This is a guide to assist you in using BackOffice to handle the allocation groups. This is NOT a substitute for the FEC’s thorough and user-friendly Campaign Guide for Political Party Committees &endash; be sure to check the FEC’s website (www.fec.gov) for resources on any legal questions you have. For a copy of the Party Guide, download this PDF http://www.fec.gov/pdf/partygui.pdf
Allocation Groups are for reporting transactions that affect shared funds between the State and Federal accounts.
In the Allocation Manager, creating an allocation group involves:
· Adding the allocation
· Setting an Estimated Federal percentage.
Once that Allocation Group is created, it becomes available under Allocation Group menu on Contribution entry forms and under the Reporting Code menu for Expenses. When entering a contribution, select the Allocation Group to include it in calculations of the percentage of Federal vs. State contributions for that allocation group.
Setting up Allocations
For each shared allocation group, an Allocation must be added in the Allocation Manager. Click on Financial and Allocations.
To add a new allocation:
1. Click on Add Allocation
2. In the resulting popup window give the allocation group a Name. This will usually be the event for which the funds are shared.
3. Select the Type of shared allocation that best describes the nature of the allocation.
4. Set a Date for the origin of the allocation. No transaction can be allocated to a group if its date is BEFORE the date of the Allocation.
5. Set a Date of first use. This sets the date an allocation ratio will be active. If the date of first use is 1/1/2050, it will not be used until 1/1/2050
6. Enter the Percent of the expenditures that you estimate will come from the Federal account. This estimated percentage is reported on Schedule H2 and used in calculations on Schedule H4.
Using Allocation Groups
As you enter transactions, any allocation groups you have added in Allocation Manager will appear in the Allocation Group or Reporting Code drop-down menu. Designate a transaction as shared allocation by selecting an Allocation Group from the Allocation drop down menu on Contributions or from the Reporting Code menu for expenses. Be sure to select the Account (Federal or State) in which the transaction was made. Please remember that shared expenses must be ORIGINALLY paid from the Federal account (you can reimburse via transfer from the state account later.)
When you have allocated transactions to their respective Allocation groups, viewing the Allocation Manager will calculate the real percentage of expenditures and contributions that were made in the Federal account.
To transfer funds between the Federal and State accounts to match your Estimated percentage, click the Make Transfer button.
You are NOT required to make a transfer between accounts to match the estimated percentage &endash; you may transfer less, or nothing at all. The idea of the transfer rules is that you can transfer a MAXIMUM of the percentage of state contributions for the purposes of reimbursing your federal account for expenses. If you want schedules H3 and H4 to add up perfectly and decide that you want to make transfers, then be sure to make the transfers in the same reporting period. To reiterate, though: you are not required to perform the transfers.
Editing Allocations
To edit an existing allocation:
1. Find the allocation you wish to edit.
2. Click on View/Edit Ratio History.
3. Make your changes and click Save Changes at the top
Each time you make a revision to the Estimated percentage, it creates another item in the Ratio History. Each change to the percentage applies to the transactions that are in the date range for that ratio history.
Example: if your original estimated percentage on 6/1/2004 is 50%, and a month later you change your guess to 75%, the transactions that occurred before the revised estimated ratio will still be calculated at 50%, and everything after the rate is changed will be calculated at 75%. This is important for calculations of year-to-date totals.
If you want to change the estimated federal percentage for all transactions that have ever been in that allocation group, Click Ratio History to go into Ratio history and change the earliest entry to the percentage you want. Click the blue X next to all the more recent items to Delete other percentage calculations.
Please keep in mind that changing or deleting allocation ratios that have been reported may impact your year-to-date allocation totals and should be done with the utmost caution.
Federal Percentage of Expenses:
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(FederalExpenses-NetTransferAmount)/(FederalExpenses+StateExpenses)
In other words, the federal expenses, exempting those that have been repaid from the state account, divided by the total (state and federal) expenses.
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Federal Percentage of Contributions:
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FederalContributions/(FederalContributions+StateContributions)
In other words, the federal contributions divided by the total (state and federal) contributions.