Requisition - Budget Feature

Goals/Scope

To allow R&R submitters and approvers to have access to budget data when submitting and approving R&Rs with saleable products (ie ILS program).  This is so that they can factor this data into their decision making.

A possible additional enhancement (not currently in eLMIS) would be to import MSD stock status information into OpenLMIS, also for the purposes of this information being visible during requisition submission and approval.  For example the stock status could be listed as adequate stock, under rationing, or not in stock.

Status in eLMIS: In eLMIS, not in use

Background

Some products are non-saleable and are provided for free by MSD to facilities.  However for saleable supplies (in the ILS program), the Government provides financing by allocating a budget to each facility annually, and then throughout the year implementing this budget through disbursements to MSD.  Facilities can draw down this budget over the course of the year, and can also supplement these funds by sending MSD a cheque (using their own resources).

The ERP manages this process.  However budget availability is useful data for R&R submitters and approvers so that they can compare the total cost of their order with the funds in their MSD account.  This feature entails budget data being downloaded from the ERP to OpenLMIS on a quarterly basis so that it is visible in OpenLMIS. The ERP will handle the accountancy behind the figures, with OpenLMIS simply accessing the budget data.  While “budget data” as implemented currently in eLMIS and as documented currently is simply one budget figure per facility/program/period, it may also be useful to allow for multiple figures (the annual budget, and the remaining budget after expenditure to date).

Assumptions

User Stories

This is documented in https://openlmis.atlassian.net/wiki/display/OP/Budgeting+Feature

Facilities want to see their Government-allocated budget status when submitting requisitions for saleable products.

District and MSD approvers want to see the Government-allocated budget status of the facility when approving requisitions for saleable products.

Planners wish to see analyse expenditure on commodities both from Government-allocated budgets and from facility’s own sources of funding.

The budget data consists of a budget figure or figures for each program-facility-quarterperiod combination.  Note that while the link above documents only one budget figure per program/facility/quarterperiod, further exploration of this issue during gap analysis has led to the possibility of there being multiple figures, ie

• the annual Government-allocated budget of the facility.  This may be displayed to OpenLMIS users:

• as it is - the annual budget of the facility; or

• as the average quarterperiod budget (annual budget divided by 4 number of periods in the year)

• the remaining Government-allocated budget of the facility (the annual Government allocated budget minus the expenditure to date by the facility drawn from the Government allocated budget). This may be displayed to OpenLMIS users:

• as it is - the remaining Government-allocated budget of the facility; or

• as the average remaining Government-allocated budget (remaining budget for the year divided by the number of remaining quartersperiods)

• the expenditure during the year to date by the facility on MSD commodities from other funding sources (ie through cheques sent by the facility to MSD)

• any balance between the facility and MSD from its other funding sources (for example, if last period the facility sent a cheque for greater than the value of the goods it ended up receiving, MSD may hold an “own-funding-sources” balance on behalf of that facility which can be drawn on during this period).

Possible stock enhancement:

• Facilities want to see stock status information on products in MSD when submitting requisitions for saleable products, to avoid submitting orders for products not in stock.

• District and MSD approvers want to see stock status on products in MSD when approving requisitions for saleable products , to avoid approving orders for products not in stock.

Diagrams

Dependencies

Open Questions

Below is a list of questions to be addressed as a result of this requirements document:

Out of Scope

Notes from Gap Estimation 4/11/2018

• Attendees: Mary Jo Kochendorfer (Deactivated), Matt Berg, Josh Zamor, Ashraf Islam, Peter, Craig Appl, Muhammad, Elias, Brandon
• In eLMIS-TZ, budgets are currently per facility, not necessarily per facility and program. 
  • The current ERP only has a budget per facility per period, but they are asking eLMIS to know across programs how much the budget and utilization is. This is a new request just being discussed in Tanzania.
  • In the budget file, we should have some flexibility around the program code. If the program code is there, we should apply it to the program
  • The file comes through an ERP (similar to an interface)
  • We need to define the file input format
  • → This area will need discussion and decision.
• Do we need to build a file upload UI?
  • In eLMIS there is a UI to upload a template; there is also an FTP server to ingest data. The budget data comes in via FTP and is ingested. The data comes from the ERP (Epicor).
  • Could we break this into 2 epics: (1) the pure feature epic where we store and view the budget info inside OpenLMIS; (2) engaging with Tanzania enterprise architecture or doing the integration of how we get the data.
• What are the tasks that are part of this work:
  • file upload process (or data integration)
  • storage and auditing
  • expose the budget data
  • toggle this feature on and off (admin UI)
• Question: Does the file format need to be configurable (including through the Admin UI)?
  • does the configuration need to be done through the UI or with a configuration file?
• Question: What is the integration approach, maybe REST APIs?
  • Perhaps OpenLMIS should just expose a REST API for ingesting this budget information. Then another "adapter" module could plug in specifically to the Tanzania Epicor ERP system and push it into the OpenLMIS REST APIs.
• Question: Does the Budget feature apply to other parts of OpenLMIS beyond just Requisitions? 
  • Mary Jo: I have only seen people use budgets as part of the approval process, which is part of the requisition (even if it is a stock-based requisition).
  • Craig: How is budget updated? Quarterly or annually?
  • Elias: We have delivered a limited scope that does not fully track the finances of utilization of the budget. The eLMIS system is not able to show how much budget they have left or when they are running out. (Although they have asked for an additional text box to say "This partner is covering this cost." There were specific requests about how this comment box should look.)