Financial Planning & Analysis

VCPB Budget Model Considerations

Budget Model Refinement Schedule

Budget Process Refinement

FP&A conducts the annual budget process for the campus. The bifurcated budget process begins in early February and concludes in May of each year. Service Providers enter the budget process first in order to provide Revenue Generators with accurate indirect costs. The Budget Committee reviews budget materials for all Revenue Generator units, including Schools/Colleges, Auxiliaries and Recharge units. All Service Provider budget materials pass through the Governance Committee for review. These committees evaluate all budget requests, with final budget approval and allocations at the discretion of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Planning and Budget.

In order to facilitate effective customer service, each Organization has been assigned a specific FP&A analyst for the budget process. This analyst will be the primary FP&A point of contact for the Org and will be able to answer any questions throughout the budget process.

Timeline: 

In UCR’s decentralized budget model, the costs of Service Providers are distributed across the campus as indirect costs. Service Level Agreements, or SLAs, outline the menu of services offered by these units and act as a contract between campus Service Providers and customers to align expectations about the services provided and associated costs.

SLAs outline three levels of services offered by the various Service Providers:

There are currently 13 SLAs on campus:

Service Level Agreement Governance Committee

Established as an advisory committee to the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Planning and Budget, the SLA Governance Committee is composed of representatives of Schools/Colleges, the Senate Planning and Budget Committee, Auxiliaries and Service Providers, including:

Governance Committee members serve for 3 year terms, with new members rotating on to the committee each year.

The Governance Committee reviews Service Provider budgets through the budget process and works closely with the Service Providers to ensure that service provision, quality of services and costs are in alignment with the needs of the customer units and the overall strategic objectives of UCR. In the decentralized budget model, increases in Service Provider budgets will necessarily increase the indirect costs charged to each unit. Thus, with the establishment of the Governance Committee, the units that pay for services will have a say in what services are provided.

To contact the Governance Committee with any questions or concerns, please send an email to:slagovernance@ucr.edu.

To complement the budget model, FP&A maintains a number of COGNOS Financial reports. These reports provide decision makers at all levels of UCR with accurate, concise, clear and well-structured information in order to allow decision making with UCR goals and objectives in sight. Offering the critical data needed for leadership decisions in a format tailored to the specific needs and interests of individual campus leaders.

Overview:

• IBM’s business intelligence (BI) and performance management tool is designed to help businesses extract data & assemble reports.
• COGNOS is used in the Annual Budget Process and FPA has generated reports designed to assist in monitoring and maintain good financial control enhance decision-making strategies and standardize reporting across campus.
• COGNOS is a Web-based application compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari.

Gaining Access:

• Grant User UCRFSTotals access via EACS (see department’s SAA)
• Once user has UCRFSTotals access, COGNOS access will be automatic
• To login, go to COGNOS Web Portal: ucrreport.ucr.edu/cognos
• Use UCR NetID and Password to sign in

Consolidated Financial Performance Report

Financial report intended to provide CFAO’s with a high-level snap-shot of the Organization’s financial position for the current fiscal year. Report includes projected revenues and expenses for the current fiscal year, carryforward, and revenues and expenses for the prior fiscal year.

• Consolidated Financial Performance Report Mapping
• Consolidated Financial Performance Report Sample

Contracts & Grants
Contracts and Grants (C&G) reports that provide multi-year information on expenditures, direct and facilities and administration (FA&) costs, associated with contracts and grants awarded to the University of California, Riverside (UCR) by non-University entities as they are reflected in the campus general ledger.

• C&G Report Mapping
• C&G Report Sample

Cost Center Report
Description: Actuals by FAU including Cost Center.

• Cost Center Report Mapping
• Cost Center Report Sample

Profit and Loss Statement
Electronic version of the Profit and Loss (P&L) statement approved as part of the annual campus planning and budget process. This report enables a unit to compare its approved budget to actual performance on a quarterly basis in the format of the new campus budge model. The report also provides actual data from the prior fiscal year for comparative purposes.

• Profit and Loss Statement Mapping
• Profit and Loss Statement Sample

Consistent with the UCPath goals of standardizing processes and increasing efficiency, UCR  established fringe benefit rates that are based on a percentage of an employee’s salary according to Employee Groups that do not vary by individual employee benefit selections. These rates are commonly referred to as Composite Benefit Rates (CBRs).   CBRs were  implemented in conjunction with the roll-out of UCPath with December 2017 earnings paid in January 2018.

