Commitment Tracking

Quick Reference Guide for Commitment Tracking

The Commitments form is the data entry for Commitment Tracking. The form contains a number of fields, some of which determine how the planning transfer feeds to the General Planning module and some of which have no impact on the system, but provide a space to store information for documentation and reporting purposes.

The following table describes each data element:

 
MEMBERS TYPE REQUIREMENT DESCRIPTION
Source DeptID List Required Initiator department of commitment and provider of funding
Commitment (CmtXXXXX)                        Number                                  Required Automatically generated when a commitment is added.  Once added, the commitment number is owned by the Source DeptID
Distribution (DistXX) Number Required Automatically generated when a distribution is added.  A commitment may have up to 99 distributions.
Short Description Text Optional Description of the commitment. Limited to 255 characters.
Fund List Recommended                                                 Type of funding committed
Source Project List Recommended Source project of commitment funding
Target DeptID List Recommended Recipient department of commitment funding
Target Project List Recommended Recipient project of commitment funding
Long Description Text                                          Optional Description of the commitment. Limited to 255 characters. Useful for storing additional background information about a commitment.
Transfer Type List                                                                Recommended Type of commitment, helps identify whether a commitment is an operating or non-operating transfer.  Operating transfers appear in the revenue section of the Revenue and Expense form, while non-operating transfers appear in the Other Changes section.
Approval Date Date                                                            Trigger                              The date that the commitment was approved. Commitments that are “unapproved,” (meaning the Approval Date is blank) will be visible to the Target in Commitment reports, but are not visible as a transfer in the General Planning module.
Purpose List Optional Purpose of commitment, for reporting
Duration List Optional Indicates whether commitment is temporary or recurring
Status List Optional Indicates whether a commitment is new, ongoing, anticipated, or completed
Start Date Date Optional The start date of the commitment or allocation. No functionality, only for reference.
End Date Date Optional The end date of the commitment or allocation. This date is used to determine whether a commitment will “roll forward” to new fiscal years as they are added.  The actual day of the month is not relevant.
Requestor Text Optional Name or title of the person who requested the commitment
Authorizer Text Optional Name or title of the person that approved or authorized the commitment
Date of Request Date Optional The date that the commitment was requested
Contingent List Optional Yes/No values.  Used to indicate whether a commitment has contingencies.

 

How to create different types of commitments:

Type How it will work:
Approved Approved commitments will feed to the General Planning module for both the Source and Target departments if data are entered correctly. Be sure to enter a Fund, Source Project, Target DeptID, Target Project, Transfer Type and an Approval Date, in addition to the dollar amounts to be transferred.
Unapproved Unapproved commitments – those without an Approval Date – will feed to the General Planning module for only the Source department. Without an Approval Date, the transfer will not be fed to the General Planning module for the Target DeptID.
Placeholder For planned commitments for which the recipient is undetermined or from whom the planned commitment should not be communicated, the “Unspecified DeptID” member can be input as a placeholder Target DeptID. Target Project can be left blank. The transfer out will appear in General Planning for the Source DeptID, so their remaining balance is correct, but the Target DeptID does not exist, so no one will see the other side of the commitment distribution.
Contingency To indicate that a commitment distribution is contingent for any reason, select “Yes” in the “Contingent” column. This column has no functionality other than serving as an informational record that a contingency exists. The ability to view the commitment in General Planning and in Commitment reports is based on the valid entry of data fields as described above. Note: contingency details can be added to the Long Description field or as a comment in the Contingency cell.