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Administrative Manual - 401 General

401.05 Funds Control

  1. PURPOSE

    A funds control system is necessary to preclude violations of the Anti-Deficiency Act. There are three critical elements of funds control. Each element must be in place before work can begin and costs and commitments are incurred.

    • The first element is the contract between JSA, LLC & DOE. Funding is made available through the contract on a monthly basis. There are financial clauses in the contract that govern the contractor's financial responsibilities. These clauses limit the contractor's expenditures to the amount of funding placed on the contract and require the contractor to notify DOE when expenditures have exceeded specified funding thresholds.
    • The second element is the monthly financial plan (finplan) issued electronically to the contractor using the Oak Ridge Operations (ORO) BEARS system. This is the official document from DOE that provides the contractor with the funding levels to which expenditures and commitments must be controlled. An interim finplan can be requested by the lab if the funding has been received by ORO and is needed prior to the monthly finplan being issued.
    • The third element is the authorization and program guidance to perform work using the funds provided on the contract. The Authorization and Program Guidance letters are originated at DOE HQ by the program office (i.e. NP, BER, BES, etc) and forwarded to DOE Oak Ridge Operations for incorporation into our fin plan. Jefferson Lab is sent an electronic version of the Authorization and Program Guidance letters by email from the DOE Site Office
  2. POLICY

    Expenditures or commitments are not to be authorized or incurred prior to funds availability or in excess of available funds provided in the financial plan. Funds are to be expended solely for the purposes for which they were appropriated.

  3. BUDGET EXECUTION PROCEDURE
    1. 1) Third week of each month the ORO website is updated with the current month's DOE Financial Plan details which include any new funding the lab will be receiving.

      To obtain current DOE Financial Plan ORO Operations website: https://bgt.oro.doe.gov/home.htm

      Print the financial plan from web and verify against the Work Authorization notices received during the month from the Office of Science. If there are discrepancies, notify the DOE Site Office or ORO Budget Office. If there are no discrepancies, wait for receipt of signed Contract Mod from the Site Office (usually signed on the last working day of each month) and then verify the Contract Mod with the official DOE Financial Plan for that month. Work any needed corrections to the Contract Mod with the DOE Site Office.
    2. The Budget Officer allocates new funds to divisions by B&R code and also allocates indirect funds.
    3. The Budget Analyst for each division:
      • notifies cost account manager
      • sets up new project(s) as needed
      • uploads budget for project into web reports
    4. Direct and indirect project spending is monitored on a daily basis by the Budget Office using web based spending summaries (by B&R within each division). Cost Account Managers have access to web reports and are also responsible for monitoring their projects. (note: the web reports contain a pending column that alerts the Cost Account Manager and Budget Office of requisitions that are in procurement but are not yet commitments). In addition the Budget Office maintains a spending plan that reflects the divisional plans for labor, procurements, etc. at the funding level.
    5. Potential overruns are identified by the Budget Office. The Cost Account Manager is notified for corrective action and is followed up by the Budget Office.
  4. BUDGET FORMULATION PROCEDURE

    Internal Lab Budgets for Upcoming Year - one year out

    Jefferson Lab CFO closely monitors data on the President's Budget request, along with House and Senate markups of that budget. Based on data from these three sources, which is usually available in June, the CFO and Director pick two target scenarios to begin working Nuclear Physics and Indirect budgets for the following fiscal year. The scenarios are typically a best guess at what we expect the budget to be, along with a more conservative version at a reduced dollar figure. The purpose of the budget exercise is to determine budgets by Lab Division that enable each division to carry out the deliverables expected by Nuclear Physics based on the projected budget scenarios including indirect budgets. While top-down scenarios are being developed by the CFO and Director, division leaders work with their staff and budget analysts to determine budget requirements (i.e., staffing and procurements required to meet deliverables).

    Taking each target budget, large dollar items which cannot be reduced are taken off the top before deciding what is available to distribute to the divisions. Examples of items taken off the top are utilities, JSA Performance Fee, 12 GeV R&D efforts, safety initiatives, cyber security mandates, etc. The remaining balance is then distributed to the divisions based on their prior year budget and this amount becomes their target budget. Divisions then review their targets in the context of requirements and determine impacts (i.e., what they can and cannot accomplish within the budget) and bring any issues or concerns with their budget level to the Director’s Council for discussion. Once all issues are resolved, these adjusted direct and indirect budget targets become the budgets for the divisions at the start of the fiscal year. Should actual budgets come in higher than anticipated, Director's Council decides where the additional funds are best allocated.

    After budgets are allocated to divisions, division leaders allocate budgets to departments based on the aforementioned requirements, with adjustments for shortfalls or additional funds for added scope.

    External Lab Budgets for DOE Budget Call - 2-7 years out

    Each February, DOE NP issues a budget call to Jefferson Lab with guidance and forms to be submitted as part of a budget presentation to be given to DOE NP in late February. Typically the Lab is asked to look at several different budget scenarios for the fiscal year two years away and develop projections for each scenario. Projections include how budgets will be spent, the FTEs they can support, projected Physics and machine output and impacts of each scenario. The Lab Director's Council discusses the different scenarios and what Physics and machine output can be accomplished in each scenario. The CFO staff then fills in the data in the required spreadsheet formats and works with members of Director's Council to write up impacts.


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