Budget-checking controls that prevent overspending are scheduled to be reinstated on
February 1, 2020. Please finalize adjustments to salary encumbrances and budgets to ensure that departments comply with spending limits.

When UCF Financials was updated in November 2019 as part of the UCF Rising project, the Human Capital Management (HCM) system began encumbering salary funds. To provide UCF Financials users time to adjust to this process, the system has produced a warning message when departments overspend their budget, but it does not prevent transactions from being processed. This grace period is expected to end on the first of February. Following this action, all journals, requisitions, or other transactions that overspend a budget will result in a budget error, and departments will need to request a budget override (i.e., the process prior to the grace period).

Below are some general questions and answers to help guide you in this process:

What will occur regarding Budget Controls as of February 2020?
Budget-checking controls that prevent overspending are scheduled to be reinstated. As a result of the UCF Rising project, UCF Financials users were granted a three-month grace period of adjustment when Human Capital Management (HCM) began encumbering salary funds. The system currently produces a warning message when departments overspend their budget, but transactions are still processed. This grace period will end on January 31.

What will happen within UCF Financials when transactions are budget-checked following the budget controls reinstatement date?
Review your departments and projects that are in a negative budget situation. Your transactions are impacted in the following manner:

1. Payroll-only departments: Payroll transactions will continue to budget-check as “Track with budget” and will not result in error. However, this does not prevent budget overspending from occurring.
2. Departments and projects that have both payroll and operations expenses: Payroll transactions will continue to budget check without producing an error. However, operational transactions (requisitions, journals, etc.) will budget check with “Control” and will produce a budget error if the department or project has exceeded budget tolerance.
3. Associated revenue departments: If the net budget for an associated revenue department is negative (revenue, cash and tolerance included) and excludes expenses and encumbrances, then non-payroll transactions will result in a budget error.

How long will it take for this change to go into effect, and will any additional changes be required following the reinstatement of budget-checking controls?
In general, the reinstatement of budget-checking controls will be effective immediately and no additional changes are required.

Will payroll journals require manual override following the reinstatement of budget-checking controls?
All HCM transactions (i.e., payroll, encumbrances, etc.), both current and historically, may have a warning message but will budget check without producing a budget error.

What actions should be taken to resolve a budget-check error?

If the error is due to salary encumbrances that need to be corrected, process an ePAF, eForm, or salary cost transfer in the HCM system to resolve the encumbrance issue. Once this is approved and the encumbrance or salary cost adjustment flows through to UCF Financials, the transaction can be budget-checked again.

• In some cases, you may need to change the default department number associated with the home department or complete a funding distribution change in HCM.
• If a transaction requires a budget override, please contact your department budget director or the budget department in Finance and Accounting (as was the original process).

For additional assistance in preparing your budgets and payroll encumbrances, contact the following:

1. For assistance with budget changes and/or approvals, contact your divisional or departmental budget director.
2. For questions about payroll encumbrances, contact the Human Resources Information System (HRIS) team at hris@ucf.edu or (407) 823-2771.
3. For questions about UCF Financials system-related matters, contact the Financials Service Desk at fntrain@ucf.edu or (407) 823-5117, option 6.