Planning & Budgeting

FY2026 Operating Budget Development Materials

On October 15, 2024, Provost Serio sent a preliminary kickoff letter and an announcement on December 2, 2024, formally commencing a dialogue with faculty, staff, and students about institutional needs, resource constraints, and priorities. The letter outlines the Provost’s focal points for shared planning, resource development, and relevant deadlines.

The resources outlined and linked below are intended to support Academy planners using Workday Adaptive Planning to craft FY26 operating budget proposals and financial forecasts for future periods.

Submission Requirements

The FY26 Operating Budget Development cycle calendar contains a list of dates and milestones. The primary due dates for several critical components of the planning cycle are outlined in the table below.

What to Submit

When To Submit

How to Submit
Rate Recommendations (tuition & fee-based), Rate Recommendation Narrative, Enrollment Forecasts (tuition-based).  Friday, January 24, 2025 Upload to the Rate Recommendations and Enrollment Forecast Portal
Resource #3.1, below
AY2025-26 Faculty Hiring Plan and AY2024-25 Hiring Report submissions Monday, February 3, 2025 Per instructions from the Office for Academic Personnel & Faculty
 FY26 Operating Budget Proposals Monday, February 24, 2025 Complete in Workday Adaptive Planning
Resource #1, below
FY26 Operating Budget Narrative Response Monday, February 24, 2025 Upload to the Operating Budget Narrative Submission Portal
Resource #3.2, below

FY2026 Planning Resources & Templates

1) Workday Adaptive Planning: Planners access the Adaptive Planning tool by logging into the UW’s core Workday tenant, navigating to Menu -> Apps, and selecting “Adaptive Planning.” To help you log in, please review this Job Aid. To request access, please review this Job Aid.

2) FY26 Annual Budget Development Process Guide (updated as of 12-02-2024): The process guide is a consolidated general resource to assist units in preparing and submitting required materials. It is largely focused on data entry within Adaptive Planning.

3) Links to the three submission portals used in the FY2026 planning process:

Please Note: Access to these submission portals is restricted to UW NetIDs. After clicking the links below, please select “Sign up with Microsoft” and enter your NetID credentials as prompted.

  1. FY26 Rate Recommendations and FY25-29 Enrollment Forecasts: This tool serves as the submission portal for rate recommendations (tuition and fee-based programs), enrollment forecasts (tuition-based programs), and rate recommendation narratives (tuition and fee-based programs). Submission is required for Seattle Academic Units, UW Tacoma, and UW Bothell.
  2. FY26 Operating Budget Narrative Submission Portal: This online tool is the submission portal for completed FY26 Operating Budget narrative responses. All Academy units and campuses require submission.
      • To initiate the tool for your unit/campus, please use this link
      • After completing the first screen, an “edit” link will be sent to the email address provided. This link may be used to return to an incomplete response later. You may share this link with other team members; however, all users with the link will have full access to edit and submit your unit’s response.
  3. FY26 Provost Reinvestment Fund (PRF) and ABB Values Pool funding requests: this tool is the submission portal for OnCycle funding requests accompanying your unit’s FY26 operating budget submission.

4) Rate Recommendation Templates: The following templates must be completed (even if not recommending an increase) and uploaded to the Rate Recommendations and Enrollment Forecast Portal (item #3.1, above):

  1. Excel template for tuition-based program rate and enrollment recommendations
  2. Excel template for fee-based program rate recommendations
  3. Word template for tuition and fee-based program narrative responses

5) FY2026 Operating Budget Narrative Response Template (Word template): Units/campuses will populate this Word document and upload it to the Operating Budget Narrative Submission Portal by the due date noted above. A complete list of questions asked within the tuition and fee-based and operating budget narrative response templates is available for reference.

6) Central Budget Policies & Assumptions: This document provides central budget policies and assumptions, which should be used as a base case for completing FY26 operating budget proposals. Within the Operating Budget Narrative Submission Portal, please identify and briefly explain any assumptions that differ from these central budget assumptions. Note that many, but not all, assumptions are variables driven within the Adaptive Planning software.

7) Multi-Dimensional Planning Tools & Resources: A set of dashboards providing unit-level information about student and faculty activity. Currently, only the Dean/VP’s office administrators have access to this tool. You must be on the UW VPN if working remotely to access this information.

We’re Here to Help – Additional Support Resources and Venues

1) FPB’s Budget Planning & Operations team (BPO) holds regular office hours on Thursdays from 10:00 to 10:45 a.m. throughout the FY26 planning cycle. Please visit the budget support resources page for the Zoom link. Recordings and presentation slides from previous office hour meetings are also available on this page.
2) Requests for individual support not covered within the resources above should submit a support request via UW Connect Finance –> Adaptive Support Request.
3) Historical responses to narrative questions from previous years are available by fiscal year and unit/campus on FPB’s Annual Budgets page.