Understanding Commitment Control Accounting in PeopleSoft Billing

Use commitment control accounting to budget check revenue transactions against revenue budgets and update those budgets accordingly. For the revenue budget, commitment control accounting enables you to track the budgeted, recognized and collected revenue amounts. When a revenue budget has an associated expenditure budget, revenues can increase the available spending authority of a particular expenditure budget.

The revenue side of commitment control accounting focuses on budget tracking as opposed to controlling the flow of transactions and preventing operational losses. The system updates revenue budgets resulting from budget checking. These updates are to internal accounting data only and do not affect the customer invoice.

Revenue entries from billing transactions increase or, for adjustments, decrease the recognized amount of the revenue budget. Only revenue, discount and surcharge, InterUnit expense, and statistical distribution accounts are budget checked for control.

To budget check an invoice in PeopleSoft Billing:

  1. Set up the budget checking options.

  2. Enter the bill online or through the Billing Interface.

  3. Run the Pre-Process & Finalize process (BIIVC000).

  4. Run the Billing Currency Conversion process (BICURCNV).

  5. Run the Billing Pre-Load process (BIPRELD).

    Correct errors that are generated during the Pre-Load process. Use the Staged Acctg Entries component to correct ChartField errors that are generated.

  6. Run the Load GL Interface process (BILDGL01).

  7. Run the Comm. Cntrl. Budget Checking process (FS_BP).

  8. Correct errors on any accounting entries that fail budget checking.

    Correcting the errors changes the budget checking header status from E (error in budget checking) to N (not budget checked). The transactions are then ready to resume processing. When transactions pass budget checking, they can be processed by the Journal Generator.

The Budget Checking process processes only those accounting entries that are created by the Load GL Interface process with a budget checking header status of N (not budget checked). It determines the fiscal year and period from the budget date of the accounting line entry and checks the accounting entry against the recognized revenue budget for that fiscal year and period.

Note: Deposit (DEP), Deposit Applied (DAPP), Deposit Refund (DREF), and Payment with Corporate Voucher (PYXES) lines are not truly revenue accounts, although they are assigned to a revenue account type. To avoid budget checking these lines, the system sets the budget checking header status to V.

Deposit Refund Fees (DRFF) lines are true revenue lines; the system treats them normally.

The Budget Checking process determines if the budget allotted is sufficient. If you select Control in the Commitment Control Option field on the Source Transaction Definition - Options page, the system assigns a status of E (error) to transactions that do not pass budget checking. If you elect to track transactions with a budget, the system assigns a status of W (warning) to transactions that do not match the budget allotment.

If the accounting entry successfully passes budget checking, the Budget Checking process increases the recognized revenue ledger by the transaction amount, updates the offset ledger balance to maintain balanced commitment control ledgers, and updates the PeopleSoft General Ledger distribution status to N (none). Transactions that pass budget checking, those with a PeopleSoft General Ledger distribution status of N, will be processed the next time that you run the Journal Generator Process (FS_JGEN).

Note: When using both Chartfield Inheritance and Budget Checking, run the Load GL (BILDGL01) process and Budget Checking (FS_BP) process prior to running the Load AR (BILDAR01) process.

Budget dates determine against which budget period the transaction data is checked. If a budget date exists from bill entry at the bill line distribution level, the Load GL process (BILDGL01) carries that date forward. If you do not provide a budget date at the bill line distribution level in bill entry, the Load GL process populates the budget date with the accounting date that is on the bill header. The Finalization process (BIIVC000) determines invoice dates and accounting dates. It populates the invoice date with the current date if it is not provided in bill entry, and it populates the accounting date with the invoice date if the accounting date is not provided at bill entry. Because you run the Load GL process after the Finalization process, the accounting date is populated by the Finalization process on the bill header, even if you do not provide one at bill entry.

The system creates accounting entry types that are not involved in budget checking with a blank budget date. The system creates future accounting period entries for realized revenue and realized discounts or surcharges with a budget date value that is derived from the future period accounting date option that you define on the Installation Options - Billing - Integration Options page, which is either the first or last day of the accounting period.

The system checks multiple process status flags throughout bill processing to ensure that a bill is ready to be picked up by downstream processes.

The Load GL process sets the budget checking header status to N if you selected the Commitment Control option for PeopleSoft Billing on the Enable Commitment Control page. This is done for revenue, distribution and surcharge, InterUnit expense, and statistical distribution accounts only. Otherwise, the Load GL process sets the budget checking header status to V. The system sets the budget checking line status to the same value as that of the header status.

