Budgets and Projects

[Former Member]

Hi,

Is there a way to set a budget against a Project?

Or if not, against a profit center?

Thanks,

Michael

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Michael, Here is a statement that may help your undertanding:

Each Project has a separate Budget. Each Budget has the Nominal G/L Codes but, they are all looking at the SAME Nominals.

So for instance entries into your sales Nominal 2000:

entry 1 Sales £ 500 Project A

entry 2 Sales £ 200 Project B

entry 3 Sales £ 750 Project Export

When you run your P&L Budget for Export, only entry 3 will be picked up

I hope this helps

Robert

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Thanks for the answers guys.

My problem is I may have GL account code 100100.

There may be 3 projects that have postings in this account.

Each project has its own budget.

If I allocate $1000 to GL 100100, how do I specify and see that I want $200 of that allocated to project A, $300 to project B and $500 to project C?

Thanks,

Michael

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Michael

In each Budget you allocate the Relevant Amount for a project. So in Budget B you put $300 against Nominal 100100 and in Budget C you put $500 against Nominal 100100 etc.

When you run you Budget report for Budget B, SAP will compare all the entries marked BudgetB within the Nominal 100100 correctly - this works OK

Robert

[Former Member]

Hi Michael

Here is a simple answer that should work:

1 Setup your PROJECTS

2. Now Setup a new Budget for each Project

When you run a Budget Profit and loss , Choose your Project and the relevant Budget and you should obtain the right result

step 2 can be a bit of a fiddle but once you setup a budget for Project A, you can copy the Budget to project B and just change the relevant amounts - this can save you some work.

It is simple and I tried it!

Good luck

Robert

[Former Member]

Hi... where can I specify a budget per project?

Thanks

[Former Member]

Michael, Go to Financial/Budget Setup/Budget Scenario/ now right click and Add a line which in fact adds another Budget.

You should name this budget the same as your PROJECT.

When you run the Budget P&L you should choose this Budget against your Project - it works!

Robert

[Former Member]

But I have to set the budget against GL accounts... not what I want to do

[Former Member]

I understand your point but I can assure you it works. Please follow these guidelines and it will work:

Once you setup a new Budget eg EXPORT please follow these steps:

1. Check that all your G/L Nominal Codes are made "Relevant to Budget" - This is an option within the Nominal Codes

2. In the EXPORT Budget setup your Budget for all your Export Sales, Expenses etc. Please note that you HAVE to have a Budget against each nominal, in order to show an ACTUAL - I have an easy workaround for this problem, if you have many Nominals that you need to see tha ACTUAL

So this is it! Please do not get confused by the link to the Nominal Codes ( I was also confused by this!) because the Programme looks to all the Nominals and it only takes the figures relevant to the EXPORT (example) Budget into Account.

If not clear please ask your questions.

Robert

3

[Former Member]

Hi Michael,

Technically it's not possible, I have developed a workaround for this one using UDF, UDT and Formatted Search.

Before we can address your inquiry, pls clarify the ff assumptions:

1. You want to monitor expenses against a particular project, so that appropriate approval and/or alert can be setup to monitor the performance of a project.

2. That your client/company is engaged in project management and at the start of the project, certain budget allocation are being made.

3. Over a period of time, expenses via A/P Invoice are charged to a project.

4. And finally, appropriate reports can be developed showing budget against actual per project.

Laurence Resubal

[Former Member]

Hi Laurence

I am intersted to see your workarourd. In my case you have all the correct assumptions.

thanks

Robert

[Former Member]

Hi Michael,

It will be hard to explain the details, but in general it will be like this:

1. Add a UDF in the Project Category

> Project Budget

2. Create a Query that will compute all JEs of a particular project and compare it with the budget figure in the UDF you added in item #1

3. Create an approval template utilizing the Query in item #2. In addition, the query should reference to the Document Total of the A/P Invoice and compare it with the result of item #2

If you need more detailed information let me know

Laurence Resubal

(GMT -6:00) MDT

Edited by: Laurence Resubal on Jun 16, 2008 3:42 PM

[Former Member]

Hi Laurence,

Thanks for your reply. I'm afraid I can't see where to create the UDF. There is no Projects section.

I am using B1 2007.

Thanks,

Michal

[Former Member]

Hi,

Thanks for all the responses.

We are wanting to use projects as an alternative to general ledger accounts.

Currently we have hundreds of GL accounts for our marketing department, we want to consolidate these, and have the entries seperated by project. So any AP invoices etc that post to the consolidated GL account will be associated with a project, which we would assign a budget to and then report on it.

