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On-line User's Navigation Guide

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Table of Contents

• Volume 1 Quick Links
  • Budget Message Quick Link
  • Key Initiative Quick Links
  • Budget Recommendations Quick Link
    • Step 1:  Understanding the Program Budget Dashboard Layout
    • Step 2:  Selecting a Government Function
    • Step 3:  Viewing the Administration Priorities
    • Step 4:  View by Department
    • Step 5:  Search for a Program
    • Step 6: Search for a Performance
  • Aid to Cities and Towns Quick Link
• Volume 2 Quick Links
• Budget Development Quick Link
• Financial Statement Quick Link
• Capital Budget and Debt Quick Link
• Appropriation Recommendations
  • Step 1: Understanding the Line Item Recommendations – Budget Detail Dashboard Layout
    • Step 2: Understanding the Budget Summary Dashboard Layout
    • Step 3: Understanding the Historical Budget Dashboard Layout
    • Step 4: Understanding the Historical Spending Dashboard Layout
    • Step 5: Understanding the Historical Employment Dashboard Layout
    • Step 6: Understanding the Account Dashboard Layout
  • Agency Information
    • Additional Information
    • Resources

 

The Navigational Guide

This guide is a supplement to the User Guide, which provides background information on the Massachusetts state budget and a description of all documents and sections included in the FY 2015 Governor’s Budget Recommendation.

The Navigational Guide provides users with information on how to locate and navigate through the online version of the budget.  It describes how users can find information that is important to them using various searching parameters and drilldown links.

The Governor’s Budget Recommendation is separated into two volumes.  To navigate through the two volumes, Quick links are available on the left side of the page, which will bring you to that particular section of the budget.

The Quick links in Volume 1 are:  Budget Message, Key Initiatives, Budget Recommendation in program format, and Local Aid to Cities and Towns. 

The Quick links in Volume 2 are:  Budget Development, Financial Statements, Capital Budget, Appropriation Recommendations, Agency Information, Operating Transfers, Section 3 – Local Aid, Outside Sections, Tax Expenditure Budget, and Resources that offer a user to download these documents.

Volume 1

Volume 1 contains narratives that outline the framework of the Administration’s priorities for the coming fiscal year. 

Volume 1 Quick Links:

Budget Message Quick Link

The budget message is a prelude to the budget theme.  Clicking on this link will drill down to a list of narrative documents.  There are five links under the budget message link:  Governor’s message, Secretary’s message, Summary of Fiscal Year Budget, Acknowledgments and an image of the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award presented to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) for fiscal year 2014

Both the Governor and the Secretary of the Executive Office for Administration and Finance offer an overview of the issues and opportunities which the Commonwealth faces during the upcoming fiscal year.  The budget narrative emphasizes why and how decisions have been made in developing the FY2015 budget and the impact it will have on residents and businesses of the Commonwealth. The Acknowledgements page displays the names of the individuals who were involved in putting this budget together.

Key Initiative Quick Links

Key initiatives describe challenges facing the Commonwealth and how the Administration is addressing these issues, and also highlights accomplishments.  Clicking on this link will drill down to a list of narrative documents:

1.     Fiscal Responsibilities and Reform

2.     Investing in Education to Close the Achievement Gap

3.     Investing in Innovation & Infrastructure to Create Jobs, Expand Opportunity

4.     Expanding Access to Affordable, Quality Health Care

5.     Building a Strong, Safe Community for Youth and Families

6.     Climate Change, Mitigation and Preparedness

7.     Transportation Reforms

8.     Criminal Justice and Reentry

Clicking on any of the specific initiatives will bring you to that document.

Budget Recommendations Quick Link

In this section of the FY15 Governor’s Budget, you will see the Administration’s funding recommendations for the next fiscal year (July 1, 2014 – June 30, 2015) in program format.  You are presented with a Program Budget Report and the FY15 Program Recommendations Dashboard.

Program Budget Report

Users who are looking to learn more about the details behind program budgeting should start with the Program Budget Report.  It describe how program budgeting is structured; it provides a visual of charts and graphs showing the breakdown of funding by program categories and lists the level of funding recommended for each program in FY 2015.  Links are provided to the two sections of this report: Executive Overview of Government Functions and Program Category Budget Detail.

