AW-02 · Planning, Budgeting and Financial Monitoring

1. Purpose and scope

Purpose. To ensure that IoL has an operational plan with measurable objectives, a budget that funds it under the two budget entities, an annual purchase plan raised inside the purchasing window, monthly visibility of budget, commitments, actuals and balance, and a controlled route for reallocation and unbudgeted spend, so that resource decisions are taken on evidence and within delegation, and the objectives ISO 9001 clause 6.2 requires exist as commitments with owners and measures.

Scope statement. This procedure manages IoL planning and financial control from the receipt of the HQ or University budget call to the year-end review, using Oracle GRP and the SDO budget tracker.

Applies to. The IoL operational plan and its objectives; every budget line held by IoL under the University and DAHC budget entities; income budgets (AW-12); the resourcing of actions raised by WF-04, AW-24 and AW-06.

Does not apply to. The budget approval procedures of HQ Finance and University Finance; payroll, tax and pension; research grant finance (WF-17); individual purchase requests (AW-10) and payments to individuals (AW-11).

Rules that hold throughout. IoL holds two budget entities, University and DAHC, managed separately: funds are never merged or transferred between them, and every request, report and submission is made per entity. Every budget line identifies its budget entity, sub-account and cost centre. The purchasing window runs from April to October and the procurement blackout from October to March; departments plan purchases for the full academic year, September to July, inside the window, before the cut-off date SDO publishes at the start of each window. No approval exceeds the available budget. Unbudgeted or non-routine expenditure needs the written agreement of the approver, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the relevant functional executive, irrespective of value. A departmental request returned for revision and not resubmitted within 10 working days is closed and excluded from the proposal.

2. Trigger, boundary and interfaces

3. Roles and accountability

Process owner. Head of Administration and Operations (HAO), with authority to withhold budget confirmation from any commitment not in the approved allocation. Custodian. Administration Affairs (SDO), through the SDO Head of Finance, which operates the procedure and keeps its records.

The Dean holds the highest IoL authority in this procedure; a request concerning the Dean's own budget line is approved by the Dean's superior, named in AW-05.

[CONTROL] Segregation. The Chair who explains a variance does not approve the reallocation that corrects it. The SDO Head of Finance raises reallocation requests and prepares financial studies but approves neither. Where the HAO holds a line in the monthly report, the Dean reviews that line. No one approves a reallocation into a line they personally spend from.

[CONTROL] Delegation tiers. The HAO approves the budget proposal, sub-account reallocations and unbudgeted expenditure; the Dean approves the proposal and unbudgeted expenditure above the HAO's authority; both submit to HQ and the University, which approve the budget under DOA Chapter 10.4. A resulting purchase follows the AW-05 value tiers in AW-10: tier 1 SDO Head of Finance within the internal limit, tier 2 HAO, tier 3 Dean; above the Dean, Level 3 through HQ. The tier values are stated in AW-05 [HAO to state; not yet stated in any document].

4. Procedure

1. Issue the budget call. On receipt of the HQ or University budget call, the SDO Head of Finance issues the IoL budget call to every Chair: template, submission deadline, budget entity requirements and coding rules, and enters every HQ and University deadline in the AW-25 calendar. [CONTROL] Internal deadlines precede HQ and University deadlines by at least 10 working days [HAO to confirm]. Next: step 2.

2. Draft the operational plan. The Dean, with the HAO and the Chairs, drafts the plan against IoL strategy. Each objective states what will be achieved, the measure, target, owner, resources, date and how the result will be evaluated (ISO 9001 clause 6.2.2); AW-25 decisions, AW-06 treatments, WF-04 actions and AW-24 CAPA items are inputs. The Dean approves the plan after consulting the Operational Committee; the AW-01 minute is the record. [CONTROL] An objective without a measure and an owner is not entered in the plan. Next: step 3.

