Defining budget edits

Budget edits prevent data entry in Lawson applications when an activity group or activity budget is exceeded. Use this procedure to define budget edit parameters.

Note: You can define budget edits before or after you define budgets. If you activate budget edits, you must define budgets before you process transactions in the applicable Lawson applications.
Procedure flow: Defining budget edits

Follow these steps to define budget edits:

  1. Access Activity Group (AC00.1).
  2. On the Budget tab, define budget edits. Use these guidelines to specify the field values:
    Budget Checking

    Select one of these options to determine the budget time frame to use for budget edits:

    • Select Period Edit to perform the edit using the active period-to-date budget.

    • Select Annual Edit to perform the edit using the active year-to-date budget.

    • Select Total Edit to perform the edit using the active life-to-date budget.

    • Select No Edit (default setting) if you do not wish to enable budget edits.

    Note: Period Edit and Annual Edit options are not valid with a Life Only budget.
    Level

    Select one of these options to determine the budget level to use for budget edits:

    • Select Activity - Acct Cat to perform the edit using the budget for the activity and account category specified in the transaction.

    • Select Activity Group to perform the edit using the activity group budget. The budget for the activity group associated with the activity in the transaction is used.

    • Select Activity to perform the edit using the total budgets for all account categories in the activity specified in the transaction.

    • Select Activity - Summary Acct Cat to perform the edit using all transactions related to the summary account category.

      Note: Select the Activity - Summary Acct Cat option if your Account Category structure is set up so you can edit at the summary level (for example, direct costs versus indirect costs).
    • Use Contract Funding to perform the edit when using the Grant Billing application. The contract funding budget edit compares project costs to the contract budget amount. If you select Contract Funding, then you must select Total Edit in the Budget Checking field. If contract funding budget edit is selected at the Activity Group level, overriding it is not allowed at the posting level activity (AC10.1).

    Tolerance

    Specify the percentage by which the budget is allowed to exceed. For example, to allow budgets to exceed by 5%, specify 5.00.

    Estimated Maximum

    Specify the budget maximum for the activity group. This is informational only, and shows a warning message during activity budget entry when the total activity budgets exceed the maximum, but does not prevent you from exceeding the budget.

    Current Budgeted

    This field displays the total budget amount defined for activities in the activity group.

  3. Access Activity (AC10.1) to override the budget edits at the activity level.
    Note: Only posting activities can have budget edits defined at the activity level, and only if the activity group budget level on Activity Group (AC00.1) is not set to Activity Group (2).

    Use these guidelines to specify the field values:

    Budget Checking

    The activity group budget checking value displays. You can override it with one of these values:

    • Select Period Edit to perform the edit using the active period-to-date budget.

    • Select Annual Edit to perform the edit using the active year-to-date budget.

    • Select Total Edit to perform the edit using the active life-to-date budget.

    • Select No Edit (the default) if you do not wish to enable budget edits.

    If budget amounts are validated, the system validates whether actuals plus commitments are less than or equal to the budget plus the budget tolerance. The edits are performed in the applications you select on System Codes (GL01.4).

    Note: Period Edit and Annual Edit options are not valid with a Life Only budget.
    Level

    The activity group edit level displays. You can override it with one of these values:

    • Select Activity - Acct Cat (1) to perform the edit using the budget for the activity and account category specified in the transaction.

    • Select Activity (3) to perform the edit using the total budgets for all account categories in the activity specified in the transaction.

    • Select Activity - Summary Account Cat (4) to perform the edit using the budget for the summary account category in the activity specified in the transaction.

    • Select Contract Funding to perform the edit when using the Grant Billing application. The contract funding budget edit compares project costs to the contract budget amount. If you select Contract Funding, then you must select Total Edit in the Budget Checking field. If contract funding budget edit is selected at the Activity Group level, then it can not be overridden at the posting level activity (AC10.1).

    Note: You cannot define budget edits for this activity if the default budget edit level that displays (derived from the activity group) is (2) Activity Group or (5) Contract Funding.
    Tolerance

    Specify the percentage by which the budget is allowed to exceed. For example, to allow budgets to exceed by 5 percent, specify 5.00.

    Estimated Maximum

    Specify the budget maximum for the activity. This is informational only, and shows a warning message during activity budget entry when the total activity budget exceeds the maximum, but does not prevent you from exceeding the budget.

    Note: Specify an estimated value for contract and summary activities also, but only posting activities is subject to activity budget editing.
  4. Access System Codes (GL01.4).
  5. Select the system codes in which you want to perform budget edits. Use these guidelines to specify the field values:
    AC Commit (Commitments)

    If you activate budget edits in a Lawson application, you should also activate commitment tracking for that application. This ensures that commitment transactions are available and included when the budget edit formula is applied.

    AC Bud (Budget Edit)

    Select Yes in this field to enforce budget edits during data entry. You can activate budget edits in any of these Lawson applications:

    • General Ledger (GL)

    • Requisitions (RQ)

    • Purchase Order (PO)

    • Accounts Payable (AP)

    • Cash Management (CB)

    • Employee Expense (EE)

    • Project Accounting (AC)

Related reports and inquiries

To Use
List all valid budgets assigned to a specific activity or activity group. Budget Listing (AC220) or Budget Control Report (AC225)
Report on the variance between activity budgets and actuals or between two budgets. Budget Variance Report (AC420)
View remaining budget amounts and total actuals, commitments, and budgets. Activity Analysis (AC90.1), Account Category Analysis (AC95.1), Activity Commitment Summary (AC295), Commitment Analysis Summary (AC297), and Account Category Encumbrance Analysis (AC97.1).