Dear Budget Colleagues,
On Thursday, August 26, 2021, we hosted a webcast to kick off our new Budget system! During the event, we showed you some of the key features of our new system that will make budget entry and review a delightful joy!
We touched on enhancements including:
- real-time publishing
- more efficient position entries
- exporting/importing budget loads in Excel
- inclusion of department capital project requests
- and more!
Presentation Deck
- Please see attached file.
Recording
Q&A
Q: Will there still be a position reconciliation process?
A: Yes, but it will be primarily focused on temp positions. We are unable to bring over the temp position numbers into the new Budget system. Due to the way temp positions are classified in SF People & Pay, there is no way for the Budget system to match with the temp position numbers.
Q: Will all the existing budget reports be available in BFM with the same numbers? I meant will all reports that we can currently run through BI be available to users in BFM? And will they have the same numbers so we can easily tell they're the same?
A: Yes, we will have some past budget years' reports in BFM. On the position side, we do not have the position number as part of the budgeting process in the past, so it will be at the chart of accounts level, with no position/job class details.
Q: Is there allocation functionality, or plans to add (COWCAP, overhead, etc.)?
A: We will be evaluating this in the future. We worked with CON-BAD and Systems BI teams to evaluate streamlining the COWCAP process. COWCAP requires a lot of actual data and has a complicated methodology for unique schedules that do not translate consistently to a standard report. It is more of artwork rather than something the system can do. We will be assessing overhead, as each department has a different overhead model. Therefore, we'll need to work with each individual department, talk with MBO and BAD teams to see if we want to build an overhead model in the system.
Q: Will there be any budget history data available for reporting in the new system?
A: Yes, it will be very high level, starting from the FY 18-19 budget cycle.
Q: Will dept HR staff who might work more with People & Pay be trained for the position reconciliation component? Or does dept budget/finance staff need to do that?
A: We will get back to you on this question. We see this as being a collaborative effort between HR staff and budget staff to make sure what budget staff enter in the system looks like what the HR staff is entering into SF People & Pay.
Q: Will there be "error checks" in the new system and indicate how or what needs to be corrected before the system allows you to save changes.
A: For the Chart of Accounts, there are some validations, but it depends on what fields you are working on. The Project, Activity, Authority, fund, and Account Chartfields are shared by all departments, so they're not validated against the department code, but are validated with SF Financials to ensure they are valid Chartfields. Departments will need to continue to confirm that their intended Chartfields are loaded into the budget.
Q: Similar to the capital project requests, will COIT requests be handled in the new system too?
A: This will be a post-go-live project. COIT is a bit different, their questionnaire is more complex, so we will re-assess after go-live and let you know if we will incorporate COIT requests.
Q: Will there be other work departments need to do other than work order & position validation?
A: Yes, Risa will begin reaching out to departments regarding the grants crosswalk in the coming weeks.
Q: Will the Budget module be available in the Employee Gateway every day during the budget process? Some Gateway Work Link modules do not appear to be available during payroll processing periods.
A: Yes, the new Budget system will be available every day. This will not be impacted by payroll processing. The only exception would be if the login for the entire SF Employee Portal is down.
Q: Given the real-time updates, does this mean there is no downtime for system entry/report access?
A: Yes, this is correct. During the daytime, there will be minimal downtime for system maintenance and upgrade needs. These will not be during Budget season, so there's no need to worry. There may be slower performance when we need to perform full-time projections of all position entries entered by departments. On daily basis, we do delta (change) projections, but when there's a need for full-time projections the system may be slower. This will impact MBO and CON-BAD more than individual departments.
Q: Will the system automatically calculate and include step & premium into the position salary line, or will those continue to be individual budget lines?
A: Those will still be individual budget lines, as auto calculating step and premium requires employee data, and we are not bringing individual employee data over to the budget system.
Q: Will there be reconciliation reports generated during this process? Also, how will attrition transfer over?
A: Yes, there will be audit trails within the forms. To respond further, we will need more information on the particular reconciliation report referring to. We will have a Position eTurn report at the position # level, including all chart fields, budgeted FTE, and salary and benefit value. Attrition is still a lump sum budgeted value in the budget, not tied to any position not planned to be filled.
Q: Since the new system will include Capital, how do we add those Capital staff to access the new system to do those entries? Will Capital Planning be facilitating that, or will Dept. Budget staff need to get that done?
A: We will have a new budget system access request form published soon. Please submit an access request form with the “capital only” check box checked for Capital Staff’s access to the new budget system.
Q: In the new system, will it be simpler to identify recent entry changes and the edit user?
A: There is an audit trail inside the form for each line.
Q: How will position-based budgeting impact our baseline budgets (up/down). Or are we still budgeting at step 5?
A: We are still budgeting primarily at the top step, we are only bringing position # over to streamline the ASO reconciliation process, no employee data will be brought over.
Q: Do we need role mapping in FSP to access BFM, and will there be a change to subsetting Chartfields?
A: If you are existing budget system users, we have requested to update your role to access BFM. There will still be a subsetting process as codes used in budgets are just a fraction of all the codes in FSP.