Budgets, Forecasts, Workforce Planning, and Business Cases — FAQs and Troubleshooting

Use this page for questions and troubleshooting related to budget planning, forecast management, workforce planning, business case analysis, cloud forecasting, the budget contributor workflow, and the push-to-baseline process in Yarken.

Planning overview

Q: What planning capabilities does Yarken offer?

A: Yarken's Planning module provides four distinct capabilities:

Budget & Forecast workflow

Q: What is the end-to-end budget and forecast workflow?

A: The workflow follows a structured cycle involving two key roles:

Workflow stages:

This structured workflow enforces governance, accountability, and auditability across the planning process.

Q: Is the Entity field required when importing a budget or forecast file?

A: No. Entity is optional during file import. If the Entity Code column is empty or contains a value that does not match any configured entity, the application automatically assigns those records to the Default entity.

This means:

• You do not need to correct entity codes before uploading

• Records with null entity codes will load successfully under the Default entity

• Records with incorrect or misspelled entity codes will also fall back to the Default entity rather than failing

Q: What are the roles involved in the budget and forecast workflow?

A: Two specialized roles drive the workflow:

Both roles must be combined with a core role (typically Power User or Admin) for platform access. Both roles require cost center access to see the relevant planning data.

Q: What happens when a Budget Contributor submits their review?

A: When a contributor submits:

1. The assigned cost center budget/forecast is marked as Submitted

2. The Budget Process Owner receives the submission for review

3. The Budget Process Owner can:

   • Approve — accept the submission

   • Return for revision — send back with comments for the contributor to update and resubmit

4. Once approved, the data can be published as baseline

Contributors cannot modify their submission after submitting until the Budget Process Owner returns it for revision.

Q: What does "Set as Baseline" mean?

A: Set as baseline is the final step where the Budget Process Owner publishes the approved budget or forecast data to the respective model in Designer.

Once pushed:

• The data becomes available in Analytics, Custom Dashboards, and Cost Explorer

• Variance analysis (Spend vs. Budget, Spend vs. Forecast) becomes possible

• Auto-created rules may be generated if the data includes Cost Pool and Tower mappings

• Previously pushed baseline data for the same entity is replaced

Q: Can a budget or forecast cycle be reopened after approval?

A: No, the Budget Process Owner cannot reopen approved budget or forecast for revision.

Budget Contributor experience

Q: What does a Budget Contributor see in Planning?

A: Budget Contributors access their assigned data through Planning → Cost Centre Budgets & Forecasts. They can view:

• Only the cost centers assigned to them (controlled by Cost Center Access)

• Budget/forecast line items distributed by the Budget Process Owner

• Account-level breakdowns for each assigned cost center

• Historical data for reference (if a base year was selected)

Contributors can update values, add comments, and submit for approval. They cannot create new cycles, assign cost centers, or approve submissions.

Q: Can a Budget Contributor add new line items or cost centers?

A: No. Budget Contributors can only review and update the line items and cost centers assigned to them by the Budget Process Owner. They cannot:

• Add new cost centers to the cycle

• Add new accounts or line items

• Modify the cycle's scope or configuration

• Approve or publish data

If additional line items or cost centers are needed, the Budget Process Owner must update the cycle configuration and redistribute.

Workforce Planning

Q: What is Workforce Planning?

A: Workforce Planning enables organizations to plan headcount and automatically generate corresponding financial budgets. Instead of manually calculating labor costs, you define:

1. Workforce roles — job titles or categories with associated annual rates

2. Role-to-account mappings — how each role's cost maps to financial accounts (with percentage distributions)

3. Headcount plans — how many people in each role, per cost center, per month

Yarken then auto-generates the financial budget entries based on the headcount × rate × account distribution, eliminating manual calculations.

Q: What are the prerequisites for Workforce Planning?

A: Before using Workforce Planning, ensure the following are configured:

Q: How do I configure workforce roles and rates?

A: Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Workforce Planning settings (accessed through Admin)

2. Define each role:

3. For each role, create role-to-account mappings:

The percentages across all mapped accounts for a single role must total 100%.

Q: How does Workforce Planning generate budget entries?

A: When a workforce plan is created, Yarken automatically calculates budget entries using:

For example, if you plan 3 Senior Engineers at $150,000/year with account distribution of 80% Salaries / 15% Benefits / 5% Training:

These entries are generated automatically and can be included in the budget cycle for review by Budget Contributors.

Q: Who can create and review workforce plans?

A: Workforce Planning follows the same role structure as Budget & Forecast:

Budget Contributors reviewing workforce plans also need cost center access for the relevant cost centers.

Business Case

Q: What is the Business Case capability?

A: Business Case allows users to model and analyze financial scenarios for technology investments. It supports:

• Cost-benefit analysis for proposed projects or initiatives

• Scenario comparison (e.g., build vs. buy, on-premises vs. cloud)

• ROI calculations and payback period analysis

• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) projections

Business Case operates independently from the Budget & Forecast workflow — Business Case data is not pushed to models.

Q: How does Business Case differ from Budget & Forecast?

A: Key differences:

• Use Business Case for one-off investment analysis. Use Budget & Forecast for annual planning cycles with governance and accountability.

• The budget and forecast pushes to Budget/Forecast model as baseline, while Business Case has standalone analysis and does not flow into models.

Cloud Forecast

Q: What is Cloud Forecast?

