Entering change orders

A change order is a request for a change to budget. You change a budget without a change order by making a change on the same form you used to define the budget, such as Life Only Budget (AC20.1). Use this procedure to create a change order to modify an existing budget.

If you want the application to automatically create an audit trail of budget changes made with change orders, you must select Yes in the Change Order Audit field on Activity Group (AC00.1).

Follow these steps to enter a change order:

  1. Access an appropriate change order form.
    To process a change order for Use
    A life only budget Life Only Budget Change Order (AC21.1)
    An annual budget Annual Budget Change Order (AC21.2)
    A period budget Period Budget Change Order (AC21.3)
    Any type of activity budget, based on the year and period values you enter Activity Budget Change Orders by Activity (AC21.4)
    Note: If you need to maintain a change order, you must maintain it using the same form used to create it. You can only maintain unreleased change orders.
  2. Use the change order form to select the budget for which you want to process a change order. Use these guidelines to specify the field values:
    Activity Group, Activity, and Budget Number

    Select the budget for which you want to process a change order.

    Note: Each budget can have only one unreleased change order at a time.
    Year, Period

    This field appears in the header on AC21.4. In AC21.3, the Year appears on the header and the Period appears in the detail. In AC21.2, the Year appears in the detail. To select the appropriate budget, specify the fiscal year and/or period for the budget you want to select.

    Change Order ID and Effective Date

    Leave these fields blank for now.

  3. Select the Load special action to load budget data. The existing budget data displays above the lines you can use to make changes.
    Note: The Inquire form action will display existing change orders. You must use the Load special action to add a new change order.
  4. Define the changes you want to make to the budget or define a new budget amount by account category line item. Complete one of these fields for each line item.
    FC

    Select the line action to perform.

    Account Category

    The current account categories associated with the budget will display.

    Change Amount

    In the Change Amount line, you can define the net change for the budget as an amount or as the product of a rate and units. For example, the current budget of $2,000 represents 100 hours of work at a rate of $20 an hour. New estimates show that only 50 hours of work is required.

    Specify -1,000 to show the decrease in the budget amount, or specify -50 to show a decrease in the number of units and have the application automatically calculate the new amount.

    New Budget

    In the New Budget line, define the new budget amount change for the budget as an amount or as the product of a rate and units. For example, the current budget of $2,000 represents 100 hours of work at a rate of $20 an hour. New estimates show that only 50 hours of work is required.

    Specify a new amount of $1,000, or specify 50 as the new units and have the application automatically calculate the new amount.

    Note:  If both Units and Amounts have original budget data and you only enter new budget amounts, units will be zeroed out. If you only enter Units, original budget amount will be zeroed out.
    Spread Code

    Spread Code appears only on AC21.2.

    A spread code is a formula for budgeting spending activity that can be set up in AC23.1. You can use spread codes to represent characteristic spending patterns.

    The spread code will spread the annual budget amount based on how the spread code is defined.

  5. Select the change order and the effective date for the changes you want to make. Use these guidelines to specify the field values:
    Change Order ID

    Specify an identifying name and description for the change order. This description will appear on change order audit reports and should reflect the reason for or type of change that you are making.

    Note: You can click Attachments in the Change Order ID field to define URL links or comments for the change order.
    Effective Date

    Specify the date you want the change to be effective. This is the date that the change order can be released. If you leave this field blank, the current date defaults.

    Position To

    Specify up to 5 characters of an account category to indicate where you want records to begin displaying when you inquire.

  6. Select the Add form action to add the change order. An Infor Process Automation trigger in this program notifies you that a change order was entered.
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