3. Prepare the departmental budget request. Each Chair prepares the request by budget entity, sub-account and cost centre, and by expenditure type, operating expenditure (OPEX) or capital expenditure (CAPEX), with justification linked to planned activities (AW-21), staffing (AW-07), assets (AW-13), income (AW-12) and the plan objectives. [CONTROL] Every bid traces to a plan objective or a compliance requirement. Next: step 4.

4. Consolidate and prepare the financial study. The SDO Head of Finance consolidates the submissions per entity, verifies coding, removes duplication and prepares the financial study. [CONTROL] A line without budget entity, sub-account and cost centre coding is not accepted. Decision point. Coded and complete: step 5. Returned to the Chair for correction: step 3. Timeout. Not resubmitted within 10 working days: the departmental request is closed and excluded from the proposal.

5. Operational Committee review. The Operational Committee reviews the financial study, sets priorities and recommends the IoL budget and the departmental allocations per entity, consulting the Chairs; its AW-01 minute is the record. Decision point. Recommended: step 6. Returned for a revised study: step 4.

6. Approve the budget proposal. The HAO approves the recommended proposal; the Dean approves above the HAO's authority (AW-05). Decision point. Approved: step 7. Returned to the Chairs with comments: step 3, with the step 4 timeout applying.

7. Submit to HQ Finance and University Finance. The HAO and the Dean submit the approved proposal as two separate submissions, the University entity to University Finance and the DAHC entity to HQ Finance, by their deadlines; the SDO Head of Finance keeps the confirmations. [CONTROL] The two submissions are never combined. Decision point. Allocations approved under DOA Chapter 10.4: step 8. Allocation below the proposal: the Dean decides which objectives are deferred, descoped or withdrawn, the plan is re-minuted through AW-01, then step 8.

8. Issue allocation letters. The SDO Head of Finance confirms that the allocations are loaded in Oracle GRP per entity and sub-account, reconciles them to the approved proposal and issues each Chair an allocation letter stating the approved lines and the AW-05 limits. [CONTROL] No commitment is made under AW-10 or AW-11 before the line is loaded and the letter issued. Next: step 9.

9. Prepare the annual purchase plan. At the opening of the purchasing window in April the SDO Head of Finance publishes the cut-off date. Each Chair submits a purchase plan for the full academic year, September to July, including every requirement that will fall in the blackout, coded against the allocation letter. SDO compiles the IoL procurement schedule, the HAO approves it, and the schedule and the cut-off date are handed to AW-10. [CONTROL] A blackout requirement not in the purchase plan has no purchasing route until the next window. Next: step 10.

10. Monitor monthly and act on variance. After each monthly close the SDO Head of Finance issues a report per entity and sub-account to the HAO, the Dean and the Chairs: budget, commitments (open AW-10 purchase orders), actual expenditure, available balance, forecast outturn and income against target (AW-12). Chairs explain any line outside tolerance [SDO to confirm; assumed 10% of the sub-account] and update the forecast. Costed resource requests from WF-04, AW-24 and AW-06 are entered on the report with the funding route the SDO Head of Finance identifies. [CONTROL] Forecasts are updated by the Chair, not rolled forward unchanged. Decision point. Within tolerance and no request pending: the next month follows, step 10. Shortfall in one sub-account with a balance in another of the same entity: step 12. A requirement with no budget line: step 13. A resource request deferred to the next cycle: step 3 of the next call, with the decision returned to the requesting workflow. Persistent adverse variance: entered in the AW-06 risk register, then step 10.

11. Pre-blackout readiness check. Before the cut-off date the SDO Head of Finance confirms against the procurement schedule that every planned purchase has been raised under AW-10, completes the readiness checklist and escalates any requirement at risk to the HAO. Decision point. All raised: step 10. Requirement at risk: the HAO directs SDO to raise it under AW-10 before the cut-off, or defers it to the next window and enters it in the lessons register; then step 10.

