Academic Spending Overview

Learn More

Unrestricted accounts are funded by the annual budget as either temporary or permanent allocations. These funds come from core operating activities, primarily tuition and fee revenue. Your department has one or more permanent unrestricted accounts. The funds expire at the end of the fiscal year. These are generally designated by a restriction of five zeros (xx-xxxxx-00000-xxxx). Unrestricted salary dollars include benefits on the back end automatically. Some exceptions are made for agency, first dollar, or specialty accounts that are monitored by either the Office of the Provost or the Office of Research and Innovation.

Restricted accounts fall under five definitions. All restricted accounts require budgeting for fringe benefits whenever salaries are spent.

Gift accounts start with a 4 restriction (xx-xxxxx-4xxxx-xxxx). Gifts and revenue in these accounts are intended for specific activities outlined in the agreement of the account. While equity in these accounts does not automatically expire, a plan to expend the funds should be established with your Dean's Office.

Endowment accounts start with an 8 restriction (xx-xxxxx-8xxxx-xxxx). Each endowment account has two parts: a permanently restricted account and a temporarily restricted account. The temporarily restricted account is funded by the investment gains of the permanently restricted account. Only the temporarily restricted portion is expendable. Each year, your College or School is given projections of additional spendable. While the equity in the temporarily restricted endowment account does not expire, a plan to expend the funds should be established with your Dean's Office.

Quasi Endowment accounts start with a 5 restriction (xx-xxxxx-5xxxx-xxxx). Each quasi endowment account has two parts: a permanently restricted account and a temporarily restricted account. The temporarily restricted account is funded by the investment gains of the permanently restricted account. Only the temporarily restricted portion is expendable. Each year, your College or School is given projections of the upcoming spendable. Equity in the temporarily restricted account expires annually.

Grant accounts start with a 7 restriction (xx-xxxxx-7xxxx-xxxx). Grant expenditures are restricted to the signed agreement, amount, and dates of the grant. New agreements such as an extension must be executed or else the spendable expires.

First Dollar accounts start with a 6 RC and have a five zeros restriction (xx-6xxxx-00000-xxxx). These funds are designated gifts to operations. The equity received in these accounts before the fourth quarter of the fiscal year expires annually. 

Specialty accounts follow rules based on funding. Often these are accounts that are funded by either restricted or unrestricted funds on the back end.

Startup accounts are given to some faculty who are given large startup commitments over multiple years. While the funding on the back end is often unrestricted with unspent dollars expiring, the commitment often lasts the full term of the startup offer. If you have a startup account, you should talk to your Dean's Office early and often about your plans to spend your startup costs. Faculty without individual accounts have their startup tracked at the college or department level; however, all faculty should keep track of what expenses should be a part of their startup package to differentiate them from any other commitments.

RRG or Regular Research Grants are internal awards that have an RC that starts with 15 (06-15xxx-00000-xxxx). These are unrestricted funds, but they cannot be transferred to other unrestricted funds. While the funds expire at the end of the fiscal year, the commitment of funding is planned around the RRG application. Budget requests can be made to innovation@marquette.edu.

Grant Incentive accounts are established for PI's who receive incentive allocations from their college, and they have an RC that starts with 19 (xx-19xxx-00000-xxxx). On the back end, these are unrestricted funds, although because of the temporary nature of the budget, fringe benefits must be calculated for salary expenses. The commitment of incentive funds lasts the life of the grant that the earnings were based on plus two years. Your Dean's Office works with the Office of Research and Innovation and the Budget Office to determine available funds. 

Explorer Challenge accounts, along with the President's Challenge accounts, are funded by gifts on the back end and operate as a commitment of funding for a certain time period. Fringe benefits must be considered in the budget. Budgets are established through the Office of Research and Innovation and the Office of the Comptroller. These accounts start with an 099 for the RC (xx-099xxx-00000-xxxx).

Agency accounts start with a 2 RC (xx-2xxxx-00000-xxxx). These are funds held by Marquette that belong to an outside but affiliated organization. These are rare and if you have access to one you should discuss all agency accounts with your Dean's Office.

Construction in Progress or CIP accounts start with a 3 RC (xx-3xxxx-00000-xxx). These are established for approved capital projects in the major and minor capital budget. These are rare for academic units and you should work with your Dean's Office if you become involved in a project with a CIP account.

 

Learn More

Both internal and external awards become the responsibility of the PI and, by extension, their department. It is important to keep your Dean's Office and your home department aware of the details of your award. Regular meetings are encouraged. While each Dean's Office has access to Kuali, details and updates often need to be communicated directly. The Office of Research and Innovation recommends a post award meeting for every award.

If multiple schools or colleges are involved, it is best to include representatives from each area.

The Dean's Office will need to know about all dates, conditions, institutional commitments, and hiring plans. 

At this meeting you may also want to schedule future check-ins and discuss the roles and responsibilities of each person or office.

While every award is different, a starting template for that meeting can be found here.

Learn More

The Fund number is the first two digits of the account string. To designate eligible research expenses, budgets and expenses must use a Fund number of 06. Other expenses and budgets use Fund 01. If your grant is tagged as research, your budget will automatically be budgeted using Fund 06. Any other account can be mixed between both 01 and 06 as necessary. You can work with your Dean's Office to change your budgets.

Learn More

Grant accounts are established with the department RC and a unique Restriction. This is done automatically after a fully executed agreement is processed.

Other accounts are requested through your Dean's Office or provided by the Office of Research and Innovation for Explorer Challenge, RRG, and Grant Incentive accounts.

Once any account is established, the account owner will be sent authorized signer paperwork. This paperwork allows the owner and others access to the account for purchasing, hiring, general ledger, and reporting.

