ctcLink Accounting Manual | 10.30.25 Appropriation Index

An appropriation is the legal authority to spend on behalf of the state for prescribed purposes an amount not to exceed authorized limits. An appropriation code, assigned by the Office of Financial Management during the budget process, identifies each legislative authorization. Appropriation codes are numeric or alphanumeric. Occasionally appropriations are referred to as an Expenditure Authority¹ (SAAM 75.50.10). Appropriations are not used in ctcLink but are crosswalked to the correct appropriation from other chartfield values.

¹Legislative permission for agencies to disburse moneys or accrue liabilities during specific fiscal periods, up to specified amounts, from specific accounts whether appropriated or non-appropriated.

Appropriated funds (see CLAM Section 10.20.30.c, Fund Classification Matrix) are subject to the appropriation process. Generally, legislature approval applies to all state funds including capital projects and major local capital projects (see CLAM Capital Budget Section 30).

An appropriation may be classified as operating or capital (appropriation character type). Operating appropriations are for ongoing programs, and capital appropriations are for acquisition, renovation or construction of capital assets. See also SAAM 75.50.

The appropriation index is a system-defined three-character code in ctcLink representing the fund and appropriation code. Appropriation indexes are assigned by the SBCTC. For local and non-appropriated funds, the appropriation index is generally the same as the fund code. OFM will assign different appropriations to each year of the biennium.  However, in ctcLink, generally, the appropriation index remains the same but it is converted/crosswalked to the correct AFRS appropriation. The following table depicts examples of Appropriation Index codes:

Do not be confused by the label in ctcLink. The project inadvertently labeled the field ‘Appropriation’ when it should have been labeled ‘Appropriation Index’.

Follow this path: Navigator > Set Up Financials/Supply Chain > Common Definitions > Design ChartFields > Define Values > ChartField Values > Appropriation Index for a current list of appropriation index (notice the original field name in Peoplesoft was "Product").

Allocations made by the state legislature in the budget process are assigned an appropriation code by OFM. The appropriation for operating funds is generally different in the first and second year of the biennium. For instance, the general operating allocation for year one of the biennium will be Fund 001, Appropriation 011. In year two, it will be Fund 001, Appropriation 012.

Several operating funds retain the same appropriation and appropriation index in both years of the biennium (see items highlighted in yellow and marked true for screen readers below).

For ease of use, the appropriation index for both years of the biennium remain the same in ctcLink, and the appropriation reported to AFRS is cross-walked in the second year of the biennium to the OFM-assigned code. This makes account maintenance for state-funded activities easier in ctcLink, and reduces errors. For instance, if the fund/appropriation in the first year of the biennium is 001-011, and in the second is 001-012, the appropriation index code used in ctcLink will be 101 in both years. ctcLink contains tables that cross-walk information to report correctly in AFRS.

Here is an example of the Appropriation Index table prepared by the Operating Budget team:

Biennium

CTC Capital Projects Account
Blank		AFRS - Biennium Yr 1			ctcLink - Biennium Yr 1			AFRS – Biennium Yr 2			ctcLink Biennium Yr 2
Application		Fund	Appr	Appr Index	Fund	Appr	Appr Index	Fund	Appr	Appr Index	Fund	Appr	Appr Index
Alt Finance Project Debt Service		060	BA0	BA0	060	BA0	BA0	060	BA0	BA0	060	BA0	BA0

Capital funds retain the same appropriation and appropriation index for the life of the project.

Capital projects are funded through state funds (primarily 057, 060) or local funds (147 or proprietary funds). Each approved project is assigned a project number by OFM, a different project number, appropriation and appropriation index (these are usually the same value) are assigned by the State Board.

In ctcLink the college must use the SBCTC assigned project number and the appropriation index all transactions.  These values will then be crosswalked to AFRS for state reporting purposes.

The Capital Budget team maintains an online system (CapTrack) allowing colleges to easily reference and monitor each capital project.  Below is an example of an allocation schedule: