Commitments are contractual means to establish the District’s financial commitment to a person or company to receive payment. Commitment examples include a contract for construction services or a purchase order for new chairs to fill a new office space. Commitment Items are the details related to each commitment. This would include materials required to fulfill a construction obligation under that original commitment for construction services.
Commitments are added to existing projects that have available budget. To add a commitment you can use the add feature in either the Project side drawer or on the Project entity page by clicking on the plus and selecting Commitment. You can also add a Commitment by clicking on the vertical elipses at the project level of the budget overview and selecting Commitment.
When creating a new Commitment, the commitment type you set will dictate the availability of commitment item types later in the workflow. Let’s create a Contract. We’ll add Display name, name the company and select the Commitment status. Upon clicking next, you will be required to create at least one commitment item.
To do so, click next. Select your Commitment Item Type. Because I created a Contract previously, my choices here are to either create an Agreement or an Allowance. I’ll add a display name and set Status. Now, I’m able to allocate existing budget to this record. Under Budget Group, I’ll see only groups that contain object codes with available funds. Select Planning, and chose your Object Code. Only object codes that contain budget will be available for selection. If you don’t see the Budget Group and/or object code you’re looking for, it’s likely that a budget transfer will need to occur. I’ll complete the form by selecting the fund source and adding the amount of money to be associated with the commitment item. Finally, you are able to add attachments when creating Commitment Items. I can click on Attachments and drag and drop the file I wish to add. Upon saving the record, you will be prompted to either complete the addition of commitment items or to continue by adding another commitment item.
When I return to the Budget Overview, I see that all of the commitment items I’ve added for this commitment are shown and a cumulative total is provided for all commitments at the project level.