Releasing Down the Hierarchy

Releasing a budget or forecast means passing the budget or forecast for the selected location(s) down the hierarchy for review. After releasing a budget or forecast, the budget manager can no longer edit it but can still view it.

After the root budget manager releases the budget, all the budget managers at locations for which the numbers were released receives a Workmail notification indicating that the budget is ready for their review, edit, and approval.

When the budget or forecast is released to the level below for initial or further review, the released budget or forecast is set to be edited by the budget manager(s) of the next level in the review process. If you release the budget or forecast to all your children, the state of your node changes from Pending to Released, and the state of the children to whom it was released changes to Pending. However, if you release the budget or forecast to only some of the children, then the state of your node remains Pending and you can still edit the numbers of the children that you did not release.

Any comments that the parent added when releasing the budget are displayed in the mail notification that the child receives. The budget managers then review the budget Worksheet, make any modifications to the Hours (Adjusted Hours column) and then release it down or submit it up to the desired location(s). The budget manager can choose which location(s) to release the budget. This "release down" process continues until it reaches the very last location level in the hierarchy (for example, Store location).

In the phased view, once you have released the budget, you cannot see the changes that are made by other levels until the numbers are submitted to your level again.

When you release the budget/forecast, the system checks whether changes to the hours violate the maximum annual payroll and minimum required hours rules:

• If the maximum annual payroll rule is violated, the budget manager can still release the budget down but cannot submit the budget up.
• If the minimum required hours rule is violated, the budget manager can still release the budget either up or down the hierarchy.

If not accepted violations have occurred, you cannot release the budget/forecast. See Messages and Comments when Releasing.

If you try to release to a location for which the corresponding location type has been excluded from the solicitation process, an error message is displayed. See Messages and Comments when Releasing.

For information about the Exclude from Solicitation feature, see Excluding All Locations of the Same Location Type.