Ohio University’s budget team is changing the way it presents its financial projections to the Board of Trustees to make them easier for the board to understand.
The board makes decisions based off of the university’s presentations, which frequently involve complex budget forecasts.
The budget team previously gave two presentations at each meeting — one showcasing the projected budget for a fiscal year and another highlighting the adjustable funds OU Budget Director Chad Mitchell and other administrators can change throughout the year, Mitchell said.
The team will now present initial financial forecasts and what the numbers are projected to be by the end of the year.
“We’re basically just trying to have that discussion on one piece of paper rather than two,” Mitchell said.
The new model was implemented at the board’s Jan. 23 meeting in Athens.
“What you saw presented … is a best practice in financial management where the board is provided on a periodic basis on the financial state of the institution,” said Stephen Golding, vice president for finance and administration.
The old forecasts were more common among higher education institutions, but not among corporations, in which trustees have more experience, Mitchell said.
Trustee David Wolfort serves as director of Metal Service Center Institute, while National Trustee J. Patrick Campbell serves as executive chairman of the Board of Universal Companies, according to the board’s website.
After seeing this new method of presenting the budget at the resources committee meeting, OU Trustee Chairwoman Sandra Anderson said she thought it was important to use this method to show how the budget evolves as they make decisions.
“The forecast provides a continuous update for reality,” Anderson said. “We can make a projection as we do in the budget, but things change.”
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