AggieBudget FAQs

Getting Started

  • I’m a new user. How do I gain access to AggieBudget?
  • Through your supervisor, contact your unit’s AggieBudget Department Administrator to request either new access or a change to current access. They will need to know which organizations you need to access in order to complete the request form. Once your access status is added or updated, you will receive an email with a link to the system. The next step is to complete user training based on your level of access, according to the roles you are assigned.
  • Which internet web browser should I use?
  • Please use Microsoft Edge. This browser supports the Axiom Windows client (also referred to as the desktop client), needed for Plan File or Workflow access (also referred to as the desktop client). For running reports that are web-based, you can use any browser.
  • How do I log into AggieBudget using a Mac?
  • Mac users will need to log into the Windows client through the use of the Microsoft Remote Desktop. See KB0001457 for instructions on finding and installing Remote Desktop. (Use any browser for the web client on a Mac, just as PC users do.) See the Getting Started page for a brief video that explains how to launch AggieBudget on a Mac. From time to time you may need to refresh your feed; go to the settings icon (gear) and choose Refresh Feed from the drop-down menu. After that you can click the AggieBudget icon to try logging in again.
  • How do I navigate to AggieBudget?
  • Go to the AggieBudget home page using one of these options and sign in using your Kerberos login and passphrase or Navigating AggieBudget.
    • Go to Quick Links at upper right corner and click the AggieBudget link.
    • Select Launch AggieBudget by clicking the link at the right side of the page.
    • Go to Navigating AggieBudget for a brief video demonstration if you need help.

    Logging in to Axiom brings you to the Launch Application home page. AggieBudget provides users with several interface options to select from. You can choose from these “Clients” or ways to interface with the AggieBudget system, depending on how you need to use it:  

    • Web (no access to plan files, used currently only for accessing Web-Based Reports).
    • Windows, or desktop, client. Edit labor and operating plan files here. Use Edge as your browser to launch Windows. Other browsers will not work without a third-party plug-in. The Windows client runs on Axiom software.

  • What is my password? I forgot it.
  • Use your UC Davis Kerberos login at the CAS login screen (user ID and password or pass phrase). There is no other password needed to access AggieBudget, other than your usual UC Davis credentials.

    If you are prompted for a user ID and password from the Axiom system (on a pop-up during login to the Windows client), it usually means you are using a browser that is not supported. The Windows client can only be used on Edge, unless you have installed a plug-in for a different browser. To resolve this, please start over from Microsoft Edge. First log into the web client and then launch the Windows client using the rocket icon.

Finding Help

  • Where do I go to get help?
  • Help Documents - These are available on the AggieBudget homepage, in Quick Links. You will see the quick links when you first log into the system. There are User Guides, brief Job Aids, training slide decks and more resources here. 
    Website Help - Go to Learn for navigation help and training information. Also see News for information, and be sure to check out User Group Meeting Materials for presentations, handouts and other resources. Review the Newsletter Archive for tips and introductions to new features. The Budget website contains additional information on the campus budget planning process and planning assumptions.  

  • How do I contact the AggieBudget Help Desk?
  • Please complete and submit the AggieBudget help form. We will respond to you through ServiceNow, a campus system that helps us track requests and answer your questions in a timely and efficient way. 
  • Is there a Slack channel for AggieBudget users?
  • Yes, find us on Slack at #aggiebudget. See announcements and updates or check in with other users to share tips or questions you may have. Issues or questions specific to your plan files are better addressed by submitting the AggieBudget help form.

