Encumber balances in the general fund, special state funds (including lottery), and registration fee fund accounts. 

Departments should encumber balances in their general fund, special state funds (including lottery), and registration fee fund accounts if there are obligations on the funds that have not been identified by purchase requisitions or purchase orders.

Use the Pre-Encumbrance (PE) document to enter liens against these current year accounts. All PE documents created must be fully approved by the fiscal close calendar due date in order to post in the correct period. There is a deadline for posting in the June Preliminary Ledger and a later deadline for posting in the June Final ledger.

Use of the Pre-Encumbrance

• Include a detailed explanation of the encumbrance in the description field (e.g., "summer salary for visiting scholar Dr. Smart" or "equipment for teaching lab per quotes received but PO not yet processed").
• Additional information may be provided in the notes section, if necessary.
• Use the Accounting Period June-12 (June Preliminary) or Close 20xx (June Final).
• Include a reversal date for automatic reversal of the PE document in the new fiscal year.
• Reversal dates cannot be removed once the document has entered the system.
• Manual reversal of a PE that has an auto reversal date will result in duplicate reversals and a credit lien, which will require an additional PE document to remove.

For more information on using the PE, see the online help.

Lien Tip!

If you are working with a large number of departmental encumbrances, developing a spreadsheet to track them can prevent duplicate encumbrances and reversals.