Generic:

• Columns for quantity/price/budget or simply description and amount?  Any adjustment columns needed?

Payroll:

• Annual vs Monthly formats
  • Are there GL accounts specifically assigned to exempt salary employees?
    • If so, an annual format can be used for salaried employees.
• If both salary and hourly employees exist in the same GL account, a monthly format is needed.  The monthly format can have columns for hourly employees as well as a column to enter a salary amount.  Or the monthly format can be set to calculate strictly based on hourly rate x number of hours, etc.   
  • Is the payroll biweekly, semi-monthly, etc.?
    • The format needs set to default the appropriate # pays (or # pay weeks) in each month)
      • Monthly format: the default is set on the column
      • Annual format: the default for distribution is set under Settings.
  • Payroll hours columns can be per pay, per week, per day, etc.-- Whatever is needed for the payroll accounts for this specific format.   Example: child care salaries might have different columns than general staff.
  • Text column/s can be added to display the pay period date range.

• Is a merit increase to be auto-calculated on the budget-entry screen?  
  • Monthly format: the default is set on the column
  • Annual format: the default is set under Settings
  • Warning: If a merit increase is set on the budget entry screen and later the merit % is changed, it cannot be changed globally after budgets are entered. Changes to employee rate or merit % must be re-entered after a GL account’s budget has been saved.

• Use repeat formula Rx in the hourly rate column? This is a nice feature where the user enters the hourly rate one time—in the first month of the year. The system repeats the rate in each month, including auto-calculation of any merit increase.
  • This eliminates the risk factor so the user cannot overlay the new rate (with merit) when copying the first month rows to other months.
  • If wages apply only to summer months, the user must enter the rate in the first month and then either clear # of employees or # of hours in the other months so budget is only calculated in summer months.

• Are there employees whose salary is split between departments, programs, etc.?  If so, a column can be added on budget-entry screen for entering an allocation percentage. The format can be set to calculate the monthly salary, adjusted by the allocation percentage. This allocation percentage can also be included in the allocation formula so medical/dental benefits are also split between departments or programs.

• Payroll format setup: is a higher browse level required to be able to access component details? This is so general users can see the monthly budget amounts but not component details for salaries.

• If using multiple budget formats for payroll, it is important that columns used in an allocation formula are assigned the same data slot.  (Example: number of employees column is assigned Data Slot x on all payroll formats; allocation percentage is assigned Data Slot y on all payroll formats.)

• Which benefits can be auto-calculated with an allocation? These can be either a checkbox or a dropdown selection. Examples:
  • Health Insurance
  • Dental Insurance
  • Life Insurance
  • Disability Insurance
  • Retirement
  • Workers Comp 
  • Unemployment
  • Any others?

• It is recommended on payroll formats (Settings button) to “Force” component entry if benefits are to be calculated via allocations.

• 1^st year enter all details. 2^nd year the format can be set to copy budget figures from last year.
  • Each format row can be set to copy to next year (or not). They might not want to copy the pay rate for each employee from last year, forcing the budgeting user to enter the rate rather than simply copying from last year.

Allocations:

• FICA allocation for all employees

• Payroll benefit allocations as needed
  • When setting up an allocation with a flat amount (usually health/dental insurances), enter the employer’s monthly expense amount. Add a formula on each allocation row to calculate the amount x the number of employees x the allocation percentage (if used).
  • Allocation setup allows rate to be assigned for a range of months, which accommodates the need for a change of rate mid-year.

• Some Y’s use allocations for other instances than payroll benefits, such as to calculate a percentage of all revenues and update the national dues expense account. 

Membership:

• How do you want to calculate and budget membership?
  • Are there multiple types of membership in a G/L account? If so, a good format to start with is “SGA 1 – Membership – Types” and then customize.
  • How are fees and/or financial aid calculated?
    • Column/s can be added for signup fees, etc., which would reduce the membership budget.
    • Column/s can be added for a financial aid amount to be entered but, instead of reducing the budget of this G/L account, use this amount in an allocation to update a financial aid G/L account.

Program Income:

• Format “SGA 1 – Program Income” is usually a good format to begin with and then customize.
• Pre-loading component descriptions: You can pre-load one or more fields (such as multiple rows of descriptions of classes/programs, rates for each, etc.)  To do so, add what you want to pre-load on one G/L account’s budget components.  Then use Global Copy to copy that one account to other selected program accounts.