NCSU Lapsed Salaries / Benefits Report
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Frequently Asked Questions

Lapsed salaries are defined by General Administration as those funds (state appropriated only) made available for reallocation through the circumstances of unused salaries. Specific object codes to be included are: 1110, EPA Regular (Non Teaching) Salaries; 1210, SPA Regular Salaries; 1310, EPA Academic Salaries; 1970, Academic Instruction / Research Services; and associated benefits in 18xx. A vacant position that has an employee working against it (i.e. temporary employee, graduate assistant, etc.) may not be generating lapsed salaries if the funds were expended for the same purpose and from the same personnel  budget line item. (Note that such a position would, however, generate lapsed salaries funds to the extent the original budget was unexpended and reallocated to another budget line.)  Lapsed salaries and associated benefits represent one time savings and should be reallocated for nonrecurring expenditures.

Note: Account ranges include 2-01000 to 2-49999 and Ag accounts 4-00000 to 4-99999.

The NCSU Lapsed Salaries/Benefits Report is required by the Chancellor and was implemented in FY2000-2001.

Each Executive Officer (defined as the attendees of EOM) will assure the Chancellor in writing that lapsed salaries have been used to fulfill Compact Plan objectives, emergencies, and functions normally covered by the positions that are vacant, and in a manner consistent with the UNC-GA Flexibility Operating Guidelines. Each college/unit should submit the NCSU Lapsed Salaries/Benefits Report via email by the due dates specified in item # 5 below. (For departments under the Provost, do not submit department-level reports.  Instead, submit one aggregate report for your areas.)

The Lapsed Salaries (& Benefits) Plan vs. Actual Allocation of Funds report (LS001,Excel document) and instructions have been added to the NCSU Budget Office's web page under Forms/Reporting Formats.

Quarters #1 & #2 Reports (Period covered: July 1, 2005 - December 31, 2005)

Academic Affairs

Deans/Vice Provosts to Provost: due by 5:00 pm, Friday, January 6, 2006.

Provost to Chancellor: due by 5:00 pm, Friday, January 13, 2006.

Vice Chancellors and Budget Codes 16031, 16032

The letter of confirmation to the Chancellor is due Friday, January 13, 2006. Internal organizational deadlines for each Vice Chancellor may vary. Contact your reporting Vice Chancellor for their due dates.

Quarters #1, 2, & 3 Report (Period covered: July 1, 2005 - March 31, 2006) and Quarter #4 Report (Period covered:  April 1, 2006 - June 30, 2006)***

Academic Affairs

Deans/Vice Provosts to Provost: due by 5:00 pm, Friday, April 7, 2006

Provost to Chancellor: due by 5:00pm, Friday, April 14, 2006

Vice Chancellors and Budget Codes 16031, 16032

The letter of confirmation to the Chancellor is due Friday, April 14, 2006. Internal organizational deadlines for each Vice Chancellor may vary. Contact your reporting Vice Chancellor for their due dates.

*** Qtr #4 is an estimate for the period 4/1/06 - 6/30/06 and is due with the submittal of the Qtr #3 report.

Academic Affairs

The NCSU Lapsed Salaries (& Benefits) Plan vs. Actual Allocation of Funds report should be sent via email to Vicki Pennington (vicki_pennington@ncsu.edu) in the Office of the Provost.  (Note: For CALS only, 16031 and 16032 should each be a separate report from 16030.  16031 and 16032 are submitted directly to the Chancellor, whereas 16030 is submitted through the Provost.)

Vice Chancellors (16030) and Budget Codes (16031 and 16032)

Copies of all Lapsed Salaries (& benefits) Plan vs. Actual Allocation of funds reports, approved by individual Vice Chancellors, are to be sent to the Budget Office via email to lisa_clough@ncsu.edu. The letter of confirmation is sent to the Chancellor that the funds are being expended appropriately to meet our core mission and Compact Plan objectives.

For the initial yearly lapsed estimate displayed in the first column, take the percent of lapsed salaries realized in the last two years and use that percentage against your future budget found in BMS. Since the future year may not have legislative approval yet, the future year BMS will have the most accurate base budget figures to work with. Use the percentage from prior years against the future year base to arrive at a lapsed salaries estimate for the upcoming year. You may want to adjust this estimate for known vacancies, retirements or other factors. For the associated benefits, calculate a total benefits to total salaries percent from the most current BMS information. Multiply that percent against your lapsed salaries estimate to arrive at the lapsed benefits estimate. Enter the estimates on the top part of the report in the first column. The total anticipated lapsed salaries/benefits reported here matches the information included on the "Plan for Allocation of Estimated Lapsed Salary and Benefits Funds" requested in mid July.

To calculate the lapsed amount for each reporting cycle, you may run a current BMS report. Take the budget and divide it by 12 to arrive at a monthly average. Take the actual expenditures in the reported account codes and divide by the number of months to date. This will give you an average monthly expense. Multiply each monthly average by the number of months to date. The difference between budget to expenditures will give you a lapsed salaries/benefits amount for year to date.

Neither of these calculations are definitive methods, but merely reasonable approaches. You may choose to apply a different methodology that provides information in a more meaningful way for comparison. It is important to emphasize the intent of the report - to assure the Chancellor that lapsed salaries and associated benefits are being utilized appropriately as stated in question 3.

The top half of the report should display the lapsed salaries and benefits generated to date. You may consider these "sources". The bottom half of the form is used to report those expenses "uses" to date supported by the lapsed salaries and benefits. If you plan to purchase equipment in future quarters - do not display the expense until it has been incurred even though you may realize the lapsed salaries/benefits in earlier quarters.

The NCSU Lapsed Salaries/Benefits Report has been adjusted based on recommendations from its initial year. One adjustment was made to report on a year-to-date basis instead of maintaining individual quarter activity. To accommodate this change, there are now two middle columns on the report: one for year-to-date activity and the other for an estimate of the final quarter.

Another recommendation we've implemented is to provide the final quarter as part of the third quarter report. The requirement for the final report will contain two pieces: a year-to-date report for July 1 through March 31, and an estimate of the final quarter, April 1 through June 30. These two columns will be summarized in the final column "Lapsed Total".

The most recent adjustment has been the elimination of the first quarter report (10/15).  The first reporting cycle is in January and reflects activity for the first six months.

The lapsed salaries/benefit estimate and the expenditure initiative estimate should agree with the annual lapsed salary plan, reported in July, and therefore should not be changed. The report has been changed to reflect current year to date activities and supersedes the data reported in a prior quarters.

Use the lower section (section G) of the report to create initiatives not originally anticipated.

It is preferred that a budget revision is processed before an expense is incurred. However, if you are purchasing a large expense (several computers, for example) at the beginning of the fiscal year supported by an anticipated vacancy in the second semester, then the expense would precede the budget revision moving the lapsed salaries.

Contact Barbara Moses (barbara_moses@ncsu.edu or 513-1263) in the Budget Office.