Exercise - Configure budget planning, create, and use a planning process
This exercise will focus specifically on the following business processes or tasks.
Creating an organizational hierarchy for budget planning and configuring user security
Defining budget plan scenarios, budget plan columns, layouts, and Microsoft Excel templates
Creating and activating the budget planning process
Creating a budget plan document by pulling in actuals from General ledger
Using allocations to adjust budget plan document data
Editing budget plan document data in Excel
Prerequisites
To get the most benefit from this exercise we recommend that you have the standard sample data available in Dynamics 365 Finance that is installed by using Lifecycle Services, and be provisioned as an administrator on the instance.
Do not use In Private browser mode for this exercise; sign out from any other account in the browser, if needed, and sign in with Finance administrator credentials. When signing into Finance, you must select the Keep me signed in check box.
This creates a persistent cookie that the Excel app currently needs. If you sign in to Dynamics 365 Finance by using a browser other than Microsoft Edge, then you'll be prompted to sign in within the Excel app. When you select Sign in in the Excel app, an IE popup window will open. When signing in, you must select the Keep me signed in check box. If selecting Sign in in the Excel app doesn't appear to do anything, then you should clear the IE cookie cache.
Scenario
A Finance manager works in Contoso Entertainment Systems in Germany (DEMF). As FY2016 approaches, the Finance manager needs to work on setting up the company's budget for the upcoming year. Budget preparation looks as follows:
The Finance manager uses previous year actuals amounts as a starting point to create the budget.
Based on the previous year actuals, the Finance manager creates estimates for 12 months in the upcoming year.
The Finance manager reviews the budget with the CFO. Afterward, they make necessary adjustments for the budget plan and finalizes budget preparation. The Finance manager uses an Excel template to prepare the budget.
Configuration
Create the organizational hierarchy
Because the entire budgeting process happens in the Finance department, The Finance manager needs to create a simple organizational hierarchy consisting of the Finance department only.
Go to Organization administration > Organizations > Organization hierarchies.
Select the New button.
Type the name for the organizational hierarchy and select the Assign purpose link.
Select Budget planning, select the Add button, and then assign the newly created organizational hierarchy.
Repeat the step above for Security organizational purpose.
Close the page when done.
In the Organization hierarchies page, select the View button. Select Edit in the Hierarchy designer and create a hierarchy by selecting the Insert button.
Select Department and Finance for the budgeting hierarchy.
When done, select Publish and Close. Select 1/1/2019 as the effective date for hierarchy publishing.
Configure user security
Budget planning uses special security policies to configure access to budget plan data. The Finance manager needs to give themself access to Finance budget plans.
In company DEMF, go to Budgeting > Setup > Budget planning > Budget planning configuration.
In the Parameters tab, set the Security model value to Based on security organizations.
Click Save.
Go to System administration > Users > Users.
Assign the user Admin (Julia Funderburk) the Budget manager role by selecting Admin and under User’s roles select Assign roles.
Select the Budget manager role.
Pick the user role and select Assign organizations.
Select Grant access to specific organizations.
Pick the Organizational hierarchy that was created in the first step.
Pick the Finance node and select the Grant with children button.
Note that you might need to refresh your browser to have the eXtensible Data Security (XDS) policy take effect the next time you log in to Dynamics 365 Finance.
Create scenarios
In DEMF, go to Budgeting > Setup > Budget planning > Budget planning configuration.
In the Scenarios page, you will use Previous year actuals and Budgeted.
Create budget plan columns
Budget plan columns are either Monetary or quantity-based columns that can be used in budget plan document layout. In this example, you need to create a budget column for Previous year actuals and 12 budget columns to represent each month in a budgeted year.
Columns can be created either by simply selecting the Add button and filling in the values, or with the help of Data entity. In this exercise, you will use Data entity to fill in the values.
Important
You must use Microsoft Excel 2016 to complete this exercise.
In DEMF, go to Budgeting > Setup > Budget planning > Budget planning configuration.
Select the Columns page.
Select the Office button on the top right corner of the page, and then select Budget plan columns (unfiltered).
