Commonwealth of Virginia Budget site
This page is intended to be a portal site to the most current budget information for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Addenda1 (general definition) - Addenda are changes to an existing budget. Addenda are used to modify an agaencies appropriation or budget language.
Addenda2 (database field) - The addenda field is a three digit number. Addenda submissions include a series or range of numbers defined by DPB to reflect certain kinds of budget changes. The purpose of certain numbers may be different from year to year. Some are more permanent. For example, addenda numbers 900 - 999 are typically reserved for capital projects.
Amendment - Any change to a previously enacted Appropriation Act. A change can be a modification of amount or position, or language. In the middle of the first or second year of a biennial budget amendments are used to make needed changes. Amendments are similar to addenda and are entered into Web BEARS in the same way.
Appropriation Act- After both houses of the General Assembly have passed a budget bill and the Governor has signed it, the bill becomes known as the Appropriation Act. At this point the Legislature will assign the Act an offical "Chapter" number. For example the enacted 2002 budget is also referred to as "Chapter 889, 2002 Acts of Assembly".
Balanced - There are a couple of different kinds of balancing performed by DPB staff when developing the Commonwealth's budget. In Web BEARS, balancing usually refers to total fund amounts for each program being equal the total subobject amounts for that program. For addenda submissions this fund / subobject balance must exist for each program within each addenda. See the Understanding Budget Submission chapter for a more detail explanation.
Base Budget - The establishment of a baseline for funding necessary to continue an agency's on-going activities, with no significant changes in the way the agency provides services.
BDM / Budget Data Masterfile - The heart of the PROBUD system and the main budget database for the Commonwealth's budget data. The database is a VSAM file residing on the Commonwealth's mainframe computers. It has many fields containing agency requests, analyst recommendations and official appropriation act numbers for both the current and past bienniums.
Biennium / Biennial Budget - The Commonwealth budgets on a two year basis. A two year (biennial) budget runs from July 1 of an even numbered year until June 31 of the next even number year. The period from July 1, 2002 through June 31, 2004 is called the 2002-2004 Biennium. From July 1, 2002 through June 31, 2003 is considered fiscal year 2003 even though it begins in calendar year 2002.
Budget Bill- The Governor submits his proposed biennial appropriations to the General Assembly as a piece of legislation called the budget bill. Traditionally, the budget bill for the biennial budget is assigned the bill number 30 (House Bill 30 and Senate Bill 30).
Caboose Bill- In the middle of the second year of a biennium, agencies submit final changes to the biennium which is about to end. These final adjustments are considered by the General Assembly as legislation typically called the caboose bill. Traditionally, the caboose bill is assigned the bill number 29 (House Bill 29 and Senate Bill 29).
Capital Project- Capital projects are budgeted for in separate submissions than operating budget submissions. A five digit code is used to represent each capital project which consists of some valuable lasting item such as a building or road.
Convenience Codes - Subobjects of expenditure which may be used for budgetary purposes to aggregate non-personal services. Convenience codes are listed below. Refer to the lastest budget instructions for guidelines on their use. For more information on subobject code structures and purposes, see the latest Expenditure Structure documents from the DPB website.
1295 Undistributed Contractual Services
1395 Undistributed Supplies and Materials
1495 Undistributed Transfer Payments
1595 Undistributed Continuous Charges
2195 Undistributed Property and Improvements
2295 Undistributed Equipment
2395 Undistributed Plant and Improvements
3195 Undistributed Obligations
Dollar Records - Records in Web BEARS will have amount fields which either reflect positions or dollars.
Duplicate record - Duplicate records are not allowed in Web BEARS. You can modify the existing record or delete and re-enter it. Two records are duplicates if all the identifying fields are the same, not necessarily the dollar amounts. For an agency's base budget submission two subobject records would be the same if they had the same program, subprogram, and subobject code.
E&G Program Group - Institutions of higher education use special Educational and General (E&G) program codes 100 - 107. These programs are treated in Web BEARS as a single program. Fund records are entered on program 100. Subobject records are entered on programs 101 - 107.
Expenditure Structure- see subobject below or see the expenditure structure documents on the DPB website.
FATS / Form27 Automated Transaction System- Form27s are financial transactions which move dollars or positions from one program, subprogram, sobobject, agency to another. For more detailed information on Form27s and FATS, please see the FATS user manual on the DPB website.
Fiscal Year - The Commonwealth budgets on a two year basis and each biennium is composed of two fiscal years which begin on July 1 of each year and end the following June 31. From July 1, 2002 through June 31, 2003 is considered fiscal year 2003 even though it begins in calendar year 2002.
Form27 - see FATS above
FTE (Full-time equivalent)- A unit representing one full-time state employee. The number of positions an agency can have is represented by FTEs. For classified personnel, one FTE equals 2,080 hours worked in a year. Part-time or part-year employees are factored according to the share of the full 2,080-hour work year they are employed.
