The Internal Account Budget Maintenance screen provides users with the ability to create requests for revision of funds within a budget or amend/add funds to a budget. A History of requests for budget amendments and revisions are available for review at any time. Approvers and Requesters can access and review pending amendment and revision requests for approval, etc.
If the setting Forced balanced entry on budget amendment is enabled via Setup > Settings > Miscellaneous > Misc. section, equal expense/revenue totals on budget amendments are required.
The options available are dependent on your profile permissions set via Setup > Profiles > Budgeting/General Ledger tab > Budget Maintenance section, including the ability to submit requests and create transfers between funds.
1. From the Budgeting/General Ledger menu, click Internal Account Budget Maintenance.
2. Click the Drafts tab.
3. Select the applicable fiscal year from the pull-down. The pull-down defaults to the current fiscal year.
4. In the Create a Draft section, enter a Title for your draft. Then, click Create.
Clicking Create will open a new tab called Edit Amendment or Edit Revision; this is dependent upon profile permissions set up by the district. If you do not have permissions to amendments, you will only have the option to request a revision (Edit Revision tab). If you have permissions for both, you will have to make a selection as to which you would like to request.
5. To create a new amendment, which is to request monies for a new budget, select Amendment. If requesting to make a revision, that is to move monies from one account to another, select Revision. Note: Many users may not have the option to select Amendment if they do not have permission to create new budgets. For these users, Revision will be selected automatically.
Amendment: A request to increase or amend the budget. It is not a reallocation of funding (like a revision), but an adjustment to the agreed budget. An example of when a budget amendment would be needed is if a district won a grant from a private company. In this case, you would need to add a new line to the existing budget because a new accounting strip must be added for the money. See Editing & Submitting an Amendment for more information.
Revision: A revision within a budget that involves moving funds from one area to another within the same project. You cannot move monies from one fund to another. For example, you may need to move 5100 funds from one facility to another. This would be a revision to the budget. See Editing & Submitting a Revision for more information.
See Setup > Profiles > Budgeting/General Ledger to set the appropriate profile permissions, such as Allow Negative Revision Balance, Allow Transferring between Projects, or Allow New budgets on Revisions.
6. If you created a draft and began creating a request for an amendment or a revision but did not submit, the draft will be saved and can be viewed from the Drafts tab under the Existing Drafts section.
7. Depending on your profile permissions, you may or may not have access to View All Users. If able, click this button to view drafts created by all users.
8. The Title of any draft can be edited before final submission. Click in the Title field to edit.
9. Review the Fiscal Year, Date Created, Type, Journal Date, and User(if View All Users is clicked) to help confirm which draft you would like to continue creating.
10. Click Duplicate to create a copy of an existing draft from which you can edit and submit.
11. Click Edit to continue editing/creating an amendment/revision draft for submission.
12. If available, click the delete button (red minus sign) in order to remove an existing draft.
1. From the Edit Amendment tab, select the Amendment radio button at the top right corner.
The Fiscal Year, Requester, and Created Date fields will all auto-populate and cannot be edited.
2. Enter the Journal Date, i.e. the date that you want the amendment to be posted. The date will default to the date of creation.
3. Enter a Reason. Note: The Reason is bolded because it is required in order to submit the amendment.
4. If creating multiple amendments or revision that you would like to flag as linked, you can create a Batch and select it for each amendment or revision created.
To create your own, click the green plus sign and name your batch. Once created, the batch then be pulled into the Board Packet Report (to review all linked amendments and revisions).
5. Select the correct elements for the accounting strip you are requested in either the Internal Budgets section.
6. If desired, you can enter a budget Description. Enter the Amount and press Enter to save and commit the line to be submitted.
You will know the line has saved when it blinks and turns blue. You will also see the delete button (red minus sign) appear at the beginning of the line as a way to delete the information and start over.
Once the line has been committed, the Balance and the Balance (new) will populate. Note: If you are creating a brand new accounting strip, the Balance column will populate with (new).
This is a logging field meaning you can commit as many lines as you need. If you need to create a new budget for multiple accounts, it can be done all at once.
