Summary

The Import Budget from Excel process is used to import budget amounts into the application from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The budget amounts imported into the application can be any type of budget amount (requested, proposed, approved, adopted) and can be in any column on the spreadsheet, but the process can only be used to import the budget amounts of the next fiscal year. For example, if the current fiscal year (SS> Utilities> System Setup> Organization tab> Fiscal Year field) is 2019, the imported budget amounts will be posted to the 2020 budget. If you would like to import a budget for the current fiscal year you will have to set the current fiscal year to the previous year, import the budget amounts, run the Fiscal Year End Reset process (GL> Utilities> Fiscal Year End Reset) to copy the adopted budget amounts to the current budget and then set the fiscal year back to the correct year.

The fiscal year chart of accounts must be created before you can import the budget amounts into it. The chart of accounts for the next fiscal year can be created using the Create New Fiscal Year process (GL> Utilities> Create New Fiscal Year).

In order to import the budget amount from an MS Excel spreadsheet, all of the sections of the GL account number must be in a single column and separated by a dash (-). For example, if your GL account number format is XX-XXX-XXXX, then all three of those GL account number sections need to be in one column on the spreadsheet that contains the entire GL account number (01-001-0001).

The Import Budget from Excel process will overwrite the budget amounts in the application with the budget amounts that are being imported. For example, if GL account number 0-0-0001 has an adopted budget amount of $5000 in the application, that amount will be overwritten if you import an adopted budget amount for that GL account using the import feature. This only affects GL accounts that are included on the imported spreadsheet. If a GL account has a budget amount in the application but was not included on the imported spreadsheet, the budget amount of that GL account in the application will not be affected by the import process. When using the Import Budget from Excel process, make sure you are importing the budget amounts to the correct budget types (requested, proposed, approved, adopted) and are not overwriting any budget amounts that should not be overwritten.

The Import Budget from Excel feature can be used to import budgets that have been exported from the application using the Export Budget Analysis (GL> New Budget Information> Export Budget Analysis) feature or can be used to import budgets into the application that have been generated in MS Excel. The Export Budget Analysis feature (GL> New Budget Information> Export Budget Analysis) is used to create an MS Excel spreadsheet from budget information already entered in the application. The budget amounts on the generated spreadsheet can be modified and then imported back into the application using the Import Budget from Excel process. Even if you have not already entered budget information into the application, the Export Budget Analysis feature can be used in order to generate an MS Excel spreadsheet that contains all of your GL account numbers in the correct format to be imported back into the application.

After the Import Budget from Excel process has been run and the budget amounts have been imported into a budget type (requested, proposed, approved, adopted), the budget amounts can be copied to another budget type using the Copy Budget Information process (GL> New Budget Information> Copy Budget Information). You can also export the budget back into MS Excel using the Export Budget Analysis process (GL> New Budget Information> Export Budget Analysis), make more changes to the budget and then import the budget back into another budget type in the application. The budget amounts must be in the Adopted budget type before they can be copied to the current budget amounts when the fiscal year is rolled over.

If you want the imported budget amounts to become the budget amounts of the current fiscal year you will have to run the Fiscal Year End Reset process (GL> Utilities> Fiscal Year End Reset) to copy the adopted budget amounts to the current fiscal year budget.

Step by Step

1     Open the Import Budgets window (GL> New Budget Information> Import Budget from Excel).

2     Complete the Import Options section.

• The File Location field is used to select the spreadsheet that contains the budget you would like to import into the application. Click the File Location field label to select a file from a list.
• The Sheet drop-down menu is used to select the MS Excel sheet that contains the budget information. The sheets that display in the Sheet drop-down menu depends on the sheets included on the MS Excel spreadsheet selected in the File Location field.
  • Select the sheet that contains the budget information.
• Select the type of budget amounts you are importing in the Budget Type drop-down menu. The budget amounts in the spreadsheet will be imported into the selected budget type.
  • Adopted budget amounts will be copied to the current budget amounts (GL> Maintenance> Chart of Accounts> Budget tab> Budget field) when the Fiscal Year End Reset process (GL> Utilities> Fiscal Year End Reset) is run.
• The Account Column field is used to select the MS Excel column that contains the GL account numbers.
  • The GL accounts numbers in the column must contain all of the GL account number sections and be separated by a dash. The GL accounts must also be set up in the next fiscal year chart of accounts.
• The Budget Column field is used to select the column on the spreadsheet that contains the budget amounts. These are the budget amounts that will be imported into the budget type selected in the Budget Type drop-down menu.
• The Starting Row field is used to select the first row in the spreadsheet that contains the GL account number and budget amounts.
  • Do not select a row that contains a column heading. Enter the row number that contains the budget and GL account number information.

3     Import the budget amounts.

• Click the Import icon to import the budget amounts. If there are errors in the importing process an information window will open.
  • The import process is run by the window rather than the server, so you cannot schedule this process to run on the server.