About..

Welcome to OpenUA, the University of Arkansas Expenditure Transparency website! In 2011, the 88th General Assembly of the Arkansas Legislature enacted legislation, codified as Arkansas Code 6-61-137, that required state-supported Institutions of Higher Education to present expenditure data on a website operated by each institution.

In support of the University’s commitment to transparency and accountability, and in compliance with Arkansas Code 6-61-137, OpenUA was created to present a searchable database of expenditure records. It contains expenditure records for the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and other entities of the UA System whose accounting records are maintained at the Fayetteville campus. They include the (Division of Agriculture) Agricultural Experiment Station, Arkansas Archaeological Survey, Criminal Justice Institute, Clinton School of Public Service and System Administration.

Although the (Division of Agriculture) Cooperative Extension Service is included in the University’s annual financial report, expenditure records presented on this site are limited to expenditures processed via the University’s accounting system. A separate stand-alone accounting system is maintained by Cooperative Extension Service and is the primary system used to record their activities.

Disclaimers

The data contained on OpenUA is derived from general ledger accounting records and is raw, unaudited and unconsolidated data. Therefore, it will not agree with amounts displayed in budget documents, financial statements or supporting schedules and is not intended to supplement or replace the annual audited financial report.

Information that is not permissible for posting under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act of 1967 and federal laws or regulations is not included. Certain Payee Names have been removed in order to protect the privacy of individuals, in accordance with Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) regulations or where it might be a violation of protected information. These redacted names appear as “Privacy Protection Required.”

Certain expenditures are aggregated and others are shown in detail depending on their nature. Payments to students for scholarships and other financial aid are aggregated to comply with privacy regulations. Certain other payments to students are commingled in classifications where it is not possible to identify all student transactions and redact names appropriately. Consequently, expenditures where known payments to students were made, but cannot be individually redacted, have been reported in the aggregate. In future periods, the University plans to make enhancements to the accounting records that will permit individual reporting of transactions in these categories with appropriate redaction of names.

Expenditures by vendor include all applicable taxes associated with the transaction, regardless of whether remitted to the vendor at the time of sale or to a taxing authority in a separate payment.

Getting Started

The University of Arkansas operates on a fiscal year that begins on July 1 and ends on the following June 30. OpenUA presents data beginning with the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012. The web site will be updated monthly, and data will be accumulated until ten complete fiscal years are available. Each expenditure record contains payee/vendor, payment date, payment amount and category fields. OpenUA is organized by fiscal year and provides searching and drill down capability by payee, by category or by date.

Email questions to: openua@uark.edu