FY15 Program Budget Recommendation Dashboard

The third link will bring you to the FY15 Program Budget Recommendations Dashboard. Clicking on this link brings you to an interactive way of searching for data based on certain parameters that you select from various dropdowns.

There is a link at the top of the dashboard labeled “Optimize contents for screenreaders.” This will provide users with additional text and features to maximize their ability to access the Program Budget.  If you are using assistive technology, we recommend that you click on this link.

Let’s start with a walk through of each screen in the on-line Program Budget.  To see more helpful hints on how to find information, such as “how much does the Commonwealth or a single department spend on programs related to housing?” or “what is the FY2015 recommendation for a particular line item account and what are all the programs funded out of that account?”, please go to the on line program dashboard and access the site tips links.

 

Step 1:  Understanding the Program Budget Dashboard Layout

The Program Summary tab is the first screen that appears when you open the program budget dashboard.  It identifies the eleven Government Functions and their descriptions. 

There are two links at the top:

1.     Optimize content for screen readers

2.     Supported Browser Information

There is a dropdown at the top of the page, which permits you to select one of the two fiscal years for which the Governor’s Recommendation Program Budget Dashboard has been published (FY2014 and FY2015). This dropdown also appears on other screens throughout the dashboard.

On the right hand side of the screen there are icons, which represent the eleven Government Functions and their descriptions. On the left hand side of the screen there is a pie chart that shows funding from all sources for each Government Function, including budgetary appropriations, federal grant spending, trust spending and capital spending.

To view the description of any Government Function, simply hover your cursor over the icon and the description will appear in the grey box. For example, if you hover over Central Administration and Operations, the description of that Government Function will appear in the shaded text box as shown below.

The pie chart provides a visual breakdown of the eleven government functions. If you move your cursor over the chart, you can view the Governor’s Recommendation for each Government Function as a percentage of the entire all funds budget.  Directly below the pie chart is a color key that identifies the respective Government Function associated with a slice of the pie.

At the bottom of the screens there are more quick links that allow you to navigate through the dashboards.  You will also see these quick links on the top of proceeding screens as tabs, once you have selected a Government Function.

There is a button that is labeled Mass Results.  This will take you to the Mass Results home page.  The Office of Commonwealth Performance, Accountability and Transparency (CPAT) has worked with Executive Branch Secretariats and departments to develop Strategic Plans, Performance Reports and other initiatives designed to make Massachusetts state government more accountable to its citizens.  Information on these initiatives can be accessed by clicking the MassResults button.

At the bottom of the screen are quick links to help users understand and learn more about Program Budgeting. 

 

Step 2:  Selecting a Government Function

Once you click on an icon representing a Government Function, such as Central Administration and Operations, it will take you to the second tab of the Program dashboard called “Government Function Detail,” where you can further your search for programs that fall under that specific Government Functions. There are several other tabs at the top of each dashboard screen that will help you navigate through the dashboards to information you want to see.

Where do the tabs take you?

Label of the Tab	Description of where the Tab will take you
Program Summary	Program Summary tab is the first screen that appears when you open the program budget dashboard.  It identifies the eleven Government Functions and their descriptions.
Government Functions Details	Government Functions Detail tab will take you to the NEXT level of detail behind the specific Government Function that you select.  This detail is referred to as Program Categories.
Administration Priorities	The Patrick Administration has identified four priorities that address significant areas of concern for the citizens of the Commonwealth. This link takes you to these four priorities so that you can see what programs fall under these priorities.
View by Department	View by Department tab allows you to see what programs are funded through a particular department.
Program Search	Program Search allows you to enter different parameters or criteria to find a specific program.
Performance Measure Search	Performance Search provides you with different parameters for finding a performance measures associated with a particular program.

On The Government Functions Detail screen there are dropdown menu options for refining your search, which are prefilled with the fiscal year and Government Function that you selected on the previous screen.  If you are interested in seeing data by a certain funding source, such as budgetary appropriations, you should use the Funding Source dropdown to narrow the data that will appear on the next screen.

