Financial Regulations

All monies received by the University must be recorded within the University’s main financial system either through direct input or through an appropriate interface from another University approved system platform. All income received will be accounted for in the relevant budgetary cost centre to facilitate budgetary control at the School and Administrative Service level.

Income should primarily be received via bank payment or card payment but may also be received via cheque.  Cheques intended for any fund within the University must be made payable to the University of Glasgow or associated legal entity.  Cash should only be received in limited circumstances, such as for catering or library fees, and should be in accordance with the University’s Cash Handling Policy. 

All sums received must be paid in and accounted for in full and should not be used to meet miscellaneous expenses or used as a petty cash float.

Awareness of the sanctioned countries is imperative in relation to both income and expenditure.  Refer to section 2.12 Sanctions for further information.

The level of tuition fees charged to students is reviewed on an annual basis and approved by Finance Committee on behalf of the University Court. Details of the level of tuition fees and associated policy are available on the Registry website.

Tuition fee income is received from a variety of sources, both in the UK and overseas. All tuition fee income must be accounted for through the relevant University approved IT software package. 

The College Heads of Finance are responsible for ensuring that tuition fee income is accounted for in the relevant budgetary cost centre within the University financial system to facilitate budgetary control at the School and Administrative Service level.

General Funding

Each year, the SFC publishes a ‘main grant letter’ detailing the income that it will pay to the University in the next financial year.  The main recurrent grants must then be allocated to School or Administrative Service. Any changes to the method of allocation are agreed by the SMG, and the Head of Management Accounts is responsible for implementation.  The allocation process is embedded within the annual budgeting process (see Section 3.02 Budgetary Process). Income subsequently received is allocated by the Head of Management Accounts to Schools or Administrative Service based on the agreed allocation method.

The SFC may also make available additional funding to support the teaching and research infrastructure within the University. This funding will be allocated to capital projects that have been approved by University Court (via Finance Committee or Estates Committee as determined by the University capital approval process). The Executive Director of Estates and Buildings will manage this process with approval from the Executive Director of Finance and Vice Principal for Strategy and Resources and will be required to report periodically to the SFC.

Earmarked Grants

From time to time, the University is awarded grants and funding for a specific purpose or programme. Proposals for earmarked grants must be approved, set up, delivered and closed in line with the same principles outlined in 4.04 Research Grants and Contracts.

Any unspent income on an ear-marked grant will be carried over between financial years as long as this does not conflict with any conditions associated with the grant.

As a research led University, staff are encouraged to seek and obtain grants and other awards from the various research granting bodies. Research is as defined in the Frascati Manual 2002, Proposed Standard Practice for Surveys and Experimental Development.

Where approaches are to be made to outside bodies for research projects or where contracts are to be undertaken on behalf of such bodies, it is the responsibility of the relevant SMG member to ensure that proposals and subsequent awards are risk assessed and financially managed in accordance with the policies and procedures issued by the Research Support Office.  Documentation for both applications and awards are held in the University’s document management system for research.  Contracts and collaboration agreements must also be referred to the University’s Legal Team for review in accordance with the policies and procedures issued by the Research Support Office.  The receipt of research grants and contracts must also comply with relevant policies issued by the Finance Office, including Sanctions.

Collaboration Projects

The Principal Investigator should ensure that collaboration agreements are in place prior to the start date of the project, save where this is not reasonably possible, in which case collaboration agreements should be finalised and executed as soon as reasonably practicable thereafter and in line with the funder’s terms and conditions.  The agreements must be referred to the University’s legal team for review and these projects should also be financially managed in accordance with the policies and procedures issued by the Research Support Office.

Where the University provides a service to an external organisation which does not fall within the definition of a research grant or contract it will be considered to be a ‘Services rendered’ contract. Services rendered contracts are income generating activities and include the provision of a service (for example, routine testing, analysing samples and consultancies).

All steps which are outlined above in 4.04 Research Grants and Contracts for proposal stage, grant award/delivery of the project and closure of the project, must be followed in respect of these contracts also.  Project documentation, including signed contracts must be held in the University’s document management system.

All staff members must comply with the University policy on consultancy and policy for externally funded activity. These policies are available from the Research and Innovation website.  Employees may choose to sign a personal remuneration waiver, but this must be done in accordance with the Consultancy Policy.

Any surplus on a commercial contract will be credited to the College / University Service income and expenditure account in the year that it arises.

As a charitable institution, the University receives donations, which may be in the form of cash, investments, art and heritage assets or other type of asset.

Donations must all be classed as one of the following types of donation, which are identified as separate funds within reserves in the financial statements:

1. Unrestricted donations – donations which can be spent or applied at the discretion of the University for any charitable purpose. These may be designated to a particular use by the University Court but this is not legally binding.
2. Restricted donations/grants: donations or grants which must be used for specified purposes.
3. Endowments
1. Unrestricted permanent endowments – the donor has not specified a particular objective for the donation, but the capital must be retained indefinitely.
2. Restricted permanent endowments – the donor has specified that the donation must be used for a particular objective, and the capital must normally be held indefinitely.
3. Restricted expendable endowments – the donor has given the University Court the power to convert all or part of the donation to income.

The receipt of a donation by a School or Administrative Service must be referred to the Tax, Treasury and Reporting Team within the Finance Office who will ascertain if it meets the requirements for treatment as a donation or endowment and ensure that appropriate accounting treatment is applied.

The Tax, Treasury, and Reporting Team within the Finance Office are responsible for setting up the endowment, and then tracking and reporting of endowments within the finance system.  The budget holder is responsible for compliance with the terms of the endowment, including proper expenditure of the endowment and of any income generated therefrom. 

Where the endowment is a permanent endowment, it must be treated in accordance with 7.03 Endowment Assets.

Sales invoices are raised in respect of most income types, except block payments such as SFC grant payments and UK tuition fee income.  The Executive Director of Finance is responsible for putting in place policies and procedures for sales invoicing as well as debt management, as outlined in 7.09 Accounts Receivable.

The Finance Office holds the authority and responsibility for raising invoices. This responsibility can be and is often delegated to Schools and Administrative Services.  When Schools and Administrative Services are selling goods or services to a third party, other than for incidental cash sales (e.g. library fines, catering, sport recreation service), they must issue an invoice.  The issuing School or Administrative Service must issue invoices either within the University’s finance system (Agresso) or using the relevant University of Glasgow invoicing system for that process – for example, sponsor invoices must be raised through MyCampus and Accommodation Services invoices must be raised using Kx.  The Head of Finance Operations can provide advice as to the appropriate invoicing system to use for any activity.

In exercising these responsibilities, the Executive Director of Finance will ensure that the University has procedures in place to ensure the completeness and accuracy of sales.  Staff are required to:

• For any new activity a College/School or Department undertakes, implement the applicable University invoicing system for that activity, seeking guidance from the Head of Finance Operations where necessary;
• Record all sales within the University’s financial system, selecting the correct Sales Product Code which will ensure VAT is charged if required
• Enter the details and amounts with care
• Ensure sales are credited to the appropriate income account within the relevant budget centre; and
• Ensure any discounts, refunds or other credit notes granted are valid, properly authorised and accurately recorded in the University’s financial system