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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-03-13
Steps: Set Up Award Budget Checks

Steps: Set Up Award Budget Checks

  • Add
    Check Budget
     as an
    Action
     step on the financial business processes that you want to budget check on. Example: To budget check accounting journals charged to grants, add the
    Check Budget
     step to the
    Accounting Journal Event
     business process.
  • Create a plan structure for the
    Award
     plan type.
  • Create and approve an award.
  • Security:
    Set Up: Grants Management
     domain in the Grants Management functional area.
You can create a budget plan on an award to limit spending on the award for specific worktags and in specific ledger accounts or summaries. To enable budget checks on an award, you:
  1. Create a plan template and plan for the award to associate the plan structure with the award.
  2. Edit the budget check options on the plan to specify whether you want the budget check to fail or simply warn you when a budget is exceeded, the fiscal periods for the budget check, and whether budget amounts should accumulate from prior periods.
  3. Maintain the budget by creating plan lines with worktags and ledger account/summary to budget check for.
  4. Submit the budget.
  1. Access the
    Create Budget Template
     task from the
    Plan
     tab on the award. Consider:
    Plan Structure
    Select a plan structure for the
    Award
     plan type.
    Plan
    Select the award that you're creating the budget check for. You can only associate 1 plan to an award. Workday creates a plan for the plan template and names it after the award.
    Default Entry Type
    Award
  2. Access the
    Edit Budget Check Options
     task on the award
    Plan
     tab. Consider:
    Plan Structure
    Select the same plan structure with which you created the plan template.
    Plan Name
    Select the plan for the plan template. (Hint: This is the same as the name of the award.)
    Primary
    Displays only when you create a budget check options set using the
    Create Budget Check Options Set
     task.
    Select this check box to designate the budget check options set as the default settings for plans in the plan structure. When you select this check box, Workday uses the settings on this budget check options set to populate the
    Edit Budget Check Options
     prompt on award plans for the plan structure.
    You can only select 1 budget check options set as
    Primary
    .
    Enable Budget Check
    Select to enable budget checking for financial transactions where the business process includes
    Check Budget
     as an
    Action
     step.
    Include Reserved Journal Lines
    Select to include
    Reserved
     journals in calculations of available balance.
    Example: You have 2 award-related transactions that impact the same budget. With this check box selected, you submit the first award-related transaction. As soon as the first transaction passes budget check, Workday:
    • Immediately places the journals in
      Reserved
       status.
    • Considers the amount on the reserved journals when calculating the budget balance for the second transaction.
    You can still include reserved journals in commitment accounting even when you don't select the
    Enable Budget Check
     check box.
    Allow Credit Transactions to Pass
    Allow credit transactions to pass through without additional checks. Example: Workday doesn't check budget when processing a refund with this option selected.
    Budget Check Option
    Select the level of severity with which to control budget when performing budget checking on award-related transactions:
    • Control
      : Select to prevent the transaction from occurring until there's a revision to the transaction or budget that enables the transaction to pass budget check.
    • Warn
      : Select to continue with the transaction without taking corrective actions to resolve the exception.
    When there is insufficient fund for a transaction associated with a grant, both options alert the creator of the transaction.
    Cumulative Control Periods
    Select to accumulate the amount from all control periods up to the budget date or accounting date. Unspent budget from prior periods carries forward and is available for use in the next period.
    Clear to check the transaction against the amount for the control period that the budget date or the accounting date of the transaction falls in.
    Example: When a transaction created halfway through the year is subject to a budget, Workday checks the transaction against the accumulative budget amount across the first 6 months.
    Ledger Types for Budget Check
    Select which ledger types to include in the budget check.
    Example: You can include only your obligations for budget check and exclude your commitments. With this configuration, Workday includes:
    • Obligation and actual expenses in the background when you select the commitment ledger.
    • Actual expenses in the background when you select the obligation ledger.
    Allow Budget Check Override
    Select to enable budget check reviewers to approve budget check exceptions when you set
    Budget Check Option
     to
    Control
    .
    When a reviewer approves an override, Workday displays the
    Override Granted
     status next to the budget check status on the transaction for all subsequent reviewers. When the reviewer approves the override, the transaction moves forward to the next step in the parent business process.
  3. Access the
    Maintain Budget
     task from the
    Plan
     tab of the award.
    Select the fiscal periods and other fields for the budget check. Click
    OK
     to continue. Add a plan line for each ledger account/summary and worktags combination that you want to budget check for, specifying the budgeted amount for each fiscal year. Consider:
    Ledger Account/Summary
    Select the ledger accounts or summaries for the spend transactions you want to budget check on. Workday checks the ledger accounts/summaries for transactions containing the worktags you select in the
    Worktags
     column.
    Worktags
    Select the worktags on the transactions that you want to budget check on.
  4. Access the
    Submit Budget
     task.
When spend transactions with criteria listed on the plan lines contain amounts that exceed the budgeted amounts for the respective budgetary periods, budget check exceptions occur. You can access the
Budget Check Exceptions
 report to view more details about the exceptions.
Transactions that don't contain the worktags or aren't in the ledger account/summary listed on the plan lines aren't subject to budget checks.
To budget check spend transactions against individual plan lines as well as against the total budget for a grant, create a virtual parent-child plan structure for the award. See Example: Set Up Award Budget Checks for Total Grant.