7. Once added, click the green plus sign to add a detailed row for the Program.
a. Select the Program from the pull-down in the new detailed row.
You have the ability to add detailed rows when the Allow Detail Rows permission is enabled via Setup > Profiles > Budgeting/General Ledger tab.
As you create new budgets either in the Expense section or Revenue section, an Amendment Summary of Fund amounts will display at the bottom of the screen for review.
8. The Files section can be used for any supporting documentation that needs to be attached. As indicated in the Files section, drag files directly into the box to attach documents or click the Select button to browse for files.
a. Click the Scan File button; this will prompt you to download Dynamsoft. This is a one-time download that allows you to attach files directly from your scanner. In doing so, you will bypass saving the file to your computer first.
9. Utilize the Comments sections to add any additional notes. Enter the comment in the provided text box, then click Post.
Once Post is clicked, Comments cannot be deleted or edited.
10. When all is complete, click Submit. Once submitted, a pop-up message will display letting you know that your draft was successfully submitted for approval.
When the Amendment is submitted and approved the accounting strip will be added to Setup > Settings > Accounting Strips tab.
1. From the Edit Amendment tab, select the Revision radio button at the top right corner.
a. Upon switching from an Amendment to a Revision, you will prompt with a pop-up confirmation window; click Yes to continue.
For users who only have access to revisions, the screen will default to the Edit Revision tab and the radio buttons will not appear.
The Fiscal Year, Requester, and Created Date fields will all auto-populate and cannot be edited.
2. Enter the Journal Date, i.e. the date that you want the revision to be posted. The date will default to the date of creation.
When you submit a back-dated journal, Focus does a budget check the day the revision is submitted to determine if the budget is overdraw, as opposed to performing the check budget check on the back-dated Journal Date entered. This prevents a back-dated journal from overdrawing a budget in the present day even if the budget would not be overdrawn as of the Journal Date entered.
For example, you have a budget with a balance of $5,000 in January and $0 in February. You back-date the journal to January for -$5,000 which would bring the January balance to $0 (not overdrawn). However, this would bring the cumulative budget balance through February (present day) to -$5,000; therefore, Focus rejects the budget revision.
3. Enter a Reason. Note: The Reason is bolded because it is required in order to submit the revision.
The Reason field can be extended to enter as much information as needed. To expand the box, click the two lines in the right corner and drag the box to a bigger size. This feature applies to any text box that has the two double lines in the right corner.
4. If creating multiple revisions that you would like to flag as linked, you can create a Batch and select it for each revision created.
To create your own, click the green plus sign and name your batch. Once created, the batch then be pulled into the Board Packet Report (to review all linked amendments and revisions).
5. To move money, you must first enter where the money is currently located in the Transfer From section.
6. Select the correct elements for the accounting strip from which you are requesting to move funds. Enter the Amount and press Enter to save and commit the line to be submitted.
You will know the line has saved when it blinks and turns blue. You will also see a delete button (red minus sign) appear at the beginning of the line as a way to delete the information and start over.
Once the line has been committed, the current Balance and the Balance (new) fields will populate. Note: If you are creating a brand new accounting strip, the Balance column will populate with (new).
This is a logging field meaning you can commit as many lines as you need. If you need to transfer money multiple accounts to another account, it can be done all at once.
You can create revisions that cause accounts to be negative if Allow Negative Revision Balance for Internal budget maintenance is enabled via Setup > Profiles.
7. Once added, click the green plus sign to add a detailed row for the Program.
a. Select the Program from the pull-down in the new detailed row.
You have the ability to add detailed rows when the Allow Detail Rows permission is enabled via Setup > Profiles > Budgeting/General Ledger tab.
8. Once you have selected where the money is coming from and how much money is to be transferred, you must selected where the money is going in the Transfer To section.
9. Select the correct elements for the accounting strip to indicate where the money is to be moved. Enter the Amount that is to be transfer to this account and press Enter to save and commit the line to be submitted.
