Cost center-based planning
Cost center-based investment and capacity planning adoption pathway
1. Get started | 2. Design and set up | 3. Capability usage | 4. Reports and outputs |
Audience |
Planview administrator, PMO, portfolio manager, finance manager, project manager |
Objective |
Design, set up, and configure Portfolios to support cost center-based investment and capacity planning at your organization. |
Enable the Planning menu, options, and role features
The first step for an administrator is to enable the planning menu, options, and role features essential to using investment and capacity planning.
Step | Role | Description | Resources |
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Enable the planning menu |
Planview administrator |
Enable the planning menu by checking the Display option. |
Enabling or Disabling Option on the Main Menu |
Enable the use of investment and capacity planning | Planview administrator |
From the Strategic Management Options page, enable Use Investment and Capacity Planning.
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Enabling the Use of Investment and Capacity Planning |
Enable the sub-menus for planning | Planview administrator |
From the Menu Actions tab, select the Planning tab on the left, then select the checkbox to display all the available options. Feature controls may also be added from this page. |
Enabling or Disabling Action Options |
Enable required features for roles | Planview administrator |
From the Configure Roles screen, enable the following features for each role that will use planning. Strategic management:
Investment decisions:
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Review Role Screen Basics for a User Role |
Set up the financial planning models
In cost center-based investment and capacity planning, you compare capacity by cost centers to demand entities (work). Capacity is based on the cost center structure and the data is taken from a cost center financial plan version. Demand data is taken from a work financial plan version.
For more information on Planview’s recommended financial plan versions and naming conventions, see the recommended financial plan versions table.
To carry out the required analysis, there must be a commonality between capacity and demand. The same account lines must be used in the cost center financial plan version as in the work financial plan version.
To use cost center-based investment and capacity planning, a cost center financial planning model, including relevant accounts and versions, must be set up to capture the capacity financial data. Demand data will use the existing Enterprise Financial Model.
Step | Role | Description | Resources |
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Ensure Use Providing Organization (Cbs1) is selected for the work (demand) financial model | Planview administrator |
In order for the comparison between the enterprise or work financial model and the cost center financial model to work, Use Providing Organization (Cbs1) must be selected on the enterprise or work financial model. To confirm this is configured correctly, go to the Administer Financial Planning Models screen, find the model used for Work Financial planning, select Edit Financial Planning Model, and confirm that the option Use Providing Organization (Cbs1) is checked. |
Adding Financial Planning Models |
Confirm work (demand) financial model configuration | Planview administrator |
Confirm demand financial model configuration:
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Configure Versions for Financial Planning Models Screen Basics Business Rules of Financial Management and Financial Planning |
Add a new version for the Enterprise Financial Model | Planview administrator |
Go to Configure Versions and add a new financial version. Name the version Investment Planning Demand. Planview recommendation: Review the financial versions chart to understand more about different financial versions and their purpose. |
Adding Versions of Financial-Planning Models Configure Versions for Financial Planning Models Screen Basics |
Review and add data to the work (demand) financial model | Planview administrator |
This is a two-step process. First, populate or edit the Actual/Forecast version. Data can be added to work (demand) financial plans in two ways:
Note that in-flight projects will probably be loaded from resource assignments and timesheets, while new projects added as part of planning may need financial lines and data to be entered manually.
It is imperative that all projects that will be part of the planning process have financial data. If the financial plan for a potential project is blank, or contains lines with no financial data within the horizon dates, the project will not pull into the investment and capacity planning portfolio. |
Configuring Financial Plan Load Job Parameters |
Create a cost center financial model | Planview administrator |
When adding the new model, select Cost Centers from the dropdown. Use the same calendar, planning horizon start and finish dates, forecast period, and other fields as in the enterprise or work financial model. |
Adding Financial Planning Models |
Add accounts | Planview administrator |
For the new cost center financial model, the next step is to configure accounts. At a minimum, the labor account is required. Select Use Account, Allow Edit, and Allow Loads for the labor account. Depending on how the cost center structure is configured, you may want to enable a generic benefit, capital, or expense account. Select Allow Edit and Allow Load as needed, based on usage in other parts of Planview Portfolios. Use in Investment and Capacity Planning must be checked for all accounts that will be used. |
Configuring Financial-Planning Accounts |
Set labor accounts' line attributes | Planview administrator |
From the Add Accounts screen, click the Line Attributes icon for the labor row, and select the line attributes that you want to set capacity constraints for. The attributes selected should also already be selected on the enterprise or work financial model, as the attributes must match. Attributes which are selected here and also have a matching attribute or account on the enterprise or work financial model will make up the capacity and demand primary "pivot." Note that Cost Center Availability Type is automatically selected and required. Recommendation: As you consider which attributes to include on each account, consider how your company makes investment decisions. The attributes selected will make up the content and depth of the pivot table between the capacity and demand financial plans, so we recommend to minimize the number of attributes if possible. Example: Split by CapEx/OpEx. |
Setting an Account's Line Attributes |
Set additional account options for labor account | Planview administrator |
From the Add Accounts screen, click the Account Options icon on the labor row. Deselect any unnecessary options to customize the display according to your preferences. |
Setting Additional Account Options |
Configure non-labor accounts' line attributes | Planview administrator |
If investment and capacity planning is going to also include non-labor accounts, you will need to configure the attributes for those accounts as well. This is not required. From the Add Accounts screen, click the Line Attributes icon, and select the line attributes that you want to set capacity constraints for. The attributes selected should already be selected on the non-labor accounts for the enterprise or work financial model, as the attributes must match. Recommendation: As with the labor account and attributes, consider the level of detailed required to make investment decisions. |
Setting an Account's Line Attributes |
Configure versions | Planview administrator |
Go to Configure Versions and add new financial versions. Name the version Investment Planning Target and allow editing and loads, aligning its sub-options with those of the work financial versions. Other versions such as Actuals/Forecast or Baseline by quarter or year may be added as well. Planview recommendation: Review the financial versions chart to understand more about different financial versions and their purpose. |
Adding Versions of Financial-Planning Models Configure Versions for Financial Planning Models Screen Basics |
Load capacity into the capacity (cost center) financial model | Planview administrator |
From the Configure Versions screen, load the working cost center version. The load can be manually performed, or scheduled within job stream management. For information about scheduling a financial plan load job by using a job stream, see Configuring Financial Plan Load Job Parameters. |
Loading, Scheduling, or Deleting Cost Center-Based Financial Plans Business Rules of Financial Management and Financial Planning |
Recommended financial plan versions
The table below details the recommended financial plan versions and names to be created and used in the investment planning process.