Your options for these dropdowns are:

Dropdown Label	Dropdown Value
Fiscal Year	2014 or 2015 (this will default to 2015)
Government Function	This will list the 11 Government Functions (this defaults to the function that you selected on the previous page)
Funding Source	Budgetary appropriations, Trust, Federal or Capital (this defaults to all funds)
GO button	Remember to click on the GO button after selecting a search

You will also see two Pie charts:  the pie chart on the left shows the breakdown of the different Program Categories under the selected Government Function (in our example, Central Administration and Operations Program Categories); the pie chart on the right shows funding sources for the selected Government Function (Central Administration by Operations.)

If you continue to scroll down on this screen, you will see a list of all Program Categories in the selected Government Function.

Use binoculars next to any Program Category to drill down to more data. 

When you click on the binoculars the screen displays all Programs under that Program Category. The data that appears on the screen is the “Current Year Project Spending” and the “Governor’s Recommended Budget” for the next fiscal year, which is FY 2015.

To continue to drill down to more detail, click any Program in the pop up box to go to the Program Details screen where you can view the detail information on the selected Program.

Step 3:  Viewing the Administration Priorities

Administration Priorities – this tab displays the Administration’s four major priorities and descriptions of each.  The four priorities are:

1.     Investing in Education to Close the Achievement Gap

2.     Investing in Innovation and Infrastructure to Create Jobs, Expand Opportunity

3.     Expanding Access to Affordable, Quality Health Care

4.     Building Stronger, Safer Communities through Positive Youth Development and Youth Violence Prevention

By clicking the icon next to each Priority, a second screen will open to the Administrative Priorities (with descriptions) and the Programs supporting that Priority. 

To select another Priority, simply click the icon representing that Priority on the left side of the screen.  To drill down to more detail on each Program, click the Program name and you will be taken to the Program Detail screen.

The button labeled Priority Descriptions will bring you back to the Priority Administration dashboard.

Step 4:  View by Department

View by department allows you to view all programs that are listed under an Executive Branch Secretariat, Department, Independent or Constitutional Office.  You are able to see this by selecting options from the dropdowns that appear on this dashboard.

Your options for these dropdowns are:

Dropdown Label	Dropdown Value
Fiscal Year	2014 or 2015 (this default to 2015)
Secretariat or Independent	This will list all Executive Branch Secretariats, Independent and Constitutional Offices including the Legislative and Judicial Branches of government
Department	Lists departments or agencies within each branch of government.
GO button	Remember to click on the GO button after selecting a search

You can select from either drop down to find a unit of government that you are interested in or you can use both together.  If you do not make a selection, the screen shows an alphabetical listing of all departments and the FY2015 Governor’s Recommended Spending from all funding sources for each. 

To see the Programs provided by each department or other unit of government, click the binoculars next to the department name on the left side of the screen.  The screen will be refreshed to show a box on the right side with the name of the department, the Governor’s Recommendation (All Funds) for the department and the list of Programs provided by the department. A chart at the bottom of the box shows the relative size of each Program’s recommended spending compared with the total department all funds budget.

• To see more detail on each Program, click the Program name and you will be taken to the Program Details screen.
• To return to the Program listing on the View by Department screen, click the View by Department tab at the top of the screen.
• To select another department on the View by Department screen, click the binoculars next to the different department name on the left side of the screen.  The right side of the screen will be updated with the new department’s list of programs.

Step 5:  Search for a Program

The Program Search dashboard provides the ability for you to search for a program based on a single or multiple search criteria. 

You can select one or more search criteria:

Dropdown Label (Search Criteria)	Dropdown Value (Search Selection)
Governor’s Recommendation FY	The fiscal year for the Governor’s budget that you wish to see.  The options are 2014 or 2015 (this default to 2015)
Government Function	There are 11 Government Functions.
Secretariat or Independent	This will list all Executive Branch Secretariats, Independent and Constitutional Offices including the Legislative and Judicial branches of government
Administration Priority	There are 4 major priorities
Program Keyword	This will find any program with the words that you enter in this box
Program Category	This represents the grouping of programs.
Department	Lists departments or agencies within a each branch of government.
Funding Source	Budgetary appropriations, Trust, Federal or Capital (this defaults to all funds)
Program	The name of the program you wish see.
Account Number	This is an eight digit account number.  You can search by using the full account number OR the first digit(s) to see all programs funded out of that account. When entering the full account number, remember to enter the hyphen.
GO button	Remember to click on the GO button after selecting a search

As you click on these various dropdowns and click on the Go button, you will see the results of your search.  The default on this tab is an alphabetical list of all programs as shown below.

