ABOUT THE LIRT BUDGET
- ALA fiscal year is September 1 - August 31. At
the end of the fiscal year any money left in the LIRT budget is transferred
into the net asset balance. Funds do not carry over in individual
committee and office budgets; all committee budgets begin anew at
the beginning of each fiscal year. If LIRT wishes to track how much
money has been saved over time (for example, track the savings of
a budget line to save money for an award or event), LIRT needs to
maintain separate internal documents to track the amount accumulated
over time.
- In mid-September, ALA cuts off charging expenses to the fiscal
year just ended the preceding month. Actual cut-off date varies from
year to year. Do not count on the cut-off ever extending as far as
September 30.
- Prepare proposed budget in November. It is approved at the Midwinter
meeting and takes effect the September following that Midwinter meeting.
- In ALA's budget structure, everything is broken down into Projects.
Each Project uses one or more expense Accounts. Funds are budgeted
and spent at the Account level. On ALA's monthly budget reports, Projects
appear as Activity Numbers (e.g., Project 6550 is “Officers
& Committees”) and Accounts as Expense Numbers (e.g. under
Project 6550 “Officers & Committees,” Account #5301
is Conference Equipment Rent).
- ALA budgeting policy allows a Project to be assigned only if the
total budget for that Project (sum of all Expense Numbers used for
the Project) is $5,000 or more. Because of that, LIRT has Projects
only for 1) Administrative; 2) Officers & Committees; 3) Publications;
4) Endowment (Principle and Spending); and 5) any large special expense
LIRT may have (e.g., LIRT Retreat, or LIRT 25th Anniversary). Because
of this policy, we cannot separately track each committee's budget
and expenses.
- ALA's monthly budget reports for LIRT show all Expense Numbers
currently in use by LIRT. The Unit 612 Budget Worksheet, which is
used to submit LIRT”s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal
year, shows all Expense Numbers available to be used.
- LIRT can add descriptions under the “Explanation” column
to the budget worksheets to help us keep track of how various budget
lines are spent.
- The LIRT budget needs to be submitted to the LIRT ALA Liaison in
the project format. The LIRT ALA Liaison will send the Treasurer spreadsheets
to use to submit our proposed budget. The spreadsheets will be populated
with the budget figures from the previous fiscal year. The Treasurer
should update the proposed budget and submit it to the LIRT ALA Liaison
using the budget worksheet provided by the LIRT ALA Liaison.
- Overhead charged LIRT by ALA is 10% of LIRT's income each year.
- LIRT pays no LOEX membership fees. We have a reciprocal agreement
with LOEX and pay no institutional fees because of that agreement.
- Deposit any money or checks through LIRT ALA Liaison at ALA Headquarters.
- All requests for reimbursement go directly to the LIRT ALA Liaison.
The person requesting reimbursement should complete the Reimbursement
Form. The Reimbursement Form and original copies of the receipt(s)
should be sent to the LIRT ALA Liaison. A copy of the form and the
receipts should be send to the LIRT Treasurer for her records.
- Be prepared to report on LIRT finances at both Midwinter and Annual
meetings.
Return to
LIRT Manual Table of Contents
|
