Frequently Asked Questions
Following are answers to some of the commonly asked CBR questions. As additional questions are received, this site will be updated. If you have questions that are not addressed in this FAQs, please send a message to [email protected].
What You Need To Know
General
CBRs will become effective at UCSF with the implementation of UCPath.
Retirement: UCRP Employer Contribution
Payroll Taxes and Assessments: OASDI (Social Security), Medicare, Workers Compensation, Unemployment Insurance, Disability Insurance, Benefits Administration, and Employee Support Programs (also known as rate additive)
Health & Welfare: Health Insurance, Retiree Health (OPEB), Dental Insurance, Vision Insurance, Core Medical Insurance, Legal Insurance, Life Insurance, and Senior Management Supplement
General, auto, and employment liability (GAEL), vacation leave assessment (VLA), the UCRP STIP loan repayment assessment, the faculty childbearing and childrearing assessment, and graduate student tuition and fee remissions are excluded from the CBR calculations. These costs will be recovered by separate charges to funding sources.
CBRs will be charged to all salary components except: certain agreement/incentive (Z) salaries; accruals; housing and automobile allowances; honoraria; bonuses; relocation benefits; extended sick leave; involuntary severance; and other special supplemental pay not eligible for standard benefits identified by pay type. A list of ERN codes that will not be charged CBRs will be posted online.
Once composite benefit rates are implemented, we cannot mix between charging actual costs and composite benefit rates.
On the campus, there are six CBR groups; for UCSF Health business units, there will be one CBR group.
In UCPath, the following employee information is used to assign a CBR group:
- Employee class
- The eligibility configuration
- The fair labor standards act (FLSA) status, and, in a few instances,
- Job code
Before UCPath is implemented, actual employer costs for individual employee benefits will continue to be charged to chartstrings as they do currently.
Chartstrings will be assessed benefits based on the salary expense amount multiplied by the appropriate CBR for each employee. This amount will be charged to the account for employer benefit costs regardless of the specific benefits costs of the individual employee to the University.
Rather than individual benefit expense accounts (such as for UCRP, medical/dental/vision insurance, and OASDI), analysts will see expenses in a single composite benefit rate expense account — one for each employee type: faculty, non-faculty academic, and staff. VLA and other benefits not included in the CBR will continue to be reported separately.
No. The true costs to the University as a whole are not changing, only the way costs are recovered from departments and funds is changing. When CBRs are applied, the collected funds (the new standardized costs) will be moved to a benefits pool account. The University will pay the benefits expenses (to UCRP, the Social Security Administration, to medical insurance providers, etc.) from that pool.
No. Employees will continue to be charged their individual benefits contributions and these costs will be itemized on their earnings statements.
No. The employee’s cost and eligibility for benefits will not be affected when UCSF transitions to this new structure (unless a change is made during open enrollment or there is a change to the appointment that affect benefits eligibility). This new structure only changes how the employer costs of employee benefits are charged within the University.
Employees paid by both UCSF Health and the campus will have two different CBRs applied. For UCSF Health-funded salary, the UCSF Health CBR will apply. For campus-funded salary, the campus CBR will apply.
A list of UCPath Job Codes to CBR groups is available in the Resources section.
A resource “Benefit Rate by Job Code Lookup” is provided on the CBR website. Please refer to the Resources section of the CBR website.
One of the advantages of moving to composite benefit rates is that a department will no longer need to account or plan for benefit rates that are unique to each employee. CBRs should make planning easier and more accurate, since the wide variation in benefits charges for employees doing the same job is essentially eliminated at the department and fund level. All actual costs to the University will still be accounted for, but departments will not see them in their ledgers. Departments will not be responsible for any shortages resulting from the composite benefit rate as compared to actual costs. Any over- or under-recovery will be addressed at year-end by adjusting future year CBRs, similar to the way surpluses and deficits are handled for recharge activities.
Rates may seem higher or lower because employees are now pooled into broad categories. The rates for 2019-20 are based on 2017-18 actual benefit expenses. Notably, the rates may seem high because vacation leave assessments and vacation salary credits will not include benefits in UCPath.
No. BCHO will not transition to UCPath at this time and therefore will not implement CBRs.
Planning/Mitigation
CBRs will be implemented automatically with UCPath, so analysts do not need to do anything for implementation itself. However, because implementation will result in cost shifts across departments, funds, and projects, financial planners and analysts will need to prepare for and react to implementation. To prepare, analysts should examine the benefits costs that will be charged to their departments, funds, and projects in advance and make adjustments. For example, if benefits costs on a particular fund or project will increase, analysts should consider whether to transfer additional funds to that project or reduce the percentage of time employees are charged to the project. After implementation, analysts will need to monitor surpluses and deficits that result from cost shifts.
