Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A $50,000 purchase order for a microscope component is encumbered against the grant budget until invoice receipt.
- Is an instance
Future salary obligations for a postdoc through the end of the budget period are encumbered in payroll.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
An informal verbal commitment with no PO or written agreement is not an encumbrance.
- Not an instance
A discretionary departmental intent without a financial-system record is not encumbered.
Editorial commentary
Encumbrances reflect funds that are formally committed but not yet expended. They are critical to accurate post-award management because cash-basis reporting can otherwise overstate remaining funds. Standard encumbrance categories include open purchase orders, payroll commitments through the end of the budget period, and unspent portions of executed subawards. Available balance is calculated as: budget minus expended minus encumbered. Encumbrance accounting is mandated by Uniform Guidance for federal awards.
References
- US Office of Management and Budget Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200; NACUBO Accounting Tutorial on Encumbrance.
Also known as
Commitment · Open commitment
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
<role vocab="credit"
vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
vocab-term="Encumbrance"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/encumbrance" />{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "DefinedTerm",
"name": "Encumbrance",
"identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/encumbrance",
"description": "A reservation or commitment of grant funds against a future expenditure (such as a purchase order, a multi-year salary commitment, or a subaward), recorded in the institution's financial system to prevent over-commitment.",
"inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/funding-lifecycle-and-financial-vocabulary/",
"url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/encumbrance",
"sameAs": [
"Commitment",
"Open commitment"
],
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}
