the Office of the Utah State Auditor launched the newest information dashboard available on the Transparent Utah website (transparency.utah.gov). This new dashboard details the cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash being held by Utah’s 16 colleges, universities, and technical colleges.
Auditor Tina M. Cannon commented, “This is the third new transparency tool we have launched since taking office 65 days ago. In the 2025 legislative session there were multiple requests from lawmakers for the cash and cash equivalents being held by higher education institutions. This tool provides an unbiased view of all accounts, breakdowns by institution and trends over time. Our goal is to ensure that everyone—members of the legislature, the public, those involved with higher education—has access to this information.”
The new dashboard takes complicated financial data from all the different institutions of higher education and presents it in a comprehensive financial picture. Within the tool, there are three independent tabs that help users understand the full financial picture of higher education in Utah.
The sections contain:
- Cash and Cash Equivalents display the financial assets which consist of cash and investments with an original maturity of three months or less, are highly liquid, and are available for current operations. Restricted Cash cannot be used toward current liabilities and have binding restrictions for their use.
- Cash Flow – Single Year provides relevant information about cash receipts and payments, assesses the ability to generate future net cash flows, meet obligations as they come due and potential needs for external financing.
- Cash Flow – Multiple Years and Trends presents cash flow information over time by individual institutions and includes the condensed statement of cash flows going back through 2015.
The data sources used to build this new tool come from the annual financial reports and financial statements of each individual institution going back to 1995. These reports are audited annually by the Office of the Utah State Auditor. The individual reports used to create this tool are also available within the tool.
