Glossary & Acronyms

Term Acronym Unit Definition Hyperlinks
Allocable Cost
Costing Policy
A cost or a group of costs attributable to one or more cost objectives, in reasonable and realistic proportion to the benefit provided.
Allocable Cost
Recharge Review
A cost that can be assigned to one or more specific services or items based on benefits received.
Allocation
Operating Budget
Funding set aside as a commitment for a specific purpose to be distributed by one unit to another.
Allowable Cost
Costing Policy
Recharge Review
Costs allowable under Federal costing policy. Such costs must be necessary and reasonable, not excluded or limited by the sponsoring agency or policy, consistently and uniformly assigned per policy or procedures, determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), not assigned to cost sharing or matching requirement for a different project, and adequately documented such that the nature and charge of the cost and relationship to the project can be affirmed.
Amortization
Recharge Review
The allocation of the cost or value of an asset or liability over multiple periods. Amortization is normally applied on a straight-line basis, meaning it is spread evenly across fiscal years.
Assignable Square Feet
Capital Budget
Costing Policy
Space that can be assigned to a specific occupant or user (typically a department), as opposed to shared or building support space. Some shared space, such as meeting and break areas, may be assignable.
Be Smart About Safety
BSAS
Operating Budget
A UCOP program supporting on-the-job injury prevention efforts and funded through workers' compensation and GAEL assessments.
Budget Augmentation
Capital Budget
A change to a previously approved budget level.
Calculated F&A Rate
Costing Policy
Actual F&A expenditure rate calculated before applying federal limitations.
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
CIRM
Costing Policy
California's voter-established stem cell research funding agency.
Campus Core Fund (Fund 5000)
Operating Budget
A UCSF-created fund for administrative and academic activities supported by the Core Financial Plan and derived from various unrestricted revenue sources including Facilities and Administration cost recovery, investment earnings, gift assessments, and various other sources.
Capital Equipment
Capital Budget
Property not permanently attached to facilities or grounds with an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more and a life expectancy of more than one year.
Capital Improvement Budget
CIB
Capital Budget
The budget form, prepared for each capital improvement project, which itemizes estimated costs for each construction element (also called the project budget).
Carry Forward
Operating Budget
Unexpended funds carried from one budget period to another.
Change Order and Contingency Usage
Capital Budget
A post-award modification to a construction contract. A change order may clarify, revise, add to, or delete previous requirements of the work, adjust the contract sum, or adjust the contract time. In the context of a capital budget, there are four types of change orders funded from the project contingency: user request, design clarification, regulatory agency, unforeseen conditions.
Clinical Trials
Costing Policy
An award for the controlled, clinical testing in human subjects of investigational new drugs, investigational devices, treatments, or diagnostics, or comparisons of approved drugs, devices, treatments, or diagnostics, to assess their safety, efficacy, benefits, costs, adverse reactions, and/or outcomes.
Commercial Paper
Capital Budget
Interim financing for capital projects awaiting long term financing.
Common Cost Allocation
Recharge Review
A re-allocation of shared costs that are initially charged to one departmental fund when the cost applies to multiple activities or projects.
Composite Benefits Rate
CBR
Operating Budget
An assessment rate for multiple various employee benefits charged as a single percentage of salary for a group of employees.
Comprehensive Capital Plan
CCP
Capital Budget
The ten-year campus plan for facilities improvements, which displays specific capital projects in various categories, projected funding levels by year, and fund sources.
Contract
Costing Policy
A type of sponsored award with specific obligations required of the awardee. Contracts are a mechanism for procurement of a product or service as opposed to a grants whose purpose is to support research, instruction, and public service.
Control Point
Operating Budget
An organizational unit whose leadership reports directly to the chancellor and who has budget authority for the unit.
Cooperative Agreement
Costing Policy
An agreement between a Federal agency or pass-through entity sponsor and a non-Federal entity that provides for substantial involvement between sponsor and the non-Federal entity in performing the activity contemplated by the award.