The system will open an Excel workbook that you can use to fill in the values. If prompted, select Enable editing and Trust this app.
You will need more columns in which to fill the values. Select Design on the right-side pane to add the columns to the grid.
Select the small pencil button next to Budget plan columns to view available columns to add to the grid.
Double-click each available field to add them to Selected fields, and then select Update.
To autofill the lines in Excel, select Refresh in the Data Connector.
Add 13 rows to Excel by selecting +New.
In the rows, insert budgeted columns to represent each month of the budgeted year and a row for Previous year actuals.
In the Data Connector select Publish to update the values in the environment.
Return to Finance and refresh the page. Published values will appear in Finance.
Create budget plan document layouts and templates
Layout defines how the budget plan document lines grid is going to look like when the user opens the budget plan document. It is also possible to switch the layout for the budget plan document to view the same data in different ways.
Now that you have defined columns that can be used with the budget plan document, the Finance manager needs to create a budget plan document layout, which would look similar to the Excel table that they use to create budget data.
In DEMF, go to Budgeting > Setup > Budget planning > Budget planning configuration.
Select the Layouts page.
Create a new layout for the Monthly budget entry. Select the MA+BU dimension set to include Main accounts and Business units to the layout. Then, list all budget plan columns, which were created in the previous step. Make all but Previous year actuals editable.
Select the Descriptions button to select which financial dimensions should display Descriptions in the grid.
Based on the budget plan layout definition, you can create an Excel template to be used as an alternative way to edit Budget data. Because the Excel template needs to match the budget plan layout definition, you won't be able to edit the budget plan layout after generating the Excel template. Therefore, this task should be done after all layout components are defined.
For the layout that was created, select the Template > Generate button.
Confirm the warning message.
To view the template, select Template > View.
Refresh the Data Connector to load data.
Make sure to select Save as and select the place where the template should be stored so you are able to edit it. If the user selects Open in the dialog without saving, the changes done to the file will not be retained when the file is closed.
Create a budget planning process
The Finance manager needs to create and activate a new budget planning process, that combines all setup tasks previously performed, to start entering budget plans. The budget planning process defines which budgeting organizations, workflow, layouts, and templates will be used for creating budget plans.
Go to Budgeting > Setup > Budget planning > Budget planning process and create a new record by using the following information:
Budget planning process - DEMF budgeting FY2016
Budget cycle - FY2016
Ledger - DEMF
Default account structure - Manufacturing P&L
Organization hierarchy - pick the hierarchy that was created in the beginning of the exercise
Budget planning workflow - assign the Auto - Approve workflow for the Finance department
In budget planning stage rules and layouts, for each workflow Budget planning stage, select whether adding lines and modifying lines is allowed and what layout should be used by default. make sure add lines and modify lines are selected. Use the Layout made in the previous step.
In the Action Pane, select Actions, and then in the Process state, select Activate.
Generate initial data for the budget plan from General ledger
Go to Budgeting > Periodic > Generate budget plan from General ledger.
Fill in the periodic process parameters and select the Generate button.
Go to Budgeting > Budget plans to find a budget plan created by Generate process to see the budget that is created.
Open document details by selecting the Document number hyperlink. Budget plan is displayed as defined in the layout that was created during this lab.
Create a current year budget based on previous year actuals
Allocation methods can be used in the budget plan to easily copy information for budget plans from one scenario to another, spread them across periods, and allocate to dimensions. In this task, you will use allocations to create current year budget from previous year actuals.
Pick all lines in the budget plan document grid and select the Allocate budget button.
Select Allocation method, Period key, Source and destination scenarios, and then select Allocate.
The previous year actual amounts will be copied to the current year budget. Allocate the amounts across periods by using the Sales curve period key.
Adjust a budget plan document by using Excel and finalize the document
Select the Worksheet button to open document contents in Excel.
When an Excel workbook opens, adjust the numbers in the budget plan document, and then select the Publish button.
Return to the budget plan document in Finance. Select Workflow > Submit to Auto-approve the document.
When the workflow completes, the budget plan document stage changes to Approved.