March 2024 Release Notes

March 4, 2024

March 2024 CalPlanning Release Notes

The CalPlanning tools (CalPlan, HCP, CalRptg, HCPRptg, SmartView) are available. 

Enhancements include:

• A Drill Through - Account Summary form to give users a higher-level view of their unit’s plan. This new form allows users to select an account parent (e.g., “Supplies”, “Scholarships”, “Salaries and Wages”, etc.) and “drill through” to the most granular account intersection levels for analysis and data entry.

• The new CalRptg report CR127 expands on the existing CR120 SRECNA by including three prior years of Actuals and calculates year-over-year variances based on the average of those three-years’ worth of Actuals.

Updates include:

• FY2023-24 Forecast Working version has January Actuals

• Central Transfer accounts updated

• Annual removal of DeptIDs for planning has been completed

• Updated UCPath HCM data is available for planners to review and selectively copy to HCP

Please remember: When the "Copy HCM by Entity to Plan" is used by the planner, ALL "To Be Hired" data will be cleared in that entity. Before using this functionality, we suggest exporting the data for Monthly Pay Rate and Distributions to Excel in case you need to re-enter it.

FY2023-24 Forecast Working version will be updated with February actual data on Thursday morning March 14 between 6 am and 9 am. See the CalPlanning website for details. 

Data in FY25 Operating Budget Working

In October 2023, FY24 Operating Budget Final was copied to FY25 Operating Budget Working. Please refer to the October 2023 release notes for additional details.

FY25 Operating Budget Working includes all of the updates that planners made through Feb 6, 2024, with changes to Central Transfers & Commitments and compensation data pushed from HCP (details below).

Recommended MyOrg Preferences

To help make the CalPlan and HCP forms perform more quickly for you, we suggest that you set your preferences as: 

• CalPlan MyOrg preference to an L3 org or below 

• HCP MyOrg preference to an L5 or L6 or L7 org

This will bring back fewer intersections to display in your form and improve performance for everyone.

Enhancement: Drill Through - Account Summary

In collaboration with L&S, the Drill Through - Account Summary form was developed to give users a higher-level view of their unit’s plan. This new form expands on the existing detail view by allowing users to select an account parent (e.g., “Supplies”, “Scholarships”, “Salaries and Wages”, etc.) and “drill through” to the most granular account intersection levels for analysis and data entry. The new form includes two prior years of Actuals along with the current fiscal year to better enable multi-year comparisons. Additionally, you can use this form to enter summary plan amounts for a given quarter or YearTotal period and the system will automatically distribute those amounts proportionally to each month within that period. See the Drill Through - Account Summary Job Aid for more information on how to get the most from this new feature.

Enhancement: CR127 - SRECNA Scenario Comparison with 3 years of Actuals

Also developed in partnership with L&S, the new CalRptg report CR127 expands on the existing CR120 SRECNA by including three prior years of Actuals and calculates year-over-year variances based on the average of those three-years’ worth of Actuals. Similar to the multiple years of Actuals displayed in the new Drill Through - Account Summary form, this report helps planners acquire a longitudinal view of their unit’s spending over time.

Accounting Change: Membership Funds Moved from Contracts & Grants to Sales & Service

Due to an accounting change that went into effect on November 1, 2023, affiliate membership fee revenue previously recognized as Contracts & Grants will now count towards Sales and Services. As such, you may notice changes in in-year plan activity if you have revenues associated with any of these funds.

In CalRptg, these funds have been moved under a new parent in the CalPlanning fund tree. Membership Funds, which is placed in the tree like this:

Current Funds

Unrestricted

Unrestricted Funds

Sales, Services & Other

Sales and Services Other Revenue

Membership Funds

Central Transfers

• FY24 and FY25 Central Transfers and Commitments have been updated in CalPlanning from a combination of Actuals data and planned data from the Campus Commitment Database.

• FY2023-24 general allocation accounts 71110, 71290, and 75101 were seeded with permanent budget data to the C1_GENALC general allocation Chart1 member.

• Accounts in the Campus Support 712xx, 713xx, and 714xx series have been updated with the most recent commitments data available by the Financial Planning & Analysis team for open periods for both planning years. (Inclusion in the commitment database does not guarantee future funding. All amounts are subject to change.) Data in these accounts for closed periods reflects actual transacted commitments.

• Form A Accounts in the 71xxx series have been cleared and will be updated again later this month with Form A data provided by the DFLs for both planning years to the C1_FORMA1 and C1_FORMA2 Form A Chart1 members.

• Account 72210 Regents Endowment/FFE FY2023-24 Actual Payout has been copied to the FY2024-25 Operating Budget and increased by 2%. Information from University Development and Alumni Relations (UDAR) about fund performance is available in the FY2024-25 Budget guidelines and assumptions for potential planner adjustments.

Dept ID Inactivation

We applied changes for DeptIDs that are in the process of being inactivated. Actuals remain in the original entity but the Forecast and Operating Budget amounts have been moved to the mapped entity.

For the list of already inactive DeptIDs as well as DeptIDs planned for inactivation, go to the DeptID planned for inactivation in CalPlanning webpage and select DeptID status in the CalPlan list.

Current status of HCP data

Currently, HCP data for FY24 is the same as the night of Tuesday, February 6, when we took the system down for the release work. You may choose to use the "Review HCM data to add to Plan" dataset (described below) to update your FY24 and/or FY25 plans.

HCP data for FY24 Forecast was copied to FY25 Operating Budget with:

• Monthly FY25 pay rates were increased by 4.2% over the FY24 June pay rate for individually-planned employee positions and to-be-hired positions for all employees, regardless of union. Use the Review HCM to Add to Plan task and forms to apply various amounts by union.

• FY25 Pooled Position amounts were increased by 4.2% over the prior year. See the job code-to-pooled position mapping file.

• Dept ID adjustments were not copied from FY24 to FY25.

Review HCM data to add to Plan

The Review HCM data to add to Plan task and forms can be helpful for updating your plan: with the current and future pay rates and distributions for existing employees, with new hires and transfers into your department, and with employees who have left your department and should be removed from your plan. Planners are encouraged to regularly review and copy HCM data to HCP to ensure periodic increases are accurately captured in their forecasts.

• The Review HCM data to add to Plan task and forms are available.

• The HCM data is from UCPath on the night of Sunday February, 11. 

• The HCM data was modified in the following ways to minimize manual correction for planners:

• Salaries for employees paid over 10 months corrected to remove the need for manual salary adjustments. HCP spreads annual salaries over 12 months. Employees with ‘1/10’ in their titles had their annual salary multiplied by 12/10 so that the 12-month spread and annual salary are correctly calculated.

• Employees with end dates were extended, except contract appointment employees and employees who separated or were on unpaid leave before 2/1/2024.

• Salary increases and timing for FY25 in the Review HCM data to add to Plan data:

BX - Academic Student Employees & BR - Graduate Student Researchers employees are in pooled positions. See the Current Rates (BX) website for salary scale information.

In cases where a union contract is expiring, the salary increase from the prior year is planned forward for budgeting purposes. You may need to update your budget plan as new union contracts are negotiated and ratified.

REMINDER: When the Copy HCM by Entity to Plan is used by the planner, ALL To Be Hired data will be cleared in that entity. Make note of To Be Hired data by exporting the forms to Excel should you need to re-enter it.

See the Review HCM Data to Add to Plan job aid, training materials, and video for details on how to use this functionality.

Reminder About Planning Employee Compensation in HCP

If you are not seeing the expected calculated salary expense for your employees, make sure that a monthly salary rate and distribution exist for the employee, DeptID, job code combination in the Manage Existing Employees and Job Codes form. You can also use the Review HCM Data to Add to Plan form to update the current HCM monthly pay and distribution to your HCP plan.

Refresher Training

Keep an eye out for upcoming budget refresher course offerings on the Training page of the CalPlanning website. We will highlight new features, planning tips and answer users’ questions related to updating their budgets. Also see the training page for other upcoming training opportunities.

CalPlanning System Maintenance 

All of CalPlanning (CalRptg, HCPRptg, CalPlan and HCP and Smart View) will be unavailable for planned maintenance to apply required security patches on:

• Wednesday, February 28, 10:30 pm to Thursday, February 29, 8:00 am

• Wednesday, March 27, 10:30 pm to Thursday, March 28, 8:00 am

• Wednesday, April 24, 10:30 pm to Thursday, April 25, 8:00 am

Details for Reference

Composite Benefit Rates, Fee Remission, and GAEL

Composite Benefit Rates and GAEL have been updated for planning purposes. Fee remission rates were updated with newer rates in January. UCRP is calculated for Current Funds excluding Contracts & Grants.

As a reminder, since implementing UCPath we follow a standard process for calculating rates led by UCOP and will adopt their agreements with the federal government. More information about how the CBR rates are calculated is available on the Composite Benefit Rate webpage. 

See the Composite Benefit Rates (CBR), General, Automobile, and Employment Liability (GAEL), and UCRP Supplemental Interest Assessment websites for more information.

Training and Documentation

Self-study training materials are available on the Training page of the CalPlanning website for new users and those who would like to refresh their knowledge. Instructor-led training will be available starting in March 2024.