Finalizing, Locking, and Exporting the Annual Budget

When the solicitation process is complete, the budget is locked. The budget can then be exported to a CSV file for use in an external system. The data can be reviewed (and updated if necessary) and imported back into the system at which time it can go through an additional approval process (root budget manager must unlock the budget first) or be set as the annual budget.

Before a budget is imported for finalization (to be set as the annual budget), the budget manager must first lock the budget; this sets all records to the Locked state. Once locked, the records can be viewed, but not updated, by all the locations.

The root budget manager can unlock the budget at the Corporate level. Unlocking sets all the locations except the root location to Initial state, which means that they cannot view numbers, even if they submitted them.

When all the locations have been submitted to the root budget manager’s location for review and finalization, the system sends the root budget manager a Workmail notification indicating so. Once all the budget managers (excluding the root budget manager) submit the budget, they can no longer edit the data; it is available only for viewing.

Upon receipt of the Workmail notification, the root budget manager reviews the budget, makes any last-minutes changes to it, locks it and then runs the Budget Export Job Scheduler task to export the Master copy of the selected budget from the Budget Management module to a CSV file.

The granularity of the exported data matches the granularity of the data in the workflow; that is, if only periodic data is available, then periodic values are exported. Likewise, if weekly data is available, then weekly data is exported. All configured data elements of the budget are included in the export, as defined in the mapping.

When the budget export process is complete, you can view the Job Scheduler log to determine whether the export process ran successfully. If the export failed, view the log file for information about the failure and the appropriate action.

During the rest of the year, occasional budget edits may occur to account for exceptions, such as shifting store opening or closing dates, and natural disasters.

Exporting a parent location also exports all the locations under it.

For instructions on exporting the budget, see Exporting a Plan.