Budget commitments

A budget commitment records an amount of budget set aside against one GL account for a fiscal year, before the matching bill or expense has posted. It is the "reserved" side of a budget, next to the posted actuals that Budget vs Actual compares with the plan. In the standard product, no purchase order, bill, approval or job creates, consumes or closes these records. The list is empty unless someone keys records in, and nothing in xMatix reads the records you add.

Overview

A commitment row says that a certain document has reserved a certain amount on a certain GL account, for a certain company and fiscal year, and how much of that reservation has since turned into posted spending. The difference between the two amounts is the open exposure: money that is promised but not yet in the ledger.

What the standard product does with the rows:

• Budget vs Actual ignores them. The comparison reads the budget lines and the posted ledger only. A commitment never appears as a column, never reduces the available budget and never changes a variance.
• No document writes them. Approving a purchase order, posting a bill or paying an expense leaves the list untouched. A record exists only if a user creates it by hand or it is imported.
• No status moves on its own. A new record starts as Open and stays Open, whatever you enter in Consumed Amount.
• Data sync does not bring them in. Budget commitments are protected from connector imports, because they are meant to be raised and released by the documents that use the budget, not copied from another system.

When to use it

In the standard product, you rarely need these records. Use them only if your organisation wants a hand-kept register of large reservations (for example, an approved capital purchase order) next to the budget. Even then, remember that the register is for reference. It doesn't change Budget vs Actual or block any spending.

If what you need is a check before spending, use an approval process instead (see Common questions).

How xMatix handles it

• Where it lives. Budget Commitment is not on any app's navigation bar. To open it, type Budget Commitment in the app launcher's search box and select Budget Commitments. The list opens on All Budget Commitments.
• Numbering. The Name is assigned when you save, from the Budget Commitment Settings document numbering setting: series BC, a date part in day-month-year form and a six-digit counter, for example BC-28102026-000001. The counter restarts for each new date part (see Document numbering).
• Open exposure is Committed Amount minus Consumed Amount. Only records whose Status is Open or PartiallyConsumed count as open, and a record consumed beyond its committed amount counts as zero, not as a negative. The platform can work this figure out for a company, fiscal year and GL account (optionally narrowed to a business unit), but no screen in the standard product shows it.
• Deleting a record removes it from the list. Because nothing else refers to commitments, a delete never affects a budget, a document or the ledger.

Prerequisites

• A fiscal year and the GL accounts you budget on.
• Optionally, a business unit if you keep budgets per division.
• Access to Budget Commitment in your security profile (see Permissions).

Procedure

Step 1 — Open the list

Open the app launcher, type Budget Commitment and select Budget Commitments. The list shows Name, Partner Account, GL Account, Committed Amount, Consumed Amount, Commitment Date, and the created and modified dates. Use search, filters and column sorting as on any list.

Step 2 — Record a commitment

1. Select New.
2. Fill in the top of the form: Commitment Date, Partner Account (the company whose budget is reserved) and, if you budget by division, Business Unit.
3. Fill in the amounts and the budget bucket: Committed Amount, Consumed Amount (leave it empty or 0 for a fresh reservation), GL Account and Fiscal Year.
4. Optionally note where the reservation came from: Source Entity Name (for example, Purchase Order) and Source Record. These are plain fields, not links (see Fields).
5. Select Save. The record gets its BC number and opens with Status Open.

All fields on the form are optional, so check that GL Account, Fiscal Year and the amounts are filled in before you save.

Step 3 — Update the consumed amount

When part of the reservation has posted as an actual, open the record, select Edit, change Consumed Amount and save. Status stays Open: the standard forms offer no Status values to choose from, and nothing changes the status for you.

Step 4 — Remove a commitment

When a reservation no longer applies, delete the record from the record page (Delete) or select it on the list and delete it there.

Fields

The record page groups the fields into Basic Information, Financial Details, Source Information and System Information.

The record also has a Document Number field, meant for the source document's number. It is on no standard form or list, so you can only see or fill it if your administrator adds it to the layout.

Business rules

• No validations. Budget commitments have no required fields on the form, no uniqueness check (other than the automatic Name) and no amount checks. A Consumed Amount above Committed Amount is accepted.
• Numbering comes from the Budget Commitment Settings document numbering setting and overwrites any Name on insert.
• Open exposure = Committed Amount − Consumed Amount, never below zero, summed over records whose Status is Open or PartiallyConsumed, for one company, fiscal year and GL account (and business unit, when one is given).
• No effect on other records. Creating, editing or deleting a commitment changes no budget, Budget vs Actual figure, document, journal or approval.
• Audit. Changes to commitment records are audited, so the record's history shows who changed an amount and when.

Example

A finance controller wants to remember that a 4,50,000 order for warehouse racking has been approved against the Repairs and Maintenance budget for fiscal year 2026-27, while the supplier's bill is still to come.

