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Financial Responsibilities of Budget Managers

A budget manager, as defined by Loyola University New Orleans, is anyone named as the responsible individual for an active account. Budget managers may have budget responsibility for more than one active account. The following sections outline some of the responsibilities and financial duties of a budget manager named on a department, agency, center, grant, or any other unit account that has a budget.

Budget Process & Oversight

A budget manager is accountable for the financial integrity of his or her academic department or administrative office. Financial integrity is maintained by careful attention and adherence to the unit’s budgets within the university’s financial reporting system. Budget managers are responsible for ensuring that the expenses of the accounts managed do not exceed the unit’s allocated budget.

Budget managers are responsible for requesting budget changes, submitting transfers, approving transactions, and requesting payments. All transactions must be processed in compliance with the university’s policies and procedures. Budget managers should review their accounts on a regular basis to ensure proper recording of account expenses.

Approval Authority

Budget Managers who delegate their approval authority must ensure the designee understands the approval requirements and uses sound judgment to protect Loyola University’s resources. While a budget manager may delegate tasks and duties to a designee, the budget manager retains ultimate accountability for how a budget is managed. In the event of the budget manager’s absence, any designee must have written authorization from the budget manager. The authorization should be attached to all requests.

An approval signature on a document means the budget manager has reviewed and is accountable for the expense.

For certain types of expenditures, a budget manager may not approve his own or her own transactions. These expenditures include, but are not limited to, university credit card payments, if the card is in the budget manager’s name, cell phone payments for the budget manager, and the budget manager’s expense reimbursements. Signatory approval must also comply with the University’s contract administration policy.