 


Hours and Schedule

  • When is AggieBudget available to users?
  • Our system hours are 6 a.m.–10 p.m. Sunday–Friday. What does this mean for users? These are dedicated hours when users can expect to use AggieBudget without interruption. We will notify you of any disruptions to these hours. Hours are posted on our website, in the Contact Us block. Please check our News page for planned maintenance or outage notices.
  • Can I work in AggieBudget outside of those hours?
  • Yes, you can work in the AggieBudget system outside of our operating hours, but you may experience disruptions. Generally, reports can be accessed in the web client most of the time, but you may not be able to open and save plan files in the Windows client outside of regular operating hours.
  • Where can I see the yearly schedule of AggieBudget open periods?
  • See the System Timeline on the AggieBudget website home page for the yearly cycle, but also check our News page for specific dates. We also post important dates in the announcements on the system home page to keep you informed. The Budget website contains additional information on the campus budget planning process.
  • What are the Help Desk hours?
  • We are staffed from 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday–Friday. Please contact us via AggieBudget help. We will respond as quickly as we can to answer your questions or resolve issues. During holiday periods the help desk will typically respond only to urgent requests. 

 


Workflows and Monitoring tools

  • How do I run the Deficit Management Report and complete the related workflow?
  • The workflow step can only be completed by the assigned Assistant Dean or Chief Operating Officer (those with the AD/COO role in AggieBudget). You will see your assigned workflow processes in the Windows (desktop) client, once you log in. For detailed instructions on running the report please refer to the Deficit Management User Guide in Help Documents, available in quick links on the page you see when you first log in. Screenshots in the guide walk you through each step of the process and guide you through each step of the workflow.

    Note that all users can access the Deficit Management report to see which orgs may require a deficit recovery plan. However, if you were notified of the task but the task is assigned to someone else, your notification was informational only (unit senior analysts receive courtesy notifications of tasks assigned to the AD/COO role).

    To complete the workflow assigned to you, start your AggieBudget login using a supported browser (Edge). You can use the launch AggieBudget link on our website to log into the Web client. When this opens, click the rocket icon to launch the Windows Client (Axiom). When that opens, the Axiom Assistant pane on the left side of your screen will display any notifications and tasks assigned to you.

    For detailed instructions on running the report please refer to the Deficit Management User Guide in Help Documents, available in quick links on the page you see when you first log in. This step-by-step guide includes screenshots to guide you in running the report and completing the workflow.
  • How do I complete the quarterly S&U Review and Comment workflow?
  • You will need to log in to the AggieBudget Windows client (Axiom) to complete your task. Start your login to the web client using a supported browser (Edge), then launch the Windows client by clicking the rocket icon. You can then check the pane on the left side of your screen to see notifications and tasks assigned to you. Review and mark the step complete by the deadline given; once you mark it complete you will be able to comment on any significant variances.

    The workflow process must be completed in the Windows client by the person it is assigned to. Your notification includes information about sharing the report with another person so they can assist with the analysis. 

    For detailed instructions see the S&U Review and Comment Workflow User Guide in the Help Documents. This step-by-step guide includes screenshots to guide you and tips for the best ways to review before entering your comments.
  • Where can I learn more about how to monitor my budget?
  • See our new help document, Budget Monitoring Tools in AggieBudget, to learn more about workflows, monitoring variances, carryforward and deficit balances. Click the link or access it in Help Documents, available on the AggieBudget homepage, under Quick Links.
  • How does carryforward work in the 3-year Sources & Uses Report?
  • See the Notes on Carryforward to learn about the relationship between the “Ending CarryForward Balance” and the “Prior Year CarryForward Balance” (or July 1 Carryforward balance) displayed for the next year. Screenshots illustrate several versions, since the standard three-year view for budget meetings includes the final actual financial data for the prior fiscal year, the mid-year forecast for the current fiscal year, and the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

 


Plan Files – General

  • Help! I’ve locked myself out of my plan file. What do I do now?
  • You can remove your own locks on plan files. Simply reopen the plan file. You will see a prompt stating that you have a lock on the plan file.
    •    Click on the “Open Read/Write” button to open the plan file (and reacquire your lock). 
    •    Then close the plan file. (This will remove your lock.)
  • How do I delete an entry I just made?
  • If you have added a planning line that you want to delete, double-click in the blue box to the left of the row. Click on “Delete” in the resulting pop-up box and then click “OK”.

