Budget process call letter, assumptions and guidelines, templates available

March 7, 2018

Divisional Finance Leaders,

The FY2018-19 budget call letter, assumptions and guidelines, and working templates are now available on the budget process webpage

  • Call letterYesterday, EVCP Paul Alivisatos released the FY2018-19 budget call letter. Please work with your Dean or Vice Chancellor to draft and distribute your divisional call letter to share with your leadership team.

  • Guidelines and assumptionsPlease review the budget guidelines and assumptions that support the call letter. This information provides guidance and tools for you and your division’s financial professionals to develop your budget submission.

  • Multi-year planning templateThis year we’re introducing a new multi-year planning template, to enable you to develop a budget strategy planned out further than the next budget year in CalPlan. The template is pre-populated with your data and uses algorithms and division specific knowledge to extend your financial plan through FY2020-21. This plan will help improve visibility into future divisional financial trends, enabling us to plan for a sustainable financial future and a balanced budget. The multi-year planning template is due to VC Finance at dfl_concierge@berkeley.edu on April 20, a week after your FY2018-19 budget submission is due in CalPlanning.

    If you haven’t already, sign up for a multi-year template workshop, where we’ll give you an overview of the template, as well as offer the opportunity to work on your template with subject matter experts available to answer your questions.

  • Revenue generation template The revenue generation template is an Excel workbook of templates to assist you in determining incremental revenue from new initiatives for FY2018-19. The template is designed for approval of your revenue generation plan in your budget submission; you’ll need to use additional project planning materials for your teams to execute approved revenue programs throughout the year. The revenue generation template and the instructions are available on the budget process webpage. The revenue generation template is due to Executive Director of New Academic Ventures and Chief Operating Officer of University Extension Scott Shireman at scottshireman@berkeley.edu on April 20, a week after your FY2018-19 budget submission is due in CalPlanning.

    If you haven’t already, sign up for a revenue generation template workshop, where Scott will provide an  overview of the template, as well as offer the opportunity to work on your templates and answer your questions.

  • Narrative templateIn preparation for the upcoming divisional budget meetings in May, VC Finance is again preparing customized divisional dashboards to guide your discussions with EVCP Paul Alivisatos and VC Finance Rosemarie Rae. Last year’s final divisional budget dashboardsare accessible on the budget process hub. We’ll use your completed FY2018-19 narrative template to populate your division’s dashboard, and - like last year - we’ll provide you with an opportunity to review and edit your narratives in the dashboard prior to your budget meeting. Your completed narrative template is due to VC Finance at dfl_concierge@berkeley.edu on April 20, a week after your FY2018-19 budget submission is due in CalPlanning.

Throughout the budget process your one-stop resource for announcements, templates, forms, and timeline with due dates is the budget process hub of the VC Finance website. We’ll also share timely weekly updates via the DFL weekly emails. Please direct questions about the budget process, guidelines and assumptions, and the templates to the Financial Planning & Analysis team at dfl_concierge@berkeley.edu and include “budget process” in the subject line of your email.

Thank you,Office of the Vice Chancellor of Finance