Upcoming Deadlines
- Friday, 5/2 - Submit budget and budget templates
- Friday, 5/16 - Ensure schedulers check final Spring CSIR data
- Friday, 5/23 - Submit completed and approved Org Tree change requests
- Friday, 5/30 - Submit non-contract and grant deficit waiver requests
Federal Updates
Please be aware of two resources regarding the evolving federal policy shifts: the UCOP Federal Updates page and the UC Berkeley Federal Updates page.
Budget Process
Budget process update
The FY2025-26 budget call letter was sent to the Deans, Vice Chancellors, and Divisional Finance Leaders. The budget process guidelines and assumptions, budget templates, and timeline are available on the FY26 Budget Process page. Budgets and budget templates are due on Friday, May 2.
UC Hiring Freeze Implementation Plan for the Berkeley Campus
On Wednesday, a message was sent to all staff and faculty regarding the implementation of a UC systemwide hiring freeze at UC Berkeley, set to take effect on April 11, 2025. Notably, searches already underway for both academic and staff positions can proceed. Exceptions will be made for new searches that meet certain criteria. Please refer to the EVCP’s message for more details.
Budget Template Reports
The R180 - Budget Template and R181 - Use of Reserves Template reports are available for you to run until the budget deadline. To access the reports, log in to CalPlanning and navigate to Explore > Budget Template. Run them and save the results before the budget deadline on Friday, May 2.
CalPlanning availability
The Planning tools CalPlan and HCP are available for planning so you can update open months in your FY25 Forecast and create your FY26 Operating Budget. The FY25 Forecast currently includes February Actuals and will not be updated with Actuals for the remainder of this fiscal year due to the budget process.
Action Items
Ensure schedulers check final Spring CSIR data by Friday, May 16
The last day for schedulers to make changes to the Spring 2025 semester is Friday, May 16. This is a hard deadline, meaning schedulers will not be able to make any edits, including error corrections, after this date. Schedulers can review their courses and check for errors in the CSIR reports. These reports are sent out twice each semester: once on the 6th week of instruction and again on the 15th week just before the deadline. Schedulers can also pull these reports themselves throughout the semester. Instructions on how to pull the CSIR reports, along with other scheduling tips/tricks, can be found on the OPA CSIR slide deck (slide 24). Additionally, schedulers are encouraged to reach out to the OPA-CSIR team at opa-csir@berkeley.edu if they have any questions or need help correcting any errors.
Submit completed and approved org tree change requests by Friday, May 23
If you would like to submit changes to the Org Tree, please submit your completed, Budget and Financial Operations (BFO) Committee approved request by Friday, May 23, 2025. We recommend that you submit your change request form for review as soon as possible to allow time for the BFO team to review your request, follow up with you for any necessary clarification, approve your request, and allow you time to obtain all required signatures before the submission deadline.
The time needed to review change requests will vary, depending on the complexity of the request. For more information:
- A high-level summary of the process to approve org tree changes is available on the DFL concierge webpage.
- An overview of the org tree change submission deadlines is available in the Org Tree Submission and Processing Timeline. Important: Please review the update on the estimated processing time for journal source configuration of new L4 org node codes. As a reminder, journal source configuration for new L4's is required if there is a need to prepare and approve journals.
- Please review the Org Tree Calendar for the timeline of allowable org tree changes throughout the year.
- Please review the new Org Tree Lookup Tool This new tool replaces the monthly manually produced Master Org Tree and will provide the most current org tree data as of one business day before. Training materials and Job Aids are located on the CFO website.
- There are updates coming soon to the Department Prefixes, and How to Create Visio files job aids located in the Tools and job aids section of the Organizational Tree web page.
- Please submit questions and requests for changes to the Org Tree to dfl_concierge@berkeley.edu. Note: If you plan to request an Org Node change or Entity Hierarchy redesign, please contact dfl_concierge@berkeley.edu and explain what you would like to change before completing the request form because these changes are typically more complex and involve longer consultations.
Submit non-contract and grant deficit waiver requests by Friday, May 30
The non-contract and grant (C&G) FY2024-25 Deficit Waiver request form is now available on the VC Finance website. If you are planning to submit a non-C&G waiver request, complete the form by Friday, May 30. As a reminder, all divisions are expected to meet their operating needs within their available funding; waivers should only be requested for exceptional circumstances. Deficits less than $25,000 are not eligible for a waiver request. To assist in this process, use the fund deficit report in Cal Answers: Dashboards>Finance>Fund Deficits Reporting>Deficits to be Cleared. Note that you do not need to submit a new request for a previously approved multi-year deficit waiver unless you require a higher waiver amount. To view waivers that were approved as part of a prior multi-year request, use the waiver report in Cal Answers: Dashboards>Finance>Fund Deficits Reporting>Waivers and Tolerances. More information about non-C&G deficit resolution policy and processes, including waiver eligibility thresholds, how to clear deficits, and what happens if a deficit is not cleared, is available on the Fiscal closing related webpage. If you have other questions regarding the non-C&G deficit clearing process, please contact the Financial Planning & Analysis team at dfl_concierge@berkeley.edu.