10. Once added, click the green plus sign to add a detailed row for the Program.
a. Select the Program from the pull-down in the new detailed row.
You have the ability to add detailed rows when the Allow Detail Rows permission is enabled via Setup > Profiles > Budgeting/General Ledger tab.
While inputting information into the Transfer To section, it would help to review the following section, Revision Summary.
The first section, From Internal, shows how much money you are taking from the specified internal accounts to be moved to other accounts. The second section, To Internal, shows how much needs to be moved to the other specified internal accounts.
The Grand Total shows your balance. When finished, the Grand Total must read 0.00. You cannot pull money from an account without specifying where you want to go.
11. The Files section can be used for any supporting documentation that needs to be attached. As indicated in the Files section, drag files directly into the box to attach documents or click the Select button to browse for files.
a. Click the Scan File button; this will prompt you to download Dynamsoft. This is a one-time download that allows you to attach files directly from your scanner. In doing so, you will bypass saving the file to your computer first.
12. Utilize the Comments sections to add any additional notes. Enter your comment in the provided text box, then click Post.
13. When all is complete, click Submit. Once submitted, a pop-up message will display letting you know that your draft was successfully submitted for approval.
The Request History tab allows users to view any submitted requests including those that are pending or those that have been approved/denied.
1. Click the Request History tab.
2. Depending on your profile permissions, you may or may not have access to View All Users. If able, click this button to view requests submitted by all users.
a. Click Hide All Users to hide requests made by other users and view your requests only.
In the Request History table you will see the following columns: Request # (this column will populate once the request has been approved), given Title, Type of request (Amendment or Revision), Batch name, the Requester who created and submitted the draft, Journal Date, Created Date (the date the draft was created not the date submitted), the total Amount of money being budgeted or moved, and the Approval Status.
3. Districts normally set up an Approval Flow for amendment and revision requests; this is usually made up of a couple of people. Hover over the approval status to view the Approval Chain.
While there is not a Reason column, you can hover over any column to see the Reason submitted for each request.
The last column contains several buttons: View, Duplicate, Cancel, and Remind Approver. The options vary and are depend upon the Approval Status.
4. Click View to open the request and view the submission. Clicking View opens a View Amendment or View Revision tab. All information will be uneditable and grayed, expect Files and Comments, which can be added at any time.
5. Click Duplicate to create a copy of a submitted request. Clicking Duplicate results in a pop-up window asking you to name the new request.
a. All of the information entered in the original request will populate the duplicated request. From here, you can add anything or edit any fields and submit just as done in sections Editing & Submitting an Amendment and Editing & Submitting a Revision.
6. Once a request has been approved, you have the ability to Print. Click Print to generate a PDF print preview. A print preview pop-up window will display.
a. Click the printer icon located in the upper right corner of the screen. Click the down arrow to download the image as a PDF file.
b. Click the white X to close the pop-up window.
7. If the request is still Pending, you have the ability to Cancel the amendment or revision. That means that as long as the request is still waiting on approval by any number of approvers, you can cancel.
a. Upon clicking Cancel, a pop-up will display asking if you are sure you want to cancel the request. Click Yes to continue. Click Cancel to return to the Request History tab.
Once the request has been cancelled, the Approval Status will change to Canceled, but the request itself will remain in Request History where you will still have the ability to View and/or Duplicate the request.
8. The last option for Pending requests only is to Remind Approver. This feature comes into play when your request has been sitting for a while waiting on an approver to approve or deny your request. Click Remind Approver to send an email to the next person in the Approval Chain.
Once clicked, you will receive verification that a reminder has been send.
Once a request has been submitted and approved, it can be reversed, if needed. The reversal process allows users to create a reversal draft, which undoes or cancels an already approved and posted budget entry.
In order to reverse a request, you must have the Reverse Requests profile permission enabled via Setup > Profiles > Budgeting/General Ledger tab.
1. Click the Request History tab.
2. Select the applicable fiscal year from the pull-down. The pull-down defaults to the current fiscal year but can be changed, as needed.
