Academic Units: Primarily the schools and colleges, entities whose primary mission is teaching or teaching and research.  

Activity-Based Resource Allocation Model: A budget model that awards financial resources to units in correlation with the activities they undertake (e.g., SCH instructed, transactions processed) in a defined period. This type of model seeks to create more transparency in resource allocation by directly tying resource allocations to activity. Georgia Tech will be moving to a Hybrid Allocation Model at the end of the parallel process period, meaning that unit budget allocations will be partially informed by activity drivers and partially informed through qualitative needs assessment.   

Administrative Units: Units that provide support and operational services for all other units within the university (i.e., human resources, facilities, Office of the President, Office of the Provost, etc.). 

Allocation: A method of distributing budgeted costs and revenues to applicable units. 

Budget Authority: Annual resource allocation to each management unit. 

Big 4: The split of divisions under the President, Provost, Executive Vice President for Administration and Finance, and the Executive Vice President for Research 

Carry Forward: Budget authority or residual fund balances that roll to new fiscal year. The USG sets limits on the funds balance that the Institute can carry forward into the next fiscal year.  

Central Administration: Operational and administrative services provided by the University to all academic, administrative, and auxiliary units that allow for the overall functioning of the Institute toward the achievement of its mission and goals. 

Debt Service: The cash that is required to cover the repayment of interest and principal on a debt for a particular period. 

Direct Revenues: Revenues generated from activities of the academic units outside of tuition and state appropriations, such as contracts or partnerships. 

Expense: Transaction representing outflow of funds to employees, suppliers, and other parties to support university activities. 

Facilities and Administration Costs (F&A): These are costs that are incurred for common or joint objectives and therefore cannot be identified readily and specifically with a sponsored project, an instructional activity, or any other institutional activity. 

Hold Harmless: Policy of guaranteeing that unit budgets will be made whole during a new budget model implementation. Hold harmless policies minimize risk to units as leadership reviews and refines a model and gives unit leaders time to learn how a model works before fully living with it. 

Incentive: A monetary benefit offered to encourage desired activities  or reward performance and outcomes . 

Incremental Model: Georgia Tech’s current budget model. A budget model in which budget proposals and allocations are based upon the funding levels of the previous year, with incremental adjustments to reflect new needs or changes in the Institute’s funding environment. 

Indirect Cost Recovery (ICR): These are F&A (facilities and admin) costs that are incurred for research activities. Georgia Tech allocates 30% of the Resident Instruction F&A (facilities and admin) indirect cost recoveries generated by academic units back to those units, including all colleges.  

Net-New Revenue Allocation Model: This model will be used during the parallel process period (FY23-FY25) to distribute net new state appropriations and tuition revenues across the Institute. It is intended to allow colleges and non-colleges to share in the revenue growth that the Institute is projecting across the next few years.   

OneBudget: Georgia Tech’s current proprietary budget development and amendment tool.  

Parallel Process: A period during which a current state (status quo) budget model is used to make resource allocations while a new budget model is run in parallel. During this period, leadership reviews the new model and can refine and tweak the model to adjust for unintended consequences or outcomes. 

Reserves: Accumulated resources from prior financial transactions which provide flexibility for the central institute and units to cover unanticipated expenses and enable leaders to invest in and grow the institution. 

Resource Allocation: The amount of funding allocated to the units through the budget authorization process.  

Restricted Funds: Funding that is limited to a specific use e.g. sponsored funds.  

Revenue: Inflow of funds from ongoing operations (ex: Tuition and Fees). 

Sponsored Operations: Programs and projects financed by federal and non-federal agencies and organizations which involve performance of agreed upon work and deliverables, often research related. 

State Appropriations: Funding provided by the state to colleges and universities. These funds can be unrestricted (used for any purpose) or restricted (limited to a specific use). 

Strategic Funds: Funding available to the president and ELT to be invested in strategic priorities.  

Subvention: A budgetary tool that allows for the rebalancing of revenues to guide the direction of the Institute in accordance with the strategic priorities. 

Unrestricted Funds: Resources that are not limited to a specific use e.g. foundation funds.  

Workday Adaptive: A cloud ERP tool included in the Workday Financials suite that supports budgeting, forecasting, and reporting.  

Other Resources