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[ Preparation & Submission of the Initial Budget Proposal ] View PDF VersionPurpose of the Initial Budget Proposal Each School and Center must submit an Initial Budget to the University Budget Office via PLANNING that reflects that School or Center’s proposed financial plan for the upcoming fiscal year and the subsequent four outyears. School and Center initial proposals form the basis for the budget discussions between Deans and Vice Presidents and Senior Management that take place each year. During this time, the individual plans of the Schools and Centers are also aggregated to see how they work as a whole. Responsibility for the Submission of the Initial Budget The Senior Business Officer in each School and Center is responsible for ensuring that its Initial Budget is submitted to the University Budget Office by the specified deadline. The Senior Business Officer is also responsible for ensuring that the Initial Budget Proposal is consistent with the parameters, and other guidelines contained in that School/Center’s budget call letter, and with the input assumptions and associated supporting schedules. Level of Detail Required in the Initial Budget In general, Schools and Centers should budget to the level of detail that:
Wherever possible, Schools and Centers should maintain the same level of detail in their budget in the initial submission as they have in their Original Budget submission. In some cases, it may not be feasible for a School or Center to include a detailed budget in the Initial Budget submission for all planned activity because this level of budget planning is not possible by the submission deadline. Since it is important that the Initial Budget reflect each School and Center’s complete financial plan for the coming fiscal year, Schools and Centers may need to submit an Initial Budget that is partially detailed to the 26 digit COA level, and partially summarized in the Fund Group and Object Category level. To exercise this option, a School or Center will need to determine how much of its total planned activity is reflected in the detailed budgets it is submitting in PLANNING. The School or Center will then need to estimate the remaining residual activity by Fund Group, and budget that remaining level of projected activity in PLANNING for each Fund Group using the following surrogate fund numbers:
Treatment of Project-Based Activity in the Initial Budget for the Fiscal Year The fiscal year portion of project-based activity will be included in the Initial Budget via PLANNING. For Grants and Contracts, each School should budget the total planned level of activity for the coming fiscal year in the following surrogate funds.
Total income for all grants should be budgeted in Object Code 4600 and expenditures for all grants should be budgeted in the individual object codes in which you expect those expenditures to occur. For University Research Foundation awards (URFs), Schools should budget planned activity for the fiscal year in fund 000002 in the Initial Budget. These lines should be removed from the School’s submission in the Original Budget, and will be budgeted centrally. (Because there is no surrogate fund for URFs, budgeting this in the Schools in the Original Budget would cause confusion with the real URF budgets.) Current Year Projection Schools and Centers must submit a "Year-End Forecast" for the current fiscal year in PLANNING Forecast Scenario. This forecast must include revenue and expenditure data for each Fund Group in which revenue or expense has occurred in the current fiscal year or is planned to occur. For any RCM Rows that show a significant variance from the Original Budget or from what the first six months of year-to-date actuals would suggest, please add cell text to the appropriate entries documenting your understanding of the variance. We will rely on these explanations when we prepare our second quarter budget-to-actual variance analysis for the Trustees. For the convenience of the Schools and Centers, the Spring version of the Current Year budget will be provided via PLANNING. This budget can be copied into the Current Year Forecast fields via the Copy/Adjust function.
Input Assumptions and Other Required Supporting Schedules To better link the budgeting process to the strategic planning process, we are again asking you to:
Input Assumptions are the crucial operational assumptions that underlie each School or Center’s budget submission. The Input Assumptions template presents the minimum input assumptions each School is expected to provide. All Responsibility Centers must complete the Staff Planning Assumptions section and, if applicable, the Capital Projects section. You are encouraged to supplement the input assumptions listed on the template with any additional assumptions you believe are crucial to understanding how your budget is constructed. Please note that the Input Assumptions template asks you to complete both a "Total Staff FTEs" line and a line for "Estimated Staff FTEs Supported by 4xxxxx, 5xxxxx, and 6xxxxx Funds." The "Total" line should include all staff, and the "Estimated Staff supported by 4xxxxx, 5xxxxx, or 6xxxxx Funds" should be a subset of that total. Effective Indirect Cost Recovery (ICR) Rate-Sponsored Programs The Input Assumptions schedule includes a line for effective ICR rate. Only Schools need to complete this line. Effective ICR rates should be calculated by dividing total indirect cost recovery on Sponsored Program funds by total direct Sponsored Program fund expenditures. In other words, divide the "Grant and Contract Overhead Charges" line by the "Total Direct Expenditures After Expense Credits" line taken from the relevant BEN reports or PLANNING Financial Statements, looking at all Sponsored Program funds. Note that this measure of total Sponsored Program expenditures differs from the modified total direct cost (MTDC) base that is used by the federal government for calculating the University’s F&A rate. The MTDC has certain exclusions, including equipment, student aid, and sub-contracts over $25,000 that do not need to be made for purposes of this calculation. Faculty and Academic Support Staff Planning Assumptions Only Schools should complete this schedule. For large Schools, the data should be provided both for your entire School and also at a meaningful level of disaggregation (e.g., department or department grouping). Standing Faculty Funding Template Only Schools should complete this schedule. For large Schools, the data should be provided both for your entire School and also at a meaningful level of disaggregation (e.g., department or department grouping).
Service Delivery Goals All Administrative Service Centers, Resource Centers, and Auxiliary Enterprises should complete this schedule. The "Service Delivery Goals" schedule should identify the major areas in which your Center expects to deliver service, and should present a measurable service delivery goal in each area so identified. Goals set forth should represent an attainable level of service, assuming your budget is approved as submitted. Actual results and a current estimate should be presented so that goals for next year can be evaluated in the context of current levels of service delivery effort. Checklist for Completion of Initial Budget Submissions Before submitting your Initial Budget, you should confirm all budgeted Resource Transfers and Expense Credits are documented in notes to the PLANNING files. Initial Budget submissions should include:
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