Handling of Budget Entries

Your budget can be described using many different dimensions beyond account assignments (such as fund, cost centers and so on). These dimensions and how to create the budget are being described in the following chapter.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud covers budget execution, but not budget preparation functions. Budget is usually referred to as legal budget, which needs a proper audit trail using budget documents in order to maintain the budget. All budgets used for reporting and active availability checking are stored on the central table, ACDOCP.

There are two ways budgets in ACDOCP are created:

• Using budget documents
• Using the interface (currently) without budget documents

The upload interface is commonly used if you integrate with an external budget planning system, or if you use MS Excel as a vehicle to store your budget plans. SAP's budget planning system is called SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) and has standard integration points for master data, budget, commitment, and actual data. Budgets can be loaded back into a budget planning system (through standard OData Services) and serve as a starting point for next year's budget planning.

Budget documents are created manually using the SAP Fiori app, Manage Budget Documents, or through specific mass processes using the generic job framework using the SAP Fiori app, Application Jobs - Public Sector.

The standard delivered user/role Budget_specialist has the authority to access, create, and report budget.

The following figure gives an overview of how the budget is created.

The figure, Budget Account Attributes: Master Data Setup, shows you the following:

• That the G/L account attributes are maintained in the G/L account master data under the Public Sector Management Data tab.
• That accounts must be budget-relevant in order to be taken into account for budgetary purposes.
• That accounts must be flagged as Budgeting-Allowed in order to post budget on the account.
• That both expenses and revenues can be used for budgeting purposes (as part of ACDOCP). Only Expense type entries are included in the availability control (as part of the consumable budget). In budgetary reporting, both expense and revenue entries are considered to be Budget-Relevant. Revenue budget is being used for the Revenue Increasing Budget (RIB) functionality.

The figure, Plan Category Configuration, illustrates the following:

• The budget is stored with distinct plan categories. There is no budget movement between different budget categories. Every budget operation is always done within one budget category.
• The pre-delivered plan category for public sector (usage public sector budget) is called BUDGET03.
  Note

  The project and cost center budget are handled in the public sector budget. It is not possible to have parallel budget checking (in controlling and public sector management) when the public sector scope is activated. All the budget handling is done in public sector management.
• The plan category (BUDGET03) can usually be derived automatically when the budget is created.
• Customers can create their own budget categories if needed.

The following figure shows the following:

• Budget types are different areas of your budget with a budget category
• It is possible to transfer budgets between budget types
• Budget types need to belong to released or unreleased budgets
• Budget types can be flagged as consumable (subject to availability control) or not
• Customers can define as many budget types as needed

The figure, Budgeting Process and Budget Process Type, shows the following:

• Unlike the budget category and type (which can be maintained using configuration), the attributes budget process (header level) and budget process types (line-item level) are derived automatically when budget documents are created.
• The attributes are hard-coded and limited to the values delivered by SAP.
• The attributes are available for reporting and selection of different budget documents.

For budget documents, the document type (on header level) controls certain behavior of the document. Currently, it mainly allows you to use different number ranges for different types of budget documents.

The figure, Activate Journal Fields for Budgeting Configuration, shows the following:

• Your budget can be sliced and diced by different combinations of account assignments (journal fields).
• Customers choose which journal fields they want to post budget. Budget accounts, cost centers, budget periods, and funds are mandatory. Others can be added as mandatory (they must exist in every budget document) or optional (the value space is allowed).
• Some dimensions such as company code, profit center and segment are derived automatically. This derivation (manly from the cost center) cannot be influenced.
• The settings can be different for plan categories, company codes, and budget scenarios.
• The budget scenario is a pre-delivered concept that distinguishes certain scenarios which can allow different fields for selection. For example, external grants budget is a different scenario and allows, for example, sponsored project and class.

