Skip to main content
Planview Customer Success Center

Financial Planning

Financial Planning

The Financial Planning capability supports the planning and management of product, program, and project financial information and the monitoring of financial performance. Each capability within the Planview Capability Framework has a distinct set of features and functionality, business processes, best practices, and analytics and reports that deliver value to customers in the form of specific business outcomes.

Processes and Reports

conceptual image_financial planning and cost management.jpg 

The financial planning capability supports the forecasting of costs and revenue to build a financial plan and baseline a budget. These budgets support strategic investment planning by providing the context of budgets to analyze against demand, enabling you to assess your organization’s ability to take on new investments. When implemented with the cost management capability, financial planning also provides detailed planned vs. actual variance reporting.

           

Video: Financial Planning Demo

 

Financial Planning Process Steps

           

Financial Planning PF.pngForecast resource effort costs Forecast non-resource costs Forecast benefits and/or revenue Develop business case Baseline project budget Capture actual costs Manage forecasted resource effort/costs Manage forecasted non-resource costs Manage forecasted benefits and/or revenue Monitor financial performance

Financial planning process flow

           

Process Step Description
Forecast resource effort and costs

Estimate the high-level resource costs.

​Managers can plan resource costs by entering role-level demand directly into the financial plan in either FTEs or days. This demand is associated with certain resource details such as organizational role and location. The application then determines the costs of the resources based on their attribute categorization and estimated effort.

For the purpose of balancing capacity with demand during investment and capacity planning, an administrator can load the capacity of a cost center-based financial plan for either a portfolio of cost centers, or all cost centers. Administrators can load this capacity immediately or schedule the load.

Forecast non-resource costs

Estimate the high-level non-resource costs. Managers can use the Financials screen to enter this data manually, or use planned, unplanned, and actual expenditures attached to a project or task.

Forecast benefits and revenue Estimate the financial benefit of delivering the work.
Develop business case

Ensure the business case attributes are correct and current, which drive a business case analytic output.

The business case can include forecast financial data, planned schedule and milestone dates, and the core attributes derived from the organizational data model.

For projects, project managers can use the WRK13 – Project and Portfolio Business Case report to see a summary of key business case information on a single project or across a portfolio.

Baseline budget

Build a budget by creating an initial estimate of costs. Managers can take a baseline of the financial plan to capture a snapshot of the original budget. They can then compare this baseline with future baselines to monitor progress. Financial baselines are created by copying the current forecast version to a baseline version. This can be done manually, or as part of a lifecycle step.

For more information:

                                 

           

Financial Planning Reports

How are we able to understand all cost and benefits forecast for programs, work, or projects across the organization?

FastTrack Power BI Showcase Dashboards – Strategy – Strategy Financial Analysis

Power BI Dashboard

This dashboard shows the forecasted costs of strategic initiatives and programs in select portfolios, allowing you to identify the trend of forecasted costs over time. You can configure the dashboard to slice and display data in numerous ways.

Strategy Portfolio – Portfolio Manager – Customizable Column Set

Tile

This allows you to see strategy data in a customizable column set, including roadmaps, financials, effort, and more.

STR31 – Strategic Portfolio Cost and Benefit Analysis

Analytic

This report analyzes program data and summarized portfolio financial plan data, with effort represented as FTEs, days, and hours, and financials as cost, benefits, and revenue. You can slice data by strategy attributes, account structure levels, or line attributes of selected accounts. The report can be configured to run against each level in the strategy structure.

STR32 – Strategic Portfolio Financial Performance

Analytic

This report compares versions of the strategic program and summarized portfolio financial plan data, with effort represented as FTEs, days, and hours, and financials as cost, benefits, and revenue. A burndown chart is included for the portfolio and each initiative. You can run the report against each level in the strategy structure.

STR33 – Strategic Initiative Pipeline Matrix

Analytic

This report can select cost, revenue, or benefit-based measures from the financial planning data to drive bubble size and visualize the pipeline of strategic initiatives. You can configure the report to run against each level in the strategy structure.

STR34 – Strategic Portfolio Investment Risk and Reward

Analytic

This report allows you to select benefit or revenue measures for the x-axis, a risk-based attribute for the y-axis, and cost-based measures for the bubble size. You can configure the report to run against each level in the strategy structure.

FastTrack Power BI Showcase Dashboards – Work

Power BI Dashboard

This dashboard displays a range of out-of-the-box Power BI visualizations for the Financial Summary, Portfolio Balance Count, and Portfolio Balance Cost dashboards.  

Detailed information for each visualization is provided, highlighting the configuration steps required to recreate the visualization.

Work Portfolio – Portfolio Manager – Customizable Column Set

Screen

Custom column sets provide an overview of work items in a portfolio and their details, such as synced AgilePlace boards, start and finish dates, and percentage complete.

WRK14 – Project and Portfolio Highlight Report

Analytic

This report summarizes key project information into a one-page report for stakeholders and project review meetings.

The report includes the following: 

  • Project attributes 

  • Assigned owners and responsibility information 

  • Dates and milestones 

  • Trend of project condition, RAG, or RYG status 

  • Financial summaries  

  • Change requests 

  • List of risks and issues  

  • Descriptions 

  • Additional commentary 

You can run the report for a single project or across the portfolio. The portfolio report includes an executive summary on the first page, followed by one-page summaries for each project on individual pages. 

WRK31 – Work Portfolio Financial Analysis

Analytic

This report analyzes project and portfolio financial plan data, with effort represented as FTEs, days, and hours, and financials as cost, benefits, and revenue.  

