Multi-department organizations

Give department owners a shared planning process with clear boundaries.

Typical roles
Also built for

What changes for this team

configured at rollout

Give department owners a shared planning process with clear boundaries. Budgeting and forecasting software gives Finance a consistent way to retain the inputs, decisions and reporting basis behind the plan.

A common planning calendar

Set the cycle, submission dates and reviewed baseline for each participating department.

Scoped ownership and review

Give each Cost-Center Head an entity-specific draft and retain the revision submitted for review. Finance can consolidate the accepted proposals while department users remain restricted to their own permitted population. A copied link, aggregate or export must enforce the same boundary as the normal workspace.

Consistent executive reporting

Publish variance comparisons and board packs from identified budget, actuals and forecast snapshots. Executive Reader receives only approved or distributed artifacts. Record any external board conditions separately and complete the required financial decisions on the resulting revision before it becomes the locked plan.

Plan to approved budget for this team

  1. 01

    Set assumptions

    A common planning calendar
  2. 02

    Build plan
  3. 03

    Submit

    Scoped ownership and review
  4. 04

    Review

    Approval required

    Consistent executive reporting
  5. 05

    Approve

    Approval required

  6. 06

    Track variance

Same records, same gates. The configuration changes how the process runs for this team.

Workspace previews

CFO Budget DecisionsApprovalsfinancial approval waits for the cfo
PendingCFOYouno budget transfer
VersionSubmission RevisionStep OrderApprover RoleApprover
BV-22344310210CFOPX
BV-5220842070CFONL
BV-70719380550CFOFM
BV-9240965080CFOXV
BV-77465450310CFOFC
BV-65464770880CFOAC
Variance ReviewVarianceAnalyses
Period = last closed AccountingPeriod; use selected published comparison basis
PeriodEntityAccountBudget AmountActual Amount
05 SepBE-5390COA-5855243,943.4623,808.61
16 SepBE-1672COA-3030222,905.9021,609.61
27 SepBE-5835COA-9180244,448.5134,344.07
26 SepBE-3572COA-4237541,287.0028,015.29
13 SepBE-2303COA-476135,454.0039,993.87
20 SepBE-8408COA-5458146,594.7728,702.36
Variance and board packs →
Pending FluxCommentsVarianceAnalyses
PendingMaterial = true
PeriodEntityOwnerAccountBudget Amount
10 SepBE-3084USCOA-5186943,509.45
25 SepBE-3988YHCOA-7065819,514.07
10 SepBE-6950AGCOA-1127338,562.70
07 SepBE-8207SRCOA-5833132,972.63
12 SepBE-8777NPCOA-3862510,664.89
18 SepBE-7822EVCOA-9192733,044.38

Typical roles

Roles and permissions
Cost-Center Head

Department / cost-center owner. Submits own Entity's BudgetLines (Type: Budget) during the cycle, defends Variance each month with FluxComments, requests BudgetTransfers.

Permissions
  • CRUD on BudgetVersions of own OwnerEntity while Status: Draft — submit flips to Status: Submitted
  • CRUD on BudgetLines of Type: Budget and Type: Forecast within own Version's draft / submission window where BudgetLines.Entity = own Entity OR Entity.Parent = own Entity (covers the sub-cost-center hierarchy under the head)
  • CRUD on RollingForecastSubmissions where Entity = own Entity while Status: Draft → Submitted
FP&A Analyst

Operational role. Loads Actuals, runs and reviews VarianceAnalyses, prepares FluxComments, supports Cost-Center Heads through the submission cycle, drafts BoardPacks for Director review.

Permissions
  • Prepare and validate unpublished Actual and Forecast batches through the controlled workflows
  • cannot edit published snapshots
  • Maintain variance explanations, never manually set computed results or reviewer decisions
FP&A Director

Designs each BudgetCycle, manages Versions through the cycle, runs Scenarios, owns the RollingForecasts, builds BoardPacks. The day-to-day owner of the planning workbench.

Permissions
  • CRUD on BudgetCycles, BudgetVersions (create new Version, advance Status, lock), BudgetLines org-wide (only in authorized Draft Versions), Scenarios, WhatIfRuns, RollingForecasts, ForecastAdjustments, BoardPacks (Status: Draft → Generated → InReview)
  • Read on Targets, Drivers, DriverFormulas, RollingForecastSubmissions, Commitments, Approvals, AssumptionsLog
  • Approve BudgetVersions at the FP&A Director step
CFO

Owns Targets, signs off the final BudgetVersion, reviews and approves BoardPacks. The named approver at the top of the budget-approval chain.

Permissions
  • CRUD on Targets (sets the top-down goalposts)
  • Read on every BudgetCycles, BudgetVersions, BudgetLines, Drivers, DriverValues, DriverFormulas, Scenarios, WhatIfRuns, RollingForecasts, RollingForecastSubmissions, ForecastAdjustments, VarianceAnalyses, FluxComments, Commitments, BudgetTransfers, Approvals, AssumptionsLog org-wide
  • Approve BudgetVersions at the CFO step (Status: InReview → Approved)

Modules

Relevant reports

Reports and analytics

Commitments & Available to Spend

Per Entity per Account per Period: BudgetAmount, ActualAmount, CommittedAmount, AvailableToSpend (locked baseline + applied transfer deltas through the selected cutoff − reconciled Actual − remaining unrecognized Committed), with overcommitted rows flagged. The Cost-Center Head's spend-discipline report.

Budget vs Actual vs Forecast

Per Period per Entity per Account: BudgetAmount, ActualAmount, ForecastAmount, Variance, VariancePct, ForecastVariance, with the Cost-Center Head and FluxStatus surfaced inline. Drillable from LegalEntity → Division → Department → CostCenter → Account, with the FluxComments rendered at the leaf. The FP&A Analyst's daily landing report and the close-week defense pack.

Scenario Comparison

Side-by-side WhatIfRuns for one Version: BaselineRevenue, ScenarioRevenue, BaselineOpEx, ScenarioOpEx, BaselineEBITDA, ScenarioEBITDA, RevenueDelta, EBITDADelta, with InputsSummary expanded. Used by FP&A Director and CFO to stress-test the call before it goes to the board.

Common questions

All questions
Does a forecast change the approved budget?

No. BudgetVersions and published RollingForecast snapshots retain separate identities. A new outlook does not overwrite the locked plan. Transfers and structural revisions follow their own authorization paths.

Related question
Can departments see each other’s proposals?

Cost-Center Heads work within their permitted entity scope. Finance has the authorized consolidated view. Scope also applies to exported data, files, formulas and derived totals.

Related question
How are actuals loaded?

The configured ledger integration stages a closed-period batch with a source identity and cutoff. Reconcile mappings and totals before publishing the complete snapshot. A retry must not duplicate actuals or post a journal.

Related question
How are budget transfers approved?

FP&A Director decides up to and including the configured cycle threshold; CFO decides above it. The exact revision must satisfy the source-availability and period policy. Applied transfers add balanced deltas while retaining the locked baseline.

Related question
What happens when the budget is zero?

The absolute variance remains visible and the percentage is null. Currency and optional percentage thresholds are evaluated separately using the effective account settings.

Related question
Does approving a board pack approve the budget?

CFO packet approval permits distribution of that exact artifact. External board authorization is recorded separately. A board-mandated budget change requires a new draft revision and renewed decisions before locking.

Related question

Other industries

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