The project is approved and onsite work begins.

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Phase 6: Construction

Departments to manage the budgeting, bidding, onsite work and accounting for the projects per campus/state/funding guidelines.

  • Housing Project Management manages projects involving student residences, dining halls, related improvements, and parking lots (~25% of active Fund 71 projects) and 
  • Facilities Management manages all other Boulder campus projects. 
  • Office of IT manages a small number (~10) of IT-related projects which are specific to those operations.

CCO will oversee the departmental accounting and manage the reimbursements for state-appropriated and sponsor-funded contributions to the construction project.

  • At CU Boulder, construction in progress (CIP) is computed using a capitalization percentage, which is determined by the department and plant fund accounting at the time a project/speedtype is requested and set up in PeopleSoft (PS). 
  • The capitalization percentage depends on the nature of the project and may be less than 100% for projects that entail repairs, replacements, etc. 
  • Expenses for a project are recorded in PS as they are incurred for construction activities. At the end of each month, CCO completes BCIP allocation (see the definitions section for details). This is an automatic process completed by PS, therefore no manual journal entry is prepared but it requires accurate coding of costs by departmental staff. 
  • Retainage is fully expensed in the expense account. The payment of the contractor is split by the % of retainage (5 or 10% per state/campus guidelines) in 105300 (Retainage) and the remaining amount paid to the contractor. See definitions for greater detail.
  • CCO plant fund accounting works with the accountants from Facilities Management and Student Affairs on a regular basis (email reports and meetings as needed) to discuss the progress of construction projects, remediation efforts, scope changes impacting capitalization criteria, componentization and a final determination of the amount to be capitalized or expensed.

​State appropriated projects can be wholly or partially funded by the state. The campus will seek reimbursement for costs paid on a monthly basis when the total is below $1 million, per Treasury guidelines. As stated above, CCO will oversee the process because special funding usually comes with special rules and timelines.

  • State long bill funded projects signed by the governor in late May or early June, the project manager has 6-months to deliver the first signed contract/booked encumbrance to the State’s controller’s office (send to CCO and CCO will forward to appropriate SOS contact).
  • The campus can be reimbursed for costs on long bill/special funding projects regardless of being capitalized at the end of the project. 
  • There are restrictions on reimbursements that are explained in chapter 4 of the State Fiscal Manual usually updated in March, e.g., internal labor cannot be reimbursed on state-funded appropriations but can be on CU cash-funded appropriations.

Phase 7: Delivery of Project to Departmental Owner(s)

Ensure systems operate as intended; prepare/review punch list; occupant move-in and training.

Departments will notify CCO once the project’s work has been completed and/or a new building has reached Temporary Certificate of Occupancy (TCO) status. 

CCO will then begin the process of capitalizing the project.

  • At CU Boulder, plant fund accounting transfers CIP (Fund 71) to Buildings or Improvements (Fund 74) when notified by the managing department of the construction project that the building is substantially complete. 
    • If debt is associated with the project, bond proceeds are no longer used to pay interest costs. The department is to use operational funds for debt payment. 
    • If there are excess bonding funds, the department, BFP, and CU Treasury will work out the best use of the remaining funds.
  • CCO staff posts the capitalization transaction into PSAM which will create the Fund 74 GL JE (debit to asset account credit to 970600 and then prepares the Fund 71 GL JE side of the CIP transfer, (credit 090600 and debit 970600 noting the PSAM asset ID# in the reference field. This Fund 71 JE is reviewed and approved by the CCO debt and asset manager.