April 18, 2018
For users of the AMA, BPAS, CBS, and FNTS budget systems.
AMA Workshops: Wednesday, May 30 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, Thursday, May 31 from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Budget Operations will offer two
AMA workshops: on Wednesday, May 30, from 10:00 AM – Noon, and Thursday, May
31, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. Agency budget staff can receive one-on-one assistance
in setting up new appropriations for 2019 or preparing other AMA transactions. Note:
the workshops will not provide system user training. To reserve a place, email budget.finance.mmb@state.mn.us
with the subject: AMA Workshops, indicating which session you will attend. Both
workshops will be held in the Columbine Room, on ground floor of the Centennial
Office Building. (Note: the workshops tentatively scheduled April 25, May 9 and
May 23 are cancelled.)
As of April 14, 552 fiscal notes have been requested during
the 2018 legislative session. Thanks to the collaboration of FNTS users,
nearly 80 percent of these requests have a status of complete or inactive. With
32 calendar days remaining until the end of session on May 21, here are some pointers
to keep in mind to keep the process moving efficiently.
Due Dates – Agencies, please allow time for your Executive
Budget Officer to review and offer feedback before you sign off on fiscal notes.
Keep in mind that the due date in the system is the day the note should be completed
and delivered to the legislature.
Remember to always view your fiscal note before signing off to ensure your agency's fiscal note is formatted appropriately and the PDF document
can be opened. An error message (screen shot below) means there
are issues with the narrative’s formatting that prevent the PDF from generating. Contact budget.finance.mmb@state.mn.us
for assistance.
 For a guide on entering fiscal note narratives, consult the Narrative Quick Reference Guide located on MMB's website. The Fiscal Note Worksheet is the recommended tool for creating your fiscal notes outside of FNTS prior to entering or copying the information into the system. The worksheet's margins and fonts match the system’s PDF formatting, to ease copying of narratives into FNTS’ rich text editor. Both documents are updated for 2018.
BPAS 2.0 Project Update
BPAS 2.0 project is on schedule. The Appropriation and
Reports modules for BPAS 2.0 are complete and the developers are now building
the Change Module. Both the Appropriation Entry/Edit screens and Standard Reports
received favorable feedback from agency staff who participated in user testing
sessions in February and earlier this month. The Fiscal Reports, which are the reports
included in the November Base and Governor’s Biennial Budget publications, have also been developed. MMB will invite agency volunteers to participate in
Change Module and Fiscal Reports user test sessions that will be scheduled for
Tuesday, June 5 through Friday, June 7. Look for more information in the next
Budget Systems Newsletter.
MMB’s Enterprise Resource and Planning Steering Committee will
decide by May 24 whether to use BPAS 2.0 for the 2020-21 biennial budget or
postpone the system’s launch until the 2020-21 supplemental budget.
BPAS 2.0 Preview – Standard Reports
The
Standard reports menu option includes 14 reports designed to help agencies in reviewing
their budget structure, reconciling appropriations, and setting their base
budget; and four reports to assist agencies in reviewing their change item
entries.
Each
Standard report can be filtered by a set of parameters, or run with its default
settings. Users can choose from three file outputs:
Excel, CSV, or formatted PDF report. The Excel and CSV options give users the
flexibility to create custom reports and data analyses. By selecting parameter
filters, users can customize the report data. Here is a picture of the filters
available for the Expenditures by Appropriation and Account report:
 The BPAS 2.0 Reports menu’s second option, Agency Fiscal reports,
will be previewed in the next Budget Systems Newsletter.
Sunday Maintenance – A reminder that statewide systems
maintenance is scheduled Sundays between 7:00 AM and 12:00 noon. During this
time, the Statewide Systems Administrative Portal and/or the applications that
are accessed through the Portal, may be unavailable. BPAS will always be offline
Sundays between 6:30 AM and 12:15 PM. Unlike the other budget system
applications, BPAS must be shut down before, and restarted after any system
maintenance is performed.
Have a question about or a suggestion for improving the budget systems? Email it to Budget Operations at budget.finance.mmb@state.mn.us, Subject: Budget Systems Newsletter.
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