Withholding at the Parent Line

One method of reserves applies to multi-level budget structures where other methods do not provide an exact fit or seem too complex. Withholding budget authority at a parent budget line by not passing all of it onto child lines requires specific budget control setup. First, is that controls on spending (constraints) must be placed on the child budget level. Second, is that controls on budget amounts (guidelines) must be placed on the parent budget level where children do not have to equal their parent, but cannot exceed them in total.

To reserve budgets with this method, the Line Amounts on the parent budget lines of a budget transaction are created with a higher value than the sum of the amounts for child budget lines of that parent. To release this type of reserve, another budget transaction is created with only lines at the child level increasing funding for those lines.

This method of reserving for users with budget transaction security may seem the most straight forward to budget users and end users of those budgets. The following sample shows a parent line with more adopted and amended than the two child lines. It also shows that not every budget amount has to be reserved at the parent level. Original Budget has the following formula: Adopted + Carry Forward. Current Budget has the following formula: Original Budget - Budget Reserve + Amendments + Transfers In - Transfers Out - Reversions.

Parent
Adopted	$100,000.00
Carry Forward	$15,500.00
Budget Reserve	$0.0
Amendments	$25,000.00
Transfers In	$2,000.00
Transfers Out	$10,000.00
Reversions	$5,000.00
Original Budget	$115,500.00
Current Budget	$127,500.00

Child 1
$40,000.00
$10,500.00
$0.0
$5,000.00
$2,000.00
$0.00
$2,500.00
$50,500.00
$55,000.00

Child 2
$40,000.00
$5,000.00
$0.0
$5,000.00
$0.00
$10,000.00
$2,500.00
$45,000.00
$37,500.00