Educational & General Functions (EPC Codes)

This category should include expenditures for all activities that are part of an institution’s instruction program. Expenditures for credit and noncredit courses for academic, occupational and vocational instruction, and for regular, special and extension sessions should be included in the instruction function. Conferences are not included in this category, as they are classified as public service (EPC 1300).

Expenditures for departmental research and public service that are not separately budgeted should be included in this classification. The instruction category excludes expenditures for academic administration when the primary assignment is administration, suxh as academic deans. However, expenditures for department chairs, in which instruction is still an important role of the administrator, are included in this category. 

EPC 1150 - Instruction Capital Grant

This EPC should be used for all capital equipment purchased for instruction purposes using grant funds.

This category should include all expenditures for activities specifically organized to produce research outcomes, whether commissioned by an agency external to the institution or separately budgeted by an organizational unit within the institution. Subject to these conditions, the research category includes expenditures for individual and/or project research as well as those of institutes and research centers. This category does not include all sponsored programs (training grants are an example) nor is it necessarily limited to sponsored research, since internally supported research programs, if separately budgeted, might be included in this category under the circumstances described above. Expenditures for departmental research that are separately budgeted for research are included in this category. 

EPC 1250 - Research Capital Grant

This EPC should be used for all capital equipment purchased for research purposes using grant funds.

This category should include funds expended for activities that are established primarily to provide non-instructional services beneficial to individuals and groups external to the institution. These activities include community service programs (excluding instructional programs) and cooperative extension services. Included in this category are conferences, institutes, general advisory services, reference bureaus, radio and television, consulting and similar non-instructional services particular to sectors of the community.

EPC 1350 - Public Service Capital Grant

This EPC should be used for all capital equipment purchased for public service purposes using grant funds.

This category should include funds expended primarily to provide support services for the institution’s primary missions—instruction, research and public service. It includes:

1. the retention, preservation and display of educational materials, such as libraries, museums and galleries;
2. the provision of services that directly assist the academic functions of the institution, such as demonstration schools associated with a department, school or college of education;
3. media, such as audiovisual services and technology, such as computing support;
4. academic administration (including academic deans but not department chairmen) and personnel development providing administrative support and management directions to the three primary missions; and
5. separately budgeted support for course and curriculum development.

For institutions that currently charge certain expenditures—for example, computing support—directly to the various operating units of the institution, such expenditures are not reflected in this category.

EPC 1450 - Academic Support Capital Grant

This EPC should be used for all capital equipment purchased for academic support purposes using grant funds.

This category should include funds expended for offices of admissions and the registrar, and activities with the primary purpose of contributing to the student’s emotional and physical well-being and intellectual, cultural and social development outside the context of the formal instruction program. It includes expenditures for student activities, cultural events, student newspapers, intramural athletics, student organizations, intercollegiate athletics (if the program is not operated as an essentially self-supporting activity), supplemental educational services to provide matriculated students with supplemental instruction outside the normal academic program (remedial instruction is an example), counseling and career guidance (excluding informal academic counseling by the faculty), student aid administration and student health service (if not operated as an essentially self-supporting activity).

EPC 1550 - Student Services Capital Grant

This EPC should be used for all capital equipment purchased for student services purposes using grant funds.

This category should include expenditures for:

1. central executive-level activities concerned with management and long-range planning of the entire institution, such as the governing board, planning and programming operations, and legal services;
2. fiscal operations, including the investment office;
3. administrative data processing;
4. space management;
5. employee personnel and records;
6. logistical activities that provide procurement, storerooms and printing;
7. transportation services to the institution;
8. support services to faculty and staff that are not operated as auxiliary enterprises; and
9. activities concerned with community and alumni relations, including development and fund raising.

Appropriate allocations of institutional support should be made to auxiliary enterprises, hospitals and any other activities not reported under the education and general heading of expenditures. CU Boulder uses the General Administrative Recharge (GAR) and General Infrastructure Recharge (GIR) programs (GAIR combined) to allocate a portion of the institutional support and operation and maintenance of plant general fund costs to all auxiliary and self-funded revenue sources. This is done at the time the auxiliary and self-funded sources are spent, whether from the current funds (2x) or plant funds (78). GAIR is not charged on cash transfers among these funds. The GAIR programs further mandate that auxiliary and self-funded resources not be commingled with general fund resources, otherwise they would lose their identity and GAIR could not be charged. Hence, CU has created R&R Fund 78 specifically for auxiliary and self-funded operations, and has implemented the restriction prohibiting the transfer of cash from an auxiliary/self-funded (2x) FOPPS to the general fund.

