Overview: About the iBudgets Module of Oracle Financials
On this page:
- iBudgets Defined
- Roles & Responsibilities in iBudgets
- Types of Transactions
- Transaction Approval Process
- Available Training
- Staying Informed
- iBudgets Reporting Tools
iBudgets Defined
iBudgets is a web-based interface to the Oracle Financials system that allows users to initiate modifications to Expense or Revenue Control information documented in the 9/1 University Consolidated Budget. Modifications may be for planning purposes only or for actual changes when accompanied by iJournal Fund Transfers. Only 3XXXX, 4XXXX, and 5XXXX Expenditure Types are allowed for iBudgets transactions. To learn more about the budget process, see Overview: About the Budgeting Process @ Stanford.
Roles & Responsibilities in iBudgets
There are three levels of access to the iBudgets module, referred to as "Login Roles". Login roles determine the activities that a user is able to perform within iBudgets. The three roles are iBudgets, iBudgets Administrator, and iBudgets Manager.
"iBudgets" Responsibility
Enables users to perform standard iBudgets transactions like create new expense or revenue control amounts for new PTAs or increase / decrease expense or revenue control amounts for existing PTAs. Access is granted by School / Department Budget Officers.
"iBudgets Administrator" Responsibility
Allows users to initiate limited types of iJournal Fund Transfers from within the iBudgets module. Access is granted by School/Department Budget Officers.
"iBudgets Manager" Responsibility
Enables users to perform specific iBudgets tasks including the ability to initiate iJournal Fund Transfers from within iBudgets. Access is granted by the University Budget Office primarily to schools / department Budget Officers.
Types of Transactions
New / Increase / Decrease Journal
Used for creating budgets (expense control) for new PTAs, or for increasing or decreasing existing budgets (expense control). These iBudgets journals are for planning purposes and only affect Expense Control information on Expenditure Detail Reports. New/Increase/Decrease journals do not have to balance, but must be approved. Only 3XXXX, 4XXXX, and 5XXXX Expenditure Types are allowed.
Reallocation Journal
Used to move budget (expense control) amounts from one PTA or Expenditure Type to another. Journals may be one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-one, but cannot be many-to-many. Transactions may be for planning purposes only or actual with related iJournal Fund Transfers. Journals must balance and must be approved by someone with signature authority over the TO and FROM PTAs. Only 3XXXX, 4XXXX, and 5XXXX Expenditure Types are allowed.
Upload Journals
Enables upload of journals from an Excel spreadsheet to the database using a preformatted template. Upload journals may be used with any of the iBudgets journal types. Upload journals do not allow the automatic creation of a Fund Transfer entry in iJournals.
Reference How To: Modify a Budget Using iBudgets.
Transaction Approval Process
When a journal is created, iBudgets automatically selects appropriate approvers based on the awards involved in the journal. The list of approvers appears on the "Routing List" screen during the journal creation process.
- If the journal originator has sufficient authority to approve the transaction, no additional routing is required, and the journal is considered "complete" when submitted.
- The originator cannot change or delete approvers' names that automatically appear on the routing list. To comply with department policy, approvers may be added.
- Journals require approvals for all awards involved.
- The system will automatically end the approval routing (i.e., End Route) with the Budget Officer(s) responsible for the award-owning organization(s).
- Approvers do not have the option of modifying the journal. If an approver finds anything wrong with a journal, he/she must reject the journal in order to return it to the originator for modification and re-routing.
To learn more about the approval process, see Overview: Authority to Approve Financial Transactions – About Oracle Workflow.
Journals Awaiting Approval at Month-End
Journal originators are responsible for monitoring the approval status of their journals. Journals must be completely approved, including end-routes, by the cut-off date each month to be included in the month's activities. See Overview: Month-End Close, Month-End Close Schedule.
At the end of each month, the Financial Management Consulting & Support – Information Systems and Reporting group will change the period of any unapproved journals in the system to the following month (i.e., the period for any November journals not approved by the cut-off will automatically be changed to December). An unapproved journal will remain active in the system until it is fully approved.
Available Training
Introduction to iBudgets training is available through the University Budget Office. Please contact Mark Rickey for access to training.
Staying Informed
- To receive email communications regarding changes and updates to iBudgets, subscribe to iBudgets-users@lists.
- Check Archived Bulletins to view communications distributed on or after August 1, 2007. Bulletins are organized by activity and date. See Funds Management for iBudgets communications.
iBudgets Reporting Tools
Budget Inquiry
Users may use Budget Inquiry within iBudgets to access and print individual journals. This is the only place users may view the Journal Justification; justification information is not included in any ReportMart3 reports.
Budget Reports
iBudget reports can be found in ReportMart3 by selecting the "Distributed, Budget Management" category. For report names and descriptions, see Oracle Financials Report Types and Uses, Funds Management-Budgets.