Funding Accounts Concepts

Funding accounts represent marketing funds allocated for spending. Funding accounts are associated with activities and activity proposals. An activity can be funded by multiple accounts.

Before you create a funding account, you create the finance groups and the fiscal year periods. If your company uses an external accounting system, you can set up an integration between the funding accounts in Aprimo and your accounting system.

You can align your funding accounts according to your company's needs. For example:

You can organize funding accounts into financial hierarchies. Financial hierarchies allow you to view funding accounts in a hierarchical view by finance group.

You associate funding accounts with a particular finance group and fiscal year. You assign each funding account an administrator and a contact person. You set up the budget for the funding account for the year. You can organize funding accounts into financial hierarchies. Each funding account has an access list to determine the users and groups that can access or edit the funding account.

Example:
For the following fiscal year, the marketing group is allotted 20 million U.S. dollars. The marketing group sets up the financial administration information for the following fiscal year. The marketing group directors agree that each activity for the following year should have one funding account. There are 68 activities for the coming fiscal year. Based on the scope of each activity, the marketing group directors agree on how to divide the funds. You create a funding account for each activity, and divide the funds according to the decisions of the marketing group directors.

Funding Account Security

When you create a funding account, you specify an administrator and a contact. The administrator is the person responsible for managing the funds in the account. By default, the administrator has edit access to the account. The contact is the person primarily responsible for determining the amount of funds to be allocated to the account. The contact person also approves resource changes. By default, the contact person has view access to the account.

Aprimo uses several security measures to ensure the financial information stored in funding accounts remains secure. These measures apply to funding account security:

  • You must have the appropriate rights to access the Funding Accounts module.
  • The finance group administrator for the associated finance group has edit rights to the funding account.
  • You can only view funding accounts for which you have view or edit access rights. By default, members of a finance group have view access to the finance group's funding accounts.
  • You can edit the funding accounts for which you are the administrator. Generally, the creator is the administrator of a funding account. You can designate another administrator for the account.
  • You have view access to the funding accounts for which you are the contact.
  • You can access or edit a funding account based on your funding account access list rights.
  • Funding accounts are specific to each domain. If you have security access to funding accounts in multiple domains, you must log on to each domain separately.
  • The system administrator has full access to all funding accounts.

Key Fields

Depending on where you create the funding account, some key fields might contain default information. For example, if you create a new funding account from within a fiscal year plan, the finance group classification and fiscal year default to the information defined for these items in the fiscal year plan.

Details

Field Description
Funding Account Prefix

Type the prefix for the funding account.

Use a funding account prefix to categorize and organize your funding accounts. For example, you might organize your funding accounts using a department code as the prefix.

Finance Group Classification

Choose the finance group with which the funding account is associated.

By default, users in the associated finance group have view access to the funding account.

Fiscal Year

Choose the fiscal year with which the funding account is associated. This field defaults to the first available year after the current year.

Choose from all open fiscal years for the selected finance group. The financial hierarchies available to associate with the funding account are based on the fiscal year and finance group you select.

Budgeted Currency

Choose the currency for the funding account.

You can choose from the active currencies for your organization.

Transactions that involve the funding account are not limited to this currency. For example, you might receive an invoice that uses a different currency that is to be paid with funds from this account.

Funding Account Type

These are the types of accounts:

  • Draft
  • Planned
  • Unplanned
  • Forecast-only
  • Add
  • Cut
  • Migrated
Status

Choose whether the funding account can be used to fund activities. Only active accounts can fund activities.

The status of a funding account is automatically set to Closed during the closeout process. You cannot select this status manually.

Source

Choose whether the money allotted for the funding account is internal or external to your organization.

This field is for reference purposes only.

Administrator

Choose the person primarily responsible for updating the funding account.

By default, the person who creates the funding account is the administrator. You can select another user.

Funding Account Contact

Choose the person primarily responsible for determining the funding amount for the account. The contact is typically responsible for approving resource changes as well.

By default, the funding account contact has view access to the funding account.

