The Budget Module

With the budget module, you always keep an overview of your funding budget – both of the funds already distributed and still available, as well as which pledged amounts have already been paid and which you still owe to applicants.

To manage the budget module, switch from the request view to the budget view by clicking on the budget icon in the top right corner.

Here you can manage the budget module.

You can decide whether you want to work with one global budget or several sub-budgets (e.g. for different funding priorities), and name them accordingly. You can also define the funding budget per year.

Budget settings are always made in the yearly view. By default, one ‘Category’ for the total budget and the current year is created. You can rename the category at any time by clicking on the pencil icon (this appears when you hover your mouse over the category). To set the budget for the current year, click into the ‘Budget’ column and enter the amount.

If you are not only working with one global budget but with sub-budgets, you can create a category for each sub-budget in the yearly view and manage them here.

The default global budget is not necessary if you work with sub-budgets, since the system automatically calculates the total based on the sub-budgets you entered. You can rename the global budget into one of your sub-budgets.

To add further sub-budgets, click on ‘Add category’ and create as many categories as you need. Then enter the budget name and the budget for the current year.

Here you can enter a category.

If sub-budgets change over time, you can deactivate a category. It will then no longer be shown when assigning pledged amounts to sub-budgets (how to allocate pledged amounts to sub-budgets and years is explained in the section ‘Enter and manage pledged amounts in the budget module’).

To deactivate a category, select the checkbox of the category and click on “Deactivate category(s)”. Deactivated categories are displayed greyed out. To reactivate, select it and click on “Activate category(s)”. You can also select multiple categories and activate or deactivate them at once.

Select the category you want to activate or deactivate, then click on activate or deactivate.

If you don’t need a category anymore, you can delete it. Please note: any payments already assigned to this category will automatically be transferred to the standard category (first in the list with the lock icon). This action cannot be undone.

To delete a category, select the checkbox and click “Delete category(s)”. Confirm that you really want to delete it. You can also select multiple categories and delete them all at once.

Select the category you want to delete and then click on delete.

​

By default, only the current calendar year is stored in the budget module. You can add any additional years you need yourself. To do this, click on ‘+ Add year’, enter the year you want to add and click on ‘Save’. You can now enter the budget for the various categories for the new year in the ‘Budget’ column.

Here you can add another year to your budget overview.

As with categories, you can deactivate a financial year if you no longer want it to be displayed when allocating pledged amounts (how to allocate pledged amounts to sub-budgets and years is explained in the section ‘Enter and manage pledged amounts in the budget module’). To do this, select the year you want to deactivate in the year view and deactivate the ‘Active financial year’ switch.

Here you can deactivate a financial year.

The budget module offers you three different views:

You can change the view using the drop-down menu at the top right of the budget module.

Here you can change the view.

In the annual view, you can manage the budget and the years. This is where you make all the settings in the budget module and customize existing settings.

In the category view, you can only display a specific category. Use the drop-down menu in the middle to select the desired category. In this view, you have the option of exporting the budget details for the selected category as an Excel file. To do this, click on the export symbol (down arrow). You can also deactivate the currently selected category in this view.

Here you can select the account and export the budget details.

In the status overview, you can see the entries for each status across all categories and years, and you can also export this view as an Excel file. Clicking on the arrow in front of an account opens the detailed view of the categories, where you can see which grant request has been assigned to the categories and the exact amounts in each status.

There are five statuses: ‘Budget’, ‘Allocated’, ‘Owed’, ‘Paid’, and ‘Open’. If you select ‘Budget’, you will see how much budget is allocated to each category for the corresponding year. If you select ‘Allocated’, you will see how much has already been allocated to a specific grant request (which amounts have already been approved). ‘Owed’ shows you the amounts that have not yet been paid out per category/grant request, and ‘Paid’ shows you the amounts that have already been paid out. Both statuses added together give the amount for the ‘Allocated’ status. If you select ‘Open’, you will see how much budget you still have available for each category in a given year.

Here you can choose between different statuses and export the status view.

Once you have set up your budget module, you can assign pledged amounts to a category and year. It is also possible to record multi-year funding and mark amounts as paid.

Once you have changed the status of a grant request to ‘Accepted’, you can enter the request into the budget module in the lower section of the window that opens. To do this, select the category to which the request or committed amount is to be assigned, the year, and the pledged amount.

If the funding is spread over several years, add a payment tranche for each year and specify the category, year, and amount pledged for that year for each payment tranche. The system only automatically communicates the total amount to the applicants, so it is advisable to inform them of the exact funding in the message. Then click on ‘Accept’ to change the status, send the message to the applicants, and save the entries in the budget module.

Here you can allocate the pledged amount to a category and year in the budget module. The requested amount is automatically pre-filled, but can be customized.

Every pledged amount entered is marked as ‘Owed’ in the budget module and also in the grant request overview. Once an amount has been paid out, you can record this in the system by clicking on the amount in the grant request overview for this grant request, then setting the status to ‘Paid’ for the corresponding tranche and clicking on ‘Save’.

Here you can mark an amount as paid.

Have you accidentally pledged the wrong amount, or has the amount changed since then? You can adjust pledged amounts at any time. To do so, click on the amount in the grant request. The window will open where you can mark the amount as paid.

Here, you can not only mark amounts as paid, but also adjust the amounts or add tranches. Please note that applicants will only be informed of the change in amount if you enter a message in the window above.