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Introduction While it has not been set up like other wizards in Baker and Associates' programs, it is not just a simple form. This is because the budget process contains several
forms and reports. As well, the budget form itself is packed full of information while the other forms, if not used properly, can wipe out a lot of your work. This section reviews all forms and reports used throughout
the budget process, but first, you must start with the Budget Year Selection form.
Once the current year has been created, you may opt to skip the lengthy repopulation step. Luckily, it now only takes a few extra seconds since computers are faster than when the budget program was first created in 1998. Repopulation does the following for the currently selected year:
Put a check in the Repopulate box and click the Proceed button to initiate repopulation and open the Budget form. If you do not want to repopulate, uncheck the box before clicking Proceed. The Budget Form
Now that you can finally see the Budget form, as in the picture above, let's go through what each of the fields and most of the buttons do. Budget Form Fields Show Check Box:
Unchecking this box will make the percent change values disappear. Filtering lets see the accounts you want to see. You can use the filter to let only a certain department or sub-department show. What gets shown depends entirely on how you set up your Chart of Accounts. In the pictures in this Budget section, a filter has been applied. The form has been set to show only accounts with a 1 as part 1, 31 as part 2 and 311 as part 3. These numbers were chosen from the pull down lists and then the Apply button was clicked. Now clicking on the Totals button, Transfer button, Clear Columns button, or Reports button will bring up forms or reports that will all be affected by this filter.
To remove the filter, click the Clear button. All accounts will then show once again. Transfer Totals When you click on the Transfer button, a screen like the one in the picture below will appear. That same Transfer button is also used to revise approved budgets. This section will explain both. Transferring
This form exists to help you get a starting point for the current stage of the budget. If you want to copy last years figures with a 5% increase, you can. To do this, clear the filter on the Budget form, click the Transfer button, select Previous Year Budget in the From column and Department Estimate in the To column, enter 5.00 in the Percent change box, then click the Transfer Budget button. The transferring of totals is subjected to the filter on the Budget form. If you have already completed the Department Estimate for the section currently filtered and you transfer the budget with the setting in the picture above, you will wipe out your work. It is easy to lose data this way. When you have completed your budget and it has been passed by council or the board, transfer from the column council approved to Council Approved. Doing so will update your budget status, and if you have budget months enabled, it will fill in the Months table too. School boards will have the entire value put into September while municipalities will get an equal percent put into each month. Only whole numbers will be used, and the last month may get a different amount if the budget amount is not evenly divisible by 12. Revising
If you use the Budget Months feature, then you will need to figure out which distribution method to use. The amount of the increase or decrease will be allocated according to the distribution method you choose. The default will be the one set in the Setup Wizard, but you can change it to any of the four available methods. These methods will allocate the funds as described below:
Regardless of which distribution method you choose, you must enter a minimum of two accounts. If the Increase / Decrease amounts do not total to zero, then you will not be able to print and accept the
budget changes. Once the revision is done, you can always go into the Months form for any account and alter its distribution. See the next section to find out how this is accomplished. The whole point of the Months feature is so a more true budget value can show on the Income Statement where the Budget amount has been replaced with a Period Budget amount. As well, if you use purchase orders, it will restrict users of the Remote/School accounting system to their budgeted amounts. If the use of Budget Months has been enabled in the Setup Wizard, then the Months button will appear on the Budget form once the budget year in question has met final approval. Once the budget has been approved, repopulating for the first time after the budget has been approved will set up the Months in equal amounts with the last fiscal month being the correcting amount to balance to the budget amount. Clicking the Months button on the Budget form will show the screen below which allows you to move the budget amounts around for each month.
Totals
The totals screen has two sections: Filtered and Non-Filtered. Each of these are broken down into a
revenue, an expense, and a total line. If the budget table has not been filtered, both the Filtered and
Non-Filtered sections will be identical. No matter whether or not a filter is active, the Net line of the Filtered section will always be identical to the Totals line on the Budget form. If you are finding the
screen a bit cluttered, you can remove the percentages by unchecking the Show % check box. By default, that Show % check box will contain the value of the Show % box on the budget form when the Totals button was clicked. Reports Clicking the Reports button on the Budget form will bring up four reports. The first is a Budget worksheet which has lines along much of the right hand side to allow for comments. The next three reports are summary reports based on the first three parts of the account structure. For example, if the first three parts of your account numbers represent Fund, Department, and Sub-Department respectively, then you will get a Fund summary report, a Department summary report, and a Sub-Department summary report.
Note: All reports are filtered according to the filter chosen on the Budget form. Clear Columns
If you are not sure you set the correct filter, you can click the Cancel button to close the form.
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[Archive] [Budget] [Setup] [Chart] |
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