Unit Defined Commitments
Unit Defined Commitments (UDCs) are planned expenditures or revenues (i.e., encumbrances) that a unit expects to pay or receive at a certain future point in time. Entering your unit’s or project/grant’s commitment data in M-Pathways allows you to see more accurate “bottom-line” amounts on financial reports.
Entering Commitments
There are two methods to record revenue and expense commitments in the M-Pathways Financials system: online or upload.
- The online method is used to enter one UDC at a time directly into M-Pathways.
- The upload method uses an Excel template to enter multiple UDCs at one time via a system process.
UDC Load Template
If you choose the upload method to enter UDCs, click Unit Defined Commitments Load Template to open and save the Excel spreadsheet template.
NOTE: This template includes macros. To change or review your macro security level, select Macro > Security from the Tool menu in Excel. We recommend setting macro security to Medium.
Managing Commitments
“Managing UDCs” means updating key data for a commitment, such as amounts, dates, and/or ChartFields; or releasing the commitment. Releasing a commitment removes the encumbered amount from appearing as a commitment on various financial reports. You release a commitment when the actual revenue or expense is recorded in M-Pathways.
The M-Pathways Manage Unit Defined Commitments grid is the main method for reviewing and updating UDCs. Depending on how much UDC data you wish to view, the grid lists either:
- Active commitments and those that closed as of the last accounting period (i.e., month), or
- All commitments you ever entered in M-Pathways, regardless of active or closed status.
Quick releases of commitments and/or updates to amounts and begin/end dates can be done directly from the grid. You can also link to a specific UDC to change ChartFields, descriptions, and other information.
UDC Data on Financial Reports
Summarized Unit Defined Commitments data displays on the following financial reports that provide monetary balances for your department or project/grants
- Project/Grant Budget Status report (PBSR) shows your UDCs for a particular sponsored project/grant.
- In M-Reports, the Other Commitments column displays expense UDCs per Budget Category.
- In M-Pathways, the Unit Defined Commitments column shows expense commitments per Budget Account/Category and revenue commitments on the Total Revenues line.
- nVision Income Statement reports (mgln075a and mgln075d-variance report) have three rows at the bottom of the report: Revenue Commitments, Expense Commitments, and Adjusted Fund Balance.
- BusinessObjects reports may include both summary and detail UDC data. Some examples are:
- CMB Project Grant Budget Status with Estimates [FN01 FN05 FN06 PY01]
- CMB Reporting Bdgt Ledger NonSponsored Reconciler by FundDeptPrgm [AR01 FN01 FN05 FN06 HR01 PY01]
- CMB Summary of Project by Project Director with Estimates [FN01 FN05 HR01]
Resources
See the Unit Defined Commitment documents in My LINC for step-by-step instructions for entering and managing UDCs.
ITS Financial Business System Analysts (FIN BSAs) can assist you with determining how best to use the Unit Defined Commitments functionality.
Email mais.fin.contact@umich.edu to arrange free, individualized UDC training for your unit.
The M-Pathways Unit Defined Commitments functionality is one tool within the Real-Time Financials toolkit. See the Real-Time Financials pages for more information.
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