• To see more detail on each Program, click the Program name and you will be taken to the Program Details screen. 
• To return to the Program listing on the View by Department screen, click the Program Search tab at the top of the screen.

Step 6: Search for a Performance

The Performance Search dashboard provides the ability for you to search for a program based on a single or multiple search criteria. 

Performance Measures Search – this tab shows the user all performance measures associated with a program.

You are presented with another of dropdowns that allows you to narrow down your selection criteria. 

You can select one or more search criteria:

Dropdown Label (Search Criteria)	Dropdown Value (Search Selection)
Performance Measure Keyword	This will find any performance measure with the words that you entered in this box
Secretariat or Independent	This will list all Executive Branch Secretariats, Independent and Constitutional Offices including the Legislative and Judicial branches of government
Government Function	There are 11 Government Functions.
Governor’s Recommendation FY	The fiscal year for the Governor’s budget that you wish to see.  The options are 2014 or 2015 (this default to 2015)
Department	Lists departments or agencies within a each branch of government.
Program Category	This represents the grouping of programs.
Program	The name of the program you wish to see.
GO button	Remember to click on the GO button after selecting a search

After selecting the criteria, you will see a chart with Program Name, Performance Measure Name and Description, Department Owner and Source of Data. Actual metrics are not provided on this search page; the user can click on the Program Name to go to the Program Details screen and see actual data when available. This tab is only available in the Governor’s Recommendation Program Budget Dashboard, beginning with FY 2015.

Here is description of the columns on chart:

Data columns on the results of your search	Description
Program Name	This is the name of a Program.  This column provides clickable links to the “program detail” pop up window.  Click this link and then the “Display Performance Data” button to view performance measure data, where available, for each program.
Performance Measure Name	“Performance Measure Name” provides the name of the performance measure.
Performance Measure Description	“Performance Measure Description” provides a detailed description of the performance measure.
Department Owner	“Department Owner” is the name of the government secretariat, agency or department responsible for collecting data for that performance measure.
Source	“Source” provides information on the database, report, record or other source of the data for the performance measure.

• You can click on the name of a Program, which will display the details about that Program.
• To return to the Program listing on the Performance Measure screen, click the Performance Measure Search tab at the top of the screen.

Program Details – this tab, though not always visible, will appear when you click on any Program Name and shows the user a list of the department(s) that help provide this Program, the funding sources that support the program and performance data associated with the program when such data is available.

The Program Detail dashboard displays two buttons at the top:

• View All Accounts – this button will list all of the accounts funding a program and will also permit you to select a particular account and see all other programs funded by that account.
• View Performance Data – this button will list all of the performance measures associated with the selected program.  A new page will open with the performance measures.
• Located in the middle of the screen is a dropdown button that allows you to select a different department.

Aid to Cities and Towns Quick Link

This will take you to a narrative to Aid to Cities and Towns, also known as local aid or Section 3, and a list containing funding to each municipality.

Volume 2

Volume 2 contains several narratives that provide and update on fiscal year 2014, challenges faced during the development of the fiscal year 2015 budget, financial statements, revenue forecasts, an overview of capital investments and debt, the FY 2015 Governor’s Recommended budget in appropriation format (accounts, language and recommended funding levels), information on departments, operating transfers, more detail on aid to cities and towns, outside sections and tax expenditures.

Volume 2 Quick Links:

Budget Development Quick Link

The budget development section includes a detailed discussion of the state’s fiscal condition, financial policies, governance structure and specific challenges faced in the development of the budget.  Clicking on this link will drill down to a list of narrative documents:

1.     Introduction

2.     Massachusetts Government Structure

3.     Overview of the Operating Budget Process

4.     Spending Plan & Budget Proposal Development

5.     Specific and General Budget Policies

6.     Long-Term Budget Forecast

7.     FY 2014 Update

8.     FY 2015 Development

9.     FY 2015 Budget Recommendation (this is a link to a dashboard)

10.  State Workforce

Financial Statement Quick Link

The Financial Statements section is full of detailed charts with actual and projected revenue and spending for the previous, current and upcoming fiscal year.  Clicking on this link will drill down to a list of financial statements:

1.     Fiscal Note

2.     Overview of State Spending

3.     Financial Statement Explanation

4.     Financial Statements

5.     Fund Balance Tables

Capital Budget and Debt Quick Link

The Capital Budget describes the Commonwealth’s five-year capital, which includes strategies for economic growth investing in public education, supporting innovation sectors and strengthening the Commonwealth’s infrastructure.  This section includes a link to a detailed five year capital plan providing information on accomplishments and initiatives to date, sources of capital funds, debt affordability policies and description of capital investment categories.

