Project Finances Cheat Sheet

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This is a draft so take with a grain of salt…

Using the diagram above we can quickly identify the 8 colours of money when it comes to project finances.

What do the terms above mean?

A-Base vs. B-Base:
A-Base money generally comes from the yearly budget but that not a critical point. From our point of view, we can use A-Base or B-Base funding to pay for personnel, consultants, software, training, etc..

Capital vs. Operating:

Capital funds are spent on building assets. If putting capital funds towards a project, you cannot use Capital funding for Proejct Management Framework (PMF) Phases 1 or 2.

Operating funds are used to pay for ongoing work related to maintaining existing systems or supporting the operation of the team.

Personnel vs. Non-Personnel (or OOC):

Personnel funds are spent on employee salaries: Indeterminate, Term, Casual, and Student.

Non-Personnel funds, also known as Other Operating Capital (OOC) when you’re talking about Non-Personnel operating funds, is the money available to spend on everything other than salaries (e.g. consultants, software, furniture).

One last note: if you plan on transferring money to or from another group’s budget, the sender and receiver of funds must agree on the “colour of money”. A-Base Capital Personnel can go towards A-Base Capital Personnel spending, for example.

If you want or need to change the colour of the money in your budget and aren’t already familiar with the process (or have the necessary authority to take care of the issue yourself), speak with your Manager and/or Director to have the request escalated to the appropriate parties.