Frequently Asked Questions

Responsibility Center Management (RCM) is a budgeting model under which revenue-generating units are wholly responsible for managing their own revenues and expenditures. For more information about RCM at Drexel, please visit the Office of the Provost's website.

Unrestricted Cost Center – Budgets for unrestricted cost centers are determined each year through the annual budget process. Unrestricted budgets are annual budgets, from July 1 to June 30. If any unused funds remain in the cost center at the end of the fiscal year, they do not roll over to the next year. Unrestricted cost centers generally have a fund number of 110001 and are assigned a unique individual org (department) number.

Designated Cost Center – These cost centers have been designated by the University Trustees to be expended for a specific purpose. Each separate activity is assigned a unique individual fund number and each fund has its own fund balance. The budget will be increased as new revenue is received.

If your cost center is in deficit prior to May 31, please transfer funds from another cost center under your control to the cost center in deficit by sending a funding transfer form to the Budget Office. After May 31 the Budget Office will work with you, if time allows, to determine which cost center to use to cover the deficit. If time does not allow, the Budget Office will analyze your accounts and fund your deficits from your discretionary accounts for you.

Salary savings can be moved to the general operating account and vice versa. Requests for salary savings transfers should be sent to Human Resources for processing.

A permanent budget transfer is a transfer that you want to be carried over to the next fiscal year (BD02), while a temporary budget transfer is a transfer that you want to take effect only in the current fiscal year (BD04).

Transfer of budget from one cost center to another can be accomplished by filling out a funding transfer request form and having it signed by duly authorized cost center administrator and/or department head. Please note that funding transfer forms should be forwarded to the department who is responsible for processing the transfer.

A new cost center request form is first sent to the Budget Office. Our office makes sure that the form is completely filled out, with funding source indicated (if known) and signed by duly authorized signatories. The completed form is then forwarded to the Comptroller’s Office to set up a new cost center number. Once set up, the form goes back to the Budget Office to create the budget. The Budget Office prepares the capital project funding transfer form and sends it back to the Comptroller’s Office to enter the budget into the system. All capital projects to be funded from University Cash require an approval from the SR. VP for Finance and Treasurer before funding could be processed.

Yes, transfers from a designated or restricted cost center to an unrestricted cost center during the year can be submitted via the Journal Workflow for the Comptroller's Office to process.