Overview

Financial Planning gives each initiative a financial plan: a spreadsheet-style worksheet for planning the budget and forecast by category and period. It is intended for initiative owners and finance partners who plan across many periods at once.

A plan moves through three stages:

Stage	Description
Pre-baseline	All figures can be edited directly.
Approval	You apply for funds. When the funding request is approved, the initiative is funded and the plan is baselined.
Baselined	Budget increases require approval. Budget decreases and forecast changes apply immediately.

Plan Structure

Element	Description
Plan	Each initiative has one plan. Portfolios don't have plans.
Rows	Your organization's financial categories.
Columns	The periods in the plan's horizon. The plan's period (for example monthly) is set when the plan is created and can't be changed.
Layers	Budget, Forecast and Actuals, shown in the same grid.
Horizon	The plan's start and end dates.

The plan uses the same figures as the initiative's Financials tab; a change in one appears in the other.

Open or create a plan

Open the initiative and select the Financials tab.
Select the Financial Plan view, or select Financial Planning on the Overview.

A plan is created automatically when the initiative's first cost is added, with a horizon covering that cost. If the initiative runs longer than the plan, select Extend to the initiative's dates below the header.

Plan header

The header shows the plan's period, its stage (pre-baseline or baselined) and its horizon, together with:

Summary figures: Budget, Forecast, Actuals and Remaining (budget not yet spent).
Work with Financial Agent and Baselining (described below).
Alerts, when either of the following applies:
- Forecast exceeds budget: the alert shows the gap, for example "Forecast ($2,512,575) exceeds budget ($2,399,836) by $112,740.", and suggests requesting additional funding or rebalancing categories.
- No forecast: the plan has a budget but no forecast, and the alert suggests a forecast refresh. A forecast refresh fills each forecast cell with the actual spend where spend exists, and with the budget where it doesn't. Cells you've edited are left unchanged.

Plan tab

The Plan tab contains the worksheet. Choose the layer (Budget, Forecast or Actuals) and how periods are grouped (Monthly, Quarterly or Annual). The worksheet provides undo and redo, formatting tools, a formula bar (fx), a Search box and a filter on each column heading.

Enter costs
1. Choose the Budget or Forecast layer.
2. Select the cell for a category and period, and enter the amount.
3. Select Save changes.
Import costs
1. Select Import to load costs from an Excel workbook.
  Note: An import replaces the existing lines in each layer it contains rather than adding to them. Budget imports are blocked once the plan is baselined.
Apply for funds
When the plan is final, select Apply for Funds in the toolbar above the worksheet. SPM immediately sends the plan's total budget for approval, without a confirmation step, and shows Sent for funding approval.
1. A Funding request appears in Intake and is routed to the approvers named in your organization's funding policy.
2. The initiative's funding shows Pending Approval until the request is decided.
3. When the request is approved, the initiative is funded and the plan is baselined.

Variance tab

The Variance tab compares budget, forecast and actuals by category and period, including forecast against budget and actuals against budget.

History tab

The History tab lists previous versions of the plan, its baselines and a log of every change, including who made it. Select See detailed ledger → to view the individual entries behind the figures.

Work with the Financial Agent

Select Work with Financial Agent to draft the plan in a conversation. The agent asks a small number of optional questions and can use documents you upload, such as a business case. It then proposes budget and forecast lines and, where relevant, resource assignments. No changes are saved until you apply the result.

Resource assignments proposed by the agent are added as Draft and remain in draft until the budget is approved.

Baselining

A baseline is a snapshot of the plan's budget and forecast at the time it was agreed. It provides a fixed reference for measuring later changes. Actuals aren't included.

Select Baselining in the plan header to view the plan's baseline status.
Select Capture baseline to capture a baseline and route it for approval.

Changes to a baselined plan

A baselined plan shows the note "Baselined — budget increases are held on save and routed as funding changes."

Change	Result
Increase or add a budget amount	Held and sent to Intake as a funding change. Applied only when approved.
Decrease a budget amount	Applied immediately.
Change the forecast or actuals	Applied immediately.

If no funding policy matches a funding change, it must be routed manually from Intake.