When a city employee posts a transaction (e.g. a purchase of goods or services) for a grant-related project/activity, there must be sufficient amounts budgeted and remaining in the subfund in order for the transaction to proceed. A project with a single grant funding source would simply identify in the Chartfield string which fund was associated with the transaction and proceed.
Without the unallocated fund solution, a user would need to know--at the time of the transaction--which funding source should be used and also whether sufficient unencumbered budget remained for that grant source. In many cases, the program management or procurement individuals involved in this transaction may not know which grant to assign the transaction.
This document explains the procedure for using unallocated funds to allow users to process transactions for multi-grant funded projects.