12. Reallocate between sub-accounts. The SDO Head of Finance, consulting the Chair, prepares the request: source and destination sub-accounts, budget entity, amount, justification and the effect on the objectives each line funds. The HAO decides within 3 working days. [CONTROL] A request that would transfer funds between the University and DAHC entities is rejected. [CONTROL] Reallocations are not split to stay within delegation; transfers between the same two sub-accounts within a quarter are treated as one. Decision point. Approved: the SDO Head of Finance submits the signed request to HQ Finance or University Finance for the entity concerned, and on their confirmation updates the budget tracker, notifies the Chair and shows the reallocation on the next monthly report, step 10. Rejected: the Chair is notified and the request is closed.

13. Unbudgeted or non-routine expenditure. The SDO Head of Finance prepares a financial study, consulting the Chair: justification, value, entity, sub-account and funding source. The Operational Committee reviews it; if supported, the HAO approves, or the Dean above the HAO's authority (AW-05); if approved, the approver obtains the written agreement of the CFO and the relevant functional executive. [CONTROL] Nothing is committed without that written agreement, irrespective of value, under DOA Section A. Decision point. Supported, approved and agreed in writing: the requirement proceeds as a purchase under AW-10 and appears on the next monthly report, step 10. Not supported, rejected or not agreed at any stage: the Chair is notified, the request is closed and any WF-04 or AW-24 requester receives the refusal with reasons.

14. Year-end review and lessons register. After year-end the SDO Head of Finance compares planned and actual expenditure, commitments and variances by department and budget entity, consulting the Chairs, and issues the year-end budget report to the Operational Committee. Accruals and carry-forward requests are submitted where HQ Finance or University Finance require them, approved by the HAO [SDO to confirm: IOL-OPS-001 v0.1 has no accrual or carry-forward step; this procedure keeps one because AW-10 files remain open at year-end]. [CONTROL] An accrual is supported by an AW-10 goods-received note or a contract milestone. The register of objectives is closed with a result against each measure, the outturn goes to AW-25 as the resource-adequacy input, and the HAO enters the findings in the lessons register, which the next budget call (step 1) and purchase plan (step 9) take as input. End: year-end report issued, lessons register updated.

Exception routes. Emergency spend (safety, learner-facing outage, regulator requirement) with no budget line: IOL-OPS-001 v0.1 provides no route; step 13 applies irrespective of value [HAO to confirm whether the HAO or the Dean may authorise an emergency ahead of the CFO agreement, obtained within 5 working days, consistent with the AW-10 emergency exception]. Emergency purchase inside the blackout: the AW-10 exception route applies and the budget line is confirmed here. Income shortfall in AW-12: escalated at the monthly report and the dependent objectives reviewed by the Dean. In-year change to the allocation: the plan is re-opened through AW-01 and allocation letters reissued under step 8. A purchase request that AW-10 holds for lack of a line with capacity: it enters step 12 or step 13, and AW-10 resumes only after the line is confirmed.

5. Service standards

6. Records, retention and controls

Records are kept in the Administration Affairs (SDO) central repository and in the systems named below, and retained for a minimum of seven years or the period required by the Dubai Department of Finance, whichever is longer.

Key controls. (1) Every objective has a measure, a target, an owner and a date. (2) The University and DAHC entities are never merged and no transfer between them is considered. (3) Every line carries entity, sub-account and cost centre coding or is not consolidated. (4) No commitment before the line is loaded in Oracle GRP and the allocation letter issued. (5) Blackout requirements are in the purchase plan and raised before the cut-off date. (6) Reallocations go to Finance only after HAO approval, are not split, and the Chair explaining the variance does not approve them. (7) Unbudgeted expenditure is not committed without the written agreement of the CFO and the functional executive. (8) Accruals are evidenced. (9) WF-04 actions are resourced here or not at all.

OBEF touchpoint. None. The resource decision on a WF-04 action is held here; the action and its OBEF rationale remain in WF-04.

7. Performance measures

8. Change control