Projects (not funded with GOF or Major fee funds)
• Other Student Fees
• Department of Online & Continuing Education

Month-end closing takes place on the first Friday after the end of the month. This is when TFA allocation will hit your account. Waiting until the Monday after the closing will give you an accurate look of where you stand.

Please contact the Budget Office for one-on-one training. You can also see PeopleSoft Finance for our training schedule or PeopleSoft Job Aids for various job aids and tutorials.

You can contact any of the following people in the Budget Office for help:

• Annemarie Currie x8023
• Mark Dias x8022
• Christopher Valadao x8084

Complete the New Department Request (DOC) form and return to the Accounting Office. It is important that the form is completely filled out so that access and security can be properly set up. Once you receive the new department account information an User Access Security Form (Rev) (PDF) should be filled out to set up approvals for the new department.

SUMMIT is a new reporting tool which runs outside of PeopleSoft Finance, it is based upon the PeopleSoft Finance 9.2 Reporting Database.  Go to the PeopleSoft Finance training page for an online tutorial.

Employees can request access to Finance systems by filling out the User Access Security Form (Rev). (PDF)

The form once signed by the employee’s supervisor should be sent to Suzanne Audet, Controller & Data Custodian, Foster Administration Building. 

The accuracy of the organizational structure is essential since it controls access to your financial information including your budget and financial transactions. In addition, this Campus Organizational Structure is used to synchronize with other systems such as those maintained by HR, COIN, Affirmative Action and Space Management.  Please fill out the PS Org Unit Change Form (DOC) and return it to the Budget Office.

An Original budget is the budget that has been historically allocated to a department. Original budgets will recur in the budget annually, on a permanent basis. In general, when budgets are loaded at the beginning of the new fiscal year, they can be allocated as either original (permanent budget change) or non-permanent budget changes via transfers, adjustments, salary savings, previous year carryover, or one-time allocations. Non–permanent budget changes will affect your current budget but not affect the original budget.

To transfer funds between funding sources the funds need to be like funding sources for example: GOF to GOF, Major fees to Major fees, Other student fees to Other student fees. If the funding sources are the same then you can fill out a Budget Transfer Form (XLSX) and email it to the Budget Office.

To transfer an expense to another account you need to run a 7062 Detail Transaction Report for the account the expense was charged to. On the 7062 report highlight the appropriate expense(s) that you need moved and indicate where they should be transferred to. Send the highlighted 7062 report to the accounting office to process the move.

If the budget error is "No Budget Exists," then you will need to check the Chartfield string (department and fund) to make sure they are correct. If they are the wrong combination, then change it to what it should be and rerun budget check. If they are the correct combination you need to contact the Budget Office, so they can load a budget.

If the budget error is "Exceeds Budget Tolerance," this means you have overspent your budget. There are three options: You can change the Chartfield information to an account that has the appropriate funds to cover the requisition or purchase order. Or, you can transfer funds from a like funding source to this account. Another option is to look at your encumbrances to see if any can be liquidated to free up funds.

Active Chart of Accounts/Chartfield Crosswalk login

The campus receives revenues from two main sources: the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and from the day-to-day operations. The State Appropriation is one of the budgetary items included in the annual state budget. Once quantified, the dollars are appropriated to the University of Massachusetts on a system level. The President's Office is responsible for determining the allocations that each campus receives. These dollars are primarily used to fund payroll expenses, as the state will pay all the fringe benefits for any salary that is paid with state appropriated dollars. In essence, this represents approximately 35% in additional funds above what the university is appropriated.

Restricted revenues

Restricted revenues are revenues that come with restrictions on how they can be spent. Examples of Restricted Revenues include, donations and endowments, grants, contracts, and special state appropriations.

Unrestricted revenues

Unrestricted Revenues are revenues that come with no restrictions on how the money can be spent. Our biggest source of unrestricted revenues comes from the collection of student based fees, namely tuition.

Within the category of Unrestricted Revenues, there are several funding sources:

• State Funds - Funds appropriated by the State Legislature          
• Operating Funds
• Indirect Costs

The campus also provides services (other than education) that generate revenue. These activities are fully or partially supported through fees or charges for products and services. Revenue based operations include:

• Housing
• Dining
• Campus Store
• Conferencing
• Print Shop