EPC 1650 - Institutional Support Capital Grant

This EPC should be used for all capital equipment purchased for institutional support purposes using grant funds. 

This category should include all expenditures of current operating funds for the operation and maintenance of physical plant. It includes all expenditures for the administration, supervision, operation, maintenance, preservation and protection of the institution’s physical plant. They include expenditures normally incurred for such items as:

1. janitorial and utility services;
2. repairs and ordinary or normal alterations of buildings, furniture, and equipment;
3. care of grounds;
4. maintenance and operation of buildings and other plant facilities;
5. security;
6. earthquake and disaster preparedness;
7. safety;
8. hazardous waste disposal;
9. property, liability and all other insurance relating to property;
10. space and capital leasing;
11. facility planning and management; and
12. central receiving.

It does not include interest expense on capital related debt.

EPC 1750 - Operation of Plant Capital Grant

This EPC should be used for all capital equipment purchased for operation and maintenance of plant purposes using grant funds.

This category (also referred to as financial aid) should include expenditures for scholarships and fellowships in the form of outright grants to students selected by the institution and financed from current funds, restricted or unrestricted. It also should include trainee stipends, prizes and awards, except for those trainee stipends awarded to individuals who are not enrolled in formal course work should be charged to instruction, research or public service as appropriate. If the institution is given custody of the funds, but is not allowed to select the recipient of the grant, (for example, Pell Grants or ROTC scholarships), the funds should be reported in the agency funds group rather than in the current funds group.

The recipient of an outright grant is not required to perform service to the institution as a consideration for the grant, nor is the recipient expected to repay the amount of the grant to the funding source. When services are required in exchange for financial assistance, as in the work-study program, the charges should be classified as expenditures of the department or organizational unit to which the service is rendered. Aid provided to students in the form of tuition or fee remissions also should be included in this category. However, remissions of tuition and fees granted due to faculty or staff status, or because of family relationship of students to faculty or staff, should be recorded as staff benefit expenditures in the appropriate functional expenditure category.

In addition to defining financial aid expenses by the EPC assigned to programs and projects, these expenses are also reflected in student aid expense accounts 770000–772499. These accounts must only be used if there are no services required in exchange for the support. If services are required in any form, then that payment should be reflected as a type of salary expense or an employee benefit expense. For financial reporting purposes, all expenses in this range of accounts are classified on the student aid line regardless of the EPC on the program or project in which they are booked. All other expenses of the program or project are then classified according to the EPC assigned to that program or project. For example, Athletics programs are assigned EPC 2000, auxiliary enterprise. If any student aid expenses (accounts 770000–772499) are booked in the Athletics programs, those expenses will be classified on the student aid line of the financial statements.

All other expenses of the Athletic programs (salaries, benefits, operating expense, travel, etc.) will be classified on the auxiliary operating expenditure line.

EPC 1800 must only be assigned to programs and projects where all expenses in that program or project are considered to be student aid. For example, if there is a training grant whose purpose is to provide financial support to a student in the form of stipend payments, tuition payments, paying for books and perhaps costs of doing research on a thesis or dissertation, then that project should be assigned EPC 1800. All expenses of that project would then be classified as student aid even though the appropriate natural classification of the individual expenses charged was used to the project.

The auxiliary enterprise category includes all expenditures relating to the operation of auxiliary enterprises, including expenses for operation and maintenance of plant and institutional support. Also included are other direct and indirect costs, whether charged directly as expenses or allocated as a proportionate share of costs of other organizational units.

Both external and internal sales by FOPPS whose EPC is 2000 (auxiliary enterprise) are recorded in auxiliary enterprise revenue accounts 280000 – 289999 (auxiliary enterprise revenue). The purchasing FOPPS will record expense in an expense account as if the purchase had been made from an outside vendor.

