Budgets

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This guide outlines the indepth information about Budgets and its features in TeamConnect.

Budgets require a custom object with the Involved Party object. If you have TeamConnect Legal Matter Management, then the Dispute and Transaction objects will work.

Each matter can have an associated budget that allocates specified funds toward future fees and expenses that are charged to the matter. You can also further classify spending by budget category and by period of time. Once a budget is established, you can segment a budget by outside counsel firm (vendor) or by matter. Additionally, the budget feature provides a method for comparing budgeted fees and expenses against actual fees and expenses submitted.

Important: If you previously used TeamConnect Legal Matter Management or a custom budgeting system, you will not be able to post invoices against your old records. You must install TeamConnect Financial Management on those objects before posting invoices.

Users need the appropriate rights to post budgets. The default group Budgeting and Posting contains all the necessary rights for default objects. Users will also need the appropriate rights for any custom objects that have the Budgets screen installed on them.

You can allocate to a budget for a matter in two ways: from the matter, and through a budget request. The following diagram illustrates how to determine the best way to create a budget and how to update a budget.

If the matter already exists, you can update the budget from the Budgets page.
If you want the vendor to approve the budget for a matter and you have CSM, you can create and submit a budget request.

Understanding Budget Features

The following budgets are created per matter record:

Internal Expenses
Internal Tasks
Year
Quarter
Month
Vendor
Phase and Task Codes (Fees & Expenses)

Note: Depending on Budget Settings, set by the TeamConnect Budget Settings and Fiscal Year administrator, some budget types may not display

Budget Categories

When you create a budget for a matter, the program directs any posted invoice fees and expenses, as well as TeamConnect Legal object fees and expenses, into various budget categories.

Task and Expense categories are created and edited by your TeamConnect administrator. For more information, see Adding Object Categories.

The following table shows the flow of funds from the actual fund source to the standard budget categories.

Post the following		Posted to the _____ Budget
Invoice Fees	Phase and Task Code Fees*	Phase and Task Code Fees Budget
Invoice Expenses	Phase and Task Code Expenses	Phase and Task Code Expenses Budget
Internal Task Objects	Internal Tasks	Internal Fees Budget
Internal Expense Objects	Internal Expenses	Internal Expense Budget

*TeamConnect Legal Matter Management contains the full suite of UTBMS codes.

Viewing a Budget

The Budgets page of matter records displays budget information from the accounts related to the matter. You can customize the information that is displayed on this page.

Matter Budgets Page

Budgets Page Sections and Field Descriptions

The following tables describe the sections and fields on the Budgets page. The fields that you see may vary based on your system settings, assigned rights, the budgeting preferences set by your administrator.

Budget Summary Section

Field	Description
Total Current Budgeted	The total value of all budgeted amounts. If the Life of Matter Estimate setting is enabled, this field will also display a percentage value representing how much of the Life of Matter Estimate the Total Current Budgeted value accounts for.
Current Budgeted Remaining	The difference between the total budgeted amount for the matter and the total of all items in the Actuals column. Total Budgeted - Total Actuals = Current Budgeted Remaining
Life of Matter Estimate	Estimated budget amount for the duration of this matter. This field is editable, and only appears if the Life of Matter Estimate setting is enabled. Click the Edit icon to adjust this value.
Total Spend to Date	Total spent on the matter to date. If this amount is equal to or greater than the total estimate, an alert icon appears.
Total Pending	The total value of all standard invoices for the matter in workflow.
Total Not Budgeted	The difference between the Life of Matter Estimate and the Total Current Budgeted, as well as the percentage value representing how much of the Life of Matter Estimate the Total Not Budgeted value accounts for. This field only appears if the Life of Matter Estimate setting is enabled.

Budget Information Section

Column or Field	Description
Name	The name of the budget parameter that the amounts correspond to. The Name field can be a fee or expense code, a vendor code, month, quarter, or fiscal year. The amounts in the other columns "roll up" according to the budget parameter hierarchies.
Budgeted	The amount currently allocated for each account.
Actuals	The amount used by each account to date. This amount only includes expenditures that have been posted through tasks, invoices or expenses. It does not include invoices that are pending approval, voided or rejected.
Accruals	The amount posted against budgets through accrual invoices. Accruals count as spend, which affects the Remaining, % Used, Total Spend to Date, and Current Budgeted Remaining values. With the Enable Accrual Reversals setting enabled, posting a standard invoice will first reduce the amount of the accrual invoice. With the Enable Accrual Reversals setting disabled, posting a standard invoice does not affect the Accruals amount. As a result, the Accruals and Actuals values combine as spend.
Remaining	The amount of each budget that has not yet been used. Budgeted - Actuals = Remaining Note: If this field reaches 0 or below, a warning icon appears.
% Used	The percentage of the current budget that has been used. Actuals / Budgeted = % Used Note: If this field reaches 100% or above, a warning icon appears.

Customizing the Budget Information table

The Budget Information table's data can be customized by rearranging or hiding data columns. You can also filter the rows that display in the Budget Information table by the following parameters: fiscal year, quarter, and vendor. These steps can be performed on the Budgets page of any appropriate matter record, including the read-only Budgets page of invoice records.

