Budget Journals are used to increase or decrease budgets, or to move budgets from one chartstring to another. Budget Journals are sometimes referred to as Budget Amendments or Budget Transactions. The UGA Budget Management System refers to the entries as Budget Amendments, and those Budget Amendments are imported into the UGA Financial Management System as Budget Journals.
If a large volume of entries are needed, the Budget Journal Spreadsheet uploader may be a better option.
Budget journals dated within the month being closed must have a valid budget check status and must reach Commitment Management for final approval by noon on the first business day of the following month. Any budget journals dated within the prior month not meeting this deadline will be deleted after noon on the second business day of the following month. If the journal is still needed, the Initiator should copy the budget journal to the new month. Budget journals can be copied into the following month as early as the last week of the month.
In this article, you will learn the steps to create a two-sided budget journal.
These pages can also be accessed from the Business Management WorkCenter.
First, log into the UGA Financial Management System.
From the Employee Self Service page in UGA Financials , click the General Ledger tile.
Navigate to the Budget Journals page by selecting:
Commitment Control > Enter Budget Journals
Click the Enter Budget Journals link.
To create more workspace, click the Collapse menu button.
The Enter Budget Journals page is displayed and opens to the Add a New Value tab.
There are already three values that default: Business Unit, Journal ID, and Journal Date. Verify that the correct business unit is displayed. If not, enter 18000.
Note: 18000 is the Business Unit assigned to the University of Georgia.
Do not change the Journal ID of NEXT. This allows the system to auto assign a Journal ID when the journal is saved.
The Journal Date defaults to the current date but may be changed as needed. The month entered here determines the period in which the journal is posted.
Click the Add button.
The Budget Header page is displayed with the values you entered on the previous page. Use this page to specify the business unit, Journal ID, journal date, ledger group, budget entry type, and currency.
Note: If the date on the Journal is outside the range of open months, a warning message will be displayed.
DEPT_CHILD is the Ledger Group to which an Expense budget journal will be posted.
If not selected by default, click the Ledger Group lookup magnifying glass.
The Look Up Ledger Group is displayed. The only ledgers to use for Commitment Control transactions are DEPT_CHILD for expenses and DEPT_ REV for revenue.
Select the appropriate ledger.
Example shown here: DEPT_CHILD list item.
Leave the default values for currency information.
Budget Journals submitted by Departments and Units will all be Adjustments. The Original or Adjustment values will be tagged on the Budget entry but do not affect the monetary impact. Only the Central Offices work with Original budgets.
Click the Budget Entry Type dropdown list.
Click the Adjustment option.
The Generate Parent Budget(s) option is selected by default and will create an entry in the parent control budget.
To indicate this is an adjustment to the Parent Budget, click the Parent Budget Entry Type drop-down list
Use the Attachments hyperlink to add supporting documentation to the budget journal.
The Long Description field is used to provide an explanation of the change to approvers.
Enter appropriate information into the Long Description field.
Example shown here: " Transferring funds from operating to travel ".
You have completed the entry on the budget journal header.
Click the Budget Lines tab.
The Budget Lines page is displayed. This page is used to enter the ChartFields and amounts related to the budget journal entry.
After you complete the Budget Header and Budget Lines, this page may be used to request budget journal processing.
For all budget transactions, the required ChartFields are Fund, Program, Department, Class, Account, and Budget Reference.
Journal Transactions for Funds 20200, 20300 and 20500 also require the Class ChartField.
If you have a SpeedType, you can manually enter it or use the search features to find the appropriate value.
Note : A SpeedType cannot be relied upon to be a complete set of ChartFields. You should always review the ChartFields to be sure they are correct.
For all journal transactions, the ChartFields that are required are Fund, Class, Program, Department, Account and Budget Reference.
Example shown here: key in the ChartFields manually.
All budget transactions require an account.
Enter the appropriate information into the Account field.
Example shown here: " 700000 " into the Account field.
The Fund ChartField should be in all transactions.
Enter the appropriate information into the Fund field.
Example shown here: " 10500 " into the Fund field.
Enter the appropriate information into the Dept field.
Example shown here: " 32004001 " into the Dept field.
Enter the appropriate information into the Program field.
Example shown here: " 11140 " into the Program field.
Enter the appropriate information into the Class field.
Example shown here: " 11800 " into the Class field.
Enter the appropriate information into the Bud Ref field.
Example shown here: " 2024 " into the Bud Ref field.
Enter the appropriate amount into the Amount field. Amounts for budget journals should be entered as whole dollars.
Example shown here: " -1000 " into the Amount field.
Note: Two-sided budget journals and all budget transfers must balance. One-sided budget journals are not required to balance.
You now need to enter the information using the chartstring that should be debited. This will require that you add additional lines. If you need to add multiple lines, you can enter the total number of lines in the Lines to Add field.
You can [+] insert lines or [-] delete the selected journal lines.
Click the [+] Insert Lines button.
Enter the appropriate information in the Account field.
Example shown here: " 64 " in the Account field.
Choose the appropriate account number from the drop-down menu.
Example shown here: " 640000 " option from the Account column.
Click the Save button.
After you save the journal, a Journal ID is assigned. You should record the assigned Journal ID in the event that you need to search for it at a later date.
Once the budget journal is entered, you need to finalize and submit for approval. The first step is to run the “Edit Chartfields” process to ensure your chartfields are valid.
Click the Process dropdown list.
The Edit ChartFields process checks for the validity of ChartFields on each line. It also checks for valid combinations of ChartFields.
Click the Edit Chartfields option.
Click the Process button.
Unless there is an Error in the status, the ChartFields are valid. If an error is noted, check the ChartFields to be sure that they are all entered and all correct.
After checking your chartfields you will want to do a budget pre-check to ensure that funds are available.
Click the Budget Pre-Check option.
A pop-up message appears asking if you want to budget check without posting results. This is what a budget pre-check does.
Click the Yes button.
The Budget Header Status should say Checked Only. If it says error, you need to check your budget to find the error by clicking on the Budget Errors tab.
If no errors are present, you are ready to submit the journal for approval.
Now you are ready to submit the journal for approval.
Click the Submit Journal option.
When you select Submit Journal, it turns on the Submit for Approval checkbox.
Once the budget journal is submitted, the Approval Header Status should say Pending.
Click the Pending link.
You will see the Approval Flow list that shows the approval pools that must approve the journal.
You can also view the list of people in the approval pool.
Note: Budget Journals are routed through a separate approval pool from GL Journals.
Click the Multiple Approvers link.
The list of approvers in the pool is listed. This is useful if the approval is "stuck" and you need to contact someone to move it along.
Click the Close button to close the list.
Note that the first level of approval is pending which means that they have received notification, but no one has approved.
Click the Return button.
The General ledger page is displayed.
You have completed the steps to create a two-sided budget journal.