To create a budget through file upload, you must consider the following:

• Before you upload a budget using a file, you need to know the format in which you need to provide the data. In order to get the right format, you can download a template. There is a template available called Public Sector Budgeting.
• When you select this template, you get an Excel sheet with columns showing you the fields in headers. The first 3 rows of this excel sheet contain the technical field name (1), the description of the field (2), and the duplicate key row (3).
• You need to fill the Excel sheet providing multiple lines as needed, for each combination of attributes. Each different attribute combination will result in a line in the table ACDOCP and can then be reported on (and used for availability checking).
• If there is already the same combination in the database, then the system will overwrite this combination (assuming the old line was invalid). The combination is being evaluated using the X marks in the duplicate key row. An X means that this attribute will contribute in the unique combination. A space means that this column will be not regarded as key relevant. Consequently, the duplicate key row will influence the number of lines being reversed during an upload.

The following figure illustrates the first steps in uploading from Excel files:

• Choose the Import Financial Plan Data tile.
• Choose Download Templates.
• Select and populate the template.

Further steps are outlined here:

• When you have provided a file in the right format from your local computer, the upload program immediately calculates the combinations and displays them on the screen.
• It provides the number of line items to be uploaded and identifies whether line items will be replaced (taking the duplicate key row into account).
• Now you can decide whether you want to immediately import or test import the file.
• Only during the import will all the validation checks be executed (for example, existence of master data and so on). All the lines in the file will be validated. If there are errors, the complete file will be rejected and an error log will appear.
• After the upload you can generate budget headers in order to have a consistent budget document repository. This will be done via the job template. This will be done via the job template "Automatic Budget Document Header Creation".

The following figure shows you a successfully uploaded file without errors.

The figure, Budget Documents Overview List Page, shows the following:

• Using the app, Manage Budget Documents, you can manually create new documents.
• This screenshot illustrates the overview list page, which allows you to see all the existing budget documents.
• It is possible to filter certain documents, create new ones, or apply certain functions against selected documents.

The figure shows the available functions:

• When creating new budget documents, the user needs to decide what type of documents will be created.
• Based on this selection of the budget process, the transaction reacts differently and provides different validations.
• At the moment the following budget processes are delivered:

  Original Budget

  You can create original budget.

  Budget Supplements

  You can increase your budget using this process.

  Budget Returns

  You can decrease your budget via this process. You can only return the budget that is not earmarked/used using budget consumption.

  Budget Transfers

  You can transfer budget between account assignments and budget types. The resulting documents consist of sender and receiver lines. The total amounts of sender and receiver amount must balance to zero. On the sender lines, you can only transfer a budget that is not earmarked/used using budget consumption.

  Budget Releases

  You can manually release budget, if you have unreleased budget on a budget address. See more details in the separate section of this training.

• Other processes exist (for example, for Revenue Increasing Budget), which are not supported using the manual creation of budget document app.

The following functions are supported when you create budget documents:

• It is possible to exit the change/create process of documents and leave a draft document, where the changes are not subject to reporting and availability checking
• It is possible to use the substitution tool in order to pre-populate values via a specific substitution context.
• Attach files to documents
• Provide descriptive text on header and line item level
• Show available and budget amount:
  • The available budget amount is the unused amount on a Availability Checking (AVC) control object. It is possible to show where the budget checking is taking place.
  • The budget amount is the available amount on exact budget address (combination of account assignment and budget type).
• Posting date deriving fiscal year/fiscal period and budget period (together with the fund).
• Copying and deleting line items.
• Creating and storing line item variants. It is possible to select the fields and their positions and store/reuse this selection as variant.

The following figure provides you with an example of a budget supplement document.

The following functions are supported against persisted budget documents:

• It is possible to reverse a posted budget document. Document reversal creates an exact copy of the budget document where the signs are reversed. Reversed budget documents get a new document number. The reversed budget document and the reversal documents are linked together. You need to choose a reversal reason during this process.
• It is possible to copy a posted budget document. All attributes of the original documents (except the amount) are copied into the new documents.
• Draft documents can be deleted.

You should be now able to create budget entries for public sector budget management.

The key takeaways are as follows:

• Budgets can be created using manual or automatic postings through budget documents or through upload/interfaces.
• Budgets can be structured/modeled along different dimensions.
• Budgets play a crucial part for reporting and active availability checking.
• Budgets can be loaded back into a budget planning system and serve as the starting point for next years budget.