The Pre-Encumbrance (PE) document is used to earmark funds for which unofficial commitments have already been made, setting aside amounts for future anticipated expenses that might not otherwise be encumbered.
For example, you might create a pre-encumbrance in advance of a major equipment purchase that your department is planning to make later this year.
The PE document is not used to encumber salaries and wages. The payroll encumbrances are done by the Payroll & Personnel System (PPS) during the year. At year end, all employee payments have been made, so there is no obligation/encumbrance for the funds appropriated for that year. In Contracts & Grants (C&G) funds, payroll encumbrances carry forward until the award end date. If a department wants to encumber the funds for future salaries, they should use object SUB8 (Unallocated) and enter the reason in the Explanation field.
Note: There isn't a Year End version of the Pre-Encumbrance document. If you need to post a Year End encumbrance during year end fiscal close, please select the Accounting Period of Close.
Reversal Date Field
The PE document contains an optional Reversal Date field. You can enter the date on which you want the encumbrance to reverse. For example, if you are creating an encumbrance for a purchase you plan on making on December 1st, you might want to enter a Reversal Date of November 30th. The pre-encumbrance will be automatically reversed by the system on November 30th.
If you choose to leave the Reversal Date field blank when you create the original pre-Encumbrance document, you can manually reverse it at a later time by completing another pre-Encumbrance document and entering the original accounting information in the Disencumbrance section only, and leaving the Encumbrance section blank.
If manually reversing a pre-encumbrance, do NOT enter anything in the Reversal Date field.
Do NOT complete a manual disencumbrance if you entered a Reversal Date on your original pre-encumbrance.
Disencumbrances
- With prior Pre-Encumbrance: When disencumbering a prior pre-encumbrance, complete the Ref Doc Number field using only the original PE document number. Do NOT enter the origination code. For example, if the prior document number was 01-12345678, the origination code is 01. Enter 12345678, not 01-12345678.
- Without prior Pre-Encumbrance: In the rare instance where you are processing a disencumbrance for which there is NO prior Pre-Encumbrance document, you should always enter a Reversal Date. This is the ONLY time for which you should enter a Reversal Date when processing a disencumbrance.