3. Locate the applicale request and click View.
4. Click Reverse to create a reversal draft.
a. In the confirmation pop-up window, click Yes.
A new draft is created on the Drafts tab located in the Existing Drafts section. The word Reverse will display before the original title; in this case, Reverse New IA.
5. Once the new reversal draft has been located, click Edit to open and complete the request.
The reversal draft reflects the original balance as a negative to undo the requested amendment; in this case, $-320.00.
6. Edit or add any data, as needed, then click Submit.
Instead of creating a one-time draft, it may be more beneficial for you to create a Template. If you will be continuously moving monies from one account to another, creating a Template to which you can enter the amounts in as needed will be a better option.
1. Click the Templates tab.
2. Select the applicable fiscal year from the pull-down. The pull-down defaults to the current fiscal year.
3. In the Create a Template section, enter a Title for your template. Then, click Create.
Once created, the only fields that will not be editable are the Fiscal Year, the Requester, and the Created Date.
Clicking Create will open a new tab called Edit Amendment or Edit Revision; this is dependent upon profile permissions set up by the district. If you do not have permissions to amendments, you will only have the option to request a revision (Edit Revision tab). If you have permissions for both, you will have to make a selection as to which you would like to request.
4. To create a new amendment template, which is to request monies for a new budget, select Amendment. For a revision template, that is to move monies from one account to another, select Revision. Note: Many users may not have the option to select Amendment if they do not have permission to create new budgets. For these users, Revision will be selected automatically.
Amendment: A request to increase or amend the budget. It is not a reallocation of funding (like a revision), but an adjustment to the agreed budget. An example of when a budget amendment would be needed is if a district won a grant from a private company. In this case, you would need to add a new line to the existing budget because a new accounting strip must be added for the money.
Revision: A revision within a budget that involves moving funds from one area to another within the same project. You cannot move funds from one project to another. For example, you may need to move 5100 funds from one facility to another. This would be a revision to the budget.
5. In creating a template, you can input as much or as little information as desired. You can create a blank template to use later or you can enter a specific account and enter 0.00 for the amount to be changed later. For more information on how to complete the different sections, see the sections on Editing & Submitting an Amendment and Editing & Submitting a Revision.
6. When you are finished creating your template, simply click out of it. There isn’t a save button, the template saves automatically. To use or edit it at a later date, click on the Templates tab and scroll to the Existing Templates section.
7. If available (dependent upon your profile permissions), click View All Users to view templates created by all users.
a. Click Hide All Users to hide templates created by other users and only view your own templates.
8. In the Existing Templates section, click the delete button (red minus sign) to delete the template.
9. You can click in the Title field and edit the name. Here you can also view the Fiscal Year and Date Created.
10. Click Use to actually use the template by creating an amendment or revision draft. You will be asked to name your request. Any information entered will pull into a draft for submission. See the sections on Editing & Submitting an Amendment and Editing & Submitting a Revision for more information.
11. Click Edit to open the template and make changes as needed.
1. To review an amendment or revision for approval, from the Budgeting/General Ledger menu, click Internal Account Budget Maintenance.
While you can always access pending requests from the Internal Account Budget Maintenance menu, you also have the ability to access them directly from the Portal page in the Alters section.
2. Click on the Pending Approval tab and be sure the check box to Show current pending is selected.
From this screen, you can view the Title, Type (Amendment or Revision), Batch name, Requester name, the Created Date, the Amount in question, and the Approval Status. Note: The Request # will remain blank until the request has been approved by all parties of the approval flow.
The last column shows you several options: View, Duplicate, Cancel, Remind Approver, Email Requester, Approver, Deny, or Send Back to Originator.
3. Click View to open the request and view the submission. Clicking View will open an Edit Amendment or Edit Revision tab. All information will be editable including Files and Comments, which can be added at any time.
You also have the ability to Email Requester, Approve, Deny, and/or Send Back to Originator directly from this screen.
4. Click Duplicate to create a copy of a submitted request. Clicking Duplicate will result in a pop-up window asking you to name the new request.
a. All of the information entered in the original request will populate the duplicated request. From here, you can add anything or edit any fields and submit just as done in sections Editing & Submitting an Amendment and Editing & Submitting a Revision.
