Use this procedure to approve or reject a submitted cost plan as a budget.
Before approving or rejecting a budget plan, you can edit the fields in the Unit, Cost, and Revenue Details section as needed. You can also add line item details to the plan.
Note: You cannot edit an approved budget. Submit a new budget for approval to replace the old budget.
Follow these steps:
The budget plans list appears.
The budget details appear.
An approved cost plan becomes the budget plan for an investment. Because elements of an investment change, you can revise various parts of the budget, or can replace the budget entirely.
You can make two types of revisions to an approved budget plan:
Both revision types provide approval history. However, the replace feature enables you to delete line items that are no longer needed, and to revise grouping attributes and fiscal time periods.
When you submit a cost plan that revises an existing budget, you specify whether to merge or replace using the Submit Options pull-down list. This field appears only when there is at least one approved budget. If the new cost plan has a different structure than the existing budget, Replace is the only option.
When your cost plan is approved, it becomes the revised budget plan with a new version number. You can view the previous version of the budget, which is saved separately. You cannot edit either previous budget plans or the current approved budget plans.
The following diagram describes how a financial administrator creates a budget revision.
Example: Revise a Forward, Inc. Budget Plan
The following example illustrates the options for updating the budget plan throughout this scenario. Forward Inc. has a new project that is planned for later this year. Alice manages the project and has already created a cost plan (ProjectA_estimatedCP-00) with the required roles and estimated costs.
She needs the following roles:
Alice has not yet staffed the project. In her submitted cost plan, she added roles for each of the positions and populated the cost plan for the six months of the project.
When creating the cost plan, Alice used the following properties for her cost plan:
She submitted the estimates for approval as the current budget plan. Alice's product manager approved the estimated budget. The manager knows that the budget will change before the project begins.
Perform these steps to create a budget revision:
To complete all tasks in this scenario, consider the following information:
Have the following access rights:
Complete the following tasks before you begin the scenario:
After you submit a cost plan for approval, it becomes the submitted budget plan. You can edit the submitted budget plan; you cannot edit the budget plan after it is approved.
Add line items to the cost plan and merge the new lines into the budget. For example, you can add a role to a cost plan, and can submit the cost plan for approval as a merged change.
Example: Revise the Budget with a New Role
Alice determines that the new project needs a technical writer to document the online help. She adds the role of Senior Technical Writer to the cost plan, and submits the revised plan, ProjectA_estimatedCP-00, as a merged revision to the budget.
Follow these steps:
The Cost Plan Detail: Properties page appears and displays fields for each grouping attribute that appear in the cost plan. For example, if Role is a grouping attribute, then the Role field displays.
Note: For more information about populating cost plans, see the Financial Management User Guide.
Note: If the cost plan is already the plan of record, skip this step.
Note: If you receive the following message, another cost plan for the investment exists as a submitted budget plan.
Error:A submitted budget already exists.
The submitted budget plan must be approved or rejected before you can submit another plan for approval.
You have submitted a cost plan for approval that merges an added line item into the existing budget.
You can revise the time period values in a cost plan and can merge them into the existing budget plan. Merging values from one or more time periods helps you keep the budget accurate, without having to replace the entire budget.
For example, you receive incremental funding for your budget to account for increases in resource costs. You can revise the cost of the resource for only the affected months.
If you have set a freeze date in the financial entity, you can only edit the cost plan for periods after the freeze date.
Example: Append Time Periods to the Budget Plan
Alice reviews the project plans with her manager and finds she needs to add three months for a new required feature. Alice revises her cost plan by adding three months to the project and populates fields with the cost information for each resource. She submits the revised cost plan, with the ID of ProjectA_estimatedCP-00, as a merged revision with only the additional months.
Follow these steps:
Note: If the cost plan is already the plan of record, skip this step.
Note: If you receive the following message, another cost plan for the investment exists as a submitted budget plan.
Error:A submitted budget already exists.
The submitted budget plan must be approved or rejected before you can submit another plan for approval.
You have submitted a cost plan for approval that merges revisions to time periods in the existing budget.
Delete unnecessary line items and submit the cost plan as a replacement for the budget. For example, if you want to remove a line item from the budget plan, delete the line item in the cost plan. Submit the revised cost plan as a replacement for the budget plan.
Note: Select Replace to delete line items. Selecting Merge prevents the deletion and the line item remains in the submitted budget plan.
Example: Delete a Role and Replace the Budget
Several months before the project starts, Alice discovers that she must transfer the headcount of a test engineer to another project. She deletes the line item for the role for the junior test engineer from the cost plan, ProjectA_estimatedCP-00, and submits the plan for approval. Alice selects Replace to remove the line item from the budget.
Follow these steps:
Note: If the cost plan is already the plan of record, skip this step.
Note: If you receive the following message, another cost plan for the investment exists as a submitted budget plan.
Error:A submitted budget already exists.
The submitted budget plan must be approved or rejected before you can submit another plan for approval.
You have submitted a cost plan for approval that replaces the existing budget.
Choose new grouping attributes and time period types for the budget by creating and submitting a new cost plan that replaces the approved budget plan.
For example, when planning for an upcoming project, you provide an estimated budget with the roles that you think you need. Before the start of the project, you create a cost plan with the actual resources and change the grouping attributes to include Department and Location. You can then submit the new cost plan to replace the approved budget plan.
Example: Submit a New Cost Plan and Replace the Budget
Alice fills all the positions for the team and knows the cost of each resource. She has resources in two locations and wants to group by department and location. Additionally, the product manager asks that she use monthly time periods instead of quarterly. Alice creates a cost plan and adds each resource with their cost details. She makes the following selections to the properties of the cost plan:
Alice saves her changes as ProjectA_actualCP-00, and submits the new budget for approval.
Follow these steps:
Note: For more information about creating cost plans, see the Financial Management User Guide.
Note: If the cost plan is already the plan of record, skip this step.
The Submit Option field lists Replace as the only available option. You must replace the budget when the grouping attributes or the fiscal time period type are different from those selected properties for the existing budget.
Note: If you receive the following message, another cost plan for the investment exists as a submitted budget plan.
Error:A submitted budget already exists.
The submitted budget plan must be approved or rejected before you can submit another plan for approval.
You have submitted a cost plan for approval that replaces the existing budget.
After you submit the cost plan for approval, it becomes available as the submitted budget plan. You can view the status of the budget plan, as well as edit the plan if you have access rights.
Example: Edit and Verify the Submitted Budget Plan
Alice has submitted the revised cost plan for approval. The plan remains in the submitted budget plan state until her manager approves it. She verifies that her revisions have been merged into or have replaced the budget correctly. While Alice reviews the plan, she sees that the cost value for October is incorrect for one of the resources. She manually changes the value and saves her changes. Her manager approves the budget; and Alice has successfully revised the approved budget plan with her changes.
Follow these steps:
After you have verified that the submitted budget is correct and it has been approved, you have successfully revised the approved budget plan.
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