Available to Spend Codes

Available to Spend Codes

Most organizations that use FIMS employ a calculated Spending Policy to determine the annual Available to Grant amount for endowed Funds. There are two components to this policy: calculating an annual budget, and knowing the current available amount for the fiscal year.

Note: The entire Fund balance can be available for non-endowed Funds. These Funds do not generally need a Spending Policy.

The Spending Policy module helps you to calculate the annual available amount for endowed Funds, and to make an intrafund transfer from the non-available Fund Balance to the available Fund Balance in General Ledger (where it is typically combined with any remaining available balance rolled over from the previous year).

Some organizations allow the available balance to be augmented by contributions. Grants made during the year will reduce this available Fund balance.

The Available Balance from General Ledger can be displayed on the Balance Tab in the Fund Management module. However, this amount may not always be completely reliable. For example:

• Transactions may have been be entered into the FIMS, but not yet posted to General Ledger (for example, Grants require three postings before the available balance is affected -- Application Post, A/P Voucher Post, and General Ledger Journal Post).
• Even if all transactions are posted, the actual available amount may differ from the theoretical available amount. Some organizations do not consider contributions to Donor Advised pass-through Funds to be entirely available until after a specified waiting period (for example, they may withhold 10% of the contributions for a year).

The Available to Spend calculation is designed to take these factors into account, according to your policies. You can assign a code to each Fund that links it to a calculation method.

Once you have set up the calculation, the Available to Spend amount will be displayed on the Balance tab in the Fund Management module.

The Available to Spend amount is used in several contexts in FIMS:

• The Fund Balance tab displays the Available to Spend amount as of the selected year and period.
• The Fund Listing report prompts for a year and through period, and includes the Available to Spend amount for each Fund.
• The Fund Statements Export includes the calculated amount as of the Base Year and Period of the export. The field header is AvailabletoFund. Since the names and addresses of Fund representatives are also included in the export, it is an easy way to communicate the current available balance to representatives at any time – even between Fund statements.
• If a Grant Application is entered and marked as Approved when it exceeds the available amount, a warning message will appear, including the Available amount and the amount of the current Grant (calculated as of the end of the Period with the Grant Date).

  Note: Other unposted Grants from the same Fund are included in this calculation.

• The Application Edit Report will return a warning, error, or nothing if a Grant would exceed the available amount – depending on the setting in the Available to Spend code.
• The Available to Spend Detail report uses the appropriate Available to Spend Calculation method for each Fund and displays a column for each factor that affects the calculated Available to Spend amount (for example, unposted items).

  Note: The Available to Spend code is not the same as the Spending Policy code.

1. In the Fund Management module, select File Maintenance > Fund Code Maintenance> Available to Spend. The ATS Code Maintenance window opens, with a Data Grid listing all of the existing codes.

ATS Code Maintenance Data Grid

2. Click the New button on the toolbar to open a new code record.

Tip: You can also edit an existing code by selecting it in the Data Grid and clicking the Edit Code Item button.

ATS Code Maintenance Window

3. In the ATS Code fields, enter the code (up to six characters) and a brief text description of the code.

Note: If you are using the same code for all (or most) of your Funds, you should call the code SYSDEF (System Default). This code does not need to be manually assigned to any Funds – the calculation method will be applied to all Funds automatically. For Funds that do not use the system default, you can set up a separate code and apply it to the appropriate Funds.

4. If you are using a specific Fund Balance as the basis for the Available to Spend amount, select the Based on a Single Fund Balance checkbox and then enter the desired Fund Balance in the field next to the checkbox.

5. If you want to add or subtract the balance of one or more General Ledger accounts to the Available to Spend amount, do the following:

1. Select the Based on Selected Accounts checkbox.

2. Click the Add button.

3. In the Account From and Account Through fields, enter the range of G/L accounts that you want to use.

   Note: If you only want to use the balance for a single account, enter the same account number in both of these fields.

6. In the +/- field, enter a plus or minus sign next to each account. When adding or subtracting balances, keep the normal balance of the G/L accounts in mind. If you are adding or subtracting a G/L account that has a normal positive (debit) balance, then use the plus or minus signs as you would logically expect to. For example, if you wanted to subtract any Pledges (debit balance account) from the available amount, you could enter the Pledges to Available account in the Account From and Account Through fields, and enter a minus sign. If you are adding or subtracting a G/L account that has a normal negative (credit) balance, then use the opposite sign. If you wanted to subtract any Unrealized Gain (credit balance account) from the available amount, you could enter the Unrealized Gain account in the Account From and Account Through fields, and enter a plus sign.

7. In the % field, enter the percentage of the selected Accounts that you want to include in the Available to Spend amount. The default value is 100%.

Note: When indicating a Fund Balance account range in the Account From and Account Through fields, you should normally use a minus sign (to give a positive amount for calculation).

Note: Budget amounts may also be used in the calculation. For example, if you calculated your Spending Policy and created Budget entries, you could show that as the Available to Spend amount.

8. Select or clear any of the following checkboxes to further define the code:

• Include Unposted Approved Grant Applications: Select this checkbox if you want to subtract the Grant Amount for unposted Grant applications that are approved and assigned to a Fund (ready to post as Grants) from the available amount.

  Note: If you want to include all Grants in process in the calculation, you must also select the Include Unposted Accounts Payable Items and Include Unposted General Ledger Journal Entries checkboxes.

• Include Unposted Accounts Payable Items: Select this checkbox if you want to subtract unposted Vouchers from the available amount. Unposted Grant Vouchers are created when Grants are posted. They must be posted before an Open Item is created in Accounts Payable, and the liability is sent to the General Ledger Journal. Selecting this checkbox will also include any adjustments that are in process (for example, unposted Debit Memos created for Grant Adjustments).

• Include Unposted General Ledger Entries: Select this checkbox if you want to modify the available amount by any unposted Journal Entries to available, or to the accounts you selected. Unposted debits will reduce the available (Grants or other non-Grant expenses to available). Unposted credits will increase available (Gifts to available).

  Note: When the selected G/L accounts use the budget amount, the unposted journal entries affecting those accounts aren't added as part of the calculation.

• Include Unposted Gifts: Select this checkbox if you want to include unposted Gifts that will affect the available balance when they are posted.

• Exclude Recent Gifts: Select this checkbox and enter a number of Days and a Percent if you want FIMS to calculate the total Gift amount for the preceding number of days, multiply it by the percentage, and reduce the Available to Spend amount by that value.

• Include Open / Imported Grant Applications: Select this checkbox if you want to include all open or imported Grant applications in the calculation, regardless of the Grant Date.

9. Click the Save button on the toolbar.