    This will bring the “Delete” command back to the row you want to delete. Click on “Save” in the AggieBudget ribbon to finish the process. When you reopen your plan file, the line should be gone.

  • What training is available for Plan File Editors?
  • Online training modules are available in the UC Learning Center (LMS). These eCourses are required for new Plan File Editors and are also available to existing Plan File Editors as a refresher. See our Training page for complete details and direct links to the online courses for Labor Plan File Editors and Operating Plan File Editors. 
  • What do I do with expired accounts? 
  • For more information on expired accounts, click on the following link: AggieBudget Account Cleanup process.
    For details on how to expire accounts, see the KFS Process guide.
  • How do I see the formula that AggieBudget is using for computing the data for a particular line?
  • Refer to the formula box in the Ribbon (in plan files) and check the box. This will show you the formula based on the cursor location on the plan file sheet.

  • Why is the system asking me to log in again when I try to log into the Windows (desktop) client for Plan File Editing?
  • Most likely you are using an unsupported browser. Microsoft Edge is the only internet web browser that you can use to log into the Windows (desktop) client. Start over using Edge as your browser. First you'll log into the AggieBudget web client, then click the rocket icon to launch the Windows Client.


Operating Plan Files

  •  How do I add a new budget group to my plan file?
  • •    Click on the “Change View” option in the AB ribbon. In the drop-down box in the “Row View” section, click on “Select Account Blocks”.
    •    From the “Select Account Block” dialog box, select the account or account group to add the new budget group and click “OK”. This account is now reflected back in the “Selected Account Block” field. 
    •    Next, click on the “Add Row(s)” icon in the AggieBudget Tool Bar. In the resulting drop-down box, select “Insert a Budget Group”.
    •    In the resulting dialog box, scroll to and click on the appropriate sources or uses budget group to add, then click “OK”.
    •    Select the desired Calc Method from the Insert Calc Method dialog box and click “OK”.
    •    The new budget group line is now visible on the planning sheet and ready for you to input your budget information.
  • How are the starting points calculated for my budget year on the planning sheet?
  • Check the Budget Group reference report, which displays starting point calculations by budget group. More generally, these are the starting points for Chart 3:
    •    Carryforward: Reflects the carryforward balance at the beginning of the current budget year (e.g., FY21-22)
    •    July 1 Base Budget (BB): Total of all BBs from current year to date (July through March or April in a normal budget year).
    •    Income & Recharge: Total from 12-month rolling period 
    •    Budget Transfers: No starting point $0.00 (can enter as an adjustment) 
    •    Personnel Expense: From Labor Planning sheet
    •    Operating Expenses: Prior full year amounts

    For Chart S (same as above with the following notes):
    •    Patient Revenue: No starting point $0.00
    •    Budget groups from the School of Medicine Central Utility: No starting point $0.00

  • How do I print my budget from the AggieBudget entry screens?
  • The budget entry screens (plan files) in AggieBudget were not designed to be printed. We have many reports that you can choose from, to run the budget and/or labor data and then print once you save to PDF or Excel. Plan Files can be exported as a PDF using the Print button, or to Excel using the Snapshot button on the Ribbon.
  • What are “calc methods” and how do I use them in my budget planning?
  • Input Adjustment: A calculation method that allows you to change a prepopulated amount from the budget baseline to the proposed budget via the blue editable “Adjustments” column. This is the default method.   
    Input Detail: The calculation method that allow users to build their totals from the bottom up by inputting the detailed monthly amount for each detail line. Users will also have the option to add additional detail lines, as needed. Moves the blue editable entry field from the “Adjustments” column to the individual “Monthly” columns.
    Input Monthly: A calculation method that allows users to input budget amounts into the appropriate month(s) of the planning year as they wish. Moves the blue editable entry field from the “Adjustments” column to the individual “Monthly” columns.
    Input Total: A calculation method that allows users to input their total budget for an object group into the planning year's Proposed Budget column, and selection of a spread method. Moves the blue, editable entry field from the “Adjustments” column to the “Proposed Budget” Totals column.

