Calculation Source: G/L

The General Ledger (G/L) is the most common approach to the Spending Policy calculation. For each Fund, the system calculates a basis amount from General Ledger balances and multiplies it by the Spending rate.

Note: There are several options for deriving the basis amount, but averaging historic quarterly balances is the most common approach.

To calculate a spending policy based on General Ledger:

1. From anywhere in FIMS, select View > Spending Policy > Spending Policy Calculations.

2. In the Calculation Source section, select the G/L radio button.
3. Enter the G/L Year on which to base the calculation. This is the fiscal year through which the YTD basis will accumulate.

4. To print detailed information for each quarter in the selected year, select the Print Quarter Detail checkbox.

5. Enter the Year to Apply Spending Policy (usually the fiscal year following the Basis Year) to determine which year’s Fund summary history records will hold the calculated Cash Requirement values.

6. Do one of the following:

• If you want to run the standard calculation, select the Standard radio button.
• If you want to run two different calculation methods, compare the results, and choose to apply either the minimum or the maximum amount, select the Compareradio button.

  Note: If you select Compare, a second Evaluation Method field displays, in addition to two Spending Policy fields that open next to the Funds fields. Choose the policies that you want to compare and then choose either Min or Max to determine whether to apply the minimum or the maximum of the two values.

  
  

  Note: When Compare is selected, the Export Quarter Details option does not display.

7. Click the arrow in the Evaluation Method drop-down box(s) and select the desired method:

• Average Quarterly Balance: Takes the ending balances of each period (month) in a quarter and averages them to come up with each quarter’s average quarterly balance. Then the average quarterly balances for each quarter are averaged together for the time span.

• Ending Quarterly Balance: Takes the ending balance of each quarter and averages them together for the time span.

• Average of Ending Balance: Takes the ending balances of each year for the time span and averages them.

• Average Beginning and Ending YTD Balances: Takes the beginning balance of period 1 and ending balance of period 12 (or 13) for each year in the time span and averages them.

• Average of Highest Month in Quarters: Finds the month in each quarter with the highest ending balance, then takes all those balances in the time span and averages them.

• Beginning Balance of Calc Year: Uses only the beginning balance of the base year. It does no averaging.

8. Select the Rounding method to use: Dollar, Penny, Ten Dollars, or One Hundred Dollars.

9. (Optional) Enter the desired range of Fund ID codes in the Funds From / Through fields.

10. In the Spending Policy From / Through fields, enter the code or range of codes associated with the desired Funds.

11. Click the Add button and enter the account number range to serve as the basis for the calculation. Repeat this process to add any additional accounts to the calculation.

Note: Enter a plus (+) or minus (-) to add or subtract each account balance to the total. For example, if you enter an account range of 30000 through 59000 (reflecting all Beginning Fund Balance accounts through all Revenue, Transfer, and Expense accounts), minus an account range of 15000 through 15000 you will include all of these accounts, except for Pledges.

12. (Optional)To only include certain account types, enter the types in the Types From / Through fields. For example, if you enter types A1 through A1, assets (including Pledges Receivable) are selected. If you also enter types Q1 through X2, non-available Fund balances are selected. The system interprets this range to exclude the available fund balance (Q3+R3+T3+X3) from the basis.

13. (Optional) The Export Quarter Detail? checkbox exports the data to a .txt or .csv file. This allows you to analyze the spending policy calculation against the various fund balances. For instance, it might be necessary to adjust the calculated number so that it doesn’t invade principle. The exported data file contains a list of fields which allows you to bring the data into Excel for "what-if" scenarios. After data manipulation, you can either import the new spending policy numbers into FIMS using the Spending Policy Import feature or manually adjust the calculated numbers using the Manually Adjust SP Amounts option.

14. Click OK to open the Spending Policy Calculation report in the FIMS Viewer.

15. Review the report to make sure it is correct, and then click Create Spending Policy on the FIMS Viewer toolbar.

Note: This option only saves the Cash Requirement value. It does not create General Ledger Journal entries.