Filter Settings for Availability Control

Use

In the AVC filter settings, you define the budget values considered as the “consumable budget” that is intended to cover budget consumption through commitment/actual data. You can also exclude commitment/actual data from the FM update to be treated as consumed amounts.

In the filter settings for budget values, you define which budget or release data is updated in the AVC ledger, which in this way defines the consumable budget. Here you select the budget version, determine whether you want to work with preposted budget or not, and choose between the following basic options:

  • Availability control uses fund-specific definitions of BCS budgeting. This enables you to specify whether releases or specific budget types determine the scope of the “consumable budget”.In this case, AVC uses the Customizing settings of Funds Management under Start of the navigation path Budget Control System (BCS) Next navigation step Budgeting Next navigation step Basic Settings Next navigation step Definition of Budget Data End of the navigation path , sections Budget Types and Budget Releases .This option is used as the default definition, unless you explicitly select the second option below.

  • AVC uses a ledger-specific selection of budget types.In this case, you cannot make a fund-specific selection of budget types, nor are releases are taken into account.The Customizing settings under Start of the navigation path Budgeting Next navigation step Basic Settings Next navigation step Definition of Budget Data End of the navigation path , are ignored. Availability control exclusively bases the definition of the “consumable budget” on budget data (and not on releases ), allowing for a ledger-specific selection of budget types.If you do not define any budget types as consumable budget, all budget data posted in Funds Management is updated in availability control. However, if you select budget types, this restricted selection applies.

    Example Example

    You can control the release of budget amounts during the fiscal year, for each quarter for example, through different budget types, or through a release scenario offered by BCS budgeting.

    End of the example.

When you make filter settings for commitment/actual values, you can exclude value typesfrom the FM update from availability control. This means that these excluded value types do not contribute to the definition of the consumed amount that has to be covered by the consumable budget.

Per default, if you do not specify filter settings for commitment/actual values, the system automatically takes all budget-relevant (that is, non-statistical) commitment/actual values from the FM update into account for availability control.

Caution Caution

As far as possible, you should exclude only the value types that are at the start of a chain of commitment documents (for example, purchase requisitions, funds reservations, purchase orders and so on), but not cash-relevant value types, such as invoices or payments.

When excluding a given value type, you must also exclude all other value types of earlier steps in the commitment chain. For example, if you exclude funds precommitments, then you must exclude at least funds reservations, too.

End of the caution.

Example

If you want to distinguish "soft" commitments, such as purchase requisitions and funds reservations, from “hard” commitments (that is, other commitments and actuals), you can use separate tolerance limits or budget values to define the consumable budget. You carry this out by setting up two separate availability control ledgers and defining filter settings for commitment/actual values as follows:

  • Standard ledger (for example, 9H) for “hard” checks: Define filter settings that exclude all "soft" commitments according to your definition. Then assign normal tolerance profiles (for example, with an error at usage rate 100%) and if applicable, define filter settings for budget values according to your needs.

  • Customer-defined ledger for "soft" checks: You do not define any filter settings for commitment/actual values for this ledger, but assign tolerance profiles with "soft" limits (for example, warning at usage rate 100%) or define filter settings for budget values that result in higher amounts of the consumable budget.

Integration

In BCS budgeting, you can also change the amount of the consumable budget, as defined in the filter settings for budget values, by transferring budget data from one budget type to another or by releasing budget data. For more information, see Transfer Postings Between Budget Types and Budget Releases .

Features

If – when making the filter settings for budget values – you want to base the definition of the consumable budget on the active budget version (in general, this is version 0), you should leave the field Version empty. Only enter a value if you want to check actual/commitment data against another budget version.

You can specify that only posted budget, or preposted and posted budget, should be updated in the AVC ledger. If you also update the preposted budget, only preposted budget documents that lower the consumable budget are included in the definition of the consumable budget (principle of prudence).

If you do not enter any filter settings for budget values, then the system takes the following default definitions:

  • Active budget version
  • Preposted and posted budget
  • Fund-specific definitions of the consumable budget (budget or releases) taking into account the Customizing definition in the IMG activities under BCS Budgeting Basic Settings Definition of Budget Data.

You can also set up your own AVC ledgers for the purpose of budget consistency checks in the Customizing of BCS Availability Control, under Settings for Availability Control Ledger , IMG activities Maintain Customer-Specific Ledger for Availability Check and Define Filter Settings for Budget Values . This means that you can have the system check budget values (instead of commitment/actual data) against your consumable budget. In such cases, you can also define budget values as consumed amounts (in addition to the usual definition of the consumable budget ) in the IMG activity Define Filter Settings for Budget Values .

Activities

You define these filter settings in the Customizing of Funds Management, under Start of the navigation path Budget Control System (BCS) Next navigation step BCS Availability Control Next navigation step Settings for Availability Control Ledger Next navigation step Define Filter Settings for BudgetValues End of the navigation path and Define Filter Settings for Commitment/Actual Values .

Note the following for the enhancing or changing of filter settings:

  • You can enhance the filter settings for budget values and for commitment/actual values using the Business Add-In FMAVC_ENTRY_FILTER . You can find more information in the Customizing of Funds Management, under Start of the navigation path Budget Control System (BCS) Next navigation step BCS Availability Control Next navigation step Business Add Ins for Availability Control Next navigation step Enhance Filter Settings for Availability Control. End of the navigation path

  • If you change filter settings for an AVC ledger, you must reconstruct it using transaction FMAVCREINIT. See also: Reconstruction of Availability Control Ledgers .