Check a department budget before requesting spend

Compare the intended Finance budget with Procurement availability before relying on an amount for a purchasing decision.

Before you start: Know the department, account, period, currency and governing budget version. Have the proposed purchase amount and relevant current obligations.

Steps

1. Open Finance → Planning → Budgets. Locate the intended budget by department, dates, currency, state, version and notes. A familiar display name or higher version number alone does not identify the governing budget.

2. Open the exact budget and compare its basis, fiscal year, dates and allocation lines. Check the actual account, department and accounting period on each line, as well as the calculated total.

3. Read the current state. If it is still a draft or submitted proposal, confirm the remaining decision with the budget owner before treating it as available spending capacity. Do not substitute another active row or repeat submission to force activation.

4. Open Procure → Budgets → Availability. Match the intended department/account, reference, period and state to the Finance allocation. The view can limit lines to date ranges containing today, so an absent future-period line is not by itself proof the Finance budget is missing.

5. Read Budget, Requested, Reserved, Committed, Actual and Available as separate amounts. Do not add a Draft/Not active card to an active budget or select whichever card shows the largest available amount.

6. Open Commitments and compare the relevant source obligations, relief and dates. Check whether a request and its resulting order represent the same obligation and whether part has already become an actual cost.

7. Inspect Exceptions for any applicable decision. An empty exception list does not authorise an exception, and a positive Available figure does not replace purchase approval.

8. Give the purchasing or budget owner the matched budget scope, proposed amount and any unresolved version, timing or obligation difference. Proceed through the normal purchasing decision only when the governing basis is clear.

Expected result

You know which budget supports the proposed spend and whether the displayed Procurement availability can be used for that decision.

Common pitfalls

• A Monthly header is not the allocation’s accounting-period reference. Check both.
• Budget headroom is not cash in the bank. Review payment timing separately when cash availability matters.
• Do not change the limit or disable a control to make a purchase fit. Resolve the actual scope and decision.

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In this series: Purchasing and financial follow-through — guide 6 of 6.

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