Learn More

To process a check or ACH payment, Purchasing must have the supplier set up in their system. If your supplier is new to Marquette, then it is your responsibility to initiate the supplier add process. This will require obtaining the supplier’s contact information and submitting it through Marquetplace. The purchasing system will use their e-mail address to invite them into the system where they will supply more detailed information such as their payment information and address.

• Reimbursements - If you use your personal credit card(s) or cash for business expenses, you may seek reimbursement. Please review the policies for reimbursement by visiting the Accounts Payable website. Some transactions are not eligible or require additional documentation. Reimbursements to staff and faculty should be processed within the iExpense system found at myjob.mu.edu. Instructions for how to use iExpense are also on the Accounts Payable website. Approval will flow through to the employee’s normal approver and then onto someone who has signing authority on your account if the normal approver doesn’t. This is an example of when it is beneficial for other people within your department to be authorized signers.
• P-Card Transactions – If you already have a P-Card, you may use it and then enter your account into the iExpense report. All existing rules regarding the limits and approval workflows still apply. If you do not have a P-Card someone in your department who does may be a designated purchaser. Check with their supervisor to see if they can purchase for you.
• Purchase Orders – Purchase orders will be your primary way of purchasing goods and services directly with your project account. Information and training opportunities can be found on the Purchasing Department’s website. Completion of bid requirements is the responsibility of the purchaser or a department approved delegate.
• Internal Payments and Invoices – Goods and services purchased through or by other departments on campus may be billed directly to your account. For example, employees who are paid from your account will be able to charge printing to your account at their department MFD. AMU services and catering can bill an internal account directly. Parking passes, software from ITS, and postage through mail services can also be billed directly to your account. If another department pays for your goods or services first, you may use a Department Expense Transfer form found on the Comptroller’s website to move the expense to your project account.
• Other Invoices – Accounts payable has manual payment request forms via MarquetPlace. Please work with purchasing or your department to process these.
• Non-Grant Expense Transfers - The comptroller's office will allow you to move a charged expense from one account to another if an authorized signer from each account signs off. If you can sign on both accounts, you may submit the transfer yourself. The Department Expense Transfer (DET) form can be found on the Comptroller's website.
• Grant Expense Transfers - Grants accounting and ORSP will need to review any expense transfers into or out of a grant. You can find the Grant Expense Transfer form on ORSP's website.

Learn More

Researchers who plan on compensating research participants must follow all compliance policies and procedures for human study. Marquette does not allow gift cards or cash advances to be purchased with a P-Card. Cash or cash equivalents for research participants can be obtained using the Request for Research Subject Support Form and the Human Subjects Payment Log. 

Learn More

Student Employees – If you will be hiring student employees on an hourly basis, you or the appropriate staff should hire them via JobX. The Office of Student Employment offers monthly training to gain access to this system or someone authorized to spend on your account may already be trained in the system. Graduate students can be hired as student employees and not graduate assistants. Please work with your Dean's Office to help determine someone's existing employment status before trying to hire them.

Graduate Assistants - An account owner must work with both their Department Chair and the school in which the student is enrolled. After funding is confirmed, offers may be made through the department procedures. All graduate assistants must have documentation of accepted offers processed by their school.

New Staff and Faculty - All faculty and staff positions must be posted online. Work with your Department Chair and Dean's Office to generate an approved job description and posting.

Buyouts, Additional Pay, and Summer Support - Your account may cover portions of staff or faculty, including yourself. To charge someone's time to your account, work with your Dean's Office. If it is a grant account, include ORSP in the planning to make sure that effort reporting and other requirements of an agreement are properly considered.  

Learn More

Grant Sub-Awards must be processed through ORSP.

Partner Agreements or Sub-Awards from internal funds such as the Explorer Challenge must be approved by the Office of General Council. It is the responsibility of the account owner or their department approved designee to initiate requests for such agreements. 

Learn More

It is the responsibility of the account owner or their department approved designee to initiate contracts.

Grant funded agreements must go through ORSP. Non-grant funded contracts can use boilerplate language found on the OGC website.

Nonstandard contracts and those over $10,000 must be approved using the Contract Processing and Approval Form.

OGC Forms

Learn More

The ability to manipulate the budget of an account depends on the account type.

For grants, your Dean's Office can move from natural to natural as long as the funds stay in the same category. ORSP can assist in establishing and modifying your grant budget.

For gift, endowments, quasi endowments, and first dollar accounts, your Dean's Office can initiate a budget projection to establish a spending budget and move funds within the restriction afterwards.

For unrestricted department, startup, grant incentive, agency, and CIP funds, your Dean's Office can establish or initiate requests for your budget.

For RRG and Explorer/President's Challenge funds, the Office of Research and Innovation can establish your budget. Your Dean's Office can initiate manipulations for hiring of graduate assistants.

Once an account has a budget established, the account owner and their designee can view it in the General Ledger. Detailed transaction information including operating payment status and digital versions of documentation can be found through the General Ledger.

Reporting is performed through Business Intelligence. Account owners will be able to see their accounts. If you do not have access to a report or need help using the reports please contact your Dean's Office.

Operating Statements serve to show a summary of your account for the fiscal year and period selected. These are straightforward for non-grant restricted accounts. For unrestricted accounts, fringe benefits will always be overspent as those costs are incurred at the account level, but budgeted for centrally.

Project Grant Statements will show a holistic view of your grant, pulling from the financial system. If the dates or amounts do not align with your information, ORSP and Grants Accounting may need to update your account.

Labor Distribution can be used to reconcile payroll.

Journal Entry reports will give you line item transactions from your account.

The Encumbrance report will highlight any open purchase orders that haven't been closed or finally closed.