Article Intended For
SIMBA Grants Management (GM) and Funds Management (FM) users
Introduction
The budget vs. actual comparison is a core function of GM and FM that helps Penn State monitor and control its financial performance.
Availability Control monitors budget consumption in real time by comparing budgeted (planned or allocated) funds and consumed amounts (actual expenditures) to determine funds available for spending and ensure spending stays within approved limits.
Refer to SIMBA Support > Funds Management for more information on the FM module and budgeting.
Article Body
AVC Checking
AVC checking is invoked during the following transactions. These documents consume budget as soon as they enter workflow.
- Journal entries
- Non-PO invoices
AVC checking is not invoked during the following transactions:
- Concur
- Labor Distribution/payroll postings integrations
- Revenue postings
- Expense credit postings
- Cost share
- Purchase order creation or editing
- PSUbuy shopping carts
GM AVC checks external funds at the grant level only.
FM AVC is at the fund level, based on whether the fund is budgeted as annual or overall. FM AVC then checks at the funded program, funds center, or department level. The Overview of AVC Data tile (simulation) in SIMBA can help FM users determine the remaining available balance for a given budget control object.
AVC Warning Messages
Both GM AVC and FM AVC return warning messages when the expense budget has reached 85% consumption and over. These warnings do not prevent postings in SIMBA.
An AVC warning message, like the one shown below, includes two response options: Continue and Help.
Figure 1. Example AVC warning message.
- Click Continue to acknowledge the warning. Then click Yes in the confirmation dialog to confirm you want to save the document despite the budget warning, or click No or Cancel to return to the transaction to make changes.
Figure 2. Continue confirmation after warning. - Click Help to view details about the current budget consumption.
Figure 3. View details about budget consumption after warning.
If a transaction includes a sponsored program, GM returns an error message (see Figure 4) when an expense budget has been exceeded and when no expense budget has been uploaded. Users can bypass this warning message and continue with the transaction. Best practice is to review the expense budget for the sponsored program to determine if an expense budget is needed.
Figure 4. GM AVC error message example.
Links
SIMBA Support website
SIMBA Support > Funds Management
Overview of AVC Data simulation