Organisation Funding

Version 4.1 assigned Funding into categories and introduced overview pages showing allocations across the organisation and within programmes.

This topic applies to v4.1 onwards

What is Funding?

Organisations typically fund projects from one or more 'pools of money'. In i-lign, these 'pools of money' are allocated and managed using the Funding feature.

Funding is assigned in predefined Funding Categories. The default categories include Capex, Opex, Overheads and Contingency. However, your organisation can define its own Funding Categories via the User Defined Values option on the Set-up page.

Funding is allocated in each category on a yearly basis (based on the Financial Years defined for your organisation).

The Funding Hierarchy

Funding is first allocated at the Organisation level, then Programmes are allocated funding from the Organisation and then Project funding is allocated from Programmes. Allocations are constrained by the amount available further up the hierarchy. A Programme cannot be allocated more Funding than is available at the Organisation level, and a Project cannot be allocated more Funding than what is available from its Programme.

Organisation Funding Page

The Organisation Funding page is accessible by clicking on the Funding Lines' View button on the Organisation page (Overview tab). It can also be accessed via the Set-up page.

This page shows an organisation-wide view of Funding as a table with Financial Years as the rows and Funding Categories as the columns. For each Year and Category, the available, allocated and remaining funding is displayed.

The following links and buttons are available from the Organisation Funding page:

'+' button

Each row can be expanded to show the funding allocated to each Programme in that year. The Programme rows can be further expanded to show the funding allocated to Projects.

Amount

Amounts can be clicked on to modify the Funding amount and Funding allocations. This is available for both Organisation Funding and Programme Funding.

Programme Name

Clicking on the Programme Name shows the Programme Funding page. This is very similar to the Organisation Funding page, except that it only shows funding in the context of a single Programme. This page can also be accessed via the Programme Consolidated Display tabs.

Project Name *

Clicking on the Project Name currently shows the Project Funding List (legacy)

List button *

Clicking on the List button currently shows the Organisation Funding List (legacy)

* This is legacy functionality. It is still available whist organisations transition to the new Funding features, but it is scheduled to be removed in a future release.

Modifying Funding

On the Organisation and Programme Funding Pages amounts can be clicked on to modify the amounts and allocations. In both cases the same 'Modify Funding' page is shown. Modifying Organisation Funding means changing how it is allocated to Programmes, whereas modifying Programme Funding funding means changing how it is allocated to Projects.

The Modify Funding page shows the Financial Year and Funding Category being edited, and allows the amount and description to be edited. The Funding Allocations section shows the Programmes (or Projects) that have allocations from this Funding. These amounts can be edited, but you cannot allocate more funding than the amount available.

The 'Add' button is used to allocate funding to additional Programmes or Projects. The 'X' button removes funding allocations to Programmes or Projects.

When the funding amount or allocation amounts change, the Total Allocated and Unallocated Amount fields are automatically updated.

Note: Programme funding can be edited in two ways. If you are allocating funding from the Organisation to several Programmes it makes sense to use the Modify Organisation Funding page by clicking on an Organisation Funding Amount on the Organisation Funding Page. If you are allocating funding within a Programme then it makes more sense to use the Modify Programme Funding page by clicking on a Programme Funding Amount, on either the Organisation Funding or Programme Funding pages.

Note: Funding amounts can also be edited using the legacy pages. These are inefficient and should be avoided. They are still available whist organisations transition to the new Funding features, but are scheduled to be removed in a future release.

Funding Usage

To effectively manage the Organisation's Funding, the variance between the cost of Projects and the Funding allocated to them should be minimised. Excessive variance means that either the Project is spending more money than allocated, or that funds allocated to it are not required and could be used elsewhere in the Organisation.

Funding Categories may be associated with a Financial Line in the Project Financials. For example, the Funding Category 'Capex' may be associated with the 'Net Capital Expense' Funding Line. These associations can be defined via the User Defined Values option on the Set-up page. Some Funding Categories may not be immediately available for the Project to spend (such as Contingency Funding). In this case select 'Reserve Funding' as the associated Financial Line.

You can see how a Project is using its funding on the 'Funding Usage' tab in the Project Financials.

The Funding Usage page shows usage for the Project's Lifespan at the top, and then shows a yearly summary beneath that. For each Financial Line that has an associated Funding Category the total amount available is shown, and comparisons are made between the available funding and the Project's budget and outturn. Each Financial Line can be expanded (using the '+' button) to show the Fundings that are contributing to it (in cases where there is only be one contributing Funding this might seem a little redundant, but it's intended to reinforce what's going on behind the scenes and it really makes things clearer when there's more than one contributing Funding).