Budget Period Calendars and Cumulative Budgeting

A budget period represents a time segment that the system uses to divide budgets. You can use the budget period ChartField to establish varying time periods for budgeting and to have budget periods that may differ from fiscal year calendar dates.

You define budget periods by creating budget period calendars. You can define both detail budget period calendars and summary budget period calendars, which are based on multiple detail budget period calendars.

Detail budget period calendars define the periods to which budgets apply.

Summary budget period calendars enable you to collapse information from multiple detail budget periods into a summary period. For example, a summary budget period calendar can group monthly control budget periods by quarter or year. They are useful for inquiries. You can use the Budgets Overview page to view budget amounts by summary budget period for ledger groups that use the corresponding (detail) budget period calendars.

Note:

Do not confuse summary budget period calendars with summary calendars. Summary budget period calendars are all budget period detail calendars, but each calendar can be defined in different increments of time, such as monthly, annually, or multiyear calendars.

A budget period detail calendar is similar to a fiscal year detail calendar. However, budget periods may be independent of fiscal periods and may start and stop at any point in a fiscal year or period.

Set up as many budget period calendars as necessary. You can apply a budget period calendar to any number of budget definitions for which you want to use the same budget period parameters.

By using rulesets, you can apply different calendars to different budgets within a budget definition.

Using the Budget Date to Determine the Budget Period

The Budget Processor uses the budget date on a source transaction, with the budget period calendar defined for the Commitment Control budgets, to determine the budget period of the Commitment Control budget against which the transaction is to be processed.

The budget date is supplied automatically depending on the default budget date option that you select on the Installation Options - Commitment Control page, but you can also override it for some source transactions, depending on your Commitment Control security access.

Budgeting Without Budget Period Calendars

You do not need to use budget period calendars with all budget definitions. For example, you can define a project budget with no budget periods. If you do not specify the budget period calendar when you set up your budget definition, the system uses a blank budget period instead of performing a lookup against the budget period calendar. Use the Begin Date and End Date fields on the Control ChartField page or Budget Attributes component to define the time span of the budget.

Using Begin and End Dates with Budget Period Calendars

You can enter begin and end dates on the Control ChartField page and the Budget Attributes component to restrict budget journal entries to budget periods, for which the dates are at least partially within the specified spending range. Entering begin and end dates also restricts source transactions to those for which transaction dates fall within these dates. The setting of begin and end dates on the Control ChartField page establishes a higher-level default. You might want to use budget attributes to enter exceptions to the defaults by setting individual begin and end dates for detail budgets.

Cumulative Budgeting

You can set up your budgets to allow spending against the available balances in a defined range of budget periods when a transaction would otherwise exceed the balance in the current period.

For example, you budget check a transaction in the amount of 150 that affects budget period 20X1Q3. You set up cumulative budgeting such that the Budget Processor searches for available balances in all budget periods for 20X1. As the following table shows, the available balance for 20X1Q3 is 100 and is not enough to cover the transaction. However, the cumulative available balance for 20X1Q3 is 300. Therefore, the transaction passes budget checking. If you do not set up cumulative budgeting, the transaction fails.

In the following table, italicized values are derived calculations.

Ledger Account DeptID Budg. Per. Amount Available Balance Cum. Avail. Balance

ORG_BUD

50001

100

20X1Q1

100

100

100

ORG_BUD

50001

100

20X1Q2

100

100

200

ORG_BUD

50001

100

20X1Q3

100

100

300

ORG_BUD

50001

100

20X1Q4

100

100

400

You can set up cumulative budgeting in two ways:

  • You can use a budget period calendar as a cumulative calendar.

    Although you should define the cumulative calendar as a detail budget calendar rather than a summary budget calendar, the cumulative calendar must summarize the detail budget periods that are defined for the budget. Thus, each cumulative budget period defines the range of detail budget periods whose balances are available for spending.

    For example, your budget uses a monthly budget period calendar (calendar ID MN). The cumulative calendar that you assign is a budget period calendar that summarizes the monthly detail budget period calendar into quarters (calendar ID QR):

    Budget Periods for Calendar MN Budget Periods for Calendar QR

    • 20X1M01 (01/01/X1 to 01/31/X1)

    • 20X1M02 (02/01/X1 to 02/28/X1)

    • 20X1M03 (03/01/X1 to 03/31/X1)

    20X1Q1 (01/01/X1 to 03/31/X1)

    • 20X1M04 (04/01/X1 to 04/30/X1)

    • 20X1M05 (05/01/X1 to 05/31/X1)

    • 20X1M06 (06/01/X1 to 06/30/X1)

    20X1Q2 (04/01/X1 to 06/30/X1)

    When you budget check a transaction whose budget date falls in budget period 20X1M05, the available balances from both periods 20X1M04 and 20X1M05 add up to the cumulative available balance.

    You can enable cumulative budgeting at the ruleset and assign cumulative calendars at the ruleset, control ChartField, and budget attributes levels.

    See Hierarchy of Control Budget Attributes.

  • You can define a date range for cumulative budgeting by using begin and end dates instead of the cumulative calendar.

    Available balances for all of the budget periods included within the date range are then potentially available for spending. (That is, all current and prior budget periods within the date range are available for any given transaction.)

    In the following example, when you budget check a transaction whose budget date falls in budget period 20X1M02, the available balances from both periods 20X1M01 and 20X1M02 add up to the cumulative available balance.

    Budget Periods for Calendar MN Date Range for Cumulative Budgeting

    • 20X1M01 (01/01/X1 to 01/31/X1)

    • 20X1M02 (02/01/X1 to 02/28/X1)

    • 20X1M03 (03/01/X1 to 03/31/X1)

    01/01/X1 to 03/31/X1

You can select the date range option at the ruleset, control ChartField, and budget attributes levels. You specify the dates at the budget attributes or at budget journal entry.

Cumulative budgeting looks at all periods in the cumulative range to ensure that future transactions have not already spent current funds.

Note:

The remaining spending authority (RSA) warning W35 is not available for cumulative budgeting.

Entering Budget Journals and Budget Transfer Journals

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