Funding Account Types

Account Type Description
Draft

All funding accounts have the Draft status when you create the account. While the funding account has a type of Draft, you cannot transfer funds to or from the account. These fields can be edited only when the account has a type of Draft:

  • Budgeted Currency
  • Finance Group Classification
  • Fiscal Year
  • Funding Account Type
  • Budget fields on the Budget Setup tab
Planned

During the fiscal year planning process, you associate funding accounts with a type of Draft with a plan. When the plan is activated, the funding account with the type of Draft is automatically changed to Planned. You cannot manually select the account type of Planned. You cannot delete a planned account.

Unplanned

You can select the type of Unplanned only if a fiscal year plan and at least one account with a type of Planned exist for the finance group and fiscal year. The Fiscal Year Budget field on the Budget Setup tab must be zero. Because the plan was created without this account, the only way to add funds to the account is to transfer money into it. You cannot delete an unplanned account.

Forecast Only

This is a temporary funding account that allows you to begin working on the activities for the following year before you complete the fiscal year plan. During fiscal year planning, you can replace this account with a planned account.

You can select the type of Forecast Only for the account if these conditions are met:

  • The fiscal year plan for the finance group and fiscal year is not yet activated.
  • No funding accounts with a type of Planned are associated with the fiscal year plan.

There are several restrictions for accounts with a type of Forecast Only:

  • Each finance group can have only one account that has the type of Forecast Only for a given fiscal year.
  • Forecast-only accounts can be mapped to an account with a type of Planned or Unplanned during the fiscal year planning process or the closeout process.
  • You cannot successfully perform a closeout if an account has a type of Forecast Only unless the account has been mapped in every activity or proposal that uses the forecast-only account. The exception is if the forecast-only account is created for the first configured fiscal year in Aprimo. In this instance, it is not deleted by the closeout process but instead the status is changed to Closed.
  • The forecast-only account cannot have a budget.
  • No money can be transferred in or out of the forecast-only account.
Add

Use an Add account to increase the amount of money you have to spend.

To create an Add account, at least one account with the type of Planned must exist for the finance group and fiscal year. You can add money to an active fiscal year plan by creating an Add account.

Cut

Use a Cut account to decrease the amount of money you have to spend.

To create a Cut account, at least one account with the type of Planned must exist for the finance group and fiscal year. The Cut account has a negative budget. You can remove money from an active fiscal year plan by adding the money to a Cut account until the budget for the Cut account is zero and no longer has a negative balance.

Migrated

If your company migrates from an older version of Aprimo, the account type for the funding accounts is automatically set to Migrated. You cannot manually select the account type of Migrated. Migrated funding accounts are similar to Planned and Unplanned accounts. However, you can delete migrated accounts. A Migrated account might also have a negative budget.

Fiscal Year Plan Mapping

The Fiscal Year Plan Mapping section appears on the Details tab. This section appears only if you view a funding account that contains mapping information. You cannot edit the fields in this section. If the funding account is mapped to a funding account in the fiscal year plan from the previous fiscal year or for the next fiscal year, the plans are shown in this section.

Additional Fields, Sections, and Tabs

Your system administrator can create additional fields for some objects and make them available for certain system types Additional fields appear on the Details tab in the Additional Details section or in other sections or on other tabs that the system administrator creates.

For more information about an additional field, section, or tab, contact your system administrator. For more information about additional fields in general, see Additional Fields.

Financial Hierarchies

Column Description
Financial Hierarchy

This column indicates the financial hierarchies with which the funding account is, or can be, associated. There can be one or more hierarchies.

Branch

Choose the branch of the hierarchy where the funding account resides. If the funding account is not yet assigned to a branch, it is listed in the UNUSED ACCOUNTS branch.

Budget Setup

When you enter financial data, do not type commas or other whole number separators. To view the monetary values with comma separators, position your cursor over the field. The ScreenTip displays the amount with commas included.

Value Calculation
Budgeted Currency

This indicates the funding account's currency.

Enter annual Budget and divide equally across periods

This option appears when you create a new funding account.

It is one of three options that determines how you enter the budget for the funding account.