The Load GL interface creates accounting entries with an initial PeopleSoft General Ledger distribution status of H (hold) for those transactions with a budget checking header status of N.

The Journal Generator process does not pick up accounting entries with a PeopleSoft General Ledger distribution status of H until they pass the Budget Checking process and their PeopleSoft General Ledger distribution status is changed to N (none).

If commitment control is enabled at the installation level on the Enable Commitment Control page:

Load GL Sets Budget Checking Header Status to

Budget Checking Line Status

Accounting Entry GL Distribution Status

Can Be Processed by Budget Checking Process?

Can Be Processed by Journal Generator Process?

N (not budget checked).

N (not budget checked).

H (hold)

Yes

No

Status values after successful Budget Checking process:

Budget Checking Process Sets Budget Checking Header Status to

Budget Checking Line Status

Accounting Entry GL Distribution Status

Can Be Processed by Budget Checking Process?

Can Be Processed by Journal Generator Process?

V (valid budget check).

V (valid budget check).

N (none)

No

Yes

Status values after unsuccessful Budget Checking process:

Budget Checking Process Sets Budget Checking Header Status to

Budget Checking Line Status

Accounting Entry GL Distribution Status

Can Be Processed by Budget Checking Process?

Selected by Journal Generator Process?

E (error in budget check).

E (error in budget check).

H (hold)

Yes

No

The Load GL - Contract Asset process (BIACCRUE) creates accounting entries with a budget header status of V, enabling the Budget Checking process to bypass unbilled revenue accounting entries. Unbilled revenue accounting entries do not need to go through the Budget Checking process because these entries are automatically reversed during the next accounting period, and each bill is eventually invoiced and booked to the recognized revenue accounts.

Field or Control

Description

Go to Source Adjustment

Click Go to Source Adjustment to access the Correct Budget Check Errors component, where you can make corrections to the budget date or to the ChartFields.

Exception Type

The Exception Type field limits the rows that appear to transactions with one of the following exception types:

  • Error: The invoice fails budget checking.

  • Warning: The Budget Checking process issues a warning, but also updates the control budget ledger.

Maximum Rows

Specify the maximum number of rows that are to appear in the scroll area. If the More Budgets Exist field is populated, the invoice has more exceptions than the number that you enter in the Maximum Rows field. Enter a different search criteria to shorten the list or increase the maximum number of rows.

Override Transaction

Select to enable the entire transaction to update the control budget even if error exceptions exist. This option is available only for users with super user security access and is not available if the transaction passed budget checking with only warning exceptions. Select it prior to budget checking.

Advanced Budget Criteria

Click Advanced Budget Criteria to open the Budget Exceptions - Refine Inquiry Criteria page, where you can restrict rows to specific business units, ledger groups, and accounts. Leave these fields blank to return all values.

Search

After you enter selection criteria, click to refresh the scroll area.

Budget with Exceptions

This scroll area displays all the commitment control budgets that have exceptions for the invoice. Include selection criteria to limit the number of budget rows that appear in the scroll area.

Percentage

The sum of accounting entry percentages for a particular line transaction. The percentage must equal 100.

Date Time Added

The date and time that a bill line is added to the invoice.

Last Update Timestamp

The date and time that a bill line was last updated.

Last Maintained By Operator ID

The user ID of the person who last updated a bill line.

Bill Line Inquiry link

Click to access the Review Billing Information - Details - Acctg - Rev Distribution page, where you can review the bill line accounting information.

Budget Check link

Click to access the Budget Check Acct Entries page, where you can run the Budget Checking Process, or inquire further into the budget checking exceptions for the invoice.

Level

The discount or surcharge level number that is applied to a bill line.

D/S (discount/surcharge)

Displays a D if a bill line is associated with a discount, and displays an S if a bill is associated with a surcharge.

Budget Date

Enter a value to enable the system to determine the budget period when it processes transactions against a control budget.

Display Lines with Errors Only

Select to display only invoice lines with budget-checking errors.

Apply Correction

Click to apply the accounting entry or budget date corrections. When you click this button, the system:

  • Updates the budget header status to N (not budget checked) if the Pre-Load process is not required.

  • Deletes the records in BI_ACCT_ENTRY when the Pre-Load process is required and ChartField values were changed during accounting entry correction.

  • Updates the Pre-Load indicator on the BI_HDR record to 1 when the Pre- Load process is required.

  • Refreshes the Accounting Entries Summary page.

Open Item Key

When an Open Item account applies to or is chosen for an accounting entry, the Open Item Key must be set.

Journal Line Reference

When an Open Item account applies to or is chosen for an accounting entry, the Journal Line Reference will also be displayed. This value may be blank.