Budget Process

Annual budget development at the University of Oklahoma is continual, with one or more processes occurring at any given time.  Even as campus units are managing current-year budgets, the Budget Office is in the initial stages of preparing the next year's budget.

Budget development begins with the distribution of a Budget Needs Survey each fall to all campus financial managers for consideration at the department/Dean level.  The survey, which encompasses both operating and capital budget needs, lists projects by priority, and contains detailed descriptions of each project, funding requested, other source funding availability, and needs timeline.  Departments and Deans consider these needs throughout the fall, submitting the survey to the appropriate VP in early January.  VP approval and subsequent submission to the Budget Office occurs mid-to late-January.  During late January and February, a Review Committee prioritizes requests and meets with VPs for discussion and clarification.  The Committee finalizes approved requests in March, ensuring alignment with funding availability and institutional strategic priorities.  Approved new funding requests are communicated to VPs by the end of March for inclusion in the coming year budget.

During the Budget Needs consideration process each spring, departments are also beginning to build the rest of their budgets by incorporating positions and maintenance and operational needs.  The Budget Office, using certain assumptions regarding state appropriations levels for the year, provide a target funding figure to departments for the majority of their expense budget.  Departments have the ability to reallocate funding within their department, modify position distributions, and budget for salary increases.  The Budget Office schedules a budgeting window in our new budgeting system, Adaptive Planning, during which departments can begin the building process but also to incorporate any increases that might be associated with the budget needs survey.

The Budget Office balances and finalizes the institutional budget in late May after the Legislature has approved the final state funding allocation to all higher education institutions.  In early June, the institutional operating budget is released the OU Executive Officers, the OU Regents, and the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, with final approval by the State Regents in late June.

Budget construction takes place in Adaptive, with PeopleSoft remaining as the institution's system of record.  The budget is loaded into PeopleSoft by July 1, after which departments may begin entering mid-year budget revision.  PeopleSoft data is then fed back into Adaptive on daily and monthly basis for departmental analysis and reporting, as departments engage in budget maintenance.