Core Activities
Operating Budget
Revenues and expenses in the “above the line” section of the campus and UCSF Health income statements. Excludes incremental non-cash pension and OPEB expense as well as items classified as other changes in net position such as: capital gifts, health system investments in clinical practices, transfers to and from the Regents’ endowment, changes in Payable due to University, and transfers to/from the SOM/UCSF Health for Precision Cancer Medicine.
Core Allocations
Operating Budget
Allocations of funds from the Core Financial Plan provided to Control Points.
Core Financial Plan
CFP
Operating Budget
The ten-year financial plan for UCSF's centrally-managed operating and capital funds. Revenue sources include state funds, tuition and fees, indirect cost recovery, investment earnings, patent income, gifts and endowments earnings, UCSF Health revenue for strategic initiatives and other transfers, and rate additive payroll assessment. Pooled resources are used to support the recurring base budgets for schools and administrative and academic support units, equity contributions and debt service on capital projects, ongoing funding for IT governance projects, coverage of UCOP assessment and UC Path costs, and other ongoing or one-time activities.
Cost Accounting Standards
CAS
Costing Policy
Recharge Review
Federally mandated accounting standards intended to ensure uniformity in budgeting and spending funds.
Costed Central Activity
CCA
Recharge Review
An activity provided by a University unit which is funded by charges to other University departments. A Costed Central Activity is distinct from a recharge in that the charged annual amounts are typically determined based on an agree-upon calculation rather than a per-piece basis.
Debt Service
Capital Budget
Cash required to repay interest and principal on a debt for a particular period.
Deferred Maintenance
Capital Budget
Maintenance on infrastructure and building systems that was not performed on schedule and was therefore deferred.
Depreciation
Recharge Review
An accounting entry allocating the cost of a tangible asset over its useful life.
Direct Costs
Costing Policy
Costs that can be identified specifically with a particular sponsored award, instructional activity, or any other institutional activity, or that can be easily and directly assigned to such activities relatively with a high degree of accuracy. Also known as Total Direct Costs.
Disclosure Statement
DS2
Costing Policy
A federally required statement of the University's cost accounting practices related to direct and indirect costs.
Effective F&A Rate
Costing Policy
The F&A rate reflecting actual cost recovery per dollar of expenditure.
Endowment
Operating Budget
A fund held in the form of an income-generating investment, established to provide long-term support for mission-based activities and structured in a way that preserves the principal amount, based on donor intent.
Environmental Impact Report
EIR
Capital Budget
A institution-prepared report that documents in detail the probable environmental impact of proposed project. The EIR development process includes publication and public review of a draft report, inclusion of responses to all comments received during the review period, and proposed measures designed to mitigate significant environmental impacts and a program for monitoring mitigation measures.
Equity
Capital Budget
Non-gift cash contributions to a capital project, as opposed to gift funds or external financing.
External Financing
Capital Budget
Externally borrowed funds, typically in support of a capital project.
External Sales
Costing Policy
Recharge Review
Sales of property or services by the University to an outside (non-University) entity.
External Sales and Services of Education Related Activities
Recharge Review
Sales and service activity for which there are no internal University users.
External Users
Recharge Review
Users of products or services from a recharge unit or costed central activity that are external to the University.
Extramural Support
Costing Policy
Funding for research, training, or public service programs provided by federal or private sources outside the university.
Facilities and Administrative Costs
F&A
Costing Policy
Costs incurred for general and common support of sponsored or other activities that cannot be readily and specifically identified with a particular sponsored project or other activity. Also known as Indirect Costs.
Facilities and Administrative Rate
F&A
Costing Policy
A rate, typically expressed as a percentage and negotiated with the sponsor, applied to eligible direct sponsored project costs to recover indirect costs. Also known as an Indirect Cost Rate.
Facilities Investment Needs
FIN
Capital Budget
A prioritized list of capital investments needed to address deferred maintenance and/or code compliance. Needs are prioritized based on impacts to patient care, life-safety, animal care, research, facility use, institutional reputation and non-facilities related downside costs.
Federal Flow-through
Costing Policy
A subcontract in which the original funding is derived from Federal sources.
Fee Waiver
Operating Budget
An exemption from student tuition and/or fees, typically based on Regental policy.
