🔹 Office Hours Schedule
Drop-in support sessions began in April 2025 and are now held at 10:00 AM every Wednesday. Calendar invitations have been sent out to all provisioned transactors.
Recordings are posted as quickly as possible after sessions.
Budget Office Hours Recordings
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2026 Office Hours
January Budget Office Hour Recordings
February Budget Office Hour Recordings
March Budget Office Hour Recordings
April Budget Office Hour Recordings
- April 1st, 2026
- April 8th, 2026
This meeting focused on fiscal year-end preparation, fund cleanup, and process improvements related to transfers and system functionality. A primary priority is the cleanup of the 69993 fund, which currently carries a significant balance. Units were reminded to submit salary cost transfers (SCTs) promptly—especially for prior-year expenses—to ensure accurate reporting and avoid deficits ahead of fiscal close. There was also an emphasis on clearing all permanent deficits, with the exception of allowable salary savings, and ensuring budgets are aligned down to the flex level. Discussion also covered Inter-Campus Transfer (ITF) deadlines. The final submission deadline is May 21, though some campuses may require earlier action. To avoid processing issues, units were advised to pause new ITF submissions after this date and resume activity in the new fiscal year beginning July 1. Several operational challenges were raised. These included system limitations with the expense transfer tool, rejected transfers lacking clear justification, and difficulties reconciling older salary and payroll data across reporting systems. These issues are impacting departments’ ability to fully clean up funds and complete transfers efficiently. There were also concerns about limited visibility into ITF tracking and status updates, as well as unclear transaction details in existing systems. Improvements to tracking processes and communication tools are being explored. Additionally, updates were shared regarding a reorganization of the website to improve accessibility and clarity of budget-related resources. A demonstration of the updated site is planned. Overall, the discussion emphasized timely action on fiscal close tasks, the need for improved system functionality, and enhancements to tracking and communication processes to better support departments. - April 15th, 2026
The meeting focused on budget and fiscal close updates, with Susana providing information about ongoing conversations regarding 69993 items between accounting and the Budget Office. She outlined upcoming deadlines, including May 31st staffing deadline and June 18th final deadline, and reminded CFOs to review commitment lists and COA information that had been sent out. Susana discussed the process of obtaining deficit analysis reports and emphasized the importance of cleaning up negative balances and authorized permanent deficits. Cherie inquired about the fiscal close letter being posted online and whether an announcement would follow, which Susana agreed to check on. The conversation ended with a reminder about the May 21st deadline for ITFs and instructions for communicating with other campuses regarding fund transfers.
May Budget Office Hour Recordings
- May 6th, 2026
The meeting focused on data reconciliation and reimbursement processes, particularly regarding CBR pool reimbursements and cost transfer procedures. Susana explained that due to increased scrutiny from UCOP on CBR reimbursements, they are not processing reimbursements for incorrectly charged expenses, except for fund 69993 which requires cleanup. The discussion covered scenarios where expenses were charged to wrong COAs or C&G funds, with clarification that manual transfers would be required for non-C&G fund movements. Lily inquired about campus-wide announcements regarding the $50 clearing threshold for fund 69350, and Susana confirmed they would send an email with guidance. Technical issues were discussed, including NCT tool errors and fund transfer problems, with Uzair offering to work with the BFS systems team to resolve these issues.
June Budget Office Hour Recordings
July Budget Office Hour Recordings
- July 1st, 2026
Susana led a meeting to discuss the transition to the new fiscal year, addressing issues with the fiscal year drop-down menu in Smart View and emphasizing the importance of double-checking entries to ensure correct year selection. She announced that fiscal year 26 would remain open until July 10th at 5pm for temporary adjustments, while fiscal year 27 entries could begin immediately, and highlighted the need to budget significant unbudgeted revenue across various accounts. Susana reported that the control budget feed to GL had been repushed after initial issues, though the carry-forward function was still pending, and she shared a campus-wide report showing numerous revenue accounts still requiring budgeting. The team discussed specific questions about NCT posting dates (confirmed as June 30th), suspense fund cleanup processes, and issues with activity summary reports for FY27 due to pending carry-forward data. - July 8th, 2026
- July 15th, 2026
Susana discussed system issues and updates regarding the budget and FTE forms. She announced that the FTE form did not properly roll over from the previous year to FY27, causing missing FTE data in staffing reports, and promised to correct this issue soon. Susana also addressed grid entry problems where copying and pasting values with more than two decimal places was causing small out-of-balance funds, instructing users to round all numbers to two decimal places before entering them into the system. She provided updates on the budget closure process, noting that while most users were cut off from FY26, the Central Budget Office was still transacting, and the final PERM load to UCOP would be delayed until Friday or Monday. There was a request to review of the grid detail report features, which Susana demonstrated showing how to filter and view transaction details by org, fund type, and data source. - July 22nd, 2026
- July 29th, 2026
Susana discussed ongoing work to roll over the July 1 FTE into the Smart View form and reported Smart View issues for Mac users. She mentioned that costing reports for 7-1 actions were being compiled and would be distributed soon, and requested departments to inform the Budget Office of any position cuts impacting the perm benefit pool. Salazar also addressed data issues in Looker, noting that FY27 data was fixed but FY26 had unresolved problems, and confirmed that the Central Budget Officewas still closing FY26. During the Q&A, there was a question asked about flex code management, and Salazar clarified that inactive codes could not be deleted or have their code changed, only their descriptions, and encouraged repurposing existing codes to reduce system strain. The conversation ended with an invitation for further questions via email.
August Budget Office Hour Recordings
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2025 Office Hours
Office Hours Recordings & Notes
- Friday, April 25th: Installing Smart View & Updating Your Settings; Getting your Work Sheet Set Up (covering Guide 2 & the beginning of Guide 3)
- Monday, April 28th: Getting your Work Sheet Set Up (Covering Setting Up your Cost Share Guide Tab in your Work Sheet from Guide 3)
3. Wednesday, April 30th: Gifts & Endowments as wells as the Control Budget Review Tab
4. Friday, May 2nd
5. Monday, May 5th
6. Thursday, May 8th
Please find the Cost Share Example Worksheet referenced in the meeting linked here.7. Monday, May 12th: Getting Setup in PROD
8. Wednesday, May 14th Office Hours
9. Friday, May 16th Office Hours
10. Monday, May 19th Office Hours
11. Wednesday, May 21st Office Hours
12. Friday, May 23rd Office Hours
13. Wednesday, May 28th Office Hours: The Budget Process
14. Friday, May 30th Office Hours
15. Wednesday, June 4th Office Hours
16. Friday, June 6th Office Hours
17. Wednesday, June 11th Office Hours
18. Friday, June 13th Office Hours
18. Wednesday, June 18th
19. Friday, June 20th
20. Wednesday, June 25th
21. Thursday, June 26th: The Budget Process
22. Friday, June 27th
23. Wednesday, July 2nd
24. Wednesday, July 9th
25. Friday, July 11th
26. Wednesday, July 23rd
27. Friday, July 25th
28. Wednesday, July 30th
29. Friday, August 1st
30. Wednesday, August 6th
31. Friday, August 8th
32. Wednesday, August 13th
33. August 20th Office Hours
34. August 27th Office Hours
35. September 3rd Office Hours
36. September 10th Office Hours
27. September 17th Office Hours
28. September 24th Office Hours
29. October 1st Office Hours
34. November 12th Office Hours
35. November 19th Office Hours
37. December 10th Office Hours
38. December 17th Office Hours
🔹 Need Help?
📧 budgetoffice@ucr.edu
If you need support outside of office hours, email us and we’ll connect you with the right resources.