Informational Updates
Welcoming our new Vice Chancellor for Finance and Chief Financial Officer
We are pleased to announce that Kelly G. Sparks has been selected as our next vice chancellor for finance and chief financial officer. Kelly joins us from the University of Maine, where she serves as the executive vice president of finance and administration and chief business officer. Her first day at Berkeley will be July 1, 2025. You can learn more about Kelly on Berkeley News. We express our appreciation to Daniel Feitelberg for his substantial contributions to the university as the interim vice chancellor over the past two years.
Reimbursement Changes for Lab Equipment Purchases
Last week, the Controller’s Office and Supply Chain Management sent a clarifying email reminding staff to follow existing SCM processes when purchasing high-cost equipment or high-risk goods and services, rather than purchasing these items out-of-pocket. Under existing UC policies, any item or service listed on the SCM “Restricted Purchases” page is prohibited from being purchased out-of-pocket because they present potentially serious environmental, health, legal, audit, or regulatory risks. These restrictions do not apply to items such as common, commercially available retail goods, general office or lab supplies, or services. Although this is not a new policy, we acknowledge that it has not been strictly enforced to date. To give the campus community time to plan for this adjustment, enforcement of the policy on reimbursing the items listed above will begin on July 1, 2025. Please reinforce this message with your units and contact us with any questions at travel@berkeley.edu.
UCPath FICA Adjustments
In mid-2024, UCPath notified employees of corrections to federal payroll tax deductions associated with FICA taxes. These taxes were not properly deducted from employees’ paychecks who transitioned from student (FICA exempt) to non-student (FICA subject or Medicare only) status between 2019 and March 2024. UCPath teams began processing the 2021-2024 FICA adjustments in November. Ongoing adjustments are scheduled through August 2025 via off-cycle pay runs. A new UCPath earn code ETW was created for these adjustments and can be viewed via the Payroll detail report in Cal Answers. These pay runs result in automatic postings to the location and UCOP general ledgers after each pay run is processed. In February, it was identified that part of the journals for pay runs already processed have resulted in the employer portion of FICA to expense to the department level, which may have created issues with location fund accounting. UCPath teams are working on a solution.
Duplicated Contribution Items in CalAnswers and Berkeley Financial System
Due to an erroneous upload to the Berkeley Financial System (BFS) in March, a small group of funds experienced duplicated contribution entries dated March 18 and March 21. This issue has impacted 56 campus units. A list of the affected units can be found via this Box link. UDAR is actively working to reverse the duplicated entries in April. In the meantime, if your unit is listed among the impacted campus units, please carefully review your March contributions to your ledger and refrain from distributing any duplicated funds until the reversals are complete. If you have any questions regarding the impact or resolution of this issue, please don’t hesitate to contact Wellei at welleiwong@berkeley.edu.
Cal Answers training
The Cal Answers website hosts self-service learning resources including a complete course in basic navigation as well as short videos, job aids, wiki documentation, and a list of Frequently Asked Questions. We also offer a two-hour instructor-led class that builds on the basic navigation skills covered in the self-study. There are separate courses focusing on financial dashboards and student data dashboards. In the class, a subject matter expert guides a deep dive into the reports and data available in the dashboards and answers specific questions.
CalPlanning training
The curriculum uses a blended learning model. Courses begin with self-study using online books divided into chapters supplemented with practice exercises and short videos. Courses culminate with a group session using Zoom in which participants work on case studies in small teams to apply the material covered in the self-study. The self-study materials are available on the website for everyone to use; they can be a helpful resource for those who have already completed the training and are looking for a refresher. Review the CalPlanning training page for schedules, links to enroll, and to access the self-study materials.
Changes to the DFL in your division?
If the DFL role in your division is changing, email fpa@berkeley.edu to ensure our website, communications, and training plans are updated.
DFL Weekly Updates Page
As a reminder, these updates are regularly posted to the DFL Weekly Updates page so you can reference past updates at any time. Additionally, the Operational Deadlines page provides an overview of deliverables by quarter.
Thank you,
Office of the Vice Chancellor of Finance