Full Cost
Recharge Review
The total cost to provide a product or service.
Full Time Equivalent
FTE
Operating Budget
A measurement of students or employees in which the hours enrolled or worked by several part-time students or staff are counted proportionally to the number of hours enrolled or worked by typical full-time students (15 student credit hours) or staff (40 hours).
Fund Functioning as an Endowment
FFE
Operating Budget
Funds held at the UCSF Foundation or in the General Endowment Pool that are not true endowments, in that the principal may be accessed and expended.
General Endowment Pool
GEP
Operating Budget
The investment vehicle for endowments and funds functioning as endowments held by the UC Regents.
General, Auto, and Employment Liability
GAEL
Operating Budget
An assessment on payroll to provide funds for UC's self-insurance programs. Federal funds are exempted from the assessment.
Grant
Costing Policy
A type of sponsored award for which the sponsor has little involvement in the conduct of the award. The purpose of grants is to support research, instruction, and public service as opposed to contracts which are a mechanism for procurement of products and services.
Gross Square Feet
GSF
Capital Budget
Costing Policy
The sum of all building area and related area space, which require operation and maintenance of plant support, regardless of the source of funding for such support, and includes the sum of a building’s outside gross area.
Headcount
Operating Budget
The number of individual students or staff over a time period, regardless of full-time or part-time status.
Indirect Cost Rate
Costing Policy
A rate, typically expressed as a percentage and negotiated with the sponsor, applied to eligible direct sponsored project costs to recover indirect costs. Also known as an Facilities and Administrative Rate.
Indirect Cost Recovery
ICR
Operating Budget
Recovery of funds to reimburse the institution for facilities and administrative expenses related to sponsored projects.
Indirect Costs
IDC
Costing Policy
Costs incurred for general and common support of sponsored or other activities that cannot be readily and specifically identified with a particular sponsored project or other activity. Also known as Facilities and Administrative Costs.
Infrastructure & Operations Fund
I&O
Operating Budget
An assessment on private gifts and endowment earnings accruing to the Core Financial Plan and used to support campus operations and capital improvement projects.
Interim Financing
Capital Budget
Temporary borrowing required for gifts yet to be raised for capital projects.
Internal Users
Recharge Review
University departments and other units, including those at other campuses, that receive products or services from a recharge unit or costed central activity.
Long Range Development Plan
LRDP
Capital Budget
A Regent-approved long-term plan guiding the physical development of a UC campus.
Lottery Funds
Operating Budget
Funds allocated to the University derived from the State lottery program.
Mid-Career Recruitment Fund
Operating Budget
A revolving fund of $10 million from the Core Financial Plan (CFP) to support recruitment of mid-career faculty, i.e.., faculty who have additional opportunity for growth in academic and scientific stature once arriving at UCSF.
Modified Total Direct Costs
MTDC
Costing Policy
Direct costs of sponsored activity, net of items that are not eligible for federal F&A cost recovery.
Negotiated F&A Rate
Costing Policy
The federally approved F&A rate following negotiations and adjustments to the proposed rate.
Net Position
Operating Budget
The accumulated financial balance in a Fund, Dept ID, Project, or combination of those three chartfields.
Non-Assignable Square Feet
NSF
Capital Budget
Costing Policy
The sum of all areas not available for assignment to an occupant or for a specific use, but necessary for the general operation of a building. (Includes building services, circulation and mechanical space used to support general building operations.)
Non-Operating Revenue
Operating Budget
Revenues earned by an organization outside of its main or central operations. Such revenues are also described as incidental or peripheral. For UCSF, examples include security services provided to UC Hastings, patent income, private gifts, and investment income.
Nonresident Supplemental Tuition
NRST
Operating Budget
A mandatory charge to nonresident students, in addition to Tuition and other applicable charges, in lieu of State support. Different NRST levels apply to undergraduates, graduate academic students, and graduate professional degree students.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-110 - OMB A-110, 2 CFR 200.215
OMB
Costing Policy
Recharge Review
Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Other Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals and Other Non-Profit Organizations (11/19/1993) (further amended 09/30/1999, Relocated to 2 CFR, Part 215 (32 pages, 243 kb))
Operating Budget
Operating Budget
An operating budget is a combination of known expenses, expected future costs, and projected revenue, but excluding capital expenditures, over the course of a year.