  • What is a “spread method” in the planning files and what are the choices?
  • A spread method determines how the distribution of income or expense will be spread out over the budget planning year.
    “Even” represents the total divided by 12 months (1/12 reflected in each month). 
    “History” represents the total multiplied by each month’s percentage using last year’s actuals. 
    “9 over 9” represents the total divided by nine, spread over the nine months of the academic year. 

  • What happens when new object codes are added to KFS?
  • AggieBudget needs to know where to place a new KFS object code. When AggieBudget recognizes a new code it generates a message alerting the Help Desk that an object code needs to be mapped (i.e., assigned). The Budget office determines which budget group it belongs to and the AggieBudget team assigns it to the appropriate budget group. (In the web client, see Reference Reports -> Budget Groupings for current list and assignments. This list will indicate any object codes that have not been assigned to a budget group.) 
  • How are budget groupings for object codes determined?  
  • To start, the AggieBudget Team determined the best placement and organization of object codes into budget groups. Feedback was received from the pilot group users and BIA staff. For new object codes, BIA staff and Accounting work closely together in assigning new object codes to budget groups. See the Budget Group report in the Reference section to find out which object codes are in each budget group.


Labor Plan Files

  • In Labor on the Personnel Sheet, why do I not I see a distribution update to an employee? Why don't I see a new employee that was recently hired? (i.e., what is the update timing from UCPath?) 
  • For the annual budget planning cycle, the labor data is imported to AggieBudget once, as a snapshot in time. For FY2022-23, it was imported from UCPath on March 12, 2022. It is useful for Labor Plan File editors to know when the data snapshot was taken, since changes to personnel after that date will need to be entered manually. We do not update the labor data during the budget cycle, but you can add new employees or groups, or make changes to existing data, while the plan files are open for editing.
  • How do I get rid of a line I don't need on the Personnel sheet? It won't allow me to delete the line. 
  • You cannot delete the labor distributions, so instead you would need to edit them. Pre-populated lines in your Labor Plan Files can be edited in several ways. Remember the blue cells are editable by default, so you can just click in them to add or change the information. You can reduce the distribution %, enter an adjustment, add or change the start/end dates. Save your changes to see them reflected in the Planned Wages column and on the Summary sheet. 
    For more details, see the "Personnel Sheet" section of the Labor Plan File training slide deck in Help Documents. Slides 28-35 show you the steps mentioned here, in more detail (See "How do I edit an existing distribution?"). Another option is to review the online training, which takes you through these editing steps. You can access the online Labor Plan File training course in the campus learning system (choose UCD to start).
  • How do I find the planned amount of the range calculation for employees? 
  • In Reports, under Reference Reports--Assumptions, you can run a report for the Merit & Range Assumptions, which are listed by bargaining unit.
  • When was the 2022 labor snapshot taken?
  • For the 2022-23 budget cycle, UCPath data was imported March 12, 2022. This UCPath data does not update in plan files. It never changes until the beginning of the next preliminary budget cycle, unless you edit it manually. (2021 labor snapshot was 3/5/21.)

 


Plan File Manager

  • Where do I access Plan File Manager so I can use it?
  • You will access the Plan File Manager in the web client, under Utilities, using the navigation menu at upper left (the hamburger menu).

  • What if I need to make changes to my unit's Kuali org and account structure?
  • You should make those changes in Kuali before using Plan File Manager. General Accounting has created the Organization Guidance reference to help units with such changes, including effects on ledger review.
  • How long does it take for my Kuali org change to show up in AggieBudget?
  • Changes made in Kuali may not be reflected in AggieBudget until two days after the KFS Organization or Account document reaches final status. This is due to the overnight update process from Kuali to FIS Decision Support, followed by the overnight refresh from FIS DS to AggieBudget.

