Thursday, May 29, 2014

FY15 Fringe Rate Revisions

Don't panic, but FY15 fringe rates are changing slightly from the figures that we have been using. 

Please see the below message from the Budget Office.  It is far too late in our budgeting process to coordinate college-wide changes in response to these very small (0.1%) adjustments.  We will do an assessment of the impact of these changes after the budget is submitted, and we may or may not make post-budget adjustments as a result.  The good news is that the rates went down, so the changes will not pose financial burdens on anyone.  DJP

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The new fringe benefit structure of the Simplify Fringe plan has been approved by the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS), our federal cognizant agency.  Through that review process, the rates for FY15 have changed slightly from the estimates previously communicated. In all cases, the rates went down by 0.1% or 0.2%:

- Academic (A) - from 33.9% to *33.8%*
- Non-Academic (N) - from 26.4% to *26.3%*
- Graduate with UPlan Health (GU) - from 21.5% to *21.4%*
- Graduate with GA Health (GA) - from 16.8% to *16.6%*

The rate for the Partial Benefits (PB) group at *7.7% *did not change.

Two attachments provide more details:

+ *Fringe Matrix FY15 Revised*includes a fringe rate matrix showing fringe components, a job code to account summary with FY15 accounts and fringe rates, and the hourly tuition component for tuition-eligible student positions.

+ *FY15 Job Codes to Account Mapping*is an updated version of the reference document provided related to the Simplify Fringe account changes and includes an account to job code summary (without fringe rates) and a comprehensive list of current job codes with FY14 accounts, FY15 accounts, fringe rates, and other information.

You are /not/ required to recalculate the FY15 non-sponsored budgets entered in EFS since the impact of the change is negligible overall and the deadline for budget submission is only slightly more than a week away. However, if the impact on specific budgets will be relatively significant, you have the option to manually recalculate and enter a fringe amount based on the new rates. The rates have /not/ been updated in the EFS UM Budgeting setup tables for FY15 (used to automatically calculate the fringes that apply to salaries in Position Budgeting). Many department budgets have already been submitted, and an update to the setup tables would require that each department budget be reopened and the Detailed Budget pages refreshed for the dollars in Position Budgeting to reconcile to the Detailed Budget pages:  If you choose to make updates in Position Budgeting, Detailed Budget pages must be refreshed before submitting. Changes for Graduate Assistants and PostDocs are entered in the Detailed Budget pages directly.

*In support of your authority to set requirements within your RRC, the fringe benefit rate changes are being distributed to the RRC Managers e-mail list only at this time.*The rates will be published more broadly after the budget submission deadline.  Please provide direction for your units regarding this matter and share the attached documents as needed.

Thank you!

Fringe Matrix FY 2015 Revised 2014-05-28.xlsx
FY15 Jobcodes to Account Mapping 2014-05-28.xlsx



Friday, May 23, 2014

Budget entry deadline 5/30

A reminder -- the CSE budget entry deadline is a week from today.