Operating Revenue
Operating Budget
Revenues generated by the University's core activities of instruction, teaching, and research. For UCSF, examples include student tuition and fees, government contracts and grants, and patient care revenue.
Organized Research
Costing Policy
All research and development activities of an institution that are separately budgeted and accounted for including both externally sponsored and university funded activity per 2CFR 200 Appendix III A.1.b.
Other Post-Employment Benefits
OPEB
Operating Budget
Non-pension health and welfare benefits provided to UC retirees.
Patent Income
Operating Budget
Income from licensing of UCSF inventions.
Professional Degree Supplemental Tuition
PDST
Operating Budget
A mandatory fee charged to all students in professional degree programs (MD, Nursing, PharmD, DDS, Dental Hygiene, Physical Therapy, Translational Medicine) in addition to Tuition and other applicable fees.
Professional Services Agreement
PSA
Operating Budget
Agreements between UCSF Health and schools related to compensation for physician and other health care services provided by UCSF faculty.
Program Income
Costing Policy
Income earned by a sponsored activity that is generated directly as a result of performance of the award.
Project Budget Worksheet
PBW
Capital Budget
Project Planning Guide
PPG
Capital Budget
An official document for all major capital projects larger than $750,000 describing the project, its purpose, scope, budget, funding sources, schedule, and justification.
Proposed F&A Rate
Costing Policy
The F&A rate proposed by the institution based on the calculated actual cost and federal limitations on administrative cost recovery.
Rate Additive
Operating Budget
Rate Additive is a payroll assessment against all salaries to fund programs to fund employee support programs and activities, such as the Faculty Staff Assistance Program, lactation rooms, and electronic time sheets.
Recharge
Recharge Review
A mechanism to charge internal University users for products or services provided by another University unit. Recharges are typically charged on a per-piece basis.
Recharge F&A Waiver
Recharge Review
An exception to required recovery of facilities and administrative costs for external sales and services of recharge activities.  Waivers must be approved by Budget & Resource Management.
Regents Capital Plan
RCP
Capital Budget
The ten-year Regents Capital Plan (RCP) includes State- and non-State-funded major projects for both the General Campus and UCSF Health. The Regents Capital Plan is updated annually, informed by the Comprehensive Capital Plan and long-range planning priorities, and submitted to the Office of the President. The campus plan is then incorporated into a Systemwide report to the University of California Regents. Projects included in the RCP are those for which a budget action still is required (as of July 1 of Year 1) and those priority projects for which a funding plan has yet to be identified.
Rentable Square Feet
RSF
Capital Budget
The usable square footage plus a portion of a building’s shared space used to calculate a tenant's monthly rent. Shared space may be space that is of benefit to the tenant (e.g., lobbies, restrooms, hallways).
Restricted funds
Operating Budget
Funds subject to externally imposed restrictions.
Scheduled Renewal
Capital Budget
Renewal of building systems and finishes scheduled to coincide with the end of their useful lives.
Self-Supporting Graduate Professional Degree Program
SSGPDP
Operating Budget
Degree programs that receive no State support and must operate within the revenue generated by student fees, gifts, or other allowable sources.
Short Term Investment Pool
STIP
Operating Budget
The UC investment pool for current funds required for near-term operating expenses.
Sinking Fund
Operating Budget
A planned deficit occurring when an initial expense will be repaid over time.
Specialized Service Facility
SSF
Costing Policy
Recharge Review
A highly complex or specialized facility operated by the institution (e.g. Laboratory Animal Resource Center) where service rates charged to users include both direct and the allocable share of facilities and administrative costs. While regular service center costs included only direct costs; for specialized service centers rates include both direct costs like supplies and personnel and also facilities and administrative costs like building depreciation, costs for operations and maintenance and an allocable amount of administrative costs.