Links included in the section are:

1.     Capital Investment Plan – narrative

2.     Debt Service – narrative

3.     FY 14 – FY 18 Capital Plan - link to the Governor’s Five Year Capital Investment Plan website

Appropriation Recommendations

The appropriation recommendations section includes legal documents (such as the Preamble) required by MGL Chapter 29, and detailed budget information at the account level.  By clicking on this link, you will drill down to these documents.

Links included in this section:

1.   Preamble & Section 1-1C

      Revenue by Source & Fund

      Non-Tax Revenue Summary

      Consolidated Transfers

2.   Section 2 Preambles

3.   Line Item Recommendation – this link takes you to a drillable dashboard allowing you to see detail information on line items (accounts)

4.   Line Item Summary – list of account with a

The Line item Summary is a useful overview of all line items in the FY2015 Governor’s Budget Recommendation. 

The Line Item Summary lists each account and will provide a general explanation for significant changes in funding levels (increases, decreases, transfers, consolidations or why a line-item is being established or eliminated).

The Line Item Recommendations opens the Line Item Dashboard in a different link. This dashboard allows users to view drillable screens that present historic, current fiscal year and next fiscal year recommended spending, non-tax revenue and employment levels by government area, department and account. Let’s start with a walk through of each screen in the Line Item Dashboard.

Step 1: Understanding the Line Item Recommendations – Budget Detail Dashboard Layout

Clicking on the Line Item Recommendations takes you to the Budget Detail dashboard.  You will use this dashboard to drill down to line item (account) detail for all government areas, secretariats and the departments under each area.

This dashboard will display the Governor’s FY2015 Recommended budget for budgetary appropriation, federal, trust and Intra-governmental service, and non-tax revenue.

At the top of this and proceeding screens you will see six tabs, labeled:  Budget Detail, Budget Summary, Historical Budget, Historical Spending, Historical Employment and Account Search.  These tabs allow you to navigate to different information relating to line items (accounts).

Below the tabs there are two links at the top:

1.     Optimize content for screen readers

2.     Supported Browser Information

Label of the Tab	Description of where the Tab will take you
Budget Detail	Shows a table of all Massachusetts government branches: Executive Branch Secretariats, Judiciary, Independents and Constitutional Offices.  You can drill down to the account level for each area of government and will see a breakdown by funding:  (1) budgetary accounts (2) Federal, Trust, & ISP and (Non-Tax Revenue)
Budget Summary	Pie charts for the funding sources with each slice representing one of the government branches.  When you hover over a slice of the pie, a pop up box will provide the name of the government area and total funding.
Historical Budget	Provides budget levels from prior fiscal years.  You can drill down to the account level for GAA Three Years Ago (FY 2012), GAA Two Years Ago (FY 2013), GAA Current Year (FY 2014), and Governor’s Budgetary Recommendations (FY 2015).
Historical Spending	Provides spending data from prior fiscal years.  You can drill down to the account level for Expended Three Years Ago (FY 2012), Expended Two Years Ago (FY 2013), Expended Current Year (FY 2014), and Governor’s Budgetary Recommendations (FY 2015).
Historical Employment	This takes you to a dashboard displaying employment levels.
Account Search	This allows you to enter parameters to find a specific account.

On The Budget Detail screen, below the tabs, there are dropdown menu options for refining your search, which are prefilled with the fiscal year that you selected on the previous screen.  If you are interested in seeing data for a specific Executive Branch or department you should use the dropdowns to narrow the data that will appear on the next screen.  Enter your selections and hit Go to refresh the table.

