The fund balance represents the cumulative net income or loss generated by the recharge operation since its date of inception. University policy requires the fund balance be $0.00 (break-even) by the end of a reasonable period, usually the University fiscal year end. This policy is necessitated by OMB Circular A-21 guideline which stipulates that recharge operation prices be consistently adjusted to insure that the recharge operation recovers only its costs. It is also necessitated by the need to monitor the impact of recharge operations on the University's unrestricted budget. Therefore, any recharge operation that has a fund deficit at fiscal year end must fund the deficit from other departmental unrestricted funds unless the Comptroller's Office has approved an alternative plan. A recharge operation that has a fund balance at fiscal year end must reduce future prices to absorb the excess income. The fund balance cannot be used for other activities or placed into a reserve for future purchases.

The operating fund balance of a recharge operation is recorded in account control 3120 in Ledger 0. This coding is indirectly updated by transactions posted to the Ledger 2 recharge account. It is not available for coding by the recharge operation.