Budgets and Sub Programs
Overview
Budgets allow your Sub-Program Managers to submit Budget requests for a Financial Period. You will need to work through the following process:
- Set-up Sub Programs
- Provide Budget information for Sub-Program Managers
- Open Budget to Sub-Program Managers
- Review/Approve Budget Requests
To use the Budget feature of the Financial Management module you will need to ensure you have the applicable Financial Period created and also your Revenue/Expense accounts imported. For information on these processes, please refer to the 'Financial Management Administration Guide' article from our Knowledge Base.
Permissions
To administer the Budgets, staff will need the BudgetAdmin permission.
Please refer to the 'Permissions' article from our Knowledge Base for details on applying permissions.
Setting up Sub-Programs
The first part of the Budget process is to set up your Sub-Programs. You can do this by syncing them from CASES, manually importing them, or adding them directly to Compass.
- If your school has decided to sync sub-programs with CASES, these will automatically update during the overnight sync and you do not need to manually import sub-programs. If you would like this feature enabled in your portal, please contact Compass Support.
- If you need to manually import sub-programs (if your school does not use CASES21 or has decided not to sync accounts) you will need to navigate to the "All Subprograms" tab on the Financial Management dashboard and select the "Import' button. Click 'Choose File', select the file from your device and then click 'Upload'. Please refer to the 'Financial Management and CASES' article for the steps on exporting your Sub-Programs from CASES and importing them into Compass.
Adding Sub-Programs directly into Compass
Sub-Programs can also be added manually through the same page. To create a Sub-Program manually click on the 'Add New Sub-Program' button and enter the Sub-Program details, then click 'Update'.
| Code | Identifying number for the sub-program. Must correspond with the code created in CASES. |
| Name | Heading/Title of Sub-Program. |
| Manager | The person in charge of submitting the budget for a particular faculty/department/program within your school. Entering their details will allow them access to their sub-programs but not any other manager's sub-programs. Any Staff member can manage a sub-program in Compass. |
| Use units | Please see "Sub-program Units" information below |
The status of a sub-program determines what level of acess the manager of a sub-program has.
| Open | The manager of the sub-program can enter/edit information in their budget. |
| Locked | The manager of the sub-program can see everything they have entered, but cannot edit any information. |
| Closed | The manager of the sub-program cannot see the sub-program. |
As the creator and manager of the overall budget you will always be able to see and edit everything. If at any time you wish to edit the sub-program, including the status, you can do so by clicking on the pencil edit button next to the sub-program.
Once you have created all of your Sub-Programs, you can bulk manage these using the functions at the top of the Sub-Programs dashboard.
Using the 'Bulk Actions' button you can change the status of all Sub-Programs at once (for example, you might want to change all Sub-Programs to 'Closed' after a deadline).
Sub-Program Units
When creating Sub-Programs you can set a Sub-Program to contain Units. Units are a further division of a Sub-Program which allow you to divide revenue and expenditure further. If you have selected the Units checkbox when creating the budget, all sub-programs will automatically be created with units.
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Please refer to the 'Managing a Sub-Program with Units' section further below for further details on using Units.
Provide Budget Details
You can provide key information to the Sub-Program Managers by editing the text content in the lower section of the Financial Management page. This text is displayed for the Sub-Program Managers and can be used to advise them of due dates and key school information. Click 'Edit Text' to make your changes.
Click 'Save' to update your changes.
Open the Budget to Sub-Program Managers
To open the Budget, on the Financial Management page, click 'Bulk Actions' and choose 'Update all sub-program statuses', then select 'Open'.
This will make it available to the Sub-Program Managers for them to complete. They will need to go to the Financial Management page under the Organisation menu to do this.
Managing a Sub-Program
The Manager of a Sub-Program puts forward a proposed budget which will then be approved by the Business Manager.As the manager of a Sub-Program or Unit, to access the budgets navigate to the Organisation menu (grid icon) and click 'Financial Management'.
On the dashboard, select the tab "All sub-programs". Here you will see a section called 'My Sub-Programs and Units' which display all Sub-Programs and/or Units that you manage.
Click on the name of the Sub-Program/Unit to open up that Sub-Program's management page.
Evaluation
The Sub-Program Manager is required to enter an evaluation of the budget in the box. Once this is complete, click the 'Submit my Evaluation' button to continue.
Adding an Expense Item
The 'Expense Items' section lists all of the expenditures for the sub-program for the budget period. Expenditures are divided into different expense sources, such as Photocopying, Class Materials and Library Books etc. A full list of expense sources will be dependent on the school and is exported directly from CASES.