1. They open the app launcher, search Budget Commitment and select New.
2. They enter Commitment Date 28 October 2026, their company as Partner Account, Business Unit "West", Committed Amount 4,50,000, GL Account "Repairs and Maintenance", Fiscal Year 2026-27, Source Entity Name "Purchase Order" and Source Record "PO-28102026-000014".
3. They save. The record is numbered BC-28102026-000001 with Status Open.
4. In December, the first bill for 2,00,000 posts. Budget vs Actual now shows 2,00,000 more Actual on Repairs and Maintenance. The controller edits the commitment and sets Consumed Amount to 2,00,000, so the register shows 2,50,000 still promised.
5. When the final bill posts, they delete the commitment.

At no point does Budget vs Actual show the reservation itself. The controller adds the open amounts from the list by hand when reviewing the budget.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox company with an open fiscal year and a budget on an expense account:

1. Open Budget vs Actual for that budget and note the account's Actual and Variance.
2. Create a budget commitment for the same account and fiscal year with Committed Amount 50,000. Expected: it saves with a BC- number and Status Open.
3. Reopen Budget vs Actual. Expected: the account's figures have not changed.
4. Edit the commitment and set Consumed Amount to 60,000. Expected: the save is accepted and Status is still Open.
5. Delete the commitment. Expected: it leaves the list, and nothing else changes.

Quick reference

• Find it in the app launcher: search Budget Commitment. It is on no app menu.
• Nothing in the standard product creates, consumes or closes commitments.
• Budget vs Actual never reads commitments, and they never block spending.
• Names are numbered BC- + date + counter on save.
• Status starts as Open and stays Open.
• Open exposure = Committed − Consumed, never below zero.
• Source Record is plain text, not a link to the document.
• Connector imports do not bring commitments in.

Permissions

Access follows the user's security profile. Its entity permission on Budget Commitment decides whether the user can see, create, edit and delete records, and so whether New, Edit and Delete appear. The standard System Admin, Standard User and Sales Executive profiles have full access. If a user can't find Budget Commitments in the app launcher, check their profile's access to it first.

Because the records are hand-kept and change nothing else, consider limiting create, edit and delete to finance staff, under Setup → Access Control → Profiles → Entity Permissions.

Configuration

• Numbering. Change the series, date part or counter length in the Budget Commitment Settings document numbering setting (see Document numbering).
• Navigation. To put the list on a menu, for example next to Budgets in Finance Setup, add it under Setup → Design Studio → Apps → Manage Items.
• Forms. The New and record page layouts can be changed in the layout designer (see Design a form layout). Add Document Number if you want to record the source document's number. Making fields required on the layout is the only way to make users fill them in.
• Status values. Status has no list of values in the standard product. If your organisation gives it values for its own tracking, use the spellings Open, PartiallyConsumed, Closed and Cancelled, because only Open and PartiallyConsumed count towards open exposure.
• Spending checks. Because commitments don't feed any check, control over-budget spending with an approval process, for example by routing purchase orders above an amount to a finance approver.

Common problems

Budget Commitment isn't on my menu

It isn't on any app's menu. Search for Budget Commitment in the app launcher. If it doesn't appear, ask your administrator to check your security profile's access to Budget Commitment.

The list is empty although purchase orders are approved

That is expected. No document creates commitment records in the standard product. The list holds only records that users have entered or that were added by your own automation.

My commitment doesn't show on Budget vs Actual

Budget vs Actual compares budget lines with posted actuals only. Commitments are never part of it. Add the open amounts from the commitment list yourself, or wait until the spending posts.

Status stays Open after I filled in Consumed Amount

Nothing updates the status, and the standard forms offer no values to choose from. Use Consumed Amount to track usage, and delete the record when the reservation is used up or no longer needed.

Source Record doesn't open the purchase order

Source Record is a plain identifier, not a lookup. Find the document from its own list, using the number you noted.

Common questions

Does xMatix reserve budget when a purchase order is approved?

No. Approving a purchase order doesn't create a budget commitment, and no document checks the budget before it is saved, approved or posted. Spending shows on Budget vs Actual once it has posted. If you need an over-budget check, add an approval step to the purchase order approval process, for example routing orders above an amount, or on certain accounts, to a finance approver. You can keep a hand-kept list of large reservations as budget commitments, but they are for reference only.

What is the difference between a budget line and a budget commitment?

A budget line is the plan: the amount you expect to spend or earn on a GL account in a year or period. Budget vs Actual compares it with posted actuals. A budget commitment records money promised against that plan before it has posted. It is a separate record that the comparison doesn't read, and it isn't linked to any budget or budget line.

Can I import commitments from another system?

Not with a data sync connector. Budget commitments are protected from connector imports, because they are meant to be raised and released by the documents that consume a budget. Enter them on the form instead, or ask your administrator about a one-off data load.

Related topics

• Budgets and budget vs actual
• Fiscal years
• GL accounts
• Business units
• Document numbering
• Budget Commitment entity reference
• Budget — entity reference