Planning Control Panel Intro

Exploring the Planning Control Panel

The Planning Control Panel is where you will perform budgeting workflow tasks, it is where budget entities are organized in a hierarchy, where you will select templates for input or to view, as well as run reports.

Planning Control Panel Organization

The Planning Control Panel is organized in 3 panes; Budget Hierarchy (left pane), Template (middle pane), and Actions | Reports | Approvers (right pane).

Menu 

Scenario list-box - Scenarios represent a version of a budget or forecast during a fiscal year. Scenarios are set up by Admin users.

Scenario Description icon - Click the icon to the immediate right of the Scenario list-box. Enter a detailed description of the scenario.

Attach icon - Attach documents to the scenario.

Edit Scenario icon- Edit the selected scenario and template.

Status Report icon - Provides a summary status for all budget entities a user has access to.

Your Admin user will provide you with access to scenarios, budget entities, and templates you will work with. The list-box is populated based on your access.

Budget Hierarchy

Once you select a scenario, the budget hierarchy associated with the scenario is displayed in the Budget Hierarchy pane. The budget hierarchy is set up by your Admin and is comprised of organized budget entities. The budget entities you have access to within the hierarchy are displayed on the screen.

Budget Entities

Budget entities represent business segments. For example, the marketing segment of an organization. In the example below, the budget hierarchy is called Everest Cycles and it has a 1000-Corporate Mgmt Group rollup. Under that rollup are leaf level entities. The HQEXEC entity has several associated templates, which are displayed in the middle pane as shown below.

Templates

When you select the posting (or lowest level) member of a hierarchy, the mapped templates appear in the Template pane.

When you select a template in the middle pane, specific actions are available based on the template you select. The following actions might be available to you:

• Input - Open budget templates in Input mode, which allows data input. You may or may not have access to this action as access is based on set up.

• View - Open budget templates in read-only mode. You may or may not have access to this action as access is based on user set up. There are two types of View mode (based on the date your application was configured and whether you opted in to an update in February 2019). Read all about each type of View mode by clicking here.

• The following actions will be available based on how your admin user set up your application and the approval role assigned to you:

  • Forward - Forward a template for approval. Templates that have been forwarded are locked and cannot be edited. You can forward a template once you input all the required information.

  • Approve - Approve a template that has been forwarded.

  • Send Back - Send back a forwarded template for changes or updates. You can send back templates until they are approved. This option is available after the template has been forwarded and before it receives an approval.

  • Mark Complete - Flag a template as completed. Completed templates cannot be opened in Input mode.

  • Mark Not Complete - Clear the Completed flag against a selected template. Once cleared, the template can be opened in Input mode.

• Initiative Approval - Available for Initiative Budgets only.

Planful offers various template types to budget for Human Resources, Initiatives, Capital Expenditures, Operating Expenses, and more. The template you open in Input or View mode will look different based upon the template type you select in the middle pane.

Reports Available in the Planning Control Panel and Mapped to Templates

Run a report (deployed by your Admin) from the Planning Control Panel by clicking the Reports tab (shown below).

Reports may also be mapped to a template when your Admin sets up the template. For example, you might have a mapped report called Operating Expense Analysis for an Operating Expenses template.

For this Workforce template, the Employee Report is mapped.

Enhanced Workflow and Automated Task Creation

Admin users can configure this feature directly from the Planful application (refer to the Enable Enhanced Workflow section). Please note that once this functionality is enabled within your production environment, it cannot be disabled.

If the Workflow functionality is not enabled, the Planning Control Panel continues to function as per the existing behavior. However, if the Workflow functionality is enabled, the application behavior is as follows:

• If you enable Workflow Setup for a scenario and Start the process, the automated tasks and multiple authorization functionalities are activated.

• If you do not enable Workflow Setup for a scenario, the Planning Control Panel works as usual without automated tasks and multiple authorization functionalities.

• Irrespective of whether Workflow Setup is enabled for a scenario or not, Workflow Actions for Templates are activated. This means that the Forward and Approve actions are available for templates.