5. If the request is still Pending, you have the ability to Cancel the amendment or revision. That means that as long as the request is still waiting on approval by any number of approvers, you can cancel.
a. Upon clicking Cancel, a pop-up will display asking if you are sure you want to cancel the request. Click Yes to continue. Click Cancel to return to the Request History tab.
6. You also have the ability to Remind Approver, that is, the next approver in the approval chain. This feature comes into play when the request has been sitting for a while waiting on the next approver. Click Remind Approver to send an email to the next person in the Approval Chain.
Once clicked, you will receive verification that a reminder has been send.
7. If needed, you have the option to Email Requester before making any decisions. This comes in handy if you have questions about the request and need answers before approving or denying the request. You could also use this feature to email the requester explaining why you made changes or denied the request, etc.
8. Click Approve to approve the request. Once approved, the request will disappear from the Pending Approval tab and appear on the Approval History tab. The Approval Status may still show as Pending if there are more approvers in the Approval Chain.
9. Click Deny to deny the request. If a request is denied, it will disappear from the Pending Approval tab and appear on the Approval History tab.
10. Click Send Back to Originator to send the request back to the originator with notes for changes before approval takes place. Once clicked, enter notes for the requester in the provided text box, then click Send.
11. Click the Approval History tab to view all requests reviewed and approved, denied, or cancelled.
The Approval History tab is very similar to the Pending Approval tab. All of the same columns are displayed. However, if the request has been approved by all parties, the option to Print becomes available.
12. Click Print to generate a PDF print preview. A print preview pop-up window will display. Click the printer icon located in the upper right corner of the screen. Note: If you do not see the black bar across the top of the screen or any of the icons, move your pointer over the window to make it appear.
a. Click the down arrow to download the image as a PDF file. Click the Printer icon to print.
b. Click the white X to close the pop-up window.
If a new strip is being added via a budget maintenance amendment, the project validation will be skipped in approval.
If creating new budgets for many accounts already worked out in a spreadsheet, the information can be imported via the Import button directly from Excel.
a. Click Import, search for and select your spreadsheet. An Import CSV pop-up will display.
b. Before importation, be sure to title each column correctly.
c. The system will match the information, but you must verify that each pull-down is correct.
d. Once complete, click Import CSV to transport data.
Focus offers the functionality to import a file containing both Budget and Non-Budget fields directly into Budget Maintenance. This means you can upload a file that includes data for budgeted items as well as areas where no budget allocation exists.
For a quickly organized Excel spreadsheet to work in and then import, click on the Excel spreadsheet icon in the Export section. Downloading the file will ensure your columns are already set up. For more information on the Export section and Filters, see the section on Additional Features.
Each of the element pull-downs has a Filter; therefore, you can begin typing the name or number of the element to pull it up quickly and click or tab to the next field.
Clear Filters to breakdown data.
a. To add more than one filter to a column by clicking the green plus sign.
b. To delete an additional filter, click the red minus sign.
c. For additional filtering options, click the gray arrow for a filter pull-down.
For more information on how to use the Filters feature, see the Filters document.
You can also sort data by clicking on any of the headers that contain the black double arrows. Click once for ascending results; click twice for descending results. In the image shown, data has been sorted by Amount notice that the number starts at 0.00 and progressively goes up because the header was only clicked once.
To navigate through the listed pages, click the Prev and Next buttons. To jump to a specific numbered page, type the number in the page text box and press Enter. Note: This option will not display if all data can be shown on one page.
Click the Excel icon in the Export section allows you to export the data to an Excel spreadsheet. Click the icon to download the file.
To print data in a section, click the Print icon in the Export section as shown in the image above. Depending on browser settings, this will generate a print preview where you will have the ability to change the layout, print two-sided, etc.
Use the Filter text box located in select pull-downs to quickly find a selection. Begin typing the name or number of the data in question to pull it to the beginning of the list.
