Instructions for Completing the Financial Forecast Form

Please complete a separate forecast form for your operating, self-funded/internal and PI fund centers.

General Tips:

Enter revenue and expenditure amounts as positive numbers.

Enter budget increases and reductionsas positive and negative numbers, respectively.

Alert: Exceptions to the above tips: if your total expenses for a specific category is a number representing a recovery, it should be entered as a negative.

Include all fund centers with a balance in your forecast (be sure to check both the old and new hierarchies).

CRC fund centers in the 1xxxxx fund center series should be treated as self-funded.

The research allowance in the 2xxxxx fund center series should be included in the PI fund centers

Current Income/Expense Budget and Actual YTD amounts must balance to FIS.

** Only enter data in the blue cells on the Forecast Form **

Recommended Reports for Forecasting

I) Divisional Income Statement

For faster results, please run in RPT version of AMS.

Output: Current Income Budget, Actual YTD Revenue, Actual YTD Expenses (non-salary and salary journals) & Commitments.

  1. Run Divisional Income Statement report using variant named OISE2016. Update by entering an appropriate fund center into the Fund Center field and enter the appropriate date into the Data at end of selected month field. For example:
  2. For February Forecast – enter January, enter current year
  3. For November forecast - enter October, enter current year.
  4. Enter CurrInc Budget amount from the report into the Current Income Budget field on the Forecast Form.

  1. Enter Total Act Inc amount from the report into the Actual YTD Revenue field on the Forecast Form.

  1. Enter the following amounts onto their corresponding fields in the Actual YTD Expense section of the Forecast Form

Divisional Income Statement / Forecast Form
Actual YTD Expenses
CtgAcadSals / = / Continuing academic salary & benefit expenses
NonCtgAcadSals / = / Non-continuing academic salary & benefit expenses (includes honoraria)
Admin Sals / = / Administrative salary & benefit expenses
Studnt Fin Asstn / = / Student Financial Assistance expenses
Supplies / = / Supplies & Other expenses

  1. Note: This report must be used together with the Payroll Distribution report to ensure that all salary data is recorded in the Actual YTD Expense salary cells. The Divisional Income Statement captures salary debit memos (i.e. journals) and the Payroll Distribution report capturespayroll information (from HRIS).
  2. Drill down on the Commitments column and allocate the non-salary commitments to the appropriate category on the Forecast form. Note: currently users must drill down to see all commitment amounts.

II) Payroll Distribution Report

Output: Actual YTD Expenses (salary payroll from HRIS) and Projected expenses now to Year end (for salaries only)

  1. Run the Payroll Distribution Report and download data to Excel. Sort by G/L (column R). Delete G/L account #s 801910 Pay: BenefitsApptand 801920 Pay: Benefits No Appt as the benefit amounts are calculated by individual.
  2. Add a new column at the end of the spreadsheet and assign the appropriate expense category to each employee.

Tip: use the OISE Expense Account Grouping spreadsheet to assist you in selecting the correct expense category.

  1. Subtotal the Fiscal Saland Fiscal Bencolumns by expense category and add to the Forecast Form under Actual YTD Expensescolumn.
  2. Repeat above step, only this time subtotal the Reserved Sal and Reserved Ben columns by expense category and add to the Forecast Form under Projected expenses - now to Year End.

Tip: The total Fiscal Sal and Fiscal Ben amounts should equal to the Payroll Distr’n Fiscal Sal & Ben Balancing figure from the Divisional Income Statement – see screen shots below.

Divisional Income Statement

Data download from Payroll Distribution Report

III) Budget Movement Report

Output: Current Expense Budget.

  1. Run the Budget Movement Report to determine the Current Expense Budget. Allocate by category using the Commitment Item text descriptions.

Tip: use the OISE Expense Account Grouping spreadsheet to assist you in selecting the correct expense category.

  1. Allocate carry forwardamounts to the Supplies & Other Expenses category as it is difficult to allocate among the various categories. Exception - if you are aware that the carry forwardfunds have been designated to a specific expense category then allocate accordingly.
  2. Place the total for each column into the appropriate cell on the Forecast Form under the Current Expense Budget column.

Reconciling Back to FIS

At this point all Current Budget, Actual YTD and Commitments should be reflected on the form. To confirm that the form balances back to FIS:

  1. Run the Statement of Accounts report (be sure to check the Outstanding Commitments box before running the report) and compare the current revenue and expense budget, YTD Actuals and OutstandingCommitments totals to the Totals on the Forecast form.
  1. All amountsmust balance back to FIS. Contact OISE Finance for assistance if out of balance.

Completing the Forecast Form

Forecasting Tips:

  • Identify trends from previous years
  • Identify known situations and their impact on your fund centers
  • If exact figures are unavailable make assumptions about future events e.g. expenses will be relatively the same as last year. Forecast future expected revenues and expenses on the basis of these assumptions.

Examples of typical forecasted expenses:

  • Salary costs not yet encumbered (i.e. not included in FIS commitments) - e.g. bi-weekly payments
  • Credit card charges
  • Invoices not yet paid for merchandise/services already received
  • Pending charges from other University departments e.g. F&S, telephone, photocopier etc.

Next Steps

  1. Enter forecasting values into the Budget increases/reductions, Projected revenues and expenses columns.
  2. Provide an explanation by category in the Variance Explanation column for any variances listed in the Projected Year-end Net Position.

Submitting the Forecast Form

  1. Have the forecast authorized by your Chair/Unit Head.
  2. In Excel, copy the forecast (rows 10 to 16 – from Revenues to the Total row). Be sure to copy the entire row to capture the formulae in columns A & B. Use the Paste Special Values command to paste the forecast onto the submission sheet.
  3. Leave a blank row, repeat the copy and paste special values for all fund centers you’ll be submitting.
  4. Email oneExcel workbook with all of your fund centers on the Submission sheet to by the forecast due date.
  5. The signed approved forecast form can also be sent electronically with the Excel file.

Appendix A

Glossary for the Expense categories:

Continuing academic salaries & benefit expenses – includes continuing appointed tenure/tenure stream and lecturer/senior lecturer faculty membersin the Teaching stream category. Please exclude sessionals.

Non-continuing academic salaries & benefit expenses(including honoraria) – includes contractually/ limited academic appointments (C/LTAs), contract, sessionals, secondments, stipends, as well as honoraria

Administrative salary & benefit expenses – include all appointed and non-appointed administrative salaries and benefits

Student financial assistance expenses – include teaching assistants, financial student assistance accounts, graduate assistants and TEPAS accounts administered by Dean’s Office and Student Services

Supplies &OtherExpenses – all other items not included in the other categories listed above and outstanding purchase orders

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Version 20160202