Click this option to enable the Total Fiscal Year Budget field.

Enter each quarter's Budget and divide equally across the quarter's periods

This option appears when you create a new funding account.

It is one of three options that determines how you enter the budget for the funding account.

Click this option to enable the fields that indicate amounts by fiscal year quarter.

Enter each period's Budget separately

This option appears when you create a new funding account.

It is one of three options that determines how you enter the budget for the funding account.

Click this option to enable the fields that indicate amounts by fiscal year period.

Total Fiscal Year Budget

The Total Fiscal Year Budget field is available if you select the option Enter annual Budget and divide equally across periods. Type the total in this field. The total is divided into equal parts across the quarters and periods for the fiscal year.

Working Fiscal Year Budget

The Working Fiscal Year Budget field appears only if you edit a budget that is past the draft stage.

This value is the working amount of the budget that currently exists as you rearrange the money among different periods. Prior to saving your changes, the Working Fiscal Year Budget field must match the amount in the Total Fiscal Year Budget field.

Quarter fields

The Quarter fields are available if you select the option Enter each quarter's Budget and divide equally across the quarter's periods.

The four fields allow you to enter budget amounts for each of the quarters. The total is divided into equal parts across the quarters and periods for the fiscal year.

Period fields

The Period fields are available if you select the option Enter each period's Budget separately. You enter the total for each period in each of the fields for the period.

Cash Summary

Field Description
Budgeted Currency

The Budgeted Currency column appears only when the budgeted currency does not equal the base currency.

It shows the funding account's currency.

Base Currency

This shows the base Aprimo currency.

View Budget in Another Currency

Choose to view the data in an active currency in addition to the base currency.

This changes the view, but not the currency for the funding account.

Table Details

The columns you see depend on your settings. You will see the values for each item in the base currency. You might also see the amount for each item in the budgeted currency and selected currency.

Field Description
Budget

This field shows the funding account's budget total.

Inbound Transfers

This field shows the total for transfers made from other funding accounts.

Outbound Transfers

This field shows the total for transfers made to other funding accounts.

Adjusted Budget

This field shows the total budget plus the total for inbound transfers and minus the total for outbound transfers.

Pending Invoices

This field shows the total amount for invoices that have not yet been paid.

Paid Invoices

This field shows the total amount for invoices that have been paid.

Available Budget

This field shows the budget you have available based on the total budget, minus the total for paid invoices, and minus the total for pending invoices.

Outstanding Commitments

This field indicates the outstanding commitment balance.

The total reflects each commitment item minus the amount of any pending or paid invoice items, or pending or reconciled journal voucher items, that are directly tied to the commitment item.

You may have a negative outstanding balance. For example, if you have a credit for a commitment, you can enter a negative amount for a commitment line item, possibly causing the outstanding total to be negative. When a commitment item is closed, the outstanding value is zero, even if the entire value was not used.

Uncommitted Budget

This field shows the total available budget minus the total outstanding commitments.

Cash Details

You can choose to view the data by year, quarter or period.

Button Description Examples/Notes

Year View

Quarter View

Period View

Choose whether the data is displayed by year, quarter, or period.

The name of this button changes depending on the selected view.

These sections appear on the Cash Details tab.

Section Description
Budget

View the overall budget information for the funding account. The information in this section matches the information on the Cash Summary tab.

Click the hyperlinked amounts to access more information about the category total.

Forecast

View the overall forecast information for the funding account.

When the fiscal year ends, the Current Forecast field displays the forecast from the last period of the fiscal year.

The latest forecast data that the Prior Period Snapshot field displays is the forecast for the period prior to the last period of the fiscal year when the fiscal year ends.

Click the hyperlinked amounts to access more information about the category totals. Click the View Forecast Snapshot History button to view the snapshot history.

Commitments

View the overall commitment information for the funding account.

Outstanding commitments might include invoice or journal voucher information in a commitment item that will not necessarily be paid out of the funding account. This could happen if funding accounts in an activity are modified after a commitment has already been approved.

Click the hyperlinked amounts to access more information about the category totals.

Actuals

View the overall actuals information for the funding account.