 


Reports

  • In Reports, I would like to save my filter parameters. Is this an option?  
  • No, not at this time. You will need to choose the filter options each time you run a report.
  • How will COFI affect my AggieBudget reports?
  • We tested this and as a result we made some changes to the reporting format. Data converted to COFI in the KFS test environment was imported to the AggieBudget test environment to determine how it would impact reporting. No problems or errors were detected, but after reviewing the test data we created a new fund category for COFI, “1300 – Common Operating Fund.”

    The COFI fund category is available as a filterable attribute in any report with fund category filters. The S&U reports (1-year, 3-year, 5-year) have been updated so they will display COFI in its own column (instead of lumping it in with the miscellaneous fund category column). The Carryforward balance report has also been updated to show COFI on its own. Keep in mind that AggieBudget always displays past actuals in the current org hierarchy and current account fund assignments.

  • I want to print a report in the Web Client. Is this possible?  
  • It depends. The Web Client was designed to view the reports online, so they do not always translate into a printable document. Most web reports can now be printed by clicking on the PDF icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen and then printing the resulting document. 
    Another option is to export the report information to an Excel file by clicking on the spreadsheet icon located on the upper right-hand side of the screen. Although the information in the spreadsheet will need formatting, depending on the complexity of the data, it is possible to then print it from Excel. 
  • Why am I getting an error message when I try to save my report to Excel? 
  • If you are working in the Windows (desktop) client, you may not be able to save to Excel. Try running the report from the AggieBudget web client instead; this normally works without any issues. Currently there is an intermittent platform issue when trying to download or save a report to Excel from the desktop client.
  • In the 3-year Sources & Uses Report, can you explain how carryforward works?
  • See the Notes on Carryforward to learn about the relationship between the “Ending CarryForward Balance” and the “Prior Year CarryForward Balance” (or July 1 Carryforward balance) displayed for the next year. Screenshots illustrate several versions, since the standard three-year view for budget meetings includes the final actual financial data for the prior fiscal year, the mid-year forecast for the current fiscal year, and the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

 


Windows client (Axiom)

  • Why isn’t Edge working when I try to log into the Windows client? I can’t launch the Windows client any more.
  • PC users can make a configuration change in Edge to enable ClickOnce support. This will enable Axiom to launch as before. Please refer to KB0006335 for instructions on making this change. (Mac versions of Edge are not affected.)
    Edge is one of the supported browsers for the AggieBudget Windows client. However, the latest versions of Edge for Windows have a different default configuration that does not allow Axiom (the Windows, or desktop, client) to download and install.
  • Why do I get an error when launching the Windows client from Microsoft Edge? An error message says “Axiom is not able to launch” (or it says “upgrade to version 4.8 of Microsoft .NET”). 
  • You are likely using an older version of the .NET tool that does not work with the new Axiom version, 2020.1. You may be able to upgrade your own computer to the .NET 4.8 version now required. Please refer to KB0006222 for complete details and instructions for this upgrade. If you do not have Administrator rights to install it, your IT support can make the change for you.
  • I can't launch the Windows client on my PC. Is there another password I need?
  • Most likely you need to change to a supported browser: Use Microsoft Edge. MS Edge supports the Axiom Windows client, needed for Plan File or Workflow access.
    You can use any browser for the web client, but if you try to log into the Windows client from any browser other than Edge, you will see an additional pop-up prompting you to log in. There is no additional password that will work in this case. You need to start over from Edge: First log into the web client and then launch the Windows client.
    If you still have trouble see the questions above for potential upgrades or configuration changes you may need.
  • I can't launch the Windows client on my Mac. What should I do?
  • Mac users will need to log into the Windows client using the Microsoft Remote Desktop. (Use any browser for the web client on a Mac, just as PC users do.) Please refer to KB0001457 for instructions on getting the remote desktop. See Getting Started for a brief video that provides instructions on launching AggieBudget with a Mac. 
    From time to time you may need to refresh your Remote Desktop feed, especially when administrative updates or maintenance processes occur. To refresh, go to the settings icon of the Remote Desktop window (the small gear) and choose "Refresh Feed" from the drop-down menu (or try the shortcut command-R). After that you can click the AggieBudget icon to try logging in again.