Budgeting Checklist

Owned by Sara Glore
Last updated: Apr 09, 2024 by Bethann Simon
7 min read

This is intended to be a general guide checklist for Budgeting in USAS-R.

Suggestions before beginning budgeting for next FY

Suggested but NOT required preliminary checklist before budgeting for next FY:

You can create a budgeting spreadsheet within a scenario and run it for ALL active accounts you have in USAS. You can then export this to Excel and use it as a checklist to see if you can inactivate any accounts not being used. This can help clean up your active accounts and get rid of accounts used years ago. Keep in mind if you are using a grant account this FY but will not be next year, you will need to keep that account active in the system to finish out the FY and audit. Ideally, this could be used to clean up grants from years ago or accounts you haven't budgeted for in years. This can also help you see what accounts you have to work with and if you need to create any new accounts that will be used in the next FY before beginning your budgeting. Once you have your list on Excel, go to Core>Accounts, click on the expenditure tab, filter by Active = true, search for your account, click on  to view your account, click edit, uncheck the active checkbox, and hit save. 


The Budgeting Menu contains two programs:

  • Scenarios: Allows for the creation of a budget scenario via spreadsheets which are then promoted to proposed amounts. 
  • Proposed Amounts: Displays budget and revenue amounts for a specified year in grid format. Proposed amounts are then applied to initial budget and revenue estimates as temporary or permanent appropriations or adjustments.

The steps in the Budgeting Process are:

  1. Create a Scenario
    1. Add/Update Budgeting Spreadsheets
  2. Promote the Scenario
  3. Apply the proposed amounts. 

Scenarios

  • Click on Budgeting/Scenario/Create to create a Scenario
  • Enter Name & Description, and the Fiscal Year you are budgeting for

 

  • Click Save to save the Scenario or continue on to create or upload sheets. Remember to ‘Save’ the scenario when finished

OR

  • Find the Scenario you want to Clone on the Scenario Grid
  • View the Scenario using 

  • Click on 

    This will Clone the Scenario and all underlying Budgeting Sheets for that Scenario.

Create New Budgeting Spreadsheets within the scenario

If this Scenario was created prior you will need to edit the scenario first before being able to create a new sheet or upload, upload/replace or regenerate an existing budget sheet. 

Click on 'Create' to create a spreadsheet within the budgeting scenario 

  • Select Type (Budget or Revenue)
  • On the 'Properties' tab, add or remove properties you would like on your spreadsheet.
  • Click on 'Configure Filters' to filter accounts you want included on the spreadsheet (i.e only want accounts with OPU = 200)
    • You can save a query to be able to pull it up at a later date by giving it a name and clicking on 'save query'
  • Enter a 'Sheet Name' 
  • Click on 'Save Sheet' to save your spreadsheet.  A 'Confirmation Sheet Creation' box appears.  Click on 'Create' to continue creating the spreadsheet.  Once complete, an informational box appears stating the budgeting sheet created successfully.

When creating multiple budget spreadsheets, you need to be sure you are not duplicating any accounts across spreadsheets. For example, you cannot have an overall general fund budget spreadsheet that includes all active general fund accounts AND a general fund spreadsheet for the High School budgets specifically. The system will not be able to process the accounts that are duplicate within the spreadsheets.


Budgeting Sheets Grid

Once a spreadsheet is created in the scenario, it is displayed on the Budgeting Sheets grid.  You can then access the spreadsheet using one or more of the following options in order to add proposed amounts:

  • Click onto edit an existing spreadsheet  (must use the existing PA-XXXX column to enter your proposed amounts)
    • you can add (insert) or delete rows in your spreadsheet
    • You can use formulas to enter your proposed amounts
  • Click on  to regenerate the sheet.  You may make changes to your selected properties, filters etc. if desired. You will then save the sheet, overriding the previous sheet values and accounts. 
  • If you prefer to enter proposed amounts and/or make changes to your spreadsheet via Excel, click on  to download the spreadsheet into Excel.  Once the spreadsheet is completed and saved, click on  to upload/replace the spreadsheet back into the scenario
  • Click on  to delete an existing spreadsheet you no longer want.

