FAQs: Budget Management

A base budget is a recurring budget for the department. Currently, a department’s base budget is carried over from year to year. A non-base budget is a non-recurring, one-time budget. Examples of non-base budgets are a term-appointment position budget or a budget for a one-time consulting study. Even though RA tuition/SEIP expenses are recurring Institute-funded expenses, they should also be budgeted as non-base as the specific students and related amounts supported vary from year to year. 

No. Please use the current year's rates. New EB rates will be applied to your budget during global budgeting. 

You do not need to include anticipated increases for salaries paid from the general Institute budget (GIB), as these will be automatically added by B&FA through global budgeting.  Therefore, you should include current fiscal year salaries as of the date you submit your budget for all current personnel and any authorized unfilled positions.

For salaries paid from research, fund, or other non-GIB sources, you will need to budget the increases into NIMBUS, since global budgeting applies only to GIB dollars.

When submitting your forecast, however, projected salary increases must be included, regardless of the funding source.

Please contact the budget officer of your unit. 

Please contact your Budget Officer. He/she will reopen NIMBUS for you. 

Yes. Make a selection in the Budget Version field under “Other Options” in the Summary Statement menu. 

• Budget Version 0 - Total Institute Budget
• Budget Version 1 - Base Budget
• Budget Version 2 - Non-base Budget

Launch the NIMBUS application. Select “BG/Cost Object” and scroll to the bottom. You will see detailed budget transactions made during the current year. 

Yes. Please launch the NIMBUS application to view your budget data. The data is updated on a real-time basis. Budgets in SAP and the data warehouse do not reflect today’s transactions – they feed from NIMBUS overnight and are reflected the following day. 

Yes, the Office of Budget & Financial Analysis distributes three Excel-based reports monthly: the All Funds Report, the Base Non-base Report and the Budget Detail Report.  If you would like to be included on the distribution list for any of these reports, please have your AO contact your Budget Officer.

• All Funds Report - Compares revenue and expense by cost object category for a specified fiscal period and the corresponding fiscal period of the previous fiscal year. It also includes changes to Pool A market value, MTDC, organized research proposals, and FTEs by cost object category.
• Base Non-base Report - Shows the total budget – including the current base and non-base budgets – with FYTD actuals by cost collector. Data is sorted by admin flag (department controlled, faculty controlled, etc.). It includes budget vs FYTD actuals variance and the percent of budget used.
• Budget Detail Report – Shows both the base and non-base budgets by cost collector, and provides budget transaction details that will allow you to trace your budget from submission to current.  A summary report also compares the total budget to FYTD actuals by cost collector.

There is a carryforward process.  For administrative units, requests are made to the EVPT to use the funds in the next fiscal year.  For academic units, the current policy is that unspent general funds are automatically carried forward in the academic unit.  The department has to provide funding or use cost objects with a surplus to cover any cost objects with a deficit.  Faculty controlled accounts and TA Health Insurance accounts must be carried forward in the same cost object.

You can reallocate expenses between cost objects and/or cost elements via the NIMBUS BTR (Budget Transaction Request) system, or through an email request to your budget officer.

You should not include any anticipated carryforward amounts, space changes, sabbatical leaves, or SEIP budgets for TAs.  Budgets for these amounts will be made by B&FA based on approvals by the appropriate authority.

No, NIMBUS will automatically calculate secondary costs based on a set of default rates.