Frequently Asked Questions

Revenue units have a greater ability to influence revenue generated for the campus through direct revenue-producing activities, such as delivering instruction, conducting research or providing services (e.g., room and board). In aggregate, revenue units are responsible for generating enough revenue to cover the costs of the central support units. Revenue units are further sub-categorized as either an academic or auxiliary unit.

 Academic Revenue Units include:

• Alvarez College of Business
• College of Education and Human Development
• Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
• College of Liberal and Fine Arts
• College for Health, Community, and Policy
• College of Sciences
• University College

Auxiliary Revenue Units include:

• Athletics
• Campus Recreation
• Bookstore
• Campus Services-Business
• UTSACard
• Food Services
• Housing Services
• Parking
• Transportation
• Student Health Services
• Student Union (previously University Center)
• Vending

Support units tend to have little to no influence over revenue that is generated for the campus. Support units, such as Business Affairs, Facilities and Human Resources, include central functions that support all campus units. In aggregate, revenue units are responsible for generating enough revenue to cover the costs of the support units.

Support units are further sub-categorized as either an academic support or administrative support unit. Among other characteristics, support units tend to share the following features:

• Limited-to-no ability to influence revenue
• Provide services and/or support to colleges, schools, centers and institutes, and auxiliaries
• Accountable for optimal service levels and fiscal performance
• Encouraged to justify funding levels through benchmarking

Academic Support Units:

• Academic Affairs – Global Initiatives
• Academic Affairs – Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies
• Academic Affairs – Honors College
• Academic Affairs – All other (inc SVP office)
• Academic Affairs – Library
• Academic Affairs – Academic Success
• Academic Affairs – Academic Innovation
• Academic Affairs – Strategic Enrollment
• Academic Affairs – Student Success
• Academic Affairs – Student Affairs
• Research
• School of Data Science
• School of Public Health

Administrative Support Units:

• Advancement and Alumni Engagement
• Business Affairs
• Financial Affairs
• Institutional Strategic Planning & Compliance Risk Management
• President’s Division
• Public Safety
• Real Estate and Property Management
• University Relations
• University Technology Solutions (UTS)

Centers and institutes are situated within the academic or support units with which they are affiliated.

A strategic investment allocation are monies for those units not able to cover direct costs. The largest revenue sources used to fulfil strategic investment allocations include undergraduate tuition, graduate tuition and general state appropriations. Grants, contracts, direct (restricted) state appropriations, fees and gifts do not contribute to the strategic investment allocations.

Carryforward funds, defined as unexpended balances at the end of the fiscal year, are not reflected in IRM since they are only available for one-time-use. Lapse and carryforward rules are applied by fund type and can vary based on the type of revenue source. Refer to the Guidelines for Carry Forward Process document for the most up-to-date rules approved by university leadership. 

Support unit expenses are a complex union of fixed and discretionary costs. Budgetary requests align with service level demands and performance. Support units are evaluated through the Operational Review process to help units identify opportunities to improve outcomes and examine efficiencies.

The Budget Model Overview provides information on the model concepts, structure, and flow of funds. After reviewing the document, if you have additional questions reach out to the IRM Team at IRM@utsa.edu to request a meeting with specific questions in mind.

This amount is an IRM estimate. Never plan or base any other transfers or distributions on the IRM estimate. Instead, use the information you receive from the VPR office during the year when they do the actual distribution. Please review the Expense-Revenue workbook provided in the IRM budgeted results. The section below the totals [increases/decreases] that balance back to Total Revenue/Total Direct Expense are only estimates within the IRM model.

As outlined in the announcement sent on August 2nd from the Office of the President, a significant investment in our faculty and staff is being budgeted for FY2022.  This investment includes a comprehensive strategic plan to increase compensation that might be in the form of merit increases, minimum pay rates or pay scales increases and market retention adjustments.  The overall plan is estimated at more than $14M in additional compensation for salary and benefits across all funds with $10.2M attributed to positions funded from E&G. 

At the time the budgets were set for FY2022 and detailed in the IRMY22 Budget Planning Model, the actual increases for each of your employees was not finalized since it will be dependent on studies being conducted related to pay scales, retention as well as the completion of the performance appraisal process for the period of 9/1/2020 thru 8/31/2021 for merit.  As your senior leadership is aware, these discussions are still taking place at the leadership level and are being planned out for implementation over the fiscal year.  Thus, in order to create an “estimate” by unit for purposes of including the E&G funding portion of this budget in a distributed fashion in the IRMY22 Budget Planning Model, an allocation methodology was used.  The estimate is labeled as “institutional wide compensation strategy”.  This is an estimate only.  This is not final for your unit.  The final amount will be determined and added to your E&G budget as personnel are identified in your areas for the increases as applicable under the comprehensive compensation plan.  The estimate should be considered a placeholder only knowing that the actual budget adjustments will be provided to your unit in the future with permanent budgets adjustments recorded in PeopleSoft.  For the same reasons, this amount should not be considered transferable or useable for unit discretionary purposes outside of institutional compensation strategies at this time.

Please review the Expense-Revenue workbook that was sent with this year’s model estimate materials. The column containing the data is AH titled “Salaries-Wages.” Some units utilize this line item to capture overtime.

IRM is a cost allocation model that takes the various activities to assess the dollars as utilized/earned throughout campus by units. Each year a recap workbook in Excel will be delivered to each unit outlining the expenses and revenue that tie back to the IRM P&L. The top portion of each sheet will outline the Hyperion data. The bottom portion will outline those activities outside of budgeting that is calculated by IRM for the costing/revenue allocation amounts.

The process entails that the budget be submitted to UT System and accepted.  That acceptance occurs around June or July.  After UT System acceptance, the IRM process begins to push out finalized statements in late August or early September. Delivery timeframe is dependent on iterations and acceptance by university senior level management.

There is a 3-step process:  1) An estimate in the Hyperion annual budget; 2) Finalized in IRM P&L; 3) PeopleSoft entries to coincide with IRM data.

Budgeting initially provides an estimate, and once the IRM model is completed, the amount is replaced with the amount in the IRM model.

College revenue sources are Tuition, State Appropriation-Instr/Research, Sales & Services, and Other Revenue. Auxiliary Unit revenue sources are Sales & Services and Other Revenue. For FY22, the total of revenue sources is assessed with 24.5% for Administrative Support and 13.8% Academic Support. These rates are reviewed and adjusted annually.

The revenue assessed is Sales & Service and Other Operating Revenue on the IRM P&L lines. For FY22, the total of revenue sources is assessed at 24.5%. This rate is reviewed and adjusted annually.

Revenues are received in a single cost center however may be distributed to multiple cost centers based on where related expenses will occur. This distribution is a revenue transfer.

A forecasted estimate by the research division based on projected grant activity and shared credit allocations.

The sources of revenue line items that are assessed to CSIF are Total Tuition and Fees, State Appropriations-Instruction, State Appropriations-Research, Sales & Service, and Other Operating Revenue.

CSIF provides temporary, one-year funding, for projects that advance the university’s strategic plan.