Template Input and View Modes

Before you add and set up/design a template, you need to decide on the type of template required. Several types are available depending on your planning needs. The template has two modes:

• Input
• View

Input Mode

Where to Enter Template Data?

Input data into templates in the white cells. Your Admin user may set up templates with additional colors as shown below.

Views

You can create different layouts of a template and save them using Views. The scope of a View can depend on the different use cases you want to address using the template. When you share these layouts with any end-user, it will help them focus on the data they want to see and hide any unnecessary data.

While creating a View, you can hide any row(s) or column(s) or filter any column based on the use case and save the View.

In Practice: Accessing the View Option

1. Navigate to Planning Control Panel and select a Budget entity from the Budget Hierarchy pane.
2. Select the required template from the Template pane.
3. From the right pane, click Input under the Template Workflow section in the Actions tab. The selected template data is displayed.
4. You can access the View option from the top menu bar.

Create a New View

Perform the following steps to create a new View:

1. Click the View option on the top menu bar in a template.
2. Select the Create a New View option from the list.
3. Provide a unique name for the View in the Enter View Namefield, and do the following:
   1. Filter the required column
   2. Hide the required row(s) and column(s)
4. Click Save View. The saved view is listed in the Views list.
   Note:

   You can use the Reset option to undo the changes made in that view till that point.

If you want to access any View created before, click the View option in the menu bar and click on the required view from the list.

Manage Views

If you want to edit or delete any View that was already created, perform the following steps:

1. Click the View option on the top menu bar in a template.
2. Select the Manage Views option from the list. The list of already created views is displayed.
3. If you want to delete any view, click the delete icon adjacent to that respective view.
4. If you want to edit any view, click the edit icon adjacent to that respective view, and do the required updates.

Subline Validation

This feature checks every main template line against associated sublines and verifies the data matches. If the data does not match, template lines are highlighted in red. The Subline Validation report is a Standard Report. Admin users can access Standard Reports by navigating to Maintenance > Reports > Standard Reports. 

1. Select the Subline Validation Report, click More and select Deploy to make the report available to users. 
2. You can run the report from this interface in addition to the Template interface. 
3. When you run the Subline Validation Report, you will be prompted to select a scenario, entity, template and fiscal year.
   

Validation Report

Run the Subline Validation report to view all Subline discrepancies between sublines and main lines for a template. To access the report, open a template in View or Input mode. Click the More list-box and select Validation Report.

Explanation of Line Types in Templates

In the templates below, there are several line types; H, L, C, RA. Additionally, you may have templates with RC, DA, and N line types. Each of the line types has a specific purpose.

What is the L (Subline) Template Line Type and What is the Purpose

A line with an L hyperlink indicates that there are sublines associated with the line. For example, you have a checking account line and the Subline template lines provide a way to itemize the account.

Click the L hyperlink to open the Subline template interface where you can add Subline details. Subline details itemize accounts on the main template input page. You can perform direct entry (yellow cells) at the detail level in the cells of the Subline template. You can also add and remove sublines.

Once sublines are added, the template line displays in red with a green background on the main template page as shown below.

Description of the fields on the Subline Template page is provided below.

• Remove All Lines - click to remove all the added sublines.

• Insert Lines - enter the number of rows (account strings) to insert into the grid or press Enter on your keyboard.

• Allow line total formula update - this selection prevents you from changing the formula associated with the line. For example, a formula might be set up to calculate monthly totals. Select this checkbox to open or unlock the row to allow modifications. Once selected, the row will change from white to yellow indicating that you can enter data in the cells.

• Reset Formula - reset the formula to the original. For example, if a formula is defined to calculate monthly forecast and you change the formula to calculate, for example, quarter 1 total, you can then click Reset Formula to calculate monthly total once again.

• Save - Saving the Subline template also saves the main template.

Performing a save on the Subline template page synchronizes Subline template data with the main template. It also saves the main template.

What is the C Template Line Type and What is the Purpose

A row with a C means that it is a Calculated line. Calculated lines have calculations, such as the sum of several cells. Some examples are provided below.

Enter formulas in the formula bar for a template opened from the Planning Control Panel in Input mode. Optionally, enter the formula in the cell.

What is the H Template Line Type and What is the Purpose

Indicates the line is a header line. These lines are not editable. Your Admin might use this line type to enter notes for you, the end-user, or to format the template and even to add additional spacing.

What is the N Template Line Item and What is the Purpose

Indicates notes are attached to the line. Notes might provide additional detail on the line or instructions to the end-user.

If you click the Note icon the Line Notes page appears.

What is the RA Template Line Item and What is the Purpose

RA stands for Reference Account and indicates another account(s) is referenced for that template line. For example, you might have a payroll account referenced from an HR template line.

This template has 4 RA lines. If you click the Bonuses RA line, the Reference Account Report opens with information on the accounts referenced for this line.

What is the DA Template Line Item and What is the Purpose

DA stands for Destination Account and indicates that template line is mapped to a segment combination. Destination accounts are used to save budget or forecast data entered or calculated in a selected budget template against a General Ledger account.

What is the RC Template Line Item and What is the Purpose

RC stands for Reference Cube and indicates the line references data from the reporting cube. For example, the line displays a total from data that was looked up. The results is total revenue for all sales departments in a legal entity.

Perform Input after Forwarding or Approval of Templates

This functionality is now enabled by default for all new and existing customers.

Input data to templates in a forwarded and/or approved state. 

You can perform template input against a forwarded (or approved) template.

View Cell Updates

You can view the history of the data changes on the source data available in the templates. You can double-click on any record from the template to view the history. The history contains information like dimension intersection details, who changed the data, the timestamp of the data change, and the details about the changes.

This functionality is applicable only when the Ivy framework is enabled in the application. Reach out to Planful Support to enable Ivy in your Sandbox application.

Templates act as structures that hold budget data like scenarios, attributes, and entities. You can design templates based on your business needs. Using the History feature you can verify the updates made to the source data in the templates. It provides information like who changed the data, the timestamp of the data change, and the details about the changes.

Select any cell in the template and the History toggle is displayed in the top right corner of the template. Enable the History toggle to view the history of the data.

Disable the history toggle to stop the history view.

View Mode

View mode does not allow you to make changes to the template. You can only view the template.
To open a template in View mode:

1. From the Planning Control Panel, select the budget entity in the budget hierarchy from the left pane.

2. Select the template in the middle pane.

3. Click the View action in the right pane.

What To Do When There Are Data Discrepancies in the Template?

If calculations (for example, sub-totals or percentages) in the template you are viewing are not accurate/updated due to recent updates to the driver/source templates (for example, Employee Compensation, Capital Planning and Initiatives), but individual budget lines are updating correctly, do the following:

1. Access the template that you are viewing in Input mode.

2. Next, verify all fields are updated/accurate.

3. Save the template. Doing so updates the calculations and synchronizes the driver/source templates until further changes are made requiring this process to be repeated.

If Input mode is not available to you as a Budget Preparer/Approver, take one of the following actions depending on the use case situation: