Budgeting in TouteGestion: Prepare, Approve, Revise and Control Spending
Budgeting in TouteGestion is a controlled financial plan linked to the Chart of Accounts, accounting periods and optional dimensions. Approved budgets remain distinguishable from later revisions, while Budget Control compares the plan with posted Actuals and open commitments instead of waiting until cash has already been spent.
What a budget represents in TouteGestion
A budget defines how much the organisation plans to allocate to selected accounts for a configured fiscal year. It is not a journal entry and does not itself spend money. Its purpose is to provide a controlled baseline that can later be compared with commitments and posted accounting Actuals.
1. Create the budget against a configured fiscal year
Budget preparation requires accounting:budgets.prepare in Segregated mode, with accounting.budgets.manage retained for the Standard/legacy path. Creating a budget requires a name and configured fiscal year. TouteGestion uses the fiscal-year structure so allocations can be distributed over its regular accounting periods rather than entered as an isolated annual figure with no period context.
2. Allocate budget to the correct account and dimensions
A budget allocation requires an account and can also carry active dimension values such as department, project or other organisation-defined classifications. This lets one account be budgeted differently across operational responsibility areas instead of forcing Finance to create a separate GL account for every department or project.
3. Choose how the amount is distributed across periods
TouteGestion currently supports manual, equal and seasonal allocation methods. Manual allocation lets Finance enter period amounts directly. Equal allocation distributes a total across the configured periods. Seasonal allocation accepts positive period weights so the plan can reflect uneven activity rather than assuming every month consumes the same amount.
4. Submit the prepared version for approval
The original budget version begins as a working version. A user with accounting:budgets.submit can submit it. This is distinct from preparation: in organisations using segregation of duties, the person building allocations does not need to be the person who approves the financial plan.
5. Approve or return the submitted version
A user with accounting:budgets.approve can approve a submitted version and may record an approval note. The same approval authority can return a version to draft, but a review note is mandatory when returning it. This creates a controlled review loop instead of allowing unexplained edits after review.
6. Revise an approved budget instead of overwriting it
Once the current version is approved, authorised users can create a revision using accounting:budgets.amend. A revision reason is mandatory. TouteGestion distinguishes original and revision versions, including version number, status, review note and revision reason, so management can compare the approved starting plan with subsequent authorised changes.
7. Understand Original, Revised, Actual, Committed and Available
The Budget Control report shows original budget, revised budget, actual amount, committed amount, available amount and variance percentage by account. Actuals come from posted Accounting journal activity. Commitments represent approved source obligations that reserve budget before final posting. Available budget therefore reflects more than cash already spent.
8. Investigate unmapped commitments
If a source document has reserved budget but is not mapped to a budget account, TouteGestion does not silently place it in an arbitrary account. Budget Control surfaces the amount as an Unmapped commitments require attention exception. Finance must correct the mapping so the commitment can participate in meaningful account-level control.
9. Filter budget control by date and dimension
Budget Control can be run for a selected budget, an optional as-of date and an optional dimension value. This lets Finance ask questions such as how much Department A had available at a particular date without changing the underlying approved budget.
Worked example
A university approves 120,000 for Utilities for the fiscal year and allocates it seasonally because electricity use is higher in some periods. A later approved procurement obligation reserves 20,000, while posted utility journals total 55,000. Budget Control keeps the approved plan, the reserved commitment and the realized Actual separate when calculating the remaining availability. If management later authorises an increase, Finance creates a revision with a reason rather than rewriting the original approved version.
Why this matters for departmental organisations
A large organisation can combine GL accounts with dimensions and separated budget permissions. Budget officers prepare departmental allocations, designated authorities submit or approve versions, operational source documents create commitments, and Financial Reporting sees the resulting Actuals. This is the basis for budget accountability without duplicating the Chart of Accounts for every department.
Practical configuration checklist
- fiscal year and regular accounting periods configured
- budget preparation, submission, approval and amendment permissions assigned appropriately
- budget allocations use the intended GL accounts
- dimension values used where departmental or project accountability is required
- manual, equal or seasonal period allocation selected deliberately
- prepared version submitted before approval
- returned budgets include a review note
- approved budgets changed through a reasoned revision rather than overwrite
- Budget Control reviewed for Original, Revised, Actual, Committed and Available values
- unmapped commitments investigated and mapped
- as-of date and dimension filters used for targeted control reviews
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