In 2003, IT Services formed a university-wide workgroup that included staff members from both academic and administrative areas to develop a transparent billing model for communications services. The workgroup agreed to segregate rates in three service areas: (1) voice and voice features; (2) directly billed services, such as voice usage, voice mail, cable television and bandwidth; and (3) technology infrastructure services that support the entire campus, including the UCLA backbone, Commodity Internet, Internet2, IT Support Center services, Connect2, and underground inter-building wiring/cabling and maintenance. The billing model for the technology infrastructure services is referred to as a Technology Infrastructure Fee (TIF).
The TIF is calculated on FTE and billed at the FAU level based on actual monthly FTE derived from payroll data.
In 2011, the Technology Infrastructure Fee (TIF) review Committee, consisting of staff members from both academic and administration, concluded an evaluation of the TIF. The committee concluded the FTE model still seems the most appropriate and practical.
In 2017, with the approval of the Chancellor and Executive Vice Chancellor & Provost, the campus Information Security program was added to the TIF.
- Campus network, backbone, and connection to the Internet, including Network for general assignment classrooms (GACNet)
- Infrastructure cabling/contract project management
- Email, messaging, and calendaring services
- 800mhz system for campus emergency services
- Campus wireless in common areas
- Campus Information Security
Various models—individual service, usage-based, FTE, headcount and knowledge worker—were studied and scrutinized within the University's IT governance process. Additionally, the models were reviewed for regulatory requirements with respect to grants and contracts. While there are pros and cons to all of the models, and FTE model emerged as the best proxy for technology usage that also met grant and administrative implementation requirements. The proposed FTE-based TIF model was also reviewed by the University of California Office of the President, Office of Costing Policy and Analysis for compliance.
Changes in FTE due to employees being hired or leaving, and grants starting and ending, will be taken into consideration monthly for each FAU, since actual payroll data will be utilized as the source of the FTE information. While the TIF rate will not change in a given fiscal year, monthly TIF charges to an FAU will reflect actual FTE totals at the end of each monthly payroll period. This calculation will also include any payroll cost transfer adjustments processed through the payroll system.
Regarding existing awards: If the notice of award does not explicitly prohibit such costs, communications infrastructure costs are allowable and presumably already being charged if a phone line is currently on the award. If a department has concerns about whether the cost is allowable on a given award, the TIF charge may be moved by the department via a non-payroll expense transfer (NPEAR) to an unrestricted fund source.
Regarding proposals: TIF charges should be included as a direct cost in all proposals, including new, renewal, supplemental, and revised requests. The TIF charges will commonly be included in the Supplies & Expenses category. Applicable F&A must also be included.
Regarding research contracts: Any fixed cost agreements that included phone line charges were calculated at a cost level that included the TIF; therefore, there should be no significant impact.
In the event of a salary transfer the associated TIF will automatically be transferred with the salary to the new funding source. If the TIF charges are being paid from an unrestricted source other than the salary source, the TIF charges should be transferred via NPEAR.
All work study funds are excluded from the TIF.
Refer additional questions concerning contracts and grants to your departmental administrative officer or Extramural Fund Management representative. Your assigned EFM Department Staff representative can be located at http://www.efm.ucla.edu.
On a monthly basis, IT Services (formerly CTS) will utilize the actual monthly FTE paid via the payroll system to generate the TIF charges for each full accounting unit (FAU). The TIF charge will be posted to the ledger and FAU balances updated accordingly on a monthly basis. This should occur within a week to ten days after the payroll data is available at month end. Departments will be able to review these charges in their FAU’s at the Online Financial System Reports (OFSR) website, which is updated nightly.
Each FAU will be charged monthly based on the actual partial and full-time FTE associated with the unit multiplied by the approved TIF rate
Changes in FTE due to employees being hired or leaving, and grants starting and ending, will be taken into consideration monthly for each FAU since actual payroll data will be utilized as the source of the FTE information. While the TIF rate will not change in a given fiscal year, monthly TIF charges to an FAU will reflect actual FTE totals at the end of each monthly payroll period. This calculation will also include any payroll cost transfer adjustments processed through the payroll system.
Since actual payroll data is utilized as the source of the FTE information, any prior period actions or adjustments, including expense transfers, will be reflected in the “Adjustments for Prior Periods” column of the web-based bill statement.
No. Since the TIF is derived from actual payroll data, IT Services cannot process these types of requests. Please see your departmental administrative officer or payroll administrator regarding these issues.
The per-FTE TIF charge will be determined prior to each fiscal year by dividing the total anticipated TIF costs by the historic FTE-employee count.
Each FAU will be charged monthly based on the actual partial and full-time FTE associated with the unit multiplied by the TIF monthly rate.
The TIF charge is reflected in a separate section (TIF Charge Summary or TIF Detail) of the web-based monthly billing statement. For a particular FAU, you will see a listing of employees, their UIDS, their corresponding FTE figure for the current month and any prior period FTE adjustments, and the GL object code.
While the TIF is an allowable charge on grants and contracts, some sponsors and funding mechanisms do not allow the TIF. In these cases, the employing organizational unit is required to cover the TIF costs by utilizing unrestricted funding sources. A TIF mapping can be requested to redirect these charges from disallowed funds to an unrestricted funding source by forwarding the request by submitting a request at http://webcenter.it.ucla.edu, under TIF FAU Mapping. All approved requests forwarded to Campus Billing by the 20th of each month will be processed to appear on the associated monthly IT Services Web Bill.
How to review your monthly IT Services Web Bill to ensure the TIF mapping requests were processed correctly:
- The TIF charge continues to be reflected in a separate section (TIF Charge Summary or TIF Detail) of the monthly Web Bill statement. To login, go to the Web Center.
- Departments that choose the mapping option will only see the TIF charges appear on the redirected (“mapped”) accounts on their Web Bill.
- The audit trail will only appear under the Summary by FAU section, in which the credit to the original account and the debit to the mapped (new) account will be shown under object code 4007.
Click on the new TIF FAU to drill down to the TIF detail. An asterisk will appear next to the new TIF FAU to denote that TIF charges are being redirected here. - Only the debit to the mapped (new) account will be passed to the General Ledger.
IT Services Billing Services
Email: billing@it.ucla.edu | Or Call the IT Support Center (310) 267-HELP (4357)
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Only the debit to the mapped (new) account will be passed to the General Ledger.
