Preparing Plant Budget Journals
Plant Journal Guidelines
Current funds must be available (not spent and not encumbered) at the department level in order to be transferred to Plant. Plant funds must be available (net credit balance in fund balance, revenue and expenditure accounts) in order to be appropriated to a project.
After editing and saving your journal, send an email to the Campus Budget Office to Cecilia Chang (cecilita@berkeley.edu) to request the review and approval of your budget journal. Be sure to include the Journal ID number, and your name and phone number, in your email.
Please note that certain funds cannot be transferred from the Current Fund to the Plant Fund (e.g. State General funds, Off-the-Top funds, many endowment, gift and grant funds). It is your responsibility to ensure that any gift, grant or endowment funds shown on your budget journal are suitable for transfer to the project. In the case of State or Off-the-Top funds, they should not be used unless you have no other resources. In that case, the Campus Budget Office may or may not be able to exchange them for other funds. If there is a problem, you will be contacted. In general, no more than $100,000 will be exchanged.
Plant Chart of Account Information
For the project number, contact the unit that is managing the project, for example, Capital Projects
For the Plant fund number, contact Janice Li in Plant Accounting (janiceli@berkeley.edu).
Examples
These are examples of three common types of budget journal transactions involving Plant funds.
Type 1: Transfer Money from a Current Fund to Plant, and Appropriate to Plant Project
| BU | Acct | Fund | Dept ID | Prog | Subprg | ChartField1 | ChartField2 | TR CD | Descr | Amt | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current Expenditure Acct | 1 | 5XXXX | Curr Fund | Yours | Yours | Yours | Yours | Yours | 13** | To ChartField1 name and/or number | 100 |
| Current Fund Balance Acct | 1 | 39000 | Curr Fund | 00800 | (blank) | (blank) | (blank) | (blank) | 13 | Fr your Dept ID (account opt) | -100 |
| Plant Fund Balance Acct | 1 | 39000 | Plant Fund | 00800 | (blank) | (blank) | (blank) | (blank) | 13 | To ChartField1 number and name | 100 |
| Plant Construction in Progress Acct | 1 | 19790 | Plant Fund | 15240* | (blank) | (blank) | 1XXXXX | (blank) | 13 | Fr your unit name and/or Dept ID | -100 |
Be sure to include a complete and clear description of the transaction in the Description field of the journal header.
Type 2: Appropriate Money Already in a Plant Fund to a Plant Project
| BU | Acct | Fund | Dept ID | Prog | Subprg | ChartField1 | ChartField2 | TR CD | Descr | Amt | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plant Fund Balance Acct | 1 | 39000 | Plant Fund | 00800 | (blank) | (blank) | (blank) | (blank) | 10 | To ChartField1 number and name | 100 |
| Plant Construction in Progress Acct | 1 | 19790 | Plant Fund | 15240* | (blank) | (blank) | 1XXXXX | (blank) | 10 | Fr Fund balance | -100 |
Be sure to include a complete and clear description of the transaction in the Description field of the journal header.
This type of budget journal is frequently used for projects funded from a capital campaign, or other instances where the funds are already in the Plant fund.
Type 3: Transfer Money from Your Current Fund to Plant, But Do Not Appropriate to Plant Project
| BU | Acct | Fund | Dept ID | Prog | Subprg | ChartField1 | ChartField2 | TR CD | Descr | Amt | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current Expenditure Acct | 1 | 5XXXX | Curr Fund | Yours | Yours | Yours | Yours | Yours | 13** | To ChartField1 name and/or number | 100 |
| Current Fund Balance Acct | 1 | 39000 | Curr Fund | 00800 | (blank) | (blank) | (blank) | (blank) | 13 | Fr your Dept ID (account opt) | -100 |
Be sure to include a complete and clear description of the transaction in the Description field of the journal header, including explaining why no appropriation to a plant project is necessary. Possible explanations include:
- "These funds will be appropriated to Project name X, project number Y, at a later time. FJ to move funds to Plant fund XYZ required."
- "These funds repay a loan from the Chancellor to Project name X, project number Y. FJ to move funds to Plant fund XYZ required."
- "These funds are to pay for debt service for Project name X, project number Y. FJ required."
* This is the Dept ID for Capital Projects. If this project is being managed by a different campus unit, you would use that unit's Dept ID.
** Dean's or Control Unit offices may choose to use TR CD 11 with the Current expenditure account line.