The report uses a single version of the financial plan and a data type based on project attributes, account structure levels, or line attributes of selected accounts.

WRK32 – Project/Work Portfolio Financial Burndown Comparison

Analytic

This report compares versions of project and work portfolio financial plan data, with effort represented as FTEs, days, and hours, and financials as cost, benefits, and revenue. 

The report includes the following:

  •  Burndown chart for the work portfolio and each project 

  • Portfolio-based and summary time-phased chart showing the financial profile across the whole portfolio, based on versions of the financial plan 

  • Project-level and time-phased chart showing the financial profile for each project, based on versions of the financial plan 

  • Detailed data tables

WRK33 – Project Cost or Revenue/Benefit Bubble

Analytic

This report can select cost, revenue, or benefits-based measures from the financial planning data to drive bubble size.

WRK34 – Work Portfolio Investment Balance Bubble

Analytic

This report identifies the risk and reward balance across projects. You can select benefit or revenue measures for the x-axis, a risk-based attribute for the y-axis, and cost-based measures for the bubble size. The report can run against each level in the strategy structure.

Outcome Portfolio – Portfolio Manager – Customizable Column Set

Screen

Custom column sets can provide overview of the outcome breakdown, including total cost of ownership, labor costs, status assessment, and more.

OUT31 – Outcome Portfolio Revenue and Cost Analysis

Analytic

This report analyzes program data and summarized portfolio financial plan data, with effort represented as FTEs, days, and hours, and financials as cost, benefits, and revenue. The report uses a single version of the financial plan and a data type based on project attributes, account structure levels, or line attributes of selected accounts. You can configure the report to run against each level in the strategy structure.

OUT32 – Outcome Revenue/Cost Forecast Performance

Analytic

This report compares versions of outcome data and summarized portfolio financial plan data, with effort represented as FTEs, days, and hours, and financials as cost, benefits, and revenue. A burndown chart is included for the portfolio and each initiative. You can configure the report to run against each level in the strategy structure.

How are we able to understand the impact of financial benefits across time and the impact of changing schedules against our budget?

FastTrack Power BI Showcase Dashboards – Work – Financial Summary

Power BI Dashboard

This dashboard allows you to compare strategic investments over time. You can view the total costs of a select portfolio over a given timeframe, view the breakdown of those costs by the strategic program, and identify portfolios that are meeting or exceeding approved budgets. Data for investment demand entities can be viewed and managed, allowing you to change their approval status, priority, and above or below-the-line status.

STR32 – Strategic Portfolio Financial Performance

Analytic

This report compares versions of the strategic program and summarized portfolio financial plan data, with effort represented as FTEs, days, and hours, and financials as cost, benefits, and revenue. A burndown chart is included for the portfolio and each initiative. You can run the report against each level in the strategy structure.

STR33 – Strategic Initiative Pipeline Matrix

Analytic

This report can select cost, revenue, or benefit-based measures from the financial planning data to drive bubble size and visualize the pipeline of strategic initiatives. You can configure the report to run against each level in the strategy structure.

WRK32 – Project/Work Portfolio Financial Burndown Comparison

Analytic

This report compares versions of project and work portfolio financial plan data, with effort represented as FTEs, days, and hours, and financials as cost, benefits, and revenue. 

The report includes the following:  

  •  Burndown chart for the work portfolio and each project 

  • Portfolio-based and summary time-phased chart showing the financial profile across the whole portfolio, based on versions of the financial plan 

  • Project-level and time-phased chart showing the financial profile for each project, based on versions of the financial plan 

  • Detailed data tables

WRK33 – Project Cost or Revenue/Benefit Bubble

Analytic

This report can select cost, revenue, or benefits-based measures from the financial planning data to drive bubble size.

           

           

Financial Planning Process Steps

           

Financial Planning AW.pngForecast resource effort costs Forecast non-resource costs Forecast benefits and/or revenue Develop business case Baseline project budget Capture actual costs Manage forecasted resource effort/costs Manage forecasted non-resource costs Manage forecasted benefits and/or revenue Monitor financial performance

Financial planning process flow

           

Process Step Description
Enter initial estimated cost and revenue

In the Finance section of the project enter the initial Budgets Cost and Expected Revenue. If timesheets are not being used, the Actual Cost and Actual Revenue can be manually entered or calculated from manual entries on the schedule.

           

Click to expand or shrink

Enter estimated cost and revenue on the project

           

For more information: 

Enter planned hours for resources on tasks on the project schedule  Project managers plan resource costs by creating their detailed schedule (work breakdown structure) and assigning the needed resources to tasks and assigning planned hours. The financial plan Labor Budget and Forecast are the calculated using those tasks, resources, assigned hours and the respected resource rate. 
Enter budget for non-labor resource costs on financial planning

Enter the budget for the non-labor resource costs required to deliver the work into the financial planning. 

           

Click to expand or shrink

Enter non-labor resource costs

           

For more information: 

Enter budget for forecasted revenue on financial planning Enter the budget for the financial benefit of delivering the work into the financial planning. 
Budget approved/forecast entered  The final project budget is reviewed and approved. Once approved, the Budget totals are entered into the Forecast. This allows tracking of Budget versus Forecast to track the progress of the project or program. 

           

           

Outputs, Reports, and Analytics

There are a number of standard financial reports in the report library. These can be run with specific filters to see the appropriate financials. See Financial Planning Report Examples  and Timephase Financial Data in Reports and Dashboards for more information.

Additional reports and dashboards can be created by the administrator and shared with the organization and appropriate team members.