Chapter 2.1: Capital Projects

Inventorial equipment has a total acquisition cost of $5,000 or more, and it is tracked in the Campus Asset Management System (CAMS). The head of the department and the principal investigator are responsible for the care, maintenance, financial records, physical inventory, and control of equipment. A department’s property administrator takes care of the actual identification and tracking of inventorial equipment with the department. See What Property Administrators Need to Know for more information.

Fabricated equipment is constructed by UC San Diego departments for use by the University upon completion and must qualify as a piece of inventorial equipment. Departments are no longer required to submit a Fabrication Request to the Equipment Management Office. The fabrication identification (FAB) number has been replaced by the POET(AF) and fabrication related expenditures are tracked in Project Costs.

Departments, in cooperation with the Office of Contracts and Grants (OCGA), Sponsored Projects Finance (SPF) and Internal Controls and Accounting (ICA), are responsible for the classification, budget approval, expenditures and accounting of equipment fabrications. Departments are responsible for reporting fabricated equipment to the Equipment Management Office upon completion.

Depending on funding source, work with Sponsored Projects Finance (SPF) or Internal Controls & Accounting (ICA) to create a Project and Task for the fabrication in OFC PPM using PADUA. To close out or cancel the fabrication, submit a request to the Equipment Management Office to enter CAMS and a separate ticket to ICA for the capitalization using the Services & Support portal.

The Project Budget must be completed/baselined in order for costs to be incurred for Capital Projects. Capital Program Management and ICA-Plant Accounting are responsible for setting up the initial budget as well as future budget modifications in the Project Financial Plan module. Currently, ICA-Plant Accounting or Health Business Office will review and approve budget versions.

Budgets can be entered at resource category levels which match with the Expenditure Categories. Budgeting at the resource category that expenses are planned in will assist with accurate reporting and performance monitoring. 

Budgets for Capital Projects should reflect the approved amount of the Capital Project. This does not reflect the resources transferred in the GL.

2.1.3.1  Steps to create a budget

• Go to Projects> Project Financial Management and search for project.
• Click on the Project and go to Manage Project Budget. You will be directed to the Manage Budget Versions Page
• Click the ‘+’ sign or use the drop down to choose Create Budget Lines Manually
• Click on the task row 1 (or task to add resources to). Click on the + sign underneath the field header
• Click down arrow under From the drop-down box, select the appropriate Resource Category you are budgeting for.  There are seeded resources (Financial Resources, Equipment, Labor) that are NOT recommended to use as they do not align with our expenditure types.
• Enter in Project Budget Amount
• Scroll to the bottom of the screen. Select Save and Close
• Repeat above steps as needed for additional tasks and/or resources.
• You have 2 options at this point:
  • If you're not finished and want to come back at a later time, click Save in the upper right-hand corner. This will allow you to come back at a later time to complete the budget assignments. 
  • Once you are finished, click the Submit button in the upper right-hand side.             
• Your budget will now be in the Budget Approval Workflow process. It will be considered a working version until it has been approved.  Once it has been approved, the system will display ‘Current Baseline'.

The Baseline version is what the system uses for calculations in reports. You can also create additional versions to mockup different scenarios of budgeting.