A: Cloud Forecast provides specialized forecasting capabilities for cloud consumption and spending. It enables teams to:

• Project future cloud costs based on historical consumption trends

• Analyze cloud spending patterns by service, region, and account

• Create cloud-specific forecasts independently from the broader IT budget

• Compare forecast vs. actual cloud consumption

Cloud Forecast requires the Cloud Engineer or Cloud Cost Owner specialized role.

Planning and entity/multi-currency support

Q: How does multi-entity work with Planning?

A: Budget and forecast cycles are created per entity. Each cycle is scoped to a single entity:

• The Budget Process Owner selects the entity when creating the cycle

• Cost centers and accounts within that entity are available for planning

• Budget Contributors see only data for their assigned cost centers within the entity

• When pushed as baseline, the data is stored against the selected entity in the model

For organizations with multiple entities, separate budget/forecast cycles are created for each entity.

Q: How does multi-currency work with Planning?

A: Planning supports multi-currency through the platform's currency configuration:

• Budget and forecast values can be entered in the entity's local currency

• Currency conversion rates are applied based on the configured exchange rates

• Analytics and dashboards display planning data in the selected reporting currency

• Variance analysis (Spend vs. Budget) respects currency conversions

Currency settings are configured in Admin → Settings → Currency.

Troubleshooting Planning

Budget Contributor sees empty Planning screen — no cost center budgets visible

Cause: One or more of the three required conditions is not met: role assignment, cost center access, or distribution.

Resolution:

1. Verify the user has the Budget Contributor role assigned in Admin → User Management → Users

2. Verify the user has the correct cost centers assigned in Admin → User Management → Cost Center Access

3. Verify the Budget Process Owner has distributed the budget/forecast cycle to the contributor

4. If all three are configured, ask the user to clear browser cache and sign in again

5. Verify the correct entity is selected — the contributor can only see data for entities where they have entity access

Budget Process Owner cannot set budget/forecast as baseline — button not available

Cause: The budget/forecast cycle may not be in the correct status for baseline publishing. All assigned cost centers must be approved before publishing is available.

Resolution:

1. Navigate to the budget/forecast cycle in Planning → Budget & Forecast

2. Check the submission status for all assigned cost centers — all must show Approved

3. If any cost centers are still in Submitted or Draft status, approve or follow up with the contributor

4. Once all cost centers are approved, the Set as Baseline option becomes available

5. Select the target model and confirm

Workforce Planning shows no roles, cost centers, or entities for selection

Cause: Workforce Planning prerequisites are not fully configured.

Resolution:

1. Verify workforce roles are configured with role code, name, and annual rate

2. Verify role-to-account mappings exist for each role (with percentages totaling 100%)

3. Verify accounts, cost centers, and entities exist in Master Data

4. Verify the user has the correct role:

   • Admin — to configure roles and rates

   • Budget Process Owner — to create workforce plans

   • Budget Contributor — to review workforce plans

5. Verify the user has cost center access and entity access for the relevant dimensions

Budget/Forecast data not appearing in Analytics after push to baseline

Cause: The data was pushed as baseline, but the Analytics cube has not refreshed to include the new data.

Resolution:

1. Verify the push as baseline completed successfully in Planning → Budget & Forecast

2. Trigger a manual cube refresh or wait for the next scheduled refresh

3. Clear browser cache and reload Analytics

4. Verify the correct model is selected in the Analytics model filter

5. Check the year and entity filters — ensure they match the pushed data

6. If using a custom model, verify the dynamic measures are generated

Auto-created rules from Budget/Forecast upload conflicting with manual rules

Cause: When Budget or Forecast expense files include mapped Cost Pool + Sub Cost Pool or Tower + Sub Tower values, Yarken auto-generates allocation rules. These auto-created rules cannot be manually edited or deleted, which may create confusion if manual rules also exist.

Resolution:

1. Understand the precedence: auto-created rules from Budget/Forecast uploads are system-managed

2. To change auto-created rules, update the source Budget or Forecast data and re-upload

3. Manual rules and auto-created rules operate independently — review both sets in the RULES tab

4. If conflicting, adjust the source data to align with the desired allocation logic

5. Consider removing Cost Pool/Tower mappings from the upload file if manual rules should take precedence

Workforce Planning auto-generated budget entries show incorrect amounts

Cause: The role-to-account mapping percentages may not total 100%, the annual rate may be incorrect, or the headcount values are wrong.

Resolution:

1. Navigate to Workforce Planning settings and verify the annual rate for the affected role

2. Check the role-to-account mappings — percentages must total 100% for each role

3. Review the headcount plan — verify monthly headcount values are correct

4. Recalculate expected values manually: (Headcount × Annual Rate × Account %) ÷ 12

5. If the calculated values match the system values, the configuration is correct — review the reported discrepancy

6. If there's a genuine mismatch, update the role configuration and regenerate the workforce plan

Budget variance in Analytics shows unexpected results

Cause: The variance calculation depends on both Spend and Budget data being loaded for the same periods, entities, and cost structure. Misalignment causes misleading variance figures.

Resolution:

1. Verify actual Spend data is loaded for the same periods as the Budget data

2. Verify both datasets use the same entity and cost center structure

3. Check that allocation rules are complete in both the Spend and Budget models — unallocated spend in either model affects variance calculations

4. Verify the correct model and year are selected in Analytics filters

5. Trigger a cube refresh if data was recently loaded or pushed as baseline

6. For Consumer-level variance, verify Consumer mappings exist in both models

Related content

• Planning

• Yarken Budget and forecast workflow

• Business Case

• Workforce Planning

• Cloud Forecast