The actuals totals reflect only invoices and journal vouchers that are paid out of the funding account.

Click the hyperlinked amounts to access more information about the category totals.

Budget

These items appear in the Budget section on the Cash Details tab.

Field Description
Budget

This field shows the funding account's budget total.

Inbound Transfers This field shows the total for transfers made from other funding accounts.
Outbound Transfers

This field shows the total for transfers made to other funding accounts.

Adjusted Budget

This field shows the total budget plus the total for inbound transfers and minus the total for outbound transfers.

Pending Invoices

This field shows the total amount for invoices that have not yet been paid.

Paid Invoices

This field shows the total amount for invoices that have been paid.

Available Budget

This field shows the budget you have available based on the total budget, minus the total for paid invoices, and minus the total for pending invoices.

Outstanding Commitments

This field shows the total for outstanding commitment items, either pending or approved, for which the commitment date is within the viewing period.

Uncommitted Budget

This field shows the total available budget minus the total outstanding commitments.

Forecast

These items appear in the Forecast section on the Cash Details tab.

Field Description
Prior Period Forecast Snapshot

This field shows the total amount for the previous period in the fiscal year that exists in the official period snapshot.

If an official forecast does not exist for the previous period, you see None Exists.

Adjusted Budget

This field shows the total budget plus the total for inbound transfers and minus the total for outbound transfers.

Current Forecast

This field shows the total forecast amount for this funding account in all associated activities where the fiscal period selected for the forecast is equal to this period.

Click the hyperlinked amount to view the View Period Current Forecast page.

Adjusted Budget Less Current Forecast

This field shows the total budget, including positive adjustments for inbound transfers, and negative adjustments for outbound transfers minus the current forecast amount.

Commitments

These items appear in the Commitments section on the Cash Details tab.

Field Description
Total Commitments

This field shows the total for commitment items that are either pending or approved and for which the commitment date is within the viewing period.

Closed Commitments

This field shows the total for closed commitment items for which the commitment date is within the viewing period.

Outstanding Commitments

This field shows the total for outstanding commitment items that are either pending or approved, and for which the commitment date is within the viewing period.

If invoices or journal vouchers are associated with a commitment, the outstanding commitment amount is affected even if the invoice or journal voucher is not associated with a funding account in the branch. However, the data in the Actuals section reflects only the items associated with the funding accounts in the selected branch.

Actuals

These items appear in the Actuals section on the Cash Details tab.

Field Description
Draft Invoices

This field shows the total for all invoices and journal vouchers that have a status of Draft in the current period.

Rejected Invoices

This field shows the total for all invoices and journal vouchers that have a status of Rejected in the current period.

Adjusted Budget

This field shows the total budget plus the total amount for inbound transfers and minus the total amount for outbound transfers.

Pending Invoices

This field shows the total amount for the invoices that have not yet been paid.

Paid Invoices

This field shows the total amount for the invoices that have already been paid.

Available Budget

This field shows the budget you have available based on the total budget minus the total for paid invoices, and minus the total for pending invoices.

Reports

In each section of the Cash Details tab, there is an option to create a report. Click the Report button in the section that contains the information you want to see. You determine the report details such as the name of the report, the orientation of the report, and the paper size. Click the OK button to run the report.

Example:
You choose to view the cash details by quarter instead of the default view by year. You run a report while you have the data displayed by quarter. The report reflects the current quarterly view of the data.

Access List

An access list limits who can view or edit an object. An access list contains names of users and groups and the level of access they have to the funding account.

Field Description
Funding Account Access List for Editing

This field appears when you view the access list.

This field indicates the users and groups that can edit the funding account.

Multiple users and groups can be assigned edit access to the funding account.

By default, the administrator for the account has edit access.

Funding Account Access List for Viewing

This field appears only when you view the access list.

This field indicates the users and groups that can view the funding account.

Multiple users and groups can be assigned view access to the funding account.

By default, the contact for the account and the users who are in the finance group have view access.

User Access List

This section appears when you edit the access list.

Select the users who can access the funding account and whether they have view access or edit access to the funding account.