Sponsored Project
Costing Policy
A project supported by an external funding source under a mutually binding agreement that restricts the use of funds to the approved project and stipulates other conditions with which the university must comply.
Standby Financing
Capital Budget
Interim financing provided to bridge the gap between capital expenditures and receipt of pledged gifts.
State Educational Appropriation
SEA
Operating Budget
Funding received from the State of California for educational activities.
Strategic Initiatives Fund
SIF
Operating Budget
An annual contribution from UCSF Health to the Core Financial Plan to support strategic investments, calculated based on the financial performance of UCSF Health.
Student Academic Preparation and Educational Partnerships
SAPEP
Operating Budget
Educational and outreach programs, typically funded by the State, to support the future enrollment of pre-college students.
Student Services Fee
SSF
Operating Budget
A mandatory fee charged to all students enrolled in State-supported programs used to support student services and related activities.
Sub-Award, Sub-Contract, Sub-Grant, or Sub-Agreement
Costing Policy
An agreement that transfers a portion of the research or substantive effort of the primary award to another institution or organization.
Subsidy
Recharge Review
Funding provided to offset expenses or a deficit and/or to reduce recharge rates.
Surplus
Recharge Review
A positive fund balance occurring when revenue exceeds costs.
Surplus Revenue
Recharge Review
Recharge revenue over and above cost, generated by charging external customers a rate more than the internal cost-based rate.
Total Direct Costs
TDC
Costing Policy
Costs that can be identified specifically with a particular sponsored award, instructional activity, or any other institutional activity, or that can be easily and directly assigned to such activities relatively with a high degree of accuracy. Also known as Direct Costs.
Total Project Costs
Costing Policy
The total allowable direct and indirect costs incurred by the institution to execute an approved project or activity.
Total Return Investment Pool
TRIP
Operating Budget
A UC investment pool established in 2008 for investment of medium-term working capital.
Tuition
Operating Budget
A mandatory fee charged to all students enrolled in State-supported programs used to support instructional programs and related support activities.
UC Retirement Plan
UCRP
Operating Budget
UC's pension plan, which provides income to UC retirees and/or beneficiaries.
Unallowable Cost
Costing Policy
Recharge Review
Any cost which, under the provisions of any pertinent law, regulation, or sponsored agreement cannot be included in prices, cost reimbursements, or settlements under a government sponsored agreement to which it is allocable. (CAS 9905.505). Although they are often reasonable business expenses, unallowable costs are costs that the government will not reimburse as part of a federal contract and therefore also must be excluded from recharge rate calculations. Examples of unallowable costs include administrative costs unrelated to administering the recharge, advertising for recharge products/services, bad debts, contingency or expansion reserves, entertainment, and fines and penalties.
Uniform Guidance (UG, 2CFR 200)
Costing Policy
The federal code applicable to contracts and grants, which includes specific requirements for institutions of higher education related to F&A cost recovery.
Unrelated Business Income Tax
UBIT
Recharge Review
A federal tax on income from activities unrelated to the tax-exempt purpose of the organization that may apply to recharges at UCSF if external revenue exceeds 5% of total revenue.
Unrestricted Funds
Operating Budget
Funds not subject to externally imposed restrictions governing their use. Unrestricted funds may be designated for specific purposes by the Regents or management.
Upgrade/Downgrade Funding
Operating Budget
Funding exchanged between the Core Financial Plan and the schools related to upgrade, downgrade, and promotion of faculty positions for Base Salary-Suspense (BSE) appointments only.
UPlan
Operating Budget
The UCSF implementation of Oracle Hyperion Planning, a centralized, Excel and web-based financial planning and forecasting solution.
User Committee
Recharge Review
A committee that includes representatives of the largest users of the recharge activity and the recharge manager. Recharge activities with a budget of at least $500,000 are required to have a user committee review and recommend approval of the developed rate structure proposed by the activity, as well as both the type and level of services being provided.
Vacation Leave Assessment
VLA
Operating Budget
A payroll assessment against salaries and benefits (excluding faculty incentive payments) designed to generate reserve funds to cover costs of employee vacation taken within the next year.