Template Setup Overview

Templates act as structures that hold data including dimensions, attributes, and entities. You will design templates based on your business needs. Once templates are setup, end-users input data for planning purposes via the Planning Control Panel.

Templates resemble spreadsheets, while allowing for template lines to be linked to other accounts to extrapolate data, calculations and formulas to retrieve data, and the ability to add notes to prompt end-users. There are also a number of formatting options to add colors and borders to the template, and much more.

Templates are initially defined at the default scenario level and then mapped to working scenarios. While there are a number of template types including Workforce Planning, Block, Capital, Allocation, the most common type is Global Template Single Copy. A template can incorporate different dimensions and include reports to establish a more centralized plan for users involved in the planning process. A variety of functionality and display options are selected when defining a new template, many of which cannot be changed after saving. These options are dependent on template type.

The development of templates has three phases: 

• Configuration: Identify the template type, functionality, and basic architecture. Learn how you can configure a template using the options in Add Template.
• Design: Add template rows, including line mapping to dimensions and formatting. Learn how you can design your template using the options in Template Setup.
• Mapping: Map template to a working scenario, budget entities, and approval roles. Learn more about mapping here.