How do I review a budget? (Connect Online)

Connect Online - Reviewer

If you're an approver for online budgets, this section is for you. As an approver, you'll receive a notification there's a budget ready for you to review. Starting the review will give you access to approve the entire budget, approve some budget amounts but not others, deny the entire budget, and in some cases, override a budget amount with a new budget amount. What happens when you click the Submit button really depends on how your organization has set up the online budget approval process. 

Here's a simplified example of the online budget approval process for City ABC. Depending on what the reviewer chooses to approve, the approved budget or the approved budget amounts will move to the next approval step.  The process is repeated for the next approval step until the budget receives final approval at the end of the online budget approval process. If the reviewer chooses to deny the budget or the deny budget amounts, the denied items are returned to the submitter to revise and resubmit. 

Online Budget Workflow for Reviewers

 

Watch a video

• Watch an overview that shows you how to set up General Ledger to submit budgets online (users, departments, approval steps, approval process, budget, and budget notifications) and what an active budget request looks like in Connect Online. Watch a video (13m01s)

Receiving a notification to review a proposed budget

When a user submits a proposed budget, you'll receive a notification that The YYYY budget for the [Department Name] department is ready for your review. Clicking on the notification will open the proposed budget in the Budget Review page.

Notifications widget

Opening a proposed budget

You can click on the notification to review a proposed budget or you can use the Applications menu  to navigate directly to the Active Budget Requests page. 

Applications menu

The Active Budget Requests page shows the budget requests that have been submitted to an approval step where you are assigned as an approver. Clicking the link titled Ready for Review will open the Budget Review page so you can begin your review. 

Active Budget Requests page

Reviewing a proposed budget

The Budget Review page shows the proposed budget amount being requested for each account. As the reviewer, you can approve or deny an amount on an account by account basis.  

 

Budget Review page

How do I change the columns that display in the Budget Review page? The columns that display on the Budget Review page are selected when the online budget is set up in Organization on the Connect Online tab > Budget Setup tab. To change the columns, update the selection in the section titled Columns to Display. More

 

Approving a proposed budget amount

Opening a proposed budget will show Approved as the default status. If the status was changed, click on the Status menu to select Approved. 

Budget Review page - Status menu

Approving a proposed budget

To approve the entire proposed budget, scroll to the bottom of the Budget Review page and click Approve All . The budget amount status for each proposed budget amount changes to approved. 

Budget Review page - Approve All button

Scroll back to the top of the Budget Review page and click . 

Budget Review page - Approve Budget button

The proposed budget is sent to the next approval step in the online budget approval process. If the proposed budget has final approval, which means the proposed budget has been approved by an approver at each approval step in the approval process, the online budget approval process is finished. 

Denying a proposed budget amount

As an approver, you can deny a proposed budget amount for one account at a time. To deny a proposed budget amount, use the Status menu to select Denied. 

Budget Review page - Status menu

Choosing to deny a proposed budget amount will change the approval status on the proposed budget to Deny Budget (Partial). 

When you are finished reviewing the proposed budget amounts, click .

Budget Review page - Deny Budget (Partial) button

When you click the Deny Budget (Partial) button, the account(s) with the denied proposed amount is returned to the sumbitter. The submitter will only be able to make changes to the account with the denied amount and view the comments attached to the account. The approved proposed amounts will move to the next step in the online budget approval process. 

Denying a proposed budget

To deny all proposed budget amounts, scroll to the bottom of the Budget Review page and click .  The proposed budget status changes to Denied. 

Budget Review page - Deny All button

Scroll back to the top of the Budget Review page and click . 

Budget Review page - Deny Budget button

You can add an explanation for denying the proposed budget. The submitter can view your comments. 

Budget Review page - Budget Deny Budget window

The entire proposed budget is returned to the submitter. The submitter will receive a notification that the proposed budget has been denied. 

My Dashboard (Submitter) - YYYY budget denied notification

Overriding a proposed budget amount

If the approval process is set up to allow an approver to override a proposed budget amount, you can change the proposed budget amount to a new proposed budget amount without sending the account back to the submitter. 

Why can't I override a proposed budget amount? The online budget approval process needs to be set up with the option to allow an approver to modify request. The option is located in the approval process (Organization > Approval Process) on the Approval Steps tab. Select the Allow Approver to Modify Request checkbox, save your changes, and then relaunch Connect Online.  More 

To override a proposed budget amount, scroll to the bottom of the Budget Review page and click . 

Budget Review page - Modify button

Use the New Budget column to enter the new proposed budget amount. 

 

Budget Review page - New Budget column

 

Filtering proposed budget amounts

You can filter proposed budget amounts by department, period, account number, and account name. Click Settings . To show inactive accounts, select the Include Terminated Accounts checkbox. 

Settings

 

Reviewing active budget requests

An active budget request is any budget request that is assigned to an approval step where you are listed as an approver.  As an approver, you can see where the budget request is in the online budget approval process and who is reviewing it.

Budget Review page - View Active Budget Requests link

The Status column shows the which approver is reviewing a proposed budget request. 

Active Budget Requests page - Status column

202105, 2021Jul01

 

Copyright © 2020 Caselle, Incorporated. All rights reserved.