Assigning a GL account to a project defeats the purpose in this instance. We want entries in 1 single GL account to be allocated to various projects.

Cheers,

Michael

[former_member583013]

Michael,

Having Mutiple Projects going to one G/L is possible. You will define the Projects from Setup > Financials > Projects

During the transaction (in your case A/P) select the Project on the HEader level and also at the row level.

When generating a P&L Report, you can Click Expanded and select your project to report on.

I wanted to ask, are you using Segmentation in your G/L Accounts.

When you say Marketing department, which G/L accounts are you referring to? Are these Expense G/L accounts?

Suda

[Former Member]

Hi Michael and Suda

I am also trying to resolve the same issue for sometime but in my view if you link the PROJECT to a Nominal G/L it defeats the object of the Project. See the following example:

Nominal 1000 = Sales of Hair Products

Nominal 1001 = Sales of Facial Products

Nominal 1002 = Sales of Body Products etc

Project = Retail

Project = Wholesale

Project = Export

I cannot link a Project to a Nominal G/L because any Project can be any Nominal G/L. Suda, perhaps I am missing something?

Robert

[former_member583013]

Thats is exacly what I am saying, DO NOT asscociate a Project to a G/L.

A project has to be associated at the document level so depending on the transaction type the project gets associated to the transaction. The Project details gets transferred to the Journal Entry which effectly helps on reporting of the Project.

Though the G/L account might be the same for all the transaction but the differentiating Project can be pulled from the P&L Report as I mentioned earlier.

Suda

[Former Member]

So where would you put the Budget for the PROJECT, since the only place associated with Budgets is in the G/L Nominal?

Robert

[former_member583013]

Technically you cannot assign a budget for a Project as a one to one association is only possible to a G/L Account. Since many projects can belong to a G/L it will not be possible.

Only in case you have a Project associated to a G/L it will be possible but it defeats the purpose of using Projects

Suda

[former_member583013]

Michael,

It is interesting to read the comprehensive replies from Venkatesan. But the fact is Budgets are always associated with a G/L account.

Suda

[Former Member]

Hi Michael

I am a user and I spent sometime to find a complete answer to this question and I think that the answer is NO. If the definition of a PROJECT is that it is an alternative way of creating Profit centers than there is no mechanism to assign a Budget to a Project. The suggestion that a PROJECT Budget can be assigned against a Nominal Code, in my view is a mistaken concept because a PROJECT has to be independent of Nominal Codes. For instance in our company, we use PROJECTS for different channels of distribution eg Wholesale Sales, Export Sales, Retail Sales etc. Each one of these PROJECTS will include a variety of Nominal Codes (Nominal Codes are used for different product types) and one could not assign a PROJECT against any specific Nominal - it would not work. In my view SAP programmers did not deliver a workable Budget system for projects and I have tried all the suggested workarounds and so far NONE OF THEM WORKED. I am aware that I am not resolving an issue but it may save you a lot of time if you encounter the same problem as me.

If you let me know what is your Nominal structure and what you use PROJECTS for, I may be able to make some more relevant comments.

Good luck

Robert

[Former Member]

Hi,

Handled in transactions,

1. In A/P, A/R documents

pl.

Open the document

Go to the Accounting tab

Select BP project - In BP projects you will get the list of projects.

2. For Expenditure booking

Pl. Open Journal Entry

Press Expand editing Mode Button

You can find Project - at the last row

3. For Revenue&Expenditure

Pl. Open the Incoming Payments & Outgoing payments in Banking module

You can find there also the Project select.

Hope this will meet your requirement

Regards,

Venkatesan G.

[Former Member]

Hi

Step 1.

Admin --> System Initialization --> General Settings --> Budget Tab

Step2.

Financials --> Chart of Accounts --> Select the COA (Example: Travelling expenses) --> Press Account details button --> G/L Account details form will open --> select project details, Tick the check box - relevant to budget. --> Update.

Step 3.

Fiancials --> Budget setpup , define Budget scenario, distribution methods

Step 4.

Enter the budget amount thru' Budget form.

Hope this will help you, You can refer those entries in Demo company of SBO. Let me know if you want more details.

Regards,

Venkatesan G.

[Former Member]

Hi michael,

Pl. gothru' content of the link herewith appended which has been already answered by me which has been relevant to budget.

Hope this will help you and let me know for further detail.

Regards,

Venkatesan G.