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System Status: 

Proposal Development

Find SSA proposal development process details on this page.

The basic guidelines that must be adhered to at UCSD when establishing and managing a SSA are;

  1. SSAs are to operate on a breakeven basis. The costs to operate a SSA may not include a profit on any rates charged to internal customers.
  2. Costs used to develop rates must be allowable, allocable, reasonable, necessary, and consistently treated.
  3. Salaries and wages should reflect the percentage of effort dedicated to the operation and services/products provided.
  4. Rates cannot discriminate between customers. The unit cost must be consistently applied to all users, irrespective of funding source, and charges must be allocated to users based on actual use.
  5. Capital equipment cannot post to SSA operating funds. Instead, the Depreciation for that equipment must be factored into the rate calculation.
  6. Effective fiscal year 2020/21 - A minimum of 11% assessed on revenues for overhead cost recovery (Differential Income) must be included in all rates charged to external customers for on-campus activities.
  7. Services or products sold to the general public must remit any necessary California sales and/or other unrelated business income tax.
  8. Subsidies cannot discriminate between users and must be disclosed in the rate proposal, including amount, purpose, and funding source.
  9. Originating departments or units are to document and maintain records of expenditures, billings, and cost transfers.

Deviations from these guidelines may be necessary under special circumstances. Any deviation should be reviewed and approved by the BFS-FAO.

Although SSA target breakeven through budgeting, and rate setting, it is seldom that expenses exactly match revenues. UCSD has defined a breakeven policy that a SSA’s surplus or deficit for a certain fiscal year should not exceed two months of annual operating expenses at the end of the fiscal year. At the end of the fiscal year, if a SSA has an actual operating surplus or deficit in excess of two month's operating expenses, the profit or loss must be factored into future year's rate calculations.

Information Gathering

Once a need has been determined and impact analyzed, the next action to be completed by the department would be to gather the necessary information to be used on the proposal form.

Generally speaking, actuals or estimates based on actuals are more accurate and are the preferred figures to use during the proposal and rate calculation(s). Pure estimates may be used if actuals are unavailable or inaccurate.

The information to be gathered includes, but is not limited to;

  • Sales information – both internal and external customer sales volumes
  • Expense information – all necessary expenses to perform services or provide products should be documented
  • Subsidy or institutional support – any expenses covered by funding sources not associated with the operation should be documented
  • Equipment - any equipment being used by the operation must be documented
  • Personnel
  • Local and campus competitors

Rate Calculations & Signatures

Proposal templates can be found in the Forms and Templates section. 

Using the expense, volume, and other cost adjustment information, the form will calculate an internal (Recharge) and external (income) rates for each service line. It is critical for rates to be developed with as accurate volume and expense figures as possible. Backing into rates, or adjusting volumes/expenses to produce a predetermined rate, may result in under- or over- recovery.

The entire form should be printed to PDF and either wet or electronic required departmental signatures collected. Emails stating approval do not function as an authorized signature.

Proposal Submission

Complete proposals and supplementary documents must be sent to the cognizant VC area for Functional Review and VC approval.

Once VC approval has been obtained, all proposals must submit a ticket to the UC San Diego Services & Support portal as an FYI or for further reviews based on risk category.

More information on risk categories and the approval process can be found in the SLA.