Procedures Manual - Business Analysis

Business Analysis is responsible for budget preparation, accounting and management reporting for short term projects or contracts entered into by TRU with external sources, and for management information and analysis for ancillary services. This administration encompasses assistance in the initial costing of projects, assignment of account codes, budget set-up, costs analysis and general project-related inquiries.

A few items which are often overlooked when preparing a project budget are employee fringe benefits and indirect overhead costs. The fringe benefits are to be applied as follows:

.	Benefits	Holiday Pay	Total
Admin	22%		22%
Faculty - Ongoing and Limited Term	25%		25%
Faculty - Sessional	16%	4.5%	20.5%
Faculty - PTIC	16%	4%	20%
Support - Ongoing	25%		25%
Support  - Auxilliary w/pos>6 mths	25%	0%	25%
Support  - Auxillary, students	15%	4%	19%

Overhead

The indirect overhead costs covers facility (space rental, heat, light, janitorial) and administrative costs (registration, personnel, accounting) and range between 10% and 30% of direct costs. The percentage varies, depending on the type of project being run, and the degree of utilization of the above factors.

Approval

All contracts, regardless of the size or funding source, must be accompanied by a completed budget breakdown before the contract can be signed by the Bursar. For more information regarding the completion of budget breakdowns, please see Contracts - Educational Service Agreements

Contracts for which specific project codes have been set up must also have a monthly budget attached, showing the breakdown of direct cost to run the project. The monthly budget allows for much easier tracking of project costs. This type of budgeting occurs all year long as new projects are started.

Budgeting - Non-base Funded Activity

Budgeting for Extension Services (non-subsidized programming, Ancillary Services, and International Education) is done several months prior to the beginning of each fiscal year and is revised and adjusted throughout the year to give the managers of each department useful financial information about their departments.

These budgets should be submitted to the Finance Division by early February for review before being entered into the computerized accounting system. If a manager anticipates a major change in the program for the next fiscal year, or is simply having difficulty preparing the budget, he/she can contact the Business Analyst for assistance.

These budgets are set up on a monthly basis for both revenues and expenditures to facilitate the flagging of project variances from the established plan, and to enable consolidated reporting and forecasting, for an increasing volume of non-base activity.