The Solicitation Process

The solicitation process allocates the data in the plan to the locations below for editing and approval. The budget manager at each location edits the data and releases it to the budget managers of the locations below it for editing and release to the next level. This process repeats until the plan reaches the bottom level of locations in the solicitation process. The plan is then submitted back up the hierarchy, one level at a time, where the budget manager at each location edits it and submits it to the parent location, until it reaches the root level.

This chapter describes how budget managers review, edit, and approve the budget or forecast. During the solicitation process, budgets and forecasts are released down the organizational hierarchy and submitted up the organizational hierarchy. Depending on your location, your role, and the state of the location, buttons for editing and approving are either enabled or disabled.

  • The budget manager of a parent location can perform any of the following tasks by clicking the appropriate Worksheet buttons: Recalculate, Save, Submit, Release, and Comments.
  • The budget manager of a root location can perform any of the following tasks by clicking the appropriate Worksheet buttons: Release, Lock, Unlock, Publish, Unpublish, and Comment. The Lock button is enabled only after all child locations have submitted their data.

For information about:

At any time, you can publish the budget/forecast so that LFSO can use it for scheduling purposes. However, publishing alone does not connect the payroll dollars to scheduling: some LFSO-side setup is required to trigger the interface between Labor Budgeting and LFSO. See Constraining Schedules in LFSO Using Plan Payroll Dollars.

For further information on state changes, see States.

The following columns on the Worksheet are editable during the solicitation process:

  • Budget: Hours
  • Forecast: Sales, Payroll Percent, Holiday Hours, Vacation Hours, and Other Hours (non-productive hours).

For information about these columns, see Worksheet Columns in the Budget Management Module.