To customize columns in the Budget Information table

Search for the appropriate matter record and open it.
In the left pane, click the Budgets link. The Budgets page opens.
Rearrange, resize, or hide columns in the Budget Information table by following the corresponding steps:
- To rearrange columns, click and drag a column by its title text to the position you want, then release the mouse button.
- To resize columns, move your cursor to the divider between the columns, then click and drag the column divider to your desired size.
- To hide columns, right-click in the title row to bring up a list of columns. Clear the check- boxes for any columns you do not want to display. Select the corresponding check- boxes to make columns appear.

To filter parameters in the Budget Information Table

Search for the appropriate matter record and open it.
In the left pane, click the Budgets link. The Budgets page opens.
Click the Filter Settings button. The filter fields appear: Fiscal Year Filter, Quarter Filter, Vendor Filter, and Line Item Code Filter.
Click inside one of the filter text fields. A list of existing parameters of that type will appear. Click a parameter to add it to the filter.
You can also type in the filter text fields. As you enter text, the relevant matching parameters will appear. Press Enter or click on the parameter to add it to the filter.
Parameters that are added to the filter fields are applied immediately to the Budget Information table.
To remove a parameter from the filter, click the X next to the parameter in the filter text fields.

Creating or Editing a Budget

You can create a budget on matters that already exist, adding the budget directly in the matter record.

Note: Budget pages may not be available for certain objects based on your user rights.

Creating a Budget

Use the Budgets page for a matter to allocate funds to a budget. When you create a budget, the sequence of steps is also listed in the left pane in the order of the steps in the wizard definition. Each page is displayed with a number and the page title. Only steps that the user already opened are displayed as links so that it is easy to return to a previous step to make changes. The page that is currently open is always highlighted. This makes it easier to view the number of steps in the wizard.

To create a new budget

Search for the appropriate matter record and open it.
In the left pane, click the Budgets link.
The Budgets page opens.
Click the Create Budget link.
Select the appropriate Budget Template from the drop-down list. Click Next.
- The Budget Template option will not be available if a global template is enabled in Budget Settings.
Select the check-boxes for the appropriate vendors. The vendor selection options will not be available if the budget template does not include the Vendor parameter.
Select one or more years from Fiscal Year field. The Budget Start Date defaults to the first date of the first fiscal year. Update the date if necessary. Click Next.
Enter the appropriate allocation amounts.
If the Life of Matter Estimate setting is enabled, the Life Of Matter Estimate field will appear on this screen. Enter the appropriate amount.
Click Finish.
The budget is saved and the matter is opened to its Budgets page. To review or edit the budget, click the Edit Budget button.

Editing a Budget

To edit a budget

Search for the appropriate matter record and open it.
In the left pane, click the Budgets link. The Budgets page opens.
Click the Edit Budget button.
In the Vendor Selection section, select the check-boxes for the appropriate vendors. The vendor selection options will not be available if the budget template does not include the Vendor parameter.
In the Additional Information section, select the appropriate Fiscal Year and Budget Start Date. These options will not be available if the budget template does not include time- based parameters and the default time period was set to Life of Matter at the budget's creation.
Click Next.
Enter the appropriate allocation amounts.
If the Life of Matter Estimate setting is enabled, the Life Of Matter Estimate field will appear on this screen. Enter the appropriate amount.
Click Finish.
The budget is saved and the matter is opened to its Budgets page.

To edit individual line items on a budget

Search for the appropriate matter record and open it.
In the left pane, click the Budgets link. The Budgets page opens.
Find the budget line item you want to adjust, then click the Edit icon in the Budgeted column
You may need to expand the budget line item's parent parameters before you can see it. Click the Expand All button to see all budget line items.
Enter the new budget amount in the Amount field.
Click Save.

Adding a Fiscal Year to a Budget

To budget for a new fiscal year on an existing budget

Search for the appropriate matter record and open it.
In the left pane, click the Budgets link.
The Budgets page opens.
Click the Add Fiscal Year button.
Select the desired Budget Template from the Budget Template drop-down list.
1. Alternatively, select the Use Stored Template check-box to use the existing stored template from the previous fiscal year. This stored template will not contain any changes made to the budget template since the creation of the budget. Selecting this check-box will cause the Budget Template drop-down list to disappear from the page.
2. Click Next.
Select the check-boxes for the appropriate vendors. The vendor selection options will not be available if the budget template does not include the Vendor parameter.
Click Next.
Note: When adding a fiscal year to a budget, you will not be able to select the fiscal year or budget start date. The wizard will automatically select the next sequential existing fiscal year.
Enter the appropriate allocation amounts.
If the Life of Matter Estimate setting is enabled, the Life Of Matter Estimate field will appear on this screen. Enter the appropriate amount.
Click Finish.
The budget is saved and the matter is opened to its Budgets page.
To review or adjust the budget, click the Edit Budget button.

Viewing Adjustment History

Whenever an account is adjusted, a View Adjustment History icon appears next to the adjusted item. Click the icon to view the adjustment history, including modified date, user name, previous balance, and new balance information. Only approved budget requests will appear in the history.

Using Budget Requests

If you are using the e-billing features of Collaborati Spend Management (CSM), you can send budget requests to your vendors and receive their responses.

If a budget contains codes, the vendor will only see the codes that they are authorized to use, and only the budgets at the lowest level of code hierarchy. See Vendor Billing Codes and Tax Codes in the Collaborati Spend Management Administrator Help for more information.

You can budget by any method; for example, life of matter, yearly, quarterly, monthly, or with or without codes. The only requirements are that Vendor is a parameter in the budget, and that the vendor is an involved party in the matter record as a CSM E-Billing role.