Dimensions Only - This feature is not available in Dimensions Lite

Budget Authorisation. This controls whether or not Purchase Control is used.

Caution: If this is ticked, and any User Budgets have been set, unticking this will clear all the User Budgets!

If this is ticked, then either User Budget Control and/or Nominal Budget Control should be selected as required.

If neither of these are selected, then an alternative option Authorise all Orders is available.

These set the 4 styles of Purchase Control which can be used.

User Budget Control Determines how Purchase Control for Users will be implemented.

Check Period Budget menu provides the alternative of Check Year Budget
Warning Only menu enables you to choose whether to just display a warning message and allow the Order to proceed, or Force to Batch will Batch the Order after displaying the message.

Nominal Budget Control Determines how Purchase Control for Nominal Accounts will be implemented.

Check Period Budget menu provides the alternative of Check Year Budget
Warning Only menu enables you to choose whether to just display a warning message and allow the Order to proceed, or Force to Batch will Batch the Order after displaying the message.

If neither User Budget Control nor Nominal Budget Control are selected, then an alternative option:

Authorise All Orders is displayed. This forces all Purchase Orders to be authorised.

On the Security Profiles window, the Budgets function enables you to set the User Budgets for all Users using that Profile. This is the same window as the User Records - Budgets function (below) which is used for setting the User Budget for individual Users. Thus a 'Profile' may not have a User Budget, but individual Users within it may have, or alternatively, a 'Profile' may have a Budget, while individual Users within it may not.

Within the Security Profiles window, under System Control - Records - Users there is an item Budgets.

The menu for this item controls whether or not Users in this Profile can revise the User Budgets, or view them only, or have no access to them at all.

On the User Purchasing Budgets window, the Budgets function enables you to set up User Budgets for individual Users, based on the selections made in Purchase Order Options - Transactions.

On this window there is also a tick box to control whether this User is permitted to authorise Transactions that exceed Nominal Account Budgets. If this is selected there is a further tick box which allows a User to authorise their own transactions when they would exceed a Nominal budget.

Against each User the cumulative 'spend' Per Period and Per Year is stored. This enables reporting and comparisons to be made.

Enter for this User, their:

Maximum Order Value
Current Budget (per Period/Year) *
Previous Budget (per Period/Year) *

* Whether per Period or per Year is shown, depends on the setting in Purchase Order Options - Transactions - Budget Authorisation.

When using User Budgets, the option All Orders Require Authorisation... should normally be ticked for any User that does not have a Budget limit for an order value or the Period/Year, .

A zero value in either the Maximum Order Value or the Current Budget fields, means that the field is not subject to a limit or check.

i.e. If the Maximum Order Value is zero, but there is a value in the Current Budget, then individual Orders will not be checked, but the total spend for the Period/Year will be.

If the Maximum Order Value is entered, but the Current Budget is zero, then only each individual Order will be checked, and no check occurs for the total spend.

If this option is not ticked, Orders entered by a User whose values are left as 0.00, will not need to be authorised.

These Budgets can be revised as many times as is necessary, the system always shows the Current Year Budget and the Previous Year Budget. Only Users who have the appropriate Security Profile can revise budgets.

Department:

Displays a list of the currently established Departments, from which you can make a selection to assign this User to that Department for Purchase Control purposes.

You can edit this list to add or remove Departments.

Double click on an entry to select it for this User.

If you change the Department assigned to a User, you will be prompted to select another User to assume responsibility for the outstanding Orders held for that User in that Department.

All Orders Require Authorisation requires all Orders to be authorised, this would usually be used for Users with zero Budgets.

Authorise Other User's Orders displays further prompts, enabling this User to authorise:

either other User's Orders In Your Department

or All Users Orders.

By Value if selected means that Orders will be authorised by Order Value, as opposed to by Period or Year Budget.

Nominal Budget Control:

Authorise Budget Excesses if ticked, means that this User can authorise Orders that exceed a Nominal Budget. It also displays a further prompt:

Authorise Own Orders This enables this User to authorise their own Orders if they exceed the Nominal Budget.

Against each User the cumulative 'spend' Per Period and Per Year is stored. This enables reporting and comparisons to be made. See User Purchasing Budgets window Print function (this is also available for Profiles, as it is the same window).

Nominal Account Budget checking will only occur if the Nominal Budget for the whole year is greater than zero, unless an option in the Nominal Account - Info window Check Zero Budgets is selected.

The actual Nominal Budgets are entered for each relevant Account record, by clicking on the Budgets function function.