Negotiated UCR CBR Groups and Rates. (Revised 12/20/17)

Please review CBR Frequently Asked Questions for some of the commonly asked CBR questions. This document will be updated as further questions are received. Please send us a message on cbrinfo@ucr.edu if you have any questions.

With the implementation of the new budget model, UCR changed its distribution methodology of F&A. The entire F&A pool is distributed in General Funds (19900) as follows:

• 50% - Campus
• 25% - Schools / Colleges / Other Orgs
• 10% - Departments
• 10% - VCRED
• 5% - PIs

Please review the following documents for further information:

• 2016-17 F&A Distribution
• 2017-18 F&A Distribution

Capital Finance: Can we afford it and what resources should we use?

Through the process of integrated planning, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) partners with a diverse group of stakeholders to provide guidance and assistance in strategically funding capital projects that are outlined in the campus 10-year Capital Financial Program (CFP).

• Executive Leadership – Provide analysis and insight to executive leadership in areas that effect the financial aspect of the CFP process. Such analysis includes review of auxiliary business plans and auxiliary program pro forma analysis, capital project financial feasibility and campus debt capacity thresholds.
• Project Stakeholders – Ensure that capital project stakeholders are using resources in accordance with campus, public, private, state and government policy.
• Campus Customers – Provide guidance to campus customers regarding the use of campus resources (such as general funds, contracts and grants, endowments, gift funds or any other restricted fund source) for capital projects.
• Capital Project Debt – Maintain the campus Debt Affordability Model (DAM) to present to University of California Office of the President (UCOP) to ensure the campus debt ratios meet UCOP debt threshold standards.
• Capital Project Approval Process – Provide financial feasibility metrics to (UCOP) to ensure the campus can afford debt service payments for externally financed projects.
• Capital Improvement Budget – Provide Interest During Construction (IDC) calculations to capital project stakeholders to inform the Capital Improvement Budget (CIB) and the project’s financial feasibility reporting to UCOP.
• Capital Project Funding – Provide funding instructions to Accounting to sequester the appropriate resources that were approved to be used for a capital project.

As stated in University policy, “generally, sales to a non-University customer should be considered a grant or contract, unless the sale is based on established unit prices, and like services or products are sold to other non-University customers or University department based on the same unit prices (allowing for the indirect cost differential charged to non-University customers).”

Per APM-020, “regulation 4 deals with services to individuals and organizations outside the University…Such service may be justified if it does not interfere with University commitments and if 1) it gives the individual experience and knowledge of value to his teaching or research; 2) it is suitable research through which the individual may make worthy contributions to knowledge; or 3) it is appropriate public service.”  Additionally, Regulation 4 states that “University laboratories, bureaus and facilities are not to be used for tests, studies, or investigations of a purely commercial character, such as mineral assays, determination of properties of materials, the performance of efficiencies of machines, analysis of soils, water, insecticides, fertilizers, feeds, fuels, and other material, statistical calculations, etc., except when it is shown conclusively that satisfactory facilities for such services do not exist elsewhere.”

Therefore, if there are to be sales to non-university customers, by completing [an] application you are certifying that this is not grant or contract activity, and that these goods or services are not available in the private sector.

Applications for establishing a Sales & Service Fund can be submitted via eForms.

• A Manual version of the application can be found HERE.
• Policies regarding the establishment and maintenance of Sales & Service Funds can be found HERE.
• Questions should be directed to FP&A.

External Constituents

Budget Model Redesign: This presentation will guide your creation of an engagement plan to design and roll out a new budget model in partnership with academic and financial leadership.

Internal Constituents

Tutorial: A tutorial on the new budget model for financial administrative officers and other financial roles

• Optimizing Resource Allocation – An Experiment in Activity Based Costing in Higher Education — Gates Foundation Grant — UC Riverside
• Community College Cost Management Model — Gates Foundation Grant — White Paper Addendum — Johnson County Community College
• Budget Model Redesign
• Budget Model and SLA Governance FAQ
• ABC Project Information — August 2015
• UCR Budget Briefing Book
• Redesigning a Budget Model with a Grassroots Approach