Getting Started with Budget Manager Experience

Budget Managers can click the link in the email to access the shared template. The link will redirect the budget managers to the template once they click it and log in to the application. Budget managers can also log in to the application directly using Planful’s URL. The home page for budget managers displays all action items assigned to them, recent items, and a list of all templates to which budget managers have access in their respective panes.

User Profile

The user profile menu, accessible in the top-right corner of the application, allows users to manage their account settings and switch their application experience. The available options are:

• Manage Your Account: Budget managers can view and manage profile information or login settings using the Manage Your Account feature in the user menu. To learn more about managing your account, click here.
• Switch to Full Experience: Users can switch to the Full Experience by selecting the Switch to Full Experience option. This option is available to users with support roles as Administrators or User with access to Budget Manager Experience enabled.

Action Item

Whenever the finance team shares a template with a budget manager, the home page displays the template in the Action Item pane. They can click on any action item, and open that specific template. The home page also displays the count of completed action items. Budget managers will see the fields in the template based on the View selected for them while sharing the template. 

Recent Items

The Recent Items pane displays the list of templates (GTSC or WFP) and dynamic reports budget managers accessed recently. The list shows the most recently accessed template or report on the top, and the rest follows a similar sorting order. This feature helps budget managers quickly access the template they opened recently and finish any pending action items or any other tasks.

When a budget manager opens a template from Recent items, the application displays the template view that the budget manager accessed in that template previously.

Planning

The Planning pane displays the list of templates (GTSC) the budget manager can access. Budget managers need not wait for any invite email or link to access the required template, as this pane displays all the templates they can access. They can open any listed template and update the data if needed.

Budget managers can also select a scenario and budget entity from their respective drop-downs and view the list of templates based on the selected combination in this pane, and open the required template.  When a budget manager opens a template from the Planning pane, the application displays the template only in Default View. 

Budget Managers can do the following after opening a template:

• Review/update the numbers in the template.
• Collaborate with other application users to review/update the numbers in the template.
• Select any entity from the Budget Entity drop-down and review/update the forecast numbers. The Budget Entity drop-down displays the entities to which the Budget Manager has access permissions.

Budget Managers can use the following options as required:

• Predict -  Predict is an AI engine that identifies potential anomalies in your financial data and generates data-driven baseline plans using advanced AI technology.
• Reload - To refresh the data in the template.  
• Reset - To undo any changes made to the template. The saved changes cannot be undone.
• Action Item - Access the list of pending tasks. A new task is created for every template shared with the budget manager. If any budget managerhas access to multiple budget entities mapped to that template, every budget entity will have a new task. If any template is shared twice, the new task replaces the existing task to avoid duplicates. They can click any task in their list and easily navigate from one task to another. The following details are displayed about each task:
  • Name of the user who shared the template
  • The date on which the template was shared through email or using the Copy Link option
  • Template name
  • Entity name
• Save -To save the updates made to the template.
• I'm Done - To complete the action item. Once the budget managers click I'm Done, the respective task is cleared from the Action Items list, and the user who shared the template will receive an email notification.
  
  Note:

  Once the Budget Managers start updating the template, the I'm Done button appears only after saving the template.
• View Contributors - The finance team users and budget managers can view the user history of that template with the new View Contributors feature. The View Contributors feature displays a list of users who updated the template in the past 30 days with the last updated date. Selecting a user from the list will mark/highlight the cells the user updated in the past 30 days. Anyone accessing the template can view the changes made by the other users and update the data accordingly. Budget managers can also right-click on any marked cell and view a detailed cell history. To learn more about View Contributors, click here.
• Comment - Budget managers can collaborate with finance teams or other budget managers using the Comments feature in templates and reports. Budget managers can post comments on any shared template or report and tag other users in the comment. The tagged user will get an email notification with a link that will redirect them to the respective template or report. In any shared template, budget managerscan post a comment on cells that are in open periods in any of the following line types: 
  • RC
  • L with posting and history accounts (with or without sublines)
  • C with posting and history accounts
  • RA with single account mapping
    To learn more about Comments, click here.

To navigate back to the home page from any template, click Home in the top menu bar.

Reports

The Reports pane displays the list of dynamic reports the budget manager has permission to access. Budget managers can click the Reports tab and open the required dynamic report with just a few clicks.

Workforce

The Workforce pane contains a scenario list that displays the scenarios that the budget manager has permission to access. Budget managers can select any scenario from the scenarios list and click Show Employees to view the employees in the workforce planning template. For more information, refer to Workforce Planning Template in Budget Manager Experience.

Dashboard

The Dashboard pane displays the list of dashboards the budget manager can access. They can open any listed dashboard. For more information on using the dashboards, refer to the How to Use Dashboards topic.

Announcements

Budget managers can also view any announcements admins make at the top of the revamped dashboard in the Announcements section. This section only displays the most recent announcement if there are multiple broadcasted messages.