Fund transfers should be used to move funding from one activity to another (following proper fund accounting principles to avoid mixing fund types or fund purposes inappropriately). These transfers should generally be used when the expenditure is “owned” by someone other than the unit providing the funds.
- Anytime money is moved between funds, it is critical to be aware of the restrictions on the respective funds. Refer to Topic Overview: Fund Types and Policy: Proper Use of Funds for more information.
- Stanford has created specific guidelines around the allowable versus unallowable ways that money can be transferred between funds in order to accommodate these levels of restriction.
- Fund transfers can be initiated internally or can be performed by Fund Accounting. Refer to Contacts for Non-Sponsored Funding by School/Department for more information.
- Many schools and departments centralize the management of transfers.
Expenditure transfers should be used only to move specific, already posted expenditures from one project-task-award (PTA) to another PTA where they would more accurately be recorded for accounting purposes---i.e., “whose activity does this expenditure support?” Refer to System-iJournals for more information.
Fund transfers should be used when expenditures will be recorded on a different award than the funding source award (i.e., the charges will be on one award but the money comes from a different award). The reason for doing this is typically for clarity of accounting or assigning responsibility for transaction processing to the relevant group, e.g.:
- Funding provided to be spent at the discretion of another group.
- When the responsibility for transaction processing will be borne by a different group.
- To create clear reporting of an activity without spreading the expenditures across multiple funding awards.
Transfers are only allowed between specific fund types and they may incur infrastructure charges (ISC) depending on the combination of from and to awards. The full amount of the transfer request is moved and the ISC is charged as an additional amount on the from award. Refer to the table below for general application of these relationships. Refer to About Burdening for more specific information about application of ISC.
| To: Operating Budget | To: Designated | To: Endowment | To: Expendable Gift | To: Univ Research Cost Sharing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From: Operating Budget | Allowed No ISC |
Allowed No ISC |
Not Allowed | Not Allowed | Allowed No ISC |
| From: Designated | Allowed No ISC |
Allowed No ISC |
Not Allowed | Not Allowed | Allowed No ISC |
| From: Endowment | Allowed ISC Charged |
Not Allowed No ISC* |
Not Allowed | Allowed No ISC |
Allowed ISC Charged |
| From: Expendable Gift | Allowed ISC Charged |
Not Allowed | Not Allowed | Allowed No ISC |
Allowed ISC Charged |
*Designated revenue can be used to purchase Fund Functioning as Endowment (FFE)
Methods of requesting a fund transfer include:
