Private Funds FAQs
In an effort to streamline service to the campus community, the university will process expenditures previously paid by the Virginia Tech Foundation beginning 7/1/25. This will enable the simplification of procurement and accounts payable functions and will lead to greater efficiency for departments. These funds will be known as Private Funds.
Yes, going forward all purchases of goods, services, IT, and construction are expected to comply with current Virginia Tech Procurement policies and procedures requiring competition and requisition through HokieMart. Authorized approvers will be the same as those of record for your department in HokieMart. See the following link for changes or additions.
Yes, Virginia Tech and the Foundation have developed a new procedure to govern Private Fund expenditures. There are new thresholds for travel, meals, and other categories. Please see the following matrix for full details.
Authorization to process a purchase through the Foundation can be requested on an exception basis through the Director of Procurement.
There will be a grace period to allow departments to transition active projects to the new procedure; however, any new expenditures should be completed in University systems. VTF will communicate with the departments if there are any transactions that were sent to the Foundation before June 30th and will now need to be processed on the university side.
For each VTF fund number with spendable resources in VTF Banner, a VT Banner Private und will be established. For example, VTF fund number 888888 on the foundation side, will become F88888 as a university Private Fund number under the same organization code. These new Private Fund codes will be utilized in existing systems such as Hokiemart and Chrome River.
A fund set up request can be submitted to General Account through the Controller’s Office New Fund Request Form. The new fund will be established as a sub-fund of the original VT fund. For example, the department would have VT Private Fund number F88888 and also the new sub-fund. Budget assigned to F88888 can be distributed to FS0001 and FS0002 using VT Banner page FZABDGT.
Yes, NSF checking will be in place on Private Funds. The NSF checking process in Banner will use the individual balance in each fund. Balances will not be combined for NSF checking.
At the beginning of each fiscal year, the Virginia Tech Foundation will establish a new budget balance that will be loaded into the VT Banner Private Fund based on resources available in the VTF Banner fund. After the initial budget load, the Foundation will provide weekly budget files that will be loaded to the VT Banner fund each Monday. For VTF cash based funds, the budget loaded into the VT Banner Private und will equal the cash available in the VTF Banner Private Fund. For VTF income funds, the budget loaded into the VT Banner Private Fund will be the cash balance plus estimated annual spend.
Yes, Private Funds can be combined with other university funds. For example, if a travel reimbursement is entered in Chrome River and there is a business meal with alcohol charges. The allowable cost of the food could be allocated to your university E&G fund and the cost of the alcohol would be allocated to the Private Funds.
Yes, Private funds will be included in university reports and FINTRACS. FINTRACS will flag transactions for review using established university rules based on transaction type.
Will I still need to review and certify the Foundation funds monthly? Yes, because revenues and transfers recorded at VTF are not being recorded at the university, authorized department staff will need to review and certify Foundation funds activity each month.
No, Private Funds will not use the foundation approval process. The activity posted to Private Funds will follow the approval queue structure as established by each department for the related university system, i.e. HokieMart, Chrome River, Labor Redistributions.
Yes, additional workflows in HokieMart and Chrome River to route the transaction to the foundation for review to ensure the transactions align with donor restrictions.
Yes, summarized private fund expenditures will post to the VTF fund semimonthly upon cash reimbursement to the university.
No, the University Controller’s office will submit a semi-monthly batch expenditure file for payment from the Foundation.
To initiate a transfer, you must submit a transfer request form to the foundation. This process remains the same as it was previously.
Yes, payroll and fringe cost can be charged to University Private Funds.
The University strongly advises against non-travel personal reimbursements over $2,000 will be expected to follow existing procedures.
America to Go will continue to be the primary system for ordering catering for university functions. Transitioning to the private fund series in lieu of the previous process supports expenditures to multiple Private Funds more efficiently.
Yes, Hokiemart requisitions, once approved and a purchase order is established, will encumber the budget in the new Private Fund series just as they do with any other university banner fund that is budget controlled. These encumbrances on the university side do not encumber the balances in VTF funds on the Foundation’s ledger.
Departments may enter manual encumbrances on funds indicating the intended purpose and ensure the budget is not spent on other expenditures. More information about departmental encumbrances is available on PageUp.
Yes, purchases made with the University p-card will follow the same reconciliation process currently in place.
The existing departmental approval workflows within Hokiemart will serve as approval to spend Private Funds. If your department would like to add additional approvers to hokiemart please contact General Accounting.