The budget development page was created to aid CU Boulder departments in creating their annual budgets. If you are a CU Boulder entity and would like consultation when creating your budgets, please contact us using our online form.

General Fund approval timeline

The FY23 General Fund continuing budget change cutoff for the campus will be April 14, 2023. Please take note of the following regarding the cutoff:

  • After the cutoff, General Fund continuing budget may only be moved within the same General Budget Account code and Campus Division until June 12, 2023.
  • Please notify Budget and Fiscal Planning (BFP) if you plan to enter a continuing budget change after April 14, 2023. 
  • Budget journals in the temporary ledger will be approved until the June close date.
  • Continuing and temporary budget journals may be entered in the FY24 budget ledgers.
  • No FY23 general fund continuing BJEs will be approved after June 12.

To contact BFP, email bfp@colorado.edu or use our convenient online form.

Planning parameters

CU Boulder's planning parameters by fiscal year (PDF)

Auxiliary fund budget development

Auxiliary budget information and instructions (PDF)

Cash carryforward management

The General Fund cash carryforward (CCF) is the budget available at the end of a fiscal year that is carried forward to the next fiscal year. The CCF is determined by total budget (and actual ID revenue if applicable) less expenses, excluding encumbrances. Encumbrances should zero out at the end of each fiscal year regardless, so in case they do not, they are already excluded from the calculation.

The campus guideline for how much budget is reasonable to reestablish, or carryforward, in the new fiscal year is one percent or less of the total General Fund budget, in accordance with the “Budget and Net Position Internal Reporting” policy. Each division should ensure that their unit carryforwards fall within these guidelines.

During the fourth quarter of the fiscal year, you should be monitoring your expenses in order to determine your year-end financial position. With anticipated final fiscal activity in mind, you can begin planning for your carryforward. Using a Revenue and Expense summary report, you can estimate your final fiscal activity and how that relates to your budget. Budget and Fiscal Planning recommends transferring excess budget balance available that is over one percent of total budget to a plant fund (Fund 72) speedtype. It is recommended to keep those resources in the plant fund until needed.

Fund 10 speedtypes that have a deficit balance and are linked to a fund 72 speedtype with sufficient funds to cover the deficit will receive an automatic cash transfer after each June close. If there aren’t sufficient funds in the fund 72 speedtype to cover the deficit you may do a manual cash transfer to cover all or part of the deficit.

Departments have until the 2nd campus close to do entries, about two weeks into July. However, you are encouraged to close your unit’s books sooner than the final day of close. It is reasonable, and encouraged, to have squared up the majority of your unit’s financial activity during June.

The cash carryforward entries are recorded as “TROLLFY##” in the journal line description.

Assume you are the fiscal manager of a General Fund speedtype and it is June 23. You are expecting invoices worth $1,000 to arrive in the next week before June 30.

  1. Total Budget: $100,000
  2. Total Expense at June 23: $93,000
  3. Anticipated expenses for the final week of June: $1,000
  4. Total Estimated Expense for the year, (B)+(C): $94,000
  5. Estimated Budget Balance Available, (A)-(D): $6,000

The $6,000 estimated Budget Balance Available is 6% of the total budget. The carryforward target of less than one percent of budget equals $1,000. Therefore, you should transfer at least $5,000 ($6,000 - $1,000) to your plant fund. This will allow you to meet your carryforward target, and the remaining $1,000 will be rolled forward into the next fiscal year.

Compensation Budget Management

  • Salary and benefit budgets should be aligned with estimated actual salary and benefit expenses for the fiscal year.
  • General Fund salary and benefits budget amounts should align with each other according to current year fringe benefits rates. Visit this webpage for more information on fringe benefits rates.
  • When converting non-salary budget to salary budget, the corresponding benefits budget must be converted as well.
  • General Fund salary and benefits budgets should be reviewed and adjusted as needed prior to the FYE General Fund continuing BJE cutoff in mid-April, so that necessary increases and decreases can be allocated. Each year in July, BFP manages increases and decreases to continuing benefits budget amounts due to year-on-year changes in fringe benefits rates.

Rate additive budget development and insurance allocation timeline

Each fiscal year, BFP works with rate additive units to develop budgets for the following year, and allocates premiums for General Liability and Property Insurance to campus units. Here is the annual timeline:

  • In November, BFP begins collecting relevant data from University Risk Management, the Office of Data Analytics, and other key stakeholders regarding CU Boulder insurance allocations for the following fiscal year
  • In January, budget request templates for the following fiscal year are sent to rate additive units, to be submitted to BFP in February
  • In March, campus units will be notified of General Liability and Property Insurance premium allocations for the following fiscal year
  • Annual insurance payments for the new fiscal year will be posted by BFP in July; monthly allocations will be dated the first of each calendar month

Inflation