Budget Holder Approval

Edsembli FIN 1.20.00 introduces an upgrade to the budgeting module, Budget Holder Approval, which can be configured in the Accounting settings.  

The budget menu has gone from four options:

• budget entry
• budget transfer
• budget voucher
• budget voucher approval

 to two options:

• budget approvals
• budget management

Budget entry, transfers and vouchers are all contained within these two menu options.

When not configured, the system will continue to operate as normal although in this new menu structure.

Overview:

The budget holder approval process will ensure that every budget transaction has received appropriate approval before being posted.  Each account in a budget entry, budget transfer or budget voucher must have a budget holder defined; when sent for approval, each budget holder identified on the screen will receive notification that they have budget approvals to review.   Once all approvals have been granted, the originator will receive notification that it is ready for posting.   A user with posting privilege will then post the transactions at which time the budgets will appear in budget query and transactions will be written to the budget daily batch.

Configuring the new feature:

To implement the budget holder approval method of budgeting, go to the Accounting Settings.  There you will find a check box with the label Implement Budget Holder Approval (Figure 1).  Note: all current budget work (entry, transfer and voucher) must be either approved or rejected before checking this box.  

New features when configured:

When implemented, all budget transactions must be approved before they can be posted.  

Budget Holder configuration:

A new budget holder section has been added to role management and user management in the security system so that budget holders may be configured for accounts – each general ledger account appearing in any budget transaction (entry, transfer or voucher) must have at least one budget holder specified from which one must be selected.

A new User Type, Budget Holder, has been added.  When a user is selected as a Budget Holder, a new option, G/L Holdings, will appear in the Security Access area (Figure 2).

When entering budgets, transfers and vouchers, if there is only one budget holder for the account, that holder will appear automatically.  If there are multiple budget holders, they will appear in a drop-down list from which one is to be selected.  Therefore, wherever possible, configuring only one budget holder per account will streamline data entry.  Once finished and Send For Approval is selected, every budget holder that has been selected will receive notification that they have budget approvals awaiting their attention.  

Users with posting privilege (as configured in the security system – operation access – will have the following privileges:

1. a Post option in Budget Management when all approvals have been granted for an item.   (This will display the item to the poster – another Post will be clicked and a Fiscal year and period specified.
2. In cases where the budget holder is unavailable and the budget needs to be posted, an option – Approve and Post – when reviewing an item in the budget review option will provide the means of posting the item.

Figure 1:

Figure 2:

Further work to be done for 1.21.00:

• Dashboard to display pending approvals for budget entries, transfers and vouchers
• Dashboard to display pending posting for after all approvals are granted
• Viewing a budget transfer in inquiry mode shows the entity number prefixed with BV instead of BT
• When saving, green success message should include number
• Budget transfer number shows in inquiry and approval mode as BV instead of BT

Budget entry:

• New line not auto-opened when advancing past holder – would be nice to have fixed.  
• Can’t save a budget entry if any line is not assigned to a budget holder
• Enter same G/L that’s already in the grid – line disappears without explanation
• Add multiple accounts should auto-populate single-holder accounts

Budget Management:

• Export not currently working
• Can’t modify a rejected entry  

Budget approvals:

• Transaction types all unselected by default; should be all selected (same as entry)
• When clicking Approve on an item where there are no lines for the user to approve, the green message still says that there was a successful approval.  

Budget transfer: