About the Budget

UW Budget – In-Depth

The UW Operating Budget Manual was constructed with broad campus participation to ensure our compliance with recommendations from the State Auditor’s 2014 audit of the UW’s finances (below). This manual will evolve as more information is available or requested. As a working document, we hope that this manual will assist many across our campuses in understanding how we conduct our work with the university’s local operating resources and state funds it allocates on behalf of the Provost and President. We hope that as our university moves closer to considering implementation of a new financial system, many of the manual processes we conduct will be simplified.

UW Budget Methodology

In recent years, the University’s annual operating budget has included a section titled “Ensuring Sound Budget Management,” which provides an overview of the budget development process and policies that guide the careful management and distribution of various types of resources at the University.

2014 Audit of the University of Washington – Higher Education Dedicated Local Funds and Operating Fee Accounts

The 2014 Audit of the University of Washington was conducted following the passage of ESSB 6002, which required an audit of dedicated local funds and state operating fee accounts (Funds 148 and 149, respectively) associated with higher education institutions in Washington state (see Section 123). The bill mandated a review of all expenditures, revenues, transfers and fund balances associated with these accounts for the previous six fiscal years. The requested audit called for clarity and transparency in the accounting and use of these funds. Subsequent action by the Governor focused the scope of the audit on only the University of Washington.