Version name | How is it used? | Purpose |
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Actual/Forecast version |
Data from this version is copied into the Investment Planning version for demand planning in Investment and Capacity Planning. Holds the current view of spend to date (if any) and forecast to complete. Can be top-down or bottom-up. |
Holds the current view of spend to date (if any) and forecast to complete. This data can be derived two ways:
This version is marked as "Forecast" in the financial model configuration. It is used in project delivery portfolio views and reports. It is standard practice to run a Financial Management version load daily to summarize the delivery data. The project manager or work manager owns this data (version). |
Baseline version |
Used for variance reporting for project/work delivery. Not typically used as part of Investment and Capacity Planning. |
Holds a snapshot of financial data that represents the approved baseline budget. This version is marked "Baseline" in the financial model configuration. Used in project delivery portfolio views and reports. |
Investment Planning version |
Holds the data taken into Investment and Capacity Planning for planning and publishing. Often used as the Demand version in Investment and Capacity Planning. |
Used to hold the financial plan data that is pulled into a planning portfolio for investment analysis, scenario modeling, and approval. When investment management decisions are published, this version is used to communicate the approved investment budget to the work manager or project manager.
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Investment Planning Target version |
Holds the budget/capacity for the business unit which will be used as planning portfolio target/budget. Often used as the Capacity version in Investment and Capacity Planning. |
Holds the budget/capacity for the business unit which will be used as planning portfolio target/budget. |
Set up planning column sets and optional features
Step | Role | Description | Resources |
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Create a column set for investment and capacity planning | Planview administrator |
Columns included in the investment and capacity planning column set will drive how you rank potential and in-flight investments. Create a New column set for Work that includes all criteria that should be considered for ranking and prioritization such as category, regulatory, scoring attributes, and risk. This will require financial subtotals and other attribute columns. Key actions:
Planview recommendation: If your company approves the budget for a time horizon shorter than your 3-5 year strategic planning portfolio, (such as the current year or next year), you can add time limits to some columns in your column set. |
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Create column sets to share published decisions |
Planview administrator |
To communicate the published plan to project and resource managers, configure Portfolios to support viewing details about a scenario's investment ranking values. These details typically include:
You can add the columns to column sets relevant to the Investment and Capacity Planning screen, Resource Management and Assignments screen, or Work Portfolio View screen. The investment ranking details a user will be able to view after selecting one of the column sets you configure is dependent on which investment ranking columns you add to that column set. |
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Edit financial subtotals and calculated columns |
Planview administrator |
In Manage Attributes, identify and configure Financial Subtotals you want to make investment decisions against. Make sure they are configured for the correct level of capacity and demand. Key actions:
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Adding Subtotal Financial Planning Columns |
Enable required features for roles |
Planview administrator |
From the Configure Roles screen, enable the following features for each role that will use planning: Strategic management:
Investment decisions:
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Set up planning alerts (optional) |
Planview administrator |
Alerts are dynamic calculations that an administrator can configure to help users resolve issues as they make investment decisions. For example, you can configure the % Over Target alert to be displayed when the financial planning column total for investments with a status of Accept or Conditional reaches 100% or more of the target amount in the planning portfolio. As an administrator, alerts are configured by enabling one or more alerts on the Investment and Capacity Planning Alerts screen within System Configuration and then entering information that defines the alert using the grid. If no alerts are enabled by the administrator, the alerts pane will not show within investment and capacity planning. |
Why Use Alerts in Investment and Capacity Planning? Configuring Investment and Capacity Planning Alerts Understand Thresholds and Time Periods of Investment and Capacity Planning Alerts |
Create Impact Analysis visual