January 26, 2024
For users of the Appropriation Maintenance Application (AMA) and Budget Planning and Analysis System (BPAS).
AMA has new functionality that allows an attachment to be added to qualifying transactions. There are three types of transactions that qualify for attachments:
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Requesting “G” Budget Authority for Non-Federal Fund Appropriation
AMA allows “G” budget authority to be selected for non-federal fund appropriations, but a Cash Flow Assistance Request Form is required to be attached to the AMA transaction requesting “G” budget authority before it can be submitted for approval.
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Requesting to Open Closed-Year Appropriation
AMA is used for opening an appropriation in a prior budget period by changing the budget status of the appropriation from “Hold” to “Open”. If MMB is requiring the Open Closed Year Appropriation and/or Reinstate Cancelled Money Form be provided to open a closed year appropriation, the agency must attach the form to the AMA transaction.
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Requesting to Open Conditional Appropriation
AMA is used for changing the budget status of a conditional appropriation from “Hold” to “Open”. If the condition for which the capital or other appropriation is on “Hold” is satisfied and approved by MMB, the approval email or documentation should be attached to the AMA budget status change transaction for ease of transaction review and approval.
Attachments are added by users with the Journal Entry role, on the Edit screen, and uploaded attachments can be viewed on the Approval and Search screens.
 Please refer to the training materials below to learn the steps to add an attachment and additional information.
Coming Soon: Attachments Video Tutorial
AMA vs SWIFT Compare Includes Amount
The SWIFT vs AMA Data Comparison pop-up includes an Amount row to communicate dollar amount changes. No dollar amounts are listed in the comparison. The Changed row will list a “Yes” or “No”, “Yes” if the Amount field in AMA has a value less than or greater than 0.
 New Scheduled Email Notification
An additional automated email notifications is now included in the nightly batch for users who have entered or approved an appropriation that was posted to SWIFT in the past 24 hours. This email is to notify agencies of appropriation transactions that are Posted SWIFT. One email will be sent to all agency users who entered or approved a transaction, and the email will include all transactions that meet those qualifications; this means users will see all agency transactions in their email notification.
The Cash Flow Assistance Request procedure 0301-01.5 and forms are being revised for the new process of using AMA to request cash flow assistance or “G” budget authority. Agencies will be notified after the procedure and forms are published to the State Financial Policies webpage.
All budget systems will be unavailable starting Thursday, February 15 at 5 PM through Tuesday, February 20 at 6 AM, as the State of Minnesota Administrative Portal (HUB) will be offline for a planned system upgrade. This is a holiday weekend, and all systems are expected to be available again for the start of the business day on Tuesday, February 20. Users should plan work outside of that time. Users must clear their internet browsing history and cache before they log into these systems on Tuesday, February 20.
To request access to the Budget Planning and Analysis System (BPAS), Capital Budget System (CBS), and the Budget Division Document Management SharePoint site, complete the Budget Systems User Authorization Form located on the BPAS webpage and email to budget.finance.mmb@state.mn.us.
The AMA security is tied to the state accounting system SWIFT. State agency staff who have SWIFT access to enter Commitment Control budget journals will be able to enter appropriation requests in AMA. Only agency staff who can approve budget journals in SWIFT will be able to approve AMA transactions.
The Fiscal Notes Tracking System (FNTS) is under the operational control of the Legislative Budget Office (LBO), who manages user authorization and system access for FNTS. The authorization form for FNTS is located on the LBO website in the System Training Materials section: https://www.lbo.mn.gov/fn/training.html.
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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