Investment in the Deposit Account

On this page:

• What is a deposit account
• Interest
• Overdrawn accounts
• Placing money on deposit
• Taking money off deposit
• Information on department deposits     

What is the Deposit Account

The deposit account is a University wide facility that allows departments with surpluses (on a variety of eligible sources of funds) to invest those funds. This is generally used for short-term investments where monies held "on deposit" are credited with monthly interest, which increases the department's available resources. Many departments have surpluses that are held on deposit.

Departments are responsible for monitoring their own account and deposit balances and can process deposit movements themselves by means of a General Ledger journal or, in certain instances, request movements to be processed by the Finance Division.

As accounts which hold deposits must not be overdrawn at source of funds level, departmental processing means that funds can be made available straightaway (e.g. to cover an urgent purchase order or payment) instead of having to wait for the transaction to be processed centrally.

Key features of the Deposit Account include:

• Interest is earned on invested surpluses
• Interest is credited monthly and is available to re-invest
• No risk to the capital sum invested

Only surpluses on the accounts specified below may be invested. These surpluses attract either a higher or a lower rate of interest depending on the source of funds.

* Special dispensation required.

To transfer deposit interest from one account to another, use transaction code LXBB on both sides of the journal. (NEVER use NBAA in the journal.) 

Back to top

Interest

The monthly interest calculation is run by the Treasury & Investments team using balances as at the end of working day four of the month-end processing period. No further deposit movements should be processed after this date.

Interest earned varies monthly as interest rates move. The reduced rate of interest is 75% of the higher rate.

Monthly UDA rates are available on the webpage, University deposit account rates.

Interest is credited to all relevant departmental accounts each month by the end of working day five of the General Ledger (GL) month-end closure (subject to any overdrawn accounts issues – see below). It appears as a credit against the transaction code NBAA and will be available to spend or reinvest. 

Back to top

Overdrawn accounts

Departments should check that by the fourth working day of month end any accounts with monies on deposit are not overdrawn at source of funds level.

If overdrawn, departments should take money off deposit to ensure that by the close of business on that day the account is no longer overdrawn. If this does not happen an overdrawn account will be subject to an enforced deposit movement to bring the account into a positive balance. 

Back to top

Placing money on deposit

This is done by means of a journal in the GL. In a new batch start a journal in the normal way. Key fields are:

• Period: For deposits the period will be the current period.
• Category: Select Department deposit movements from the list of values 

In the first line of the journal, enter the account code for the account with funds that you want to invest:

• The transaction code for these entries will always be SCBA (funds on deposit)
• Enter the amount that you want to place on deposit in the debit column.

The credit entry for your journal line is coded to the department’s balance sheet but with a transaction code of SCCA (Monies on Deposit control account).

Please note that Departments can now process Deposit Movements to the penny.

Account codes for placing money on deposit

Save and post your journal in the normal way.

If there is a long list of transfers, enter all the debit lines first. Then complete one credit line coded to the Deposit Control Account for the total of the journal. 

Back to top

Taking money off deposit

Back to top

Information on Department deposits

You will be able to view details of department deposits and interest received using the Cognos Reporting tool. The suggested report is the GL: Budget to Actual, using analysing transaction codes: NBAA (Deposit account interest) and SCBA (Monies on Deposit). Use the latter to see the value of money currently held on deposit for a particular account.

Back to top

Last updated 13 May 2026