Expense - Auxiliary Enterprises

An auxiliary enterprise exists to furnish goods or services to students, faculty, staff, other institutional departments, or incidentally to the general public, and charges a fee directly related to, although not necessarily equal to, the cost of the goods or services. The distinguishing characteristic of an auxiliary enterprise is that it is managed as an essentially self-supporting activity. Examples are residence halls, food services, intercollegiate athletics (only if essentially self-supporting), college stores, faculty clubs, parking, and faculty housing. Student health services, when operated as an auxiliary enterprise, also are included. Hospitals, although they may serve students, faculty, or staff, are classified separately because of their financial significance.

The auxiliary enterprise category includes all expenses relating to the operation of auxiliary enterprises, including expenses for operation and maintenance of plant, depreciation (if allocated to functional expense categories) and administration. Also included are other direct and indirect costs, whether charged directly as expenses or allocated as a proportionate share of costs of other departments or units. To ensure that data regarding individual auxiliary enterprises are complete and adequate for management decisions, cost data should be prepared using full costing methods. Costing means that the costs attributed to each enterprise includes a portion of indirect costs related to that enterprise, as well as the costs directly attributable to its operation.