Your options for these dropdowns are:

Dropdown Label	Dropdown Value
Governor’s Recommendation Fiscal Year	2014 or 2015 (this will default to 2015)
Government Area	To select different Branches Government
Secretariat/Independents	To select different Branches Government
Department	Budgetary appropriations, Trust, Federal or Capital (this defaults to all funds)
GO button	Remember to click on the GO button after selecting a search

By clicking the “+“ button next to a government area, you can drill down to see the secretariats and departments within the government area and the FY2015 Budgetary Recommendations; FY2015 Federal, Trust and ISF Recommendations; FY2015 House 2 (total of these two amounts) and FY2015 Non-Tax Revenue projected for each department, secretariat or government area. 

Label of Column Header	Description of Column Headers
Department	Shows the listed departments will provide a plus sign located on the left side of the text that will allow the user to drilldown into the account level.
Governor’s Budgetary Recommendations	Shows dollar values for current Governor’s Recommendation FY15 for budgetary accounts.
Federal, Trust and ISF	Shows dollar values for current Governor’s Recommendation FY15 for federal, trust and ISF accounts
Total	Shows total dollar values for current Governor’s Recommendation FY15 which includes all accounts: budget federal, trust and ISF accounts
Non-Tax Revenue	Shows the revenue amount received by Commonwealth from non-tax sources, including the federal government and various fees, fines, court revenues, assessments, reimbursements, interest earnings and transfers from its non-budgeted funds, which are deposited in the General Fund, the Transportation Fund and other operating budgeted fund.

There is a chart located in the lower half of the screen that gives a graphical representation of each of the dollar columns from the table above for each tab.  Therefore on the Budget Detail page the user can select a view any of the following metrics (please note that the charts are static and do not permit the user to drill down below the government area):

When you hover over a slice of the pie it will display the government area that the slice represents. Directly below the pie chart is a color key that identifies the respective Government Areas associated with a slice of the pie.

Below is an example of the Budget Summary page.

Step 2: Understanding the Budget Summary Dashboard Layout

Clicking on this tab will take you to a page showing the Budget Summary page.

Budget Summary – this tab displays the budget in (only) pie charts.  The first pie chart at the top of the page represents the FY2015 Recommended Spending levels for areas of government. Each slice of the pie depicts one of twelve government areas which include the eight Executive Branch Secretariats, the Judiciary and all other Independent and Constitutional Offices. 

The bottom half of the screen presents two additional pie charts which divide FY2015 Recommended Spending into FY2015 Budgetary Recommendations and other categories of spending labeled FY2015 Federal, Trust and ISF Recommendations. The names of each government area appear below each chart. The user may click on the name of the government area below any of the three charts or on a segment of the charts on this screen to drill down to more detail on the government area:  secretariat, department and then account.

Step 3: Understanding the Historical Budget Dashboard Layout

Historic Budget – this tab shows three years of amounts budgeted through the General Appropriations Act (GAA), the projected FY 2014 spending which reflects the impact of the Governor’s mid-year budget reductions, and the FY 2015 Budgetary Recommendations.

Similar to the Department Details screen, the user is presented with four drop down boxes at the top of the screen to select fiscal year, government area, secretariat or department. The selection is presented in a table which shows the name of the entity (if government area or secretariat is selected, you can drill down to departments under each). The department name is a link which will take you to the Department Details screen.

A pie chart at the bottom of the Historical Budget screen is similar to the pie chart on the Budget Details tab.  It shows the government area for the selected metric and allows the user to pick from all of the metrics shown on the table.

Step 4: Understanding the Historical Spending Dashboard Layout

Historic Spending – this tab summarizes spending by spending category (see below for explanation). Actual expenditures for FY2011, FY2012 and FY2013 are displayed, as well as projected FY2014 (current year) spending and FY2015 Budgetary Recommendations.

At the top of the Historic Spending screen, there are five dropdown boxes that let the user select the fiscal year, government area, secretariat, department and/or spending category.  You may select from one or more of these boxes.  The table in the middle of the screen will refresh to show the government entity or entities you selected and one of the spending categories.  You may also select “All” to see all spending for a department.  The department name is a link which takes the user to the Department Details screen.

The chart at the bottom of the Historic Spending screen shows historical spending by government area for the selected metric and allows the user to pick from all of the metrics shown on the table.

