Budget Entries (Amendments)
In March, reality disagrees with January's plan: repairs are running hot, professional fees are running cold. You can't just edit a posted budget — that would quietly rewrite the promise everyone signed off. Instead, REDA Financials amends budgets through Budget Entries: dated, reasoned, approvable records of every change, each one preserved forever. The original number stays visible; the amendments stack on top.
Access you'll need. Creating and approving budget entries requires the Accounting Admin v2 or Accounting Controller v2 permission set. The Accounts Payable v2, Accounts Receivable v2, and Read Only v2 sets can view entries but not change them.
The arithmetic of an amendment
Each budget line keeps its original Budgeted Amount untouched. Approved entries accumulate into Approved Increases and Approved Decreases, and the line's true ceiling becomes:
Effective Budget = Budgeted + Approved Increases − Approved Decreases
Enforcement, availability, utilization — everything downstream reads the Effective number. The audit story reads itself: what we planned, what changed, why.
The kinds of change
| Entry Type | What it does | Approval |
|---|---|---|
| Supplement | Adds funding to a line — new money into the budget | Required — someone must own the bigger promise |
| Reduction | Removes funding from a line | Auto-approved — giving money back needs no committee |
| Transfer | Moves funding between two lines of the same budget — created as an atomic pair (out of one line, into the other) | Required |
| Original | Documents a line's original allocation as an entry — rarely used by hand; the Budgeted Amount itself is the normal home for the original number | Not required |
The form describes the three everyday types in its own words: "Add additional funding to a Budget Line. Requires approval." · "Reduce funding on a Budget Line. Auto-approved immediately." · "Move funds between two GL Accounts within the same budget. Requires approval."
What an entry carries
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Entry # | Auto-numbered (BE-00001, BE-00002…) — entries have their own sequence, separate from the budget's |
| Budget Line / Budget | The line being amended; the budget fills in from the line automatically |
| Entry Type (required) | Supplement / Reduction / Transfer / Original — see above |
| Amount (required) | Always positive: "Amount must be greater than zero. The entry type determines the budget impact direction." |
| Effective Date (required) | When the change applies — the amendment's own date, independent of the budget's dates |
| Reason (required) | "Reason is required. Provide the business justification for this budget change (SOX audit requirement)." |
| Approval Status | Not Required / Pending / Approved / Rejected — defaulted from the type, advanced by your approval process |
| Reference Entry | On transfers: the link to the other half of the pair |
| Effective Amount | Calculated, signed: negative for reductions and the outgoing side of transfers, positive otherwise — so a related list of entries sums to the line's net amendment |
Making one
Start from the posted budget
Open the Budget record you want to amend, go to its Budget Entries related list, and click New — that's how an entry is created, with the budget already in context. Budget entries exist only for posted budgets: if the budget is still Draft, the form tells you "This budget is not Posted. Budget Entries can only be created for a Posted budget — post the budget first, or edit its lines directly while it is Draft." And if you reach the form without a budget in context, it says "Budget not found. Open a Budget record and use the New button on its Budget Entries related list." — each message tells you exactly what to do next.
Type, amount, date — and the reason
The amount is always positive (the type decides direction), the effective date says when it applies, and the Reason is mandatory — as the form puts it, the business justification is an audit requirement, not paperwork theater. "Repairs trending 20% over plan after Q1; funded from professional-fees underspend" is a reason; "adjustment" isn't.
Transfers pick two lines
Source and target (which must differ) — the form creates both sides atomically, linked to each other. Meridian's March move: transfer $15,000 from Professional Fees to Repairs; one approval, both lines updated together.
Approval, then permanence
Once approved, the entry recalculates its line's Effective Budget — and locks: "Approved budget entries cannot be deleted. They are part of the permanent audit trail." Changed your mind? Create the opposite entry; never erase.
