Creating Budgets

Budgets are vital to project management in terms of quoting and planning projects. It is also helpful in understanding the status of projects and how far along the project is towards completion.

Creating a budget

Project budgets can be entered in several different ways:

  1. Budget Journal: Import budget entries or manually enter budget data line by line.

  2. Budget Matrix: Allows you to enter units/amounts in a matrix with Tasks and Periods (available with or without Capacity).

  3. Copy Budget: Used to create a new budget version for the current project with the same entries or allows the user to create a budget for a different project.

  4. Budget Repeating: Create recurring budget entries for a resource, item or expense using time intervals and frequency.

  5. Budget Quote: Create a budget quote once a budget is defined.

Copy Budgets from Project

Once the project is created, you can save time by copying the budget from another similar project. To do this:

  1. Select the project from the Role Center > Projects > Projects > Budget > Copy from other Project.

  2. Available selections under the Options section:

    • Copy budget: Specifies if the budget should be copied.

    • Copy Usage To Budget: Specifies if the usage should be copied.

    • Adjust dates with: Specifies if the dates of the existing budget entries are to be adjusted as the new budget entries are created. Enter the formula for the beginning date. The formula is either plus (+) or minus (-) number of time units and unit code (D, WD, W, M, Q or Y) i.e., +6M would add 6 months to the dates of the copied budget.

    • Copy to Budget Version: Specifies the budget version in the project to which the data will be copied.

    • Force copy also when task code is the same: Specifies if the task is the same as the copied budget the existing budget entries will be overwritten. If not, no budget information will be copied from a task that is the same, even if no data exists.

    • Keep prices from original: Specifies to keep the original budget prices and not use the new project's prices.

Each Filter area has additional selections available by clicking +Filter.

  1. Filter Project (Job) Task: Use the available fields to filter results by:

    • Project number (Job No.)
    • Project Task No.
    • Description

  2. Filter: Project Budget Entries: Use the available fields to filter results by:

    • Type
    • No.
    • Resource Group No.
    • Resource Sub Group No.
    • Date

  3. Filter: Project (Job) Ledger Entry: Use the available fields to filter results by:

    • Type
    • No.
    • Resource Group No.
    • Resource Sub Group No
    • DateTime Adjusted

  4. Filter Totals By: The only filter is Recognition Date Filter.

  5. Click OK to complete the copy process.

Important

If budget lines exist, and you have selected the option to Copy Budget you will receive a warning message "Budget entries exist, are you sure you want to copy this budget?" If you click Yes, the existing budget will be overwritten.

Budget Versions

Budget Versions allows you to maintain unlimited budget versions, however, there can be only one active budget version per project. The active budget version can be changed at any time. This process creates a new Version available for all projects.

To create a new budget version:

  1. Navigate to the Role Center > Projects > Projects > Highlight Project No. > Budget > Create/Change Active Budget Version.

  2. Select New from the ribbon.

  3. Code: Enter a unique identifier for this Budget Version.

  4. Description: Enter information for this Budget Version.

  5. In Use: The value in this field is generated by the system to indicate whether this Budget Version is currently used in a project. If you select the Yes value, a list of all projects this budget version is used in displays.

  6. Locked: Select the Locked checkbox to restrict access to a Budget Version. This can be helpful to ensure it is not used for entries.

Used Budget Version

Used Budget Version displays the budget versions for the highlighted project.

  1. Navigate to the Role Center > Projects > Projects > Budget > Used Budget Version.

    • Budget Version: Specifies the code of the Budget Version used with this project.

    • Active Budget Version: Specifies, if Yes, that the highlighted Budget Version is active. There can be only one active budget version per project, but the active budget version can be changed at any time.

    • Locked: Specifies, if selected (true) that the budget version is locked, and it is not possible to edit the budget.

    • Approval Status: Specifies whether the budget version is approved or pending approval. For more information about budget approvals, see: Budget FastTab.

    Note

    There must be budget entries created before submitting the new budget version for approval.

  2. Once budget entries are created for the new budget version, to submit for approval, select Submit and click "Yes" to the message "Do you wish to Submit the selected Budget Version for Approval?"

  3. When successfully submitted, you will receive a message "The Budget Version was successfully Submitted".

  4. The Approval Status field displays the current status of the budget version, i.e., Approved, 1st Level Pending, 2nd Level Pending, or 3rd Level Pending, depending on how budget approvals were configured on the Project Card.

  5. Once the new budget is approved in Budget Approval, the Approval Status changes to "Approved".

Project - Budget Approvals

Projects include the ability to set up budgets with required approvals for changes or the creation of new budgets. For more information on setting up Project budget approvals, and budgets, see:

Budget FastTab

Once a budget is created and submitted for approval, the approvers can approve or reject the project budget on the Budget Approval page found in the Role Center > Activities > Approvals & Activities > Budget Approval.

The Approval process has filters to restrict the project budgets that appear in the lower portion of the page. Filters include:

  • Start Date
  • End Date
  • View As (options to select Budgets requiring 1st Layer, 2nd Layer, or 3rd Layer approvals).
  • Contract No.
  • Project No.
  • Customer No.
  • Change Order No.

As you select filter criteria at the top of the page, the results dynamically update. Use the options at the top of the page to process the budgets:

  1. Approve: Select this option to approve the selected Budget version.

  2. Reject: Select this option to reject the selected Budget version.

  3. Use the View As field to advance to the next level of approvals (as needed) for 2nd Layer or 3rd Layer.

G/L Budget Integration Setup

Create Project Budgets and then update (financial) budgets in G/L using the G/L Budget Integration feature.

Configure G/L Budget Integration Setup using these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Role Center > Setup > Budget Setup > Budget Setup.

  2. Add a Project No. to integrate a specific project budget to the financial budgets in G/L.

    Tip

    If you leave the Project No. field blank, you can connect a specific project status to a G/L Budget.

  3. Status: Options are Planning, Order or Quote.

  4. Budget Version: Select the Budget Version to integrate to the GL Budget

  5. G/L Budget: Select a code from the list of available G/L Budget codes as set up in the G/L. This is the G/L Budget to integrate with the Budget Version and Project No., if selected.

    Tip

    For internal budgets that do not translate to a G/L budget leave the G/L Budget field blank.

Pipeline

On the Project Card you can define a pipeline which is used to specify how the project should influence the G/L budget. It is only this percentage that is transferred to the G/L budget. To create a Pipeline:

  1. Navigate to the Role Center > Setup > Budget Setup > Pipeline

  2. Code: Create a unique code to identify this pipeline.

  3. Description: Create a description to identify this pipeline.

  4. Percentage: Enter a percentage amount to identify the percentage of the pipeline this code represents.

Update GL Budget

  1. Once the G/L Budget Integration is set up, update the G/L Budget based on different criteria on the project budget.

  2. Use Update G/L Budget to update individual projects or projects with a certain status. If no filter is used all projects are updated.

  3. When you run the update process, the pipeline percentage is taken into consideration. If the pipeline percentage is only 80% then 80% of the budget will integrate back to GL.

To run Update G/L Budget:

  1. Navigate to the Role Center > Actions > Processing > Budget Processing > Update G/L Budget.
  2. Filter:
    • No: Optionally select a project number from the look-up to add a filter by project and narrow results. If this is left blank, all projects are updated.
    • Status: Optionally select a status from the look-up to add a filter by status and narrow results. If this is left blank, all projects/statuses are updated.
  3. Filter Totals By:: you can optionally select a budget version to include as a filter or click the Filter link to add additional filters.

See Also

For more information on Project Budgets, see: Manage Project Budgets