Planning

1. Budgets and forecasts are for all Chart of Account (COA) segments, and at all levels of the COA hierarchies.

2. Workforce planning is position-based for faculty, academic staff, and postdoctoral positions, and includes open positions for these position types.

3. Units have access to a new budget request package to submit substantial additional funding requests to the Budget Office. This process replaces the former Commitment Request process.

4. A new organization level planner enables units to assign access to a subset of Orgs within an Entity.

The Profitability and Cost Management (PCM) tool in Oracle is used to calculate budget allocations and allocations required for the General Ledger. Budget allocations in PCM include the current College Tuition, Space, and ITS allocations, as well as future allocations being developed. PCM also can be used for entity specific recurring allocations.

How does PCM improve the way we work?

Allocations will be calculated in a more efficient and standardized way. Entities will have much more visibility into allocation drivers via PCM reporting, and entities can leverage PCM to systematically calculate recurring allocations required.

Who is affected?

Entity budget managers

• Budget allocation reports are available in the Planning module.

• Actuals allocation reports are automatically emailed to budget managers throughout the year.

Entities with non-central allocations (Finance, Risk/Insurance, the Press, Biological Sciences Division, Facilities)

Oracle Planning integrates with several source systems in order to accomplish University-wide connected budgeting and forecasting. By importing budget actuals from the General Ledger and sending budget data back to Oracle Cloud ERP, the University has more integrated and comprehensive data than ever before.

The following systems integrate with Planning:

• Oracle General Ledger

• Oracle Project Portfolio Management (PPM)

• Profitability and Cost Management (PCM)

• Workday

• Enterprise Data Management (EDM)

Oracle provides budget segmentation. Rather than budgets grouped together, the University has separate budgets for revenue, operating expenses, workforce, sponsored research and individual awards and discretionary funds (IADFs), and in the case of the Biological Sciences Division, clinical revenue.

An advantage of the new system is that budget planners have access to a more granular financial picture, enabling them to think more wholistically about management and allocation.

Capital Planning is integrated withOracle Planning, as well as other system requirements that separate Submitter, Reviewer, and Approver roles.

Sept–Oct: “Submitters” Prepare and Submit Requests

• Entity “Reviewers” Revise and Review

Nov–Jan: Provost Office Categorizes and Prioritizes

• Budget Office and Capital Accounting Revise and Review

Feb–Mar: The Board approves or rejects requests

• Fiscal Year Capital Request Finalized

In the off-cycle, the capital request and ad hoc approval process is ongoing.

Q: What systems are currently used to manage budget planning and forecasting before the go-live of Oracle Cloud ERP in July?

A:  1. Delphi (on-premise Hyperion) is used to develop annual operating budget and monthly forecasts. It will remain in use for fiscal year 2024-related functions through the end of the fiscal year, but all fiscal year 2025 planning and forecasting will be done in Oracle.

    2. The University uses Capital Project Budget Request (CPBR) for capital budget requests.

    3. The Biological Sciences Division uses Insight for planning and budgeting.

    4. Centrally funded commitments are tracked manually in spreadsheets.

Q: How does Oracle Planning affect the way we work? 

A: Entity budget managers and capital planners perform all budgeting and planning activities in one system, and entities have the ability to delegate operating budget and monthly forecasting activities to planners at lower levels of the organization structure.