An internal service center (ISC) is an entity created primarily to provide goods/services to other institutional departments or organizational units. Incidental sales to the public are permitted. ISC examples include Transportation Center, Imaging Services, Chemistry stores, etc. Some ISCs have a substantial amount of sales to the public, such as electricity sales to public service companies by Cogeneration. In this situation, looking at the customer base and revenue stream may not provide a clear-cut decision regarding whether to classify the entity as an ISC or an auxiliary enterprise. Therefore, professional judgment must be used to determine the primary reason the entity was created. In this case, the entity was created primarily to provide services to institutional departments and organizational units. Therefore, management’s intent was to create an ISC, which is how this is classified.

All ISCs are accounted for in the auxiliary internal service center fund (Fund 28), except for Cogeneration which is in Fund 20 due to the TABOR enterprise designation. Therefore, all Fund 28 FOPPS should have an EPC of 2100, and no FOPPS outside of Fund 28 (with the exception of Cogeneration) should have an EPC of 2100.

ISC managers need to be able to track their revenue separate from their expenses. Therefore, revenue accounts 380000–389999 (service center IN revenue) have been established specifically for ISC sales to other departments or offices. Sales to private individuals such as students, faculty, staff, businesses or agency fund FOPPS are true revenue to the institution, and must be recorded as miscellaneous revenue in accounts 325000–334999 (miscellaneous income). It would be inappropriate to use the auxiliary revenue accounts for these sales, because these entities are not classified as auxiliary enterprises. The purchasing FOPPS will record expense in an expense account as if the purchase had been made from an outside vendor.

In order to meet the reporting requirement, the university’s financial reports combine the interdepartmental (IN) revenue and expense account amounts of ISCs in the institutional support expenditures category.

Please refer to chapter 13 of the Guide, Internal Sales Activities, for complete information on managing ISCs, including federal requirements.

While not specifically related to EPC, the discussion of internal sales between CU departments is important to understand. Occasionally one department will provide services to another department for a fee or will sell unneeded supplies/equipment to the other department, even though neither department is designated as an ISC. These sales can be just occasional, casual business transactions between departments or they can be part of one department’s role and mission. For example, Facilities Management is designated as an operation and maintenance of plant department (EPC 1700) and not an ISC (EPC 2100). Their role and mission is to maintain the physical plant of the campus. Since Facilities Management has the staff and expertise needed for their role and mission, they also offer to do work on a fee basis at the request of departments. Just like the activities of an ISC, these interdepartmental transactions must be recorded in a way so as to not inflate the revenue and expense of the institution through internal business activity.

Interdepartmental sales and purchases of goods and services (payment between FOPPS for goods/services provided) occur in one of three contexts:

1. Internal Service Center Sales (IN)
   The selling department is a formal internal service center (ISC) in a Fund 28 FOPPS as discussed above.
2. Auxiliary Enterprise Interdepartmental Sales
   Auxiliary enterprises are established to sell goods and services to outside parties, but will have miscellaneous sales to other university departments as discussed above.
3. Other Interdepartmental Revenue (ID)
   The selling department is another type of university department, including departments on other campuses, in either Fund 10, 20, 26 or 29 (i.e., not an internal service center or an auxiliary enterprise). Departments in these FOPPS were set up for purposes other than to provide goods/services to other departments, but will occasionally do so. In other words, this category refers to those miscellaneous transactions providing goods or services from one department to another, e.g., sale of manufactured chemicals, sale of a professor’s time to conduct a study, facility repair services, etc. The selling FOPPS will record revenue for interdepartmental revenue (ID) in accounts 390000–399999 (other ID revenue). Note: FOPPS in Funds 28, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 50, 71, 72, 73, 74 and 78 cannot be selling departments for other interdepartmental sales (ID). 

   The purchasing FOPPS must use an expense account from the designated list of other interdepartmental expense accounts (other ID expense accounts). Departments cannot use just any expense account from the full chart of accounts. The ID revenue and expense accounts are listed in the account quick reference card section immediately following the revenue section and preceding the asset section. A complete and current list of ID revenue and expense accounts is on the chart of accounts available on the Office of the University Controller’s website.

   Each internal sale and purchase determined to be ID revenue must use the designated ID accounts in order to identify both sides of these transactions and thus report them in the university’s financial statements and in the state’s accounting system in a manner that does not inflate total revenue and expense resulting from internal sales. The department recording the transaction (usually the selling department) is responsible for ensuring the designated ID accounts are used on both the selling and purchasing FOPPS.