Meridian's March transfer, in numbers
Repairs are trending over; professional fees are under. One approved Transfer of $15,000 rewrites both ceilings — and only the ceilings:
| Budget Line | Budgeted | Approved Increases | Approved Decreases | Effective Budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Repairs & Maintenance — Buildings | $120,000 | $15,000 | $0 | $135,000 |
| Professional Legal and Consulting Fees | $30,000 | $0 | $15,000 | $15,000 |
Both Budgeted columns still read January's numbers — that's the point. The transfer exists as two linked entries (the outgoing side marked as the transfer source), one approval covered both, and any variance report can now show three honest columns: original plan, current approved plan, actuals.
The rules that keep amendments honest
| The message | What it means / what to do |
|---|---|
| "Budget entries can only be created for posted budgets. Draft budgets should be edited directly; voided budgets must be reopened and re-posted first." | Amendments exist to change a live promise — drafts just get edited. |
| "Amount must be greater than zero. The entry type determines the budget impact direction." | No signed amounts — pick the type that carries the direction. |
| "Reason is required. Provide the business justification for this budget change (SOX audit requirement)." | Write the sentence a reviewer needs. "Adjustment" is not a reason. |
| "This reduction would make the Effective Budget negative. Maximum reduction for this Budget Line is …" | Reduce up to the stated maximum, or split the change differently. |
| "Transfer entries must have a paired Reference Entry. Create transfers via the Budget Entry form to ensure both sides are created atomically." | Never build half a transfer by hand — the form creates both sides together. |
| "Source and Target Budget Lines must be different." | A transfer to itself moves nothing. |
| "Transfer entries cannot be edited. Create a Reduction to reverse the effect, then create a new Transfer." | Undo a transfer by trail, not by erasure. |
| "This budget entry has been approved and cannot be modified. Create a new entry to make further adjustments." | Approved amendments are permanent history. |
| "Approved budget entries cannot be deleted. They are part of the permanent audit trail." | The delete key stops working at approval — by design. |
Common mistakes to avoid
| Mistake | Why it hurts | Do this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Reopening the whole budget to change one number | Blocked once anything committed — and even when possible, it rewrites the plan silently | One line changed = one Budget Entry with its reason |
| Entering a negative amount to reduce | Refused — amounts are always positive | Type = Reduction carries the direction |
| Creating both halves of a transfer as separate entries | The manual halves are refused — unpaired transfers can't exist | Use the Budget Entry form's transfer flow: both sides, one action, linked |
| A reason written for yourself ("moving money") | The reason is the audit answer, permanently attached | State the trend, the source of funds, and the sign-off context |
| Fixing a wrong approved entry by asking for it to be deleted | Impossible — approved entries are permanent | Create the opposite entry (with a reason that says "reverses BE-…"), then the correct one |
Where to go next
- Understanding Budgets — where Effective Budget fits.
- Budget Enforcement on POs — what the amended ceiling controls.
- Budget Utilisation Reports — watching the trend that prompts amendments.
Frequently asked questions
Because then December-you couldn't prove what January-you promised. The original stays frozen; amendments carry the change and its reason. That separation is what makes the budget audit-proof — and what lets variance reports compare plan vs revised plan vs actual.
Approved transfers are immutable: create a Reduction on the mistakenly-funded line and a new Transfer to the right one (or a reversing transfer). The trail shows the mistake and the fix — which is exactly what a trail is for.
Whoever your organization's approval process routes them to — typically the controller or CFO. Reductions skip approval by design; only entries that grow a line's ceiling (supplements, transfers) wait for a signature.
Pending entries are the editable stage — and if one already moved further, the Reopen & Edit action resets it: "Budget entry reopened for editing. Approval status reset to Pending." Once approved, though, the entry is permanent; corrections are new entries.
On approval. The line's Approved Increases and Decreases are recalculated from all its approved entries, and the Effective Budget formula updates instantly — the next purchase order is checked against the new ceiling. Pending entries change nothing yet.
No — transfers move funds between two GL account lines within the same budget. Across budgets, use a Reduction on one and a Supplement on the other, with reasons that reference each other.
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