Budget

 

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.
 

Budget Year

The purpose of this form is to select the year in which you wish to work on the budget.  The two 'arrow' buttons on each side of the year will change the year.  You can only go up to the current fiscal year as long as the previous year has been approved.  As well, you can only go as far back as data exists in the table.  Once the current year's budget has been approved, you can start work on the next year's budget.  On the Budget Year screen, a yellow field lets you know the current level of the budget process.  Once you transfer the amounts to the next level, this level indicator will change.

The Repopulate check box is useful.  If you are starting with a budget year that has not yet been created, then the window to the left will appear asking if you want to create the budget records for the new year.  If you choose No then proceed to that year's budget anyway, the Budget screen will be blank.

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:

  • Add all budget accounts to the budget table.  If any are missing, they are added in.  If they already exist, their data is not overwritten.  In other words, you will not lose your work.
  • Updates the account description in the budget table.
  • Calculates the previous year budget amounts.
  • Deletes any account that is now non-budgetary.
  • Calculates the previous year actual amounts.
  • Calculates the current year actual amounts.
  • Calculates the previous and current year actual amounts for the budget months table.

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.
Retired Check Box:  Indicates if the account has been retired.  If any retired flags are checked when working on the current fiscal year budget, then the budget should be repopulated.
Department Estimate:  Each department has to submit their budget.  Either the values from that report should be entered here, or each department can enter in their own values directly.  If the latter is chosen, then it may be easier to use a filter as described in the next section.
Finance Committee Recommendation:  The next stage of the budget process involves the Finance Committee reviewing the Departments' budget and making their own recommendations.  Their recommendations must be entered into this column.
Board/Council Recommendation:  Finally the School Board or Council reviews the finance Committee's work.  Their recommendations must be entered into this column.
Approved Check Box:  When the Board or Council have approved the budget, this check box will be filled.
Totals Line:   The yellow cells immediately above all the bottom buttons display the totals for each column.  As values change, so do the totals.
Filter:   This series of pull down boxes is used to apply a filter and is covered in the next section.
Memo Button:   The button that usually does not have a label is the Memo button.  Click on it to add a note to the budget table for that account for that year.  A sample of the memo edit screen is in the picture on the right.  When a note exists, the button will say Memo
Report Button:  This prints a series of worksheet and summary reports restricted by the filter.
Apply Button:   This button applies the filter to the form, so only the desired data will appear.
Clear Button:  Click this button to remove the filter from the form thus showing all records.
Totals Button:   Click here to bring up a form with the totals broken down into revenues and expenses.  It also contains a filtered and non-filtered sections.
Transfer/Revise Button:   This lets you copy values from one column to another in the budget table.  This is restricted by the filter.  If it says Revise, then it lets you move funds from one budget account to another.
Clear Columns Button:  This lets you zero out a particular column.  This is also restricted by the filter.
 

Filters

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

Once your budget has been set to approved, the Transfer will from then on read Revise.  When clicked, it will pull up a screen such as the one on the right.  This screen is used to move budget amounts from one account to another.  If you get an unexpected revenue amount, you can add to the budget.  You can also move expense amounts around if need be. 

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:

  • By %:  The increase/decrease amount will be divided by 12 and added to or removed from each month.  If the amount is not divisible by 12, then the last month will get the remainder.
  • First Month:  The entire amount will be put toward the fiscal start month.
  • Current Month:  This month's budget amount will be altered by the user entered Increase/Decrease amount.
  • Last Month:  The fiscal end month will receive the change.  This usually indicates that the amount will be distributed manually since the money will not be currently available in the budget.

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.
 

Months

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.

This form defaults to showing you the dollar figures.  The top row of numbers is always the actual used amount while the bottom row is the budgeted amounts.  The Total column will be a duplicate of the Approved column from the Budget form.  The columns to the right of the Total column show budget and used amounts for each month.  The first month will be the start of your fiscal period.  On this form, there is also a check box that will, when checked, show the percent of the budget allotted and used per month.  In the picture above, everything to the left of the red line is without Show % checked while everything to the right is with it checked.  The Total column will not change and will show the total used with the approved budget amount below.
 

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

CAUTION:  This can be a dangerous form.  If you do not apply a filter or apply the wrong filter, you will either wipe out all data in the selected column or you will wipe out the wrong section.  To use this form properly perform the following steps:

  1. Set the desired filter on the Budget form.
  2. Bring up this form by clicking the Clear Columns button.
  3. Choose which columns you wish to set to 0.00
  4. Click the Clear Column button.

If you are not sure you set the correct filter, you can click the Cancel button to close the form.

 

[Archive] [Budget] [Setup] [Chart]