Both UPlan and PLUS will be enhanced to upload and apply CBRs in employee planning in order to assist financial analysts in preparing for the new fiscal year. The planning rates are estimates for internal planning purposes. These planning rates are adjusted to reflect vacation time not assessed benefits. In UCPath, CBRs are assessed against regular pay and not against vacation taken. If these planning rates are not used, it is possible departments will over budget benefit costs.
The MyReports Faculty Portfolio Projections Tool will be decommissioned when UCPath goes live.
The Office of Sponsored Programs is working on integrating CBRs into the e-Proposal system.
Implementation of CBRs is not intended to affect control points, departments, funds, or projects positively or negatively. However, departments and funds will experience cost increases or decreases.
- Activities funded by contract and grant revenue, gift funds, or endowment earnings will need to absorb cost shifts. Administrators may need to shift some salary or other expenses to other sources.
- Recharge activities may need to increase or decrease recharge rates to address cost shifts. These adjustments may occur over time.
- For activities supported by other fund sources, some resource shifts will be implemented. For example, for administrative control points, the Chancellor will redirect some State funds and Campus Core Funds on a recurring basis to help address cost shifts that do occur. For example, if an administrative control point is negatively affected by the implementation of CBRs, the Chancellor will provide additional funds to that Control Point on a recurring basis. Likewise, an administrative control point that experiences a cost reduction will also experience a reduction in recurring State Funds or Campus Core Funds. Additional resource shifts are currently being evaluated.
Fluctuations between cost estimates at the proposal stage and the actual direct charges are normal occurrences and should be absorbed by the project. Most contracts and grants will experience a reduction in cost or a modest increase in cost. If a contract or grant experiences a large increase in cost that cannot be accommodated under the existing budget, the PI should contact department administration and leadership.
A schedule of projected rates is provided on the CBR website. Please refer to the Rates section of the CBR website.
Examples
Yes. The rate is based on job code and benefit eligibility. The rate is charged against the amount paid. Assuming equal full-time salary levels, the dollar amount charged to the department for a 50% appointment will be half that for a full-time employee.
The benefits cost to the department for an employee is the applicable CBR multiplied by gross salary, net of vacation pay. If the appointment percentage is lower, the salary is lower, and the benefits charge to the department will be lower, even if the employee receives full benefits. In comparison to the old method of calculating benefit costs, this standardization is considerably simpler to calculate and reduces departmental benefit expenses for part-time employees.
No. CBR groups are assigned using Employee Class, Eligibility Configuration, FLSA status and, in a few instances, Job Code. If someone waives their UCSF medical insurance, it will not affect the CBR applied.
In UCPath, employees are assigned to CBR groups using Employee Class, Eligibility Configuration, FLSA status, and in a few instances Job Code. As individuals are assigned an Employee Class, they are also assigned the appropriate CBR for that class. It is possible for the Eligibility Configuration to override this initial mapping and assign an individual into the partial benefit rate groups if the Eligibility Configuration is set to do that. Ultimately, it would not depend on the Job Code of the position, but rather the terms of their employment.
Background
Following federal regulations and the approved systemwide CBR model, the rates are calculated using total benefit costs and total salaries and wages for each group of employees. The employer cost of employee benefits for a group of employees is divided by the total salaries of that group. The resulting rate is known as the CBR, and is applied against the total institutional base salary of the individuals.
Please refer to the Resources section of the CBR website.
In collaboration with UCOP, actual benefit costs incurred by the University will be reconciled with the amount generated using the CBRs on an annual basis. Any over- or under-recovery will be adjusted in future year rates, similar to that of recharge activity. This may result in adjustments to CBRs each fiscal year.
Vacation Leave Assessment (VLA)
Vacation accrual will continue to be a monthly assessment with credits applied to the department when vacation is taken. Departments should continue to estimate as they do currently. Salary expenses will be assessed a leave rate for employees eligible to earn leave. The leave rate is based on the leave accrual code of the employee. This assessment will be Leave Assessment Salaries. Leave Assessment Salaries will then be assessed for benefits using the composite benefit rate of the employee. When an employee takes vacation, the department will receive a credit back for the appropriate salaries and the composite benefit rate.
This information will not be viewable to UCPath users. The details will continue to post on the Controller's Office website.
Updated on 3/13/2023
