Prior Year Net Asset Balance Roll Forward When Budgeting

There may be times when you want to use previously earned revenue (or year-ending net asset fund balances) in your next year's budget to offset next year's forecasted expenses in the budget.  

Consider the following:

1. Use an existing revenue account (ex. Net Assets Released from Restrictions) or add a new GL account to your accounting system. If you don't want to use an existing 'released from restrictions account', you can consider creating a revenue account called 'Prior Period Rollover Net Asset - DO NOT USE (MARTUS ONLY)'. This account will be used in Martus to offset the expenses in the budget. 
2. For clients connected via API to Martus, sync the account to Martus in Dashboard > Updater > Chart of Accounts Sync. File-based clients can add the account directly to Martus.
3. Edit the worksheet(s) you want to reflect the rollover lines. Add the account using Worksheet > Line Actions, and then update the month(s) with the beginning balance or amounts you want to show to offset expenses in that worksheet.

Other Considerations

Do you want staff to see the rollover or restriction in Martus reporting? You can hide the rollover account by applying account restrictions such as Restricted or Excluded (Setup > Accounts). Alternatively, you can set a new version of the budget - one that excludes the rollover account - as the default Dashboard/Planner budget for non-admin users.

There may be other considerations related to reporting in your accounting system. Do you want these budget lines reflected in your reports outside of Martus? If you don't, you can create a copy of the budget in Martus, remove the budget lines that reflect prior year earned revenue/fund balances, and use the new copied version in your accounting system. To do this, follow these steps in Martus.

1. Create a copy of the Planner budget with the asset rollover lines. 
   • In Planner > Planner Setup > Budget Management, click the checkbox to the left of the Planner budget and select Copy from the Actions Menu. Give it a name indicating this will be a new budget without the rollover lines.
2. Remove the account lines using Budget Lines. 
   • In Planner > Budget Lines, select the new budget, select the account to be removed, and then delete the lines using the Actions menu.  
3. You'll now have two copies of the budget, one with and one without that account. 
4. Don't forget to set which one you want to use as the default for reports in Martus.
   • In Planner > Planner Setup > Budget Management, click the checkbox to the left of the Planner budget and select 'Set as Dashboard' and 'Set as Planner'.