To add an expense item, click the "Add New Expense" button. Then add the "Item source", "Requested amount" and "Comment". Click the "Save" button to add your expense. Please note, only members of the 'CompassBusinessManagers' group can modify the 'Approved' field.
If the Compass Financial Management module has been used previously, the amount approved in the previous budgeting cycle will be displayed under the heading 'Prev Cycle'. This means spending from year or year (or similar budgeting cycle) can be monitored and tracked.
Expense items can be edited at any time while a sub-program is 'open' and can be deleted by clicking on the "delete" icon.
Using the Calculated Request Function
The calculated request function will automatically calculate the total of a revenue or expense item per head or per unit. When the function is turned on, two extra columns will appear on the Sub-Program and/or Unit page for both Expense and Revenue Items.
| Requested | Typically this will be the amount requested last year. (For example, you would enter $500 if last year the sub-program received $500 to purchase bunsen burners). |
| X Initial | Number of units required last year (for example X Initial - 20 would mean you purchased 20 busen burners last year). |
| X Revised | The number of total units needed this year (for example X Revised - 25 would mean you require 25 bunsen burners to be purchased this year). |
| Requested Revised | This figure is automatically calculated using the formula below to determine the total cost of the expense item according to the data in the other fields. |
| Formula | Requested Revised = ((Requested x X Revised) / X Initial) |
| Approved | This function is not available to Sub-Program Managers. Approved amounts are entered by the Business Manager. This is the amount which will appear on any reports generated and the export into CASES. |
| Comment | Comments about specific requested items can be added here. |
Capital Expenditure/Equipment Requests
This section is used to put in requests for funding to purchase equipment.To add a new Equipment request click the 'Add New Equipment Request' button, and complete the relevant boxes. Click 'Save' to add item request.
If at any time you wish to go back and change the request you can click the edit pencil or delete icon next to the item in the table.
Managing a Sub-Program with Units
Units within a Sub-Program can be created either by the Sub-Program Manager or the Business Manager (manager of the overall budget).
Creating Units
Units give you the ability to divide expenditure into further categories, however you cannot add expenses directly into a Sub-Program which contains Units. One or more Units need to be created inside the Sub-Program and individual expenses added into the Unit(s). The expenses displayed inside a Sub-Program are a total of all of the expenses detailed in the Units.To create a Unit, click into the Sub-program, select 'Add New Unit' and enter the Unit information (Manager and Status).
The sub-program manager can still enter general comments for the whole sub-program. A unit manager can add general comments for the overall Unit on the Unit page.
Adding Expense Items
The Expense Items section lists all of the expenditures for that Unit during the budget period. Expenditures are divided into different expense accounts. The full list of available expense accounts will be dependent on your school and is exported directly from CASES.You cannot add expenses directly into a Sub-Program which contains Units. To add an expense item to a Sub-Program containing Units click on the name of the Unit to enter the screen where you can indicate expense and revenue items for that specific Unit.
From the Unit page scroll down to either the Revenue Items or Expense Items. Select "Add New Expense". From here you can enter the total funds requested against expense items or enter revenue items.
Capital Expenditure/Equipment Requests
This section is used to put in requests for funding to purchase equipment or other capital expenditures.To add a new Equipment Request click the 'Add New Equipment Request' button, and complete the form for each requested item. Click 'Insert' to add your item request. If at any time you wish to go back and change the request you can click 'Edit' or delete the request by clicking the red cross icon next to the item in the table.
If at any time you wish to log out and continue work later you can do so. Always remember to save your work before exiting by clicking on the 'Save Sub-Program' button at the very bottom of the screen.
Approving Budgets
Once the due date for Sub-Program Managers to have their Budgets submitted has passed, you can set the Sub-Programs to 'Closed' while you review the requests.
Setting them as Closed will mean they are no longer viewable by the Sub-Program Manager and will allow you to add your approvals before releasing this information to the Managers.
Once you approvals are finalised you can then set the Sub-Programs to 'Locked' which will allow the managers to see the approved amounts.
To firstly set the Sub-Programs as 'Closed', on the Financial Management page, click 'Bulk Actions', choose 'Closed'.
To review the requests, click into each Sub-Program, select the edit pencil next to each item and enter the approved amount for each item.
Continue to click into each Sub-Program to add your approved amounts.
Once you have added all the Approved amounts you can update the Status of the Sub-Programs to 'Locked' (under the 'Bulk Actions' button) to allow the managers to see the approved budget for their Sub-Program.
Reports
There are a range of reports available to export in relation to Budgets including the export file for CASES.
To access the reports, click the 'Financial Periods' button at the top of the Financial Management page. For each Financial Period you will see a column called "Budget Reports".
Click on reports icon and choose the report you would like to export.
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