Budget Reference ChartField

Commitment Control provides a ChartField called Budget Reference (BUDGET_REF) that uniquely identifies a budget, enabling you to identify separate multiyear overlapping budgets that share the same combination of non budget reference ChartFields.

To take advantage of the budget reference ChartField, you must define it as a key ChartField for the control budget definition, and you must enter budget reference ChartField values on the budget journal and all spending transactions for the budget definition.

Multiyear Overlapping Budgets

Budget reference primarily enables unique identification of multiyear overlapping budgets with shared ChartFields. Typically, these are appropriations that are made every year but last a number of years. For example, your organization receives an appropriation each fiscal year. You can use these appropriations to fund spending for three years so that the appropriation granted in 2008 is eligible to fund spending from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2010 (budget periods 2008, 2009, and 2010), and the 2009 appropriation can fund spending from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2011 (budget periods 2009, 2010, and 2011), and so on:

2008 Appropriation	2009 Appropriation	2010 Appropriation
2008	NA	NA
2009	2009	NA
2010	2010	2010
NA	2011	2011
NA	NA	2012

If these appropriations budgets share the same ChartField combination, the system cannot distinguish the appropriations with overlapping budget periods unless a unique identifier exists for each appropriation. To report your spending by both fiscal year and appropriation grant, you must identify both the fiscal year and the appropriation for each spending transaction. In this example, each budget period represents a fiscal year, but you need a budget reference to identify each appropriation.

To set up the budget reference ChartField to distinguish multiyear overlapping budgets such as those in the preceding example:

1. Define budget reference ChartField values for each appropriation budget by using the Budget Reference page.

   You may want the budget reference to refer to the resolution that created the appropriation, or a time associated value. In this scenario, budget references RES2008, RES2009, and RES2010 are defined.

   See Application Fundamentals: Budget Reference Page.

2. (Optional) Define a budget period calendar with periods by which you must report.

   In this example, budget periods that mimic fiscal years are set up, starting on July 1 and ending on June 30.

3. Set up a control budget definition that includes budget reference as a key ChartField.

   If your budget definition uses a budget period calendar, multiyear overlapping appropriations require cumulative budgeting. Do not select Derive Dates or assign a cumulative calendar on the Keys and Translations page. Instead, you should enter the begin and end dates for the multiyear appropriation when you enter the budget journal.

   If your budget definition does not use a budget period calendar, you can enter the date range for the appropriation at the control ChartField, at the budget attributes, or at budget journal entry.

   In this scenario, the budget definition is called CC_MY.

   See Budget Period Calendars and Cumulative Budgeting.

4. Enter and post a budget journal for the multiyear appropriation.

   Enter the budget reference just as you would any ChartField value. Enter the begin and end dates for the appropriation, and click Generate Budget Period Lines to generate journal lines for each budget period covered by the appropriation.

   Ledger Group	Acct	Fund	Bud Ref	Bud Period	Amnt	Begin Date	End Date
   CC_MY	50000	100	RES2008	2008	3000000	July 1, 2007	June 30, 2010
   CC_MY	50000	100	RES2008	2009	0	July 1, 2007	June 30, 2010
   CC_MY	50000	100	RES2008	2010	0	July 1, 2007	June 30, 2010

   You can enter either the entire amount of the budget on the first line and zero on the remaining lines, as in the preceding table, or an amount on each line.

   See Entering Budget Journals and Budget Transfer Journals.

Each time you create a source transaction for this appropriation budget definition, you enter the budget reference of the appropriation that you want to spend against, just as you would any ChartField value. As long as a sufficient cumulative available balance exists across all of the budget periods included in the appropriation, the transaction will pass. When it comes time to report on spending against the appropriation, you can easily identify all of the transactions that hit the appropriation in a budget period, fiscal year, or accounting period.

If you do not use a budget period calendar, then cumulative budgeting is not an issue. The Budget Processor treats the spending range of the budget as a single budget period.