Make sure you Save the Scenario if you want to keep any Budgeting Sheet changes. If you do not Save the Scenario any Budgeting Sheet changes will be lost. 

Upload Budgeting Spreadsheets into the scenario

Use the Upload option to upload outside spreadsheets into your scenario.  These spreadsheet may contain proposed amounts.

  • Click 
  • Enter a 'Sheet Name' and optional 'Description'
  • Click on 'Choose File' and select the outside spreadsheet you want to upload
The outside spreadsheet must contain account code dimensions in separate columns with the proper column headers.  You may also include the proposed amounts.  The following rpd-json files may be downloaded and imported into the Redesign.  They are similar to the SSDT Budget Expense and Revenue Expense template report definitions but have been formatted to include the proper columns headers in a spreadsheet format.  
When entering proposed amounts, you must change the 'Next Year Proposed' column to 'PA-XXXX' (XXXX=desired fiscal year) in order for the spreadsheet to upload properly into the the budget scenario.
  • Click on 'Start Upload' to upload the spreadsheet.  Once complete, an informational box appears stating budgeting sheet was uploaded successfully.


Promote a Scenario

Once a scenario is completed, it can be "promoted" to the proposed amounts field on the budget and revenue accounts.  Promote includes all spreadsheets in the scenario. Once promoted, the accounts with associated amounts will appear in Budgeting/Proposed Amounts Grid as well as the Next Year Proposed Amount field under the accounts UI.

Please note that once a scenario is promoted for a fiscal year, any successive scenario related to the same fiscal year that is promoted will overwrite the prior scenario's amounts. When a Scenario is promoted it deletes out anything in the Budgeting/Proposed Amounts grid for the same fiscal year and then uploads the new accounts/figures from the Scenarios Budgeting Sheets that was just promoted. So instead of creating separate scenarios, we recommend creating separate spreadsheets within the same scenario.

Proposed Amounts

Contains separate tabs for existing 'Proposed Budgets' and 'Proposed Anticipated Revenues' amounts in a grid format based on the fiscal year selected.  Users can:

  • Create a proposed amount in order to add it to the existing grid
    • Enter or search for an account
    • Enter a fiscal year
    • Enter a proposed amount
    • Click on 'Save'
  • View a proposed amount
    • From the grid, search the desired account and click on to view the details of the proposed amount.
  • Edit a proposed amount
    • From the grid, search the desired account and click on to edit the fiscal year or proposed amount.
  • Delete a proposed amount
    • Per account: From the grid, search the desired account and click on  to delete the proposed amount for that account.  Click on 'delete' to confirm deletion.
    • Mass Delete: From the grid, click on the checkbox for the proposed amounts you want to delete and click on the button to mass delete all checked accounts.

Applying Proposed Amounts

Once all of the proposed amounts have been entered for a fiscal year, click 'Apply' to apply them as initial budget and initial revenue figures. 

You cannot choose specific accounts to apply amounts to. It will apply the amounts to all accounts on your proposed amounts grid.

Choose from the following Transaction Types:

  • If 'Temporary' is selected, checkmarking 'full year' implies the temporary initial budgets hold true for the entire year.
    • If 'Temporary' is selected and 'full year' is not checkmarked, this implies the temporary initial budgets could change during the fiscal year (i.e. Levy passes/fails)
  • If 'Permanent' is selected, 'full year' is checkmarked automatically and cannot be unchecked.  This implied these are permanent initial budgets.
  • If 'Adjustment' is selected, it adjusts the existing budget amounts via negative/positive adjustments.   The initial figures are not touched.  The 'Update the GAAP Original Estimate' amounts box defaults to being checked but you have the option to uncheck it.

Effective Date: automatically defaults to the first day of the fiscal year selected when selecting temporary or permanent transaction types.  When selecting Adjustment transactions type,  you have the option of entering an effective date.  The adjustment will not become effective until you are in that processing period.

Click on 'Apply' to proceed with applying the proposed figures as the initial budget/revenue estimates.

For further information on the Budgeting process, please refer to the Scenarios and Proposed Amounts sections of the Budgeting chapter in the USAS-R manual.