Step 5: Understanding the Historical Employment Dashboard Layout

Historical Employment – this tab displays the state workforce that is funded from operating accounts as of June 2011, 2012, and 2013, approved for 2014, and projected for FY2015. Employees are represented as full-time equivalents (FTEs), which allows for standard comparisons across years.  The user can select from four drop down boxes to narrow the search by fiscal year, government area, secretariat or department.  The results are shown in a table with the government entity and the historic, current and planned FTE levels for each.

The chart at the bottom of the screen shows employment levels by government area for the selected metric and allows the user to pick from all of the metrics shown in the table.

Step 6: Understanding the Account Dashboard Layout

The Account Search dashboard provides the ability for you to search for an account based on a single or multiple search criteria. 

Account Search - – this tab permits you to select any line item account to see more information on that account.  There are three boxes at the top of the screen where the user can enter the line item number or any portion of the number and/or can enter a keyword that describes the line item and which may appear in its language.  If you know the full line item eight digit numbers, you must follow the format 1234-5678 with a hyphen when entering the number.  If you are entering more than the first four digits, you must also enter the hyphen before the fifth digit.  A table is refreshed to show the line item #, department, line item name, line item description and the FY2015 House 2 recommendation.  The screen defaults to a listing of all line items in numerical order through which the user can scroll. 

Your options for these dropdowns are:

Dropdown Label	Dropdown Value
Governor’s Recommendation Fiscal Year	2014 or 2015 (this will default to 2015)
Account begins with	You can enter the entire 8 digit account number, for example, 1201-0100, or enter part of the account.  If you enter the entire account number, be sure to include the hyphen 1201-0100
Account Language contains any
GO button	Remember to click on the GO button after selecting a search

Department Details – this tab, though not always visible, will appear when you click on a specific department on of the other tabs, shows the name of the department, a repetition of the information from the previous table on the Budget Detail screen (FY2014 Budgetary Recommendation; FY2013 Federal, Trust and ISF; House 2; and FY2015 Budgetary Non-Tax Revenue).  Below this information is a “+” button that the user is instructed to click to see a list of the line items funding the department.  A table opens up showing line item categories which can be opened by clicking the “+” sign to see specific accounts. 

Line item categories are:  Budgetary Direct Appropriations, Federal Grant Spending, Retained Revenue, ISF and Trust Spending.  The Department Details table shows for each account, the line item or grant name and number, the two previous fiscal year’s General Appropriations Act (GAA) amounts, the current year GAA amount and the FY2015 Budgetary Recommendations. 

To update this table to display the Historic Budget, Spending and Employment Level, you can use the “Select historical view to update table” drop down.  Charts at the bottom of the Department Details screen break out the FY2014 House 1 recommendation for that department into Spending Categories (for example Wages and Salaries) and Accounting Types (Budgetary Direct Appropriations, Federal Grant Spending, Retained Revenue, ISF and Trust Spending).

At the top of the screen below the department name is a button labeled View All Accounts. This button will open a pop up window of the Line Item Details screen showing only those line items within a department.  The table that you will see includes line item #, name, description, FY2014 Projected Spending and FY2015 House 2 Recommendations. 

Agency Information

The Agency Information section displays the list of Government Areas as follows:

Users can drill into each Government areas to view its mission statement, web site, organizational chart, and related laws and regulations, as available.  Access this information from the Agency Information tab on the Department level screen. 

Additional Information

Additional Information on Operating Transfers, Local Aid – Section 3, Outside Sections and Tax Expenditure Budget can be found under the respective sections.

Resources

Additional resources are located in the final section of Volume 2, including:

University of Massachusetts’ Donahue Institute Economic Outlook Report

The Economic Outlook Report is prepared by the Massachusetts State Data Center (Mass SDC) at the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute and is relevant in evaluating the economic and financial condition and prospects of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The Program Structure

This is a listing of the three-tiered program hierarchy used in the program version of the FY2015 Governor’s Budget Recommendation.  It includes all Government Functions, Program Categories and Programs with a short description for each term.

Glossary of budget terminology

The glossary is an alphabetical list of terms, acronyms and concepts that are particularly significant in understanding the development and presentation of the Governor’s Budget Recommendation.

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