Posting Commitment Carryforward Amounts
As departments place purchase orders with vendors, the Purchasing department commits the funds from that department to be set aside to pay for those future purchases. Toward each fiscal year end, departments are encouraged to review their open commitments/encumbrances for validity. If the purchase order is no longer needed or has expired, the departments work with Purchasing to make sure their commitment has been released.
On the night of June 30 th each fiscal year, a member of the SAP team (separate from Purchasing) compiles the list of open commitments/encumbrances that should roll forward to the next fiscal year. He/she provides this file to Accounting Services. The accountant then separates the file by fund type and then by cost center for two reasons: to determine how much of the remaining account balances at year end need to be held back for commitments, and to publish this information to the university community so departments will know the amount of their commitments.