Group Access List

This section appears only when you edit the access list.

Select the groups that can access the funding account and whether the group has view access or edit access to the funding account.

Accounting Integration

The Accounting Integration tab appears if the Integrate with External Accounting System system parameter is set to Yes. You use this tab to map external accounting system information to the funding account in Aprimo.

Because your external accounting system stores unique information, you must create extended attributes for the fields for this tab to align the data accurately. Typically, you set up the attributes as pick lists.

For each accounting integration extended attribute you create, the funding account's Accounting Integration tab has a corresponding column. Each row contains an extended attribute you create. You can add as many rows as you need to map the information. You cannot duplicate information.

As you add information, you track the percentage for each item. The total must equal 100 percent. Each invoice is divided according to the items you set up for the Accounting Integration tab. You can manually override the percentages for a particular invoice in the Invoice Approvals module.

The accounting integration fields can be modified after a funding account has been closed.

Key Fields for a Transfer

Use funding account transfers to move money out of one funding account and into another. Click the New Transfer button in a funding account to set up an outbound transfer from your account.

When you enter financial data for transfers, do not type commas or other whole number separators. To view the monetary values with comma separators, position your cursor over the field. The ScreenTip displays the amount with commas included.

Note:
You cannot perform transfers for the Draft or Cut funding accounts.
Field Description
Origin Funding Account

This field indicates the account that is the source of funds in the transfer.

Destination Funding Account

Choose the account that will receive the funds in the transfer.

You can choose an account type of Cut, Planned, Unplanned, or Migrated that has the same fiscal year as the origin account.

Maximum Transfer Allowed

This field indicates the amount that is set for the Maximum Transfer Amount system parameter. This transfer amount cannot be exceeded.

You can choose to allow transfers from the adjusted budget or available budget of the origin funding account.

Effective Date of Transfer

Choose the date on which the transfer takes place. It must be the current date or a future date.

Budgeted Currency for Origin Funding Account

This field indicates the currency for the origin funding account.

Budgeted Currency for Destination Funding Account

This field indicates the currency for the destination funding account.

Associated Activity (Reference Only)

These are the activities that have a financial status of Open. You can optionally select an associated activity.

Enter full amount and divide equally across periods.

This field is one of three options that determines how funds are transferred. If you choose this option, the Total Amount of Transfer field is enabled.

Enter each quarter's amount and divide equally across the quarter's periods.

This field is one of three options that determines how the funds are transferred. If you choose this option, the fields that display the quarters are enabled.

Enter the amount allocated to each quarter. The total and the amount by period are filled in automatically.

Enter each period's amount separately.

This field is one of three options that determines how the funds are transferred. If you choose this option, the fields are enabled for each of the periods.

You can select any amount for each of the periods for up to the total amount of the funds. The total and the amount by quarter are filled in automatically.

Total Amount of Transfer

This field is available if you select the Enter full amount and divide equally across periods option.

Type the total amount to transfer. The amount by quarter and the amount by period are filled in automatically.

Equivalent in Destination Currency

This field appears only if the currency in the origin account is different from the currency in the destination account.

This field indicates the total amount of the transfer in the destination account currency, using the effective exchange rate at the time of the transfer. The exchange rate is locked at the time the transfer occurs.

Quarter fields

The quarter fields are available if you select the Enter each quarter's amount and divide equally across the quarter's periods option.

Type the amount to transfer for each quarter. The total amount and the amount by period are filled in automatically.

Period fields

The period fields are available if you select the Enter full amount and divide equally across periods option.

Type the amount to transfer for each period. The total amount and the amount by quarter are filled in automatically.

Equivalent at Latest Exchange Rate

This field appears only for a completed transfer if the currency in the origin account is different from the currency in the destination account.

This field indicates the conversion of the transfer amount to the destination account currency using the current exchange rate. This field changes with the exchange rate changes until the funding account is locked during the closeout process.

Post-Transfer Budget of Origin Funding Account

This section indicates the amounts by period that are both adjusted and available for the funding account as you enter the transfer amount information.