Allocation Control vs Budget Control
Allocation Control
Allocation Control refers to the process by which budgets are distributed or assigned to various levels within the organization. The Over Allocation flags ensure that, as budgets are entered or derived for these levels, they will not exceed the highest defined control level.
For example, if budgets are allocated first to Funds, then to Functions, then to Divisions and finally to Departments (a typical top down budgeting scenario), the client may create a separate Org. Key for managing each of these four levels. When an Org. Key is defined in GLUPKY, the client may specify that the budget values are to be checked against the budget value at the next level up to ensure that all budgets to levels below a given level do not exceed the budget given to a control level.
In the example below, the client wants to limit the Fund 46 Budget for expenses to 1,000,000. The sum of all Departments against the parent key "Control Key Fund 46" ensures that the total does not exceed the budget given to the Parent
Parent Key (Division) | Children Keys (Department) |
|---|---|
| 460046 Finance Admin Expense budget entered is 300,000 |
464646 Control Fund 46 Entered budget for expenses is 1,000,000 | 460041 Disbursement Expense budget entered is 500,000 |
| 460042 Treasury Expense budget cannot exceed 200,000 |
If, for example, the "Over Allocation Flags" are set to block (B) at Level G2, it means that if any budgets are created for lower level keys that as a sum exceed the budget for Object Group 2 at the higher-level Control Key, a block will be issued if further budget entry is attempted.
Budget Control
Budget Control refers to the process by which transaction entry into BusinessPlus is to be checked against existing budget limits. While budget controls may be defined in single levels, such as an Object Code and/or Object Group, it may be helpful at times to create hierarchies within the organization side.
In both the processing of Allocation and Budget Controls, the specific hierarchy of budget checking is defined by the client and may differ by ledger codes or for different segments of a particular ledger. For example, a Department balance may be checked against Function level control budgets in one fund, and against Division level control budgets in another fund.
In the case of budget warning at the Key-Object Group level, the Over Budget Flags are used to set budget alerts on a key-by-key basis. This is achieved by an Action field indicating B (Block), W (Warn), A (Authorize), T (Total only), and the Level field indicating at what level this action is to occur. The choices for level are either OB (Object Code level) or G1-G8 (Object Group 1-8). For example, the fields have a B and G3 indicating a block at the Object Group 3. The budget amount to correspond to the Org Key and Level G3 is then defined through the budget update methods.
In this scenario, Org Key 101500 has the Over Budget Flag B G3 defined in GLUPKY. The budget defined in GLBUUP for Key 101500 and the Group 3 value of 545, is $5,000. The accumulators will track all Object Codes (GLUPOB) with the Group 3 value of 545 paired with Org Key 101500 and block entries if the total of all entries exceeds $5,000.