Setting up Budgets

Before you can set up premiums, there must be a budget for the premiums to be paid from. 

Select the Setup Menu, Budgets Tab.

A Default unlimited budget is automatically configured for each fair. That may be right for your fair (you don't need to do anything), or you may need to make changes. The default budget can be edited/updated to reflect your custom settings for your fair. Select the correct type of budget for the way you pay premiums at your fair:

• Limited Budget: You know how much money is allotted for premiums each year. Entries are awarded points, then all points are divided into the total amount of premium money to determine the value of the premium for each entry.
• Unlimited Budget: You know how much money you want to award for a ribbon/placing (for instance, $5 for a blue ribbon). The total amount spent will vary, depending on how many blue ribbons are awarded. The $ value for each ribbon/placing can vary across the hierarchy. (Example: The Beef department pays $5 for a blue ribbon, while the Horticulture department pays $2 for a blue ribbon.)
• Unlimited Budget: You know how much money each POINT is given (for instance, $0.25 per point), and different ribbons are assigned different point values. The total amount spent will vary, depending on how many ribbons are awarded. The points can be assigned differently across the hierarchy. (Example: The Beef department awards 20 points for a blue ribbon, while the Horticulture department awards 8 points for a blue ribbon.) 

NOTE: The Unlimited budget setups listed above work identically, just different types of math problems. In the first example, the premium value is assigned directly to the ribbon/placing. In the second, the value to the points is assigned on the ribbon/placing, and the program multiplies the points by the point value to come up with the premium amount. (Both Beef/Hort examples above result in the same premium amount being paid.)

You can have more than one budget set up for your fair, depending on how/when you pay premiums: IMPORTANT: Finalizing budgets is a time- and memory-intensive task in the program. If you set up multiple budgets, expect to wait while the program works through the process. If you set up LOTS of budgets, the program may time out during the process, resulting in a program error and no finalized budgets.

• If you would like to print checks for one area of the fair at a different time from another area of the fair, you will need to add a budget (the Add Budget button). Example: you pay the premiums for static exhibits early, after the judging results are in; but you pay the premiums for livestock exhibits at the end of the fair.
• If one part of the fair has its own budget separate from the rest of the fair's premium budget, you will also need to add a budget. Example: you have a budget of $2500 for the 4-H and FFA part of the fair, and $1000 for the Open classes.

Assign the Budget to your Hierarchy

By default, the Default Budget is applied to the entire Fair. That may be right for your fair (you don't have to do anything), or you may need to edit which budget gets used in which department. To edit this (add a new budget to a department):

1. On the Hierarchy menu, select the department to which you would like to apply the budget.
2. Select the Points and Premiums tab.
3. The Default Budget has been applied to the entire Fair. To override this setting, click on the drop-down arrow by "Inherited" and select Override from the button at the top right.
4. Select the budget to apply to this department and click Save.
5. If you need to edit the budget or add a new budget to use in the area, you may do that from that screen as well.

NOTE: Budgets may be applied only the Fair or Department level. Each level can only have one budget assigned. All divisions and classes within the department(s) will be paid out of the budget that is associated with the Department. (Example: The default budget could be applied at the Fair level, and a Livestock Budget could be applied to the Beef, Sheep and Swine departments. All classes within the Beef, Sheep, and Swine departments would be paid out of the Livestock budget; all other classes would be paid out of the Default Budget.)