Stratus Financials, the system the university utilizes for accounting, budgeting, reporting, accounts payable and procurement, provides online, up-to-the-minute access to your data and can be accessed from anywhere internet access is available.
The TechHelp system is now available for Stratus Financials assistance, using the following categories:
These requests will automatically route to the Stratus Financials Team and requesters will have access to view the ticket, monitor its progess and have a record of the resolution.
You can continue to contact the Stratus Financials Team at stratusfinancialsteam AT_TOWSON or 410-704-2188 for any questions, issues, or requests. A TechHelp ticket is now an option for those who would like to use it, but is not required.
This chart shows the projected date that the Stratus Financials team will require all submissions from the campus be received in order for entries to post to Stratus in the current month. Projected dates for each month are added to this site as they become available and may be subject to change based on system processes and technical issues. Please use these dates to assist with your budget planning.
No - we no longer require signature forms for departments and grants. Signature forms have been replaced in Stratus by assigned Financial Stewards and Cost Center Managers alongside Stratus workflows.
If a change needs to be made to the person designated the Financial Steward and/or Cost Center Manager for a department or grant, please send the request to the Stratus Financials Team at stratusfiancialsteam AT_TOWSON.
The first step is to go to our Chart of Accounts information page and scroll down to the criteria for a new department to determine if your need qualifies.
Secondly, go to our Forms Directory and locate the appropriate form under the Stratus Financials section. The form you select will depend on the type of department you are requesting (state-funded, self-funded, or agency-funded). Fill out the form, obtain all appropriate signatures and forward the completed form to Brian Bunker in Financial Systems & Technology.
An interdepartmental request is used to move an expense or revenue between account codes within a cost center or between different cost centers. The interdepartmental invoice is also used to bill other campus departments for goods and/or services.
These requests are submitted as a journal entry in Stratus by using spreadsheet journal entry. For more information about this process, see our create a spreadsheet journal entry (PDF) document and review our training materials on our Training & Resources page. Before submitting a journal, documentation should be obtained to show permission by the Financial Steward or Cost Center manager for both sides of the transaction (the cost center where the expense currently resides and the cost center covering the expense). The department originating the request will need to obtain the proper cost center number and account number from the recipient before submitting the journal.
After submitting the journal through Stratus, the Stratus Financials Team will receive notification through Stratus workflow and will review for any necessary backup. If backup is needed the Stratus Financials Team will contact the journal submitter.
If you need to credit a department, you will submit a journal through Stratus as well. If you are correcting a previous journal you should reference that previous journal number in the detailed description.
There are 14 different major groups of expenditure accounts that can be used to break down each type of expenditure into the appropriate category within your department's budget. When entering in your journal in the Stratus spreadsheet journal, you can search for the appropriate expense code by looking at the account descriptions.
A journal through the spreadsheet upload process (interdepartmental request) is NOT to be used for budget/appropriation transfers. The spreadsheet journal is for transferring expenses that have already occurred. If you need to move money to another department for a FUTURE expense, that would be a budget transfer. Information on Budget Transfers can be found on the Budget Office Stratus page.
Both the charged and the credited cost centers need to retain records/copies of the transaction for two reasons. First, the auditors may ask you to verify by producing your records. Second, compare your records/copies against the monthly budget report to verify any items posted to your cost center.
For any other questions relating to interdepartmental requests, please contact the Stratus Financials Team at stratusfinancialsteam AT_TOWSON.
For the vast majority of cases, the journal category INT (interdepartmental request) should be used. For any transfer of expenses between different departments or different account codes, INT must be used for the journal source.
For a listing of other journal categories (if needed), see our journal category listing (PDF)?
An initiative is a five-digit Stratus number that allows you to do additional tracking of your expenses by categorizing them. The initiative value will show on your reports and allows you to sort/group transactions.
If you would like an initiative set up, please contact the Stratus Financials Team team at stratusfinancialsteam AT_TOWSON.
Yes, refer to the Stratus - Journals section on our Resources & Training page.