Fund Record- A four digit code. Each fund record shows an amount coming from a detailed fund source for a particular program. A program may be funded from different sources and have multiple fund reords. The total of all fund records for a program must equal the total for all subobject records.
Fund Code / Fund Group / Fund Type / Fund Detail / Fund Source- The Fund Code is a four digit number representing one of the Commonwealth's different accounts for specified financial activities. These "funds" include the general fund (0100), which accounts for the ordinary operations of government financed through taxes and other general revenues, and various nongeneral funds (0200, 0300 and higher) that account for specific activities supported by restricted or special revenue sources. See Where does the money come from? on the budget FAQ section of the DPB website for a much better explanation of general fund verses nongeneral fund. The first two digits of the four digit fund code are considered the fund group (also called the fund type, also sometimes referred to as the 0200 series, 0400 series, etc.). Many agencies enter program fund information at this level. Sometimes the Department of Accounts will use the second two digits in the fund code assigning a fund detail to further identify the fund source. For more information about fund codes and their structure, see the fund codes section of DOA's CAPPS Manual.
General Fund - Revenues are deposited into the State's General Fund if they are not designated for a particular purpose. General fund revenues are derived from general taxes paid by Virginia citizens and businesses, such as the corporate and personal income tax. See also NonGeneral Fund and Fund Code
Level (Level of Service) - This field which is set to either a 1 or 2, is now being handled internally by Web BEARS and no longer needs to be entered by users. It has also been removed from reports.
Nongeneral fund - Revenues are deposited into one of the State's nongeneral funds if law earmarks them for a specific purpose. For example, federal grants are mandated for specific programs or activities, and motor vehicle and gasoline taxes are dedicated for transportation programs.See also General Fund and Fund Code
Operating Budget- As opposed to a capital budget, operating budgets represent the cost of an agency's ongoing operation including personal services (salaries and benefits for classified employees and hourly workers), contractual services, and supplies. These expenses are, for the most part, recurring costs of providing services.
Positions / Position Record - A position record refers to full-time equivalent classified employees. Contractual or wage employees are not counted as "positions," although adjunct faculty are included as "positions" for institutions of higher education. Position records include two decimal places.One position is recorded as 1.00. There is a field called TYPE in Web BEARS and PROBUD which is set to a 2 for Dollars and a 3 for Positions. In most places in Web BEARS you pick dollars and positions from a menu and do not see the field directly. See also FTE
PROBUD - Short for Program Budgeting, PROBUD is the name for the collection of systems used by Planning and Budget to manage state budget data. PROBUD consists of a master database known as the BDM (Budget Data Masterfile) and utilities and systems used to perform actions on that data. The "On-Line" part of PROBUD which was used to collect agency budget requests and refine them into analyst recommendations has been replaced by Web BEARS. However, the master database and other systems like FATS (Form27 Automated Transaction System) are still in use and run on the Commonwealth's mainframe computer systems.
Program - Virginia's budget is based on a program structure, a mechanism for conveniently and uniformly identifying and organizing the State's activities and services. Under this structure, services that the state provides are classified as items in descending levels as "programs" and "subprograms." A program is a distinct organization of resources by a state agency directed toward a specific objective such as developing or preserving a public resource, preventing or eliminating a public problem, improving or maintaining a condition affecting the public. The Program field must contain a valid three digit Program code for the entering agency. See the most recent program structure doucment on DPB's website for more information.
Recommendations - After an agency has entered in request records representing their desired budget, DPB analysts work with agencies and the Governor's office to adjust these amounts to best utilize the limited resources available. These adjusted amounts are referred to as analyst recommendations and they eventually become the Governor's proposed budget which is presented to the General Assembly.
Requests - For each submission an agency enters in fund and subobject records, asking for dollar amounts to be budgeted for all of their programs and projects. These records are referred to as agency requests.
Session - A "session" in Web BEARS is the time period during which you are logged in. After you exit Web BEARS (either by closing your Internet browser or by being "timed out" after 30 minutes of inactivity), you will have to log back in to establish another session.
Subobject - Spending by Virginia's state agencies is classified according to an expenditure structure, a mechanism for uniformly identifying and collecting expenditure information. Under this structure, expenditures are classified as items in descending levels as "major objects" and "subobjects." A subobject is a discrete expenditure. See the expenditure structure documents on the DPB website for more information.
Submission - Data in Web BEARS is collected in groups of records called a Submission. Examples: 2002_Base, 2003_Technicals, 2005_Capital. See the Understanding Budget Submissions section of Web BEARS help for more details.
SubProgram - Subdivision of a Program. A two digit field.
Year1, Year2 - Year 1 is the first fiscal year of a biennium, Year 2 is the second fiscal year of a biennium.