Budget Planning and Control

The flexibility and versatility of the Budget Planning and Control module allows you to create budgets of various levels and in different combinations by users of the system, as well as combine them into higher-level management structures. The module was initially integrated not only with the main modules of the Ma-3 system, such as Fixed assets, Purchases, Inventory/Costs, Billing, Financials, Personnel Management, Planning and Production Control, Project management, Contract Management, Management Accounting, but also with spreadsheet editors, including MS Excel. In addition, synchronization with external systems is possible.

Budget building

The budget structure in Ma-3 is created by the user according to the budget policy model adopted by the organization. Can be formed as the budgets of consolidated financial indicators (BDR, BDDS, BBL), and operating units, cost centers, expense items, etc. At the same time, the Ma-3 user can independently create various budgets, for example, an IT department’s work plan based on standard hours for a given period, or set an annual budget for the consumption of materials in quantitative terms for the production of goods sent for export.
The budget is based on the budget chart of accounts, consisting of synthetic and analytical accounts. The budget chart of accounts can be copied from the chart of accounts of the general ledger as well as from the cost center accounts, or it can be created in accordance with the needs and practice of budgeting the organization;
Any element of the reference data or settlement data, drawn up in the form of a special program, can be taken into account as budget items. Setting units for budget line item valuation can be in either quantitative or monetary terms in one or more currencies. Budget items may contain the following analytics:
- Three standard analytics of the general ledger chart of accounts: cost center, accounting object, and account class;
- Budget analysts: budget operation, budget group.
- 4 additional analytics that can be defined by the user and associated with arbitrary accounting objects in the system;
At the level of the budget chart of accounts and at the level of budget items, it is possible to determine the limits of income and expenses that will be monitored by the system when creating the budget;
Budgeting periods cover any period of time with a breakdown into regular periods with the ability to model any development scenario based on user-defined and variable indicators;
When creating a budget, the calculation and distribution of planned amounts can be done using the built-in formula language or through the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet associated with the budget.
Data for budgeting can also be downloaded from an external spreadsheet file or file to the system storage by mapping each input data cell to the position of the budget structure in the system;

Versioning and budget forecasting

The system makes it possible to create a budget approval procedure, which is especially important when forming the budgets of large organizations, where different departments are responsible for each part of the overall plan;
In the process of approving the budget, users are able to make changes to the articles and units of budget estimates. The system allows you to track these changes and save them as document versions. This makes it possible not only to keep a history of changes, but also to compare different versions of the budget with each other, tracking the history of changes at the approval stages.
The ability to forecast the budget (build budget scenarios) is based not only on the basis of user-specified and variable indicators used in modeling the budget, but also on the organization’s statistical indicators for past periods;
Budget forecasting is a simplified procedure for creating budget versions that does not require a complete execution route for signatories. The forecast can be taken as the main financial document if the acceptor has the appropriate authority. This allows budgeting not only “from below” – from articles, but also “from above” – from established funding limits;
Procedures for maintaining versioning and forecasting the budget are not mandatory, therefore, the budgeting process can be simplified only before the preparation of the plan.

Setting budget permissions

The use of a budgeting system, in which each site has its own responsible employee, presupposes the differentiation of user rights within the budget process and the construction of an access hierarchy. For example, you can configure access rights so that the CFO can view and edit all the budgets of the organization, the head of the IT department to make changes to the IT budget, and his deputy can only view this document.
Differentiation of rights can be done in several ways: to give users access to view certain budgets or to configure rights in more detail according to budget items, cost centers, or other analysts. The configuration mechanism also makes it possible to allow users to issue access rights to other users at their own or lower level of the budget account, account analytics, etc.

Affordable Budget Control

The availability and distribution of the available budget is controlled by the Ma-3 system modules integrated with the Budget Planning and Control module and allows you to:

adjust tolerances of allowed reaching or exceeding the limit;
set up notification of the person responsible by e-mail or when entering the system with the subsequent approval / rejection of budget overruns;
take into account extrabudgetary expenses;
adjust limits and locks on financial and business operations significant for the budget process;
carry out on-line comparison of planned, actual and forecasted budget indicators for any date;

Budget process analysis

The interaction of the budgeting module with other modules of the system occurs through the mechanism of custom budget entries. Budget posting – a record of the financial and economic transaction in the journal of accounting for budget postings, recorded by type of budget balance (for example, budget postings can be recorded with the balance type “planned”, and payroll with the type “actual”). Budget entries must accompany any financial and business transaction that is considered significant for the budget process (for example, creating and approving a budget, calculating depreciation, purchasing materials, calculating salaries, taxes, etc.). Thus, correlation of budget entries with budget items allows you to conduct a plan-fact analysis between any budgets in the on-line mode and for any period.

Budget entries are independent of accounting, tax or management accounting – these are independent settings within the system;
Each system operation can contain more than one setting item for postings (for example, from the incoming invoice, you can use data for the budget for VAT and information on the price of purchased goods at the same time).
Budget entries can also be configured for reversal or other adjustments to the original document;
All budget entries go to the registry, where they can be edited in accordance with the needs of the budget process and with appropriate access.
Entries in the registry of budget entries can be made both in the “on-line” and “off-line” mode. The choice of the mode of replenishing the register of budget transactions determines how quickly information will be available for budget analysis;
As a budget analysis tool, Ma-3 offers a built-in mechanism for generating multidimensional cubes, which allows online reconciliation of the entire budget process for any period of time.
Users of the system are not limited in the configuration of cubes – in the graphical representation of a cube, you can configure a comparison of planned and actual data, estimated and planned, etc. Cubes are built on the basis of budget entries, so the relevance of the information depends on how quickly the registry of budget entries is updated and adjusted. Cubes can also be configured and configured by Ma-3 users.

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