UPlan FAQs

Here, we address common questions about UPlan’s features, setup, and functionality to help you make the most of this resource. 

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Categories

Updated 3/26/2025

Budgeting

General

Reporting

Workforce

No. Only operating funds and expenditures are included.

No. Only operating funds and expenditures are included.

Only UBF spendable funds are included.

U-Wide Type 1 are included but U-Wide Type 2 are not.

Data is pulled from Infosource using the same information reported in SIRI.

Expenditure data will be uploaded on a monthly basis. Users can find more up-to-date data in SIRI which will continue to be the system of record for expenditure data.

UBOs can view all drivers in the system under the UBO cluster VIEW GLOBAL ASSUMPTIONS card.

No. Budgeting and forecasting is done at the budget input entity level.

Account numbers are not part of the system, but can be added in the comments section if desired

Yes. Note that similtaneous users have the ability to edit/input information and therefore may over write each other.

UPlan Assistant is a dashboard in SIRI that UBOs and some planners have access to.  It can be used to help planners budget, and as a point of reference for data in UPlan. UPlan users who do not have access should contact their UBO.

Yes. UPlan utilizes Single Sign On (SSO) so you can log in to the system with your UBIT name and password.

Your node support should be able to assist you with Smartview.

UPlan Assistant is a dashboard in SIRI that UBOs and some planners have access to.  It can be used to help planners budget, and as a point of reference for data in UPlan. UPlan users who do not have access should contact their UBO.

No. At this point in time, they are separate. There is an added level of security in UPlan access. Just because you can see something in SIRI does not necessarily mean you have access to UPlan. Contact your UBO for any security-related issues.

Please contact Customer Support at 645-4500 or ubs-uplan-support@buffalo.edu

UPlan data is uploaded on a monthly basis and SIRI is uploaded nightly.

Instructional: Faculty; Instructional Support: Librarians; Administrative: all staff. (TAs, GAs, and Student Assistants map to temporary service expenditure categories.)

If you do not see commas in reports, Go to USER PREFERENCES -> DISPLAY and check the box for Use Administrator’s Settings. 

Changes made in Workforce, including New Hires and salary adjustments, can be viewed on several reports in Reports.  For instance, click #1 under Reports – Budget by Fund, and all salary adjustments will appear in this report under Uses – Salaries.  Or, you can click on #2 in this section and view Workforce – FTE and Compensation Report by Department.  This report details Total Base Salary, Total Additional Salary, and Total Fringe by budget entity (click the caret to expand the organization view). The various reports give you different views of your total salary cost.

In the current fiscal year, carry forward is loaded with all other actuals. Future years are calculated by the tool based upon the difference between Sources and Uses.

No. The Workforce data is a snapshot taken in mid-October. If the workforce data was reloaded, it would overwrite any work done in the Workforce cube.

As with all final budget numbers, this number cannot be adjusted. However, the actual carryforward can be viewed in reports that include actual 24/25 numbers. A good place to start is with the Budget vs Actual Report.

Units should budget loan payments as 'other expenses' in each year that the payment is due.

Yes, the UPlan Assistant Dashboard can be used to assist planners’ budget and can be used as a point of reference for data in UPlan.  Review the guide to what is included in this dashboard or see it on the UPlan website under the supplemental documents for UBOs.

Once saved, the system does not allow you to delete the new budget row.  However, you have a couple of options:

  1. Don’t add any dollar amounts to the new budget row.  While it will continue to appear, it won’t have any values associated with it and therefore won’t affect anything.
  2. Right click on the row and select “Filter.”  This gives you 2 options: “Hide rows with no data” and “Hide rows with zeros.”  Selecting either option will hide the row that you mistakenly added.  Note this will not only hide the row you mistakenly added, it will also hide all rows with no values.

First a reminder: In UPlan, the budget category “Base Budget” should always equal the preliminary budget in all three budget years. For years 2 and 3, projected changes to base budget (due to, for example, anticipated enrollment growth or anticipated future ARPP investments) can be budgeted using the L3 Adjustments form and these budget categories: Investments (Central Investment in Unit  - Non-Recurring, Central Investment in Unit - Recurring).

Ideally, internal unit swaps should be recorded as revenue transfers and budgeted using these budget categories: Investments  (Unit Internal Support/Investment - Non-Recurring, Unit Internal Support/Investment - Recurring).

Forecasting must be done at budget level entities - that is, forecasting must be done at the level you budgeted at in UPlan.

When thinking about rolling UPlan out to additional users in your unit, you may want to consider initially giving some users role-based view-only access.  View-only access is based on the same navigation flow users will eventually need if/when they become active budgeters.

On July 1, your budget will be final and in August you be able to begin forecasting for the current fiscal year.  From July through October , there is no user-editable “working” version of a budget in UPlan. This is a time to work on your internal budget process and prepare for the next ARPP cycle. In October, working budgets for the next ARPP cycle will be made available. 

Yes, “Work Begin Date” and “Work End Date” fields have been added to the “Student Assistant - Payments” report located on the SIRI report dashboard under PEOPLE.  By entering dates you can see actuals for specific periods of time, what hourly rates you pay students, how many students you have, etc.  This information may be useful as you complete your hourly student projections in UPlan.

Since amount is treated as an expense to the RF grant (expense code SWI SUNY IFR Regular) and the amount posts as a revenue to the IFR account (revenue code 331102), In UPlan, unit should budget for the gross revenue to their IFR account. 

The amount is treated as an expense to the UBF account (expense code 5121) and the amount posts as a revenue to the IFR account (revenue code 368000).  It should be noted that for UBF funds, applicable GUSF and philanthropic gift fee is charged when the funding is initially received, so no additional salary recovery fee is charged on this transaction.

• In UPlan, unit should budget for the gross revenue to their IFR account.  

Yes! A new form - "New Hires - Review' has been created as part of the Workforce - Employee Level cluster that allows you to view all the new hires that have been input across your organization at the L3 level.