June 29, 2023
For users of the Appropriation Maintenance Application (AMA) and Budget Planning and Analysis System (BPAS).
The Appropriation Maintenance Application will be unavailable this weekend, starting Friday, June 30, 2023, at 6 pm. The system will become available Sunday, July 2, 2023, after the soft close process is complete.
The Capital Budget System is closed for edits to 2024 capital budget requests until July 18, 2023, for state agencies. The June 16 deadline for agencies to submit preliminary capital requests for the 2024 capital budget has passed. These requests will be published on July 17 to the MMB Current Capital Budget webpage. Agencies currently have read-only access to view their submissions and run reports.
State agencies will have access to edit and final submit their requests in CBS from July 18 through October 13. In addition, agencies must update their Agency Profile, Strategic Planning Summary, and Asset Preservation list (if applicable) in their MMB SharePoint folder by September 15. All final-submitted requests will be considered for the Governor’s Capital Budget Recommendations and published on January 16, 2024.
Warning: Duplicate Appropriation Entries on Edit Screen
If your agency uses the Excel Upload feature to set up appropriations for the Biennium, please be careful when saving your AMA transaction on the Edit screen. If you double-click the save icon on a Biennium Appropriation entry uploaded from Excel, it’s possible for AMA to duplicate the entry. You will have two transactions for the same Approp ID and Budget Period, each with a different transaction ID number. If this occurs, delete the duplicate entry from the Edit screen. If the duplicate is not caught before it’s submitted, approve only one and deny the “extra” with the comment “Duplicate transaction error” and then delete the denied duplicated transaction on the edit screen.
 Character Limit Requirements
The Biennium Entry’s Excel export file has protections that enforce the character limits for the Appropriation Description (30 characters) and Short Description (10 characters) chart fields. If the Excel file’s protections are removed, uploaded descriptions longer than these limits bypass the validation process on the AMA Edit screen but will be denied by SWIFT support.
Automated Emails
The Appropriation Maintenance Application (AMA) sends automated email notifications to users who have transactions pending approval, denied transactions, or transactions ready to expire. Users who receive AMA automated email notifications should not reply to the email notification directly. Instead, contact individuals directly who can help answer questions or resolve issues. Specific questions about AMA system functionality should be emailed to budget.finance.mmb@state.mn.us.
In early June, the Budget System’s User Group met to advise MMB in identifying, prioritizing, planning, developing, testing, and deploying system modifications and enhancements for the Budget Planning and Analysis System (BPAS), Appropriation Maintenance Application (AMA) and Departmental Earnings (DE). Budget Operations encourages all budget system users to communicate with their User Group representative or email budget.finance.mmb@state.mn.us if they have system issues, modifications, or requests for consideration.
The Appropriation Maintenance Application (AMA) is supported in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox browsers. Recently, users have experienced faster performance with Firefox when editing and approving AMA transactions. If you are experiencing slowness or spinning in AMA, please try using the Firefox browser. We will continue to monitor AMA performance issues.
MMB Budget Operations has many resources available to assist agencies with using AMA and BPAS.
- A library of training videos is available on MMB's website that provide instruction on system functions and feature in-system demonstrations.
- The Systems’ User Guides, glossaries, and quick reference guides are excellent resources for new and experienced users. Linked in each system's help menu, the guides are also available on MMB's website.
- Previous newsletters are available on the Budget Systems Newsletters webpage.
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One-on-one assistance with AMA or BPAS is available by appointment. Email budget.finance.mmb@state.mn.us to request a time.
Budget Systems are unavailable during the statewide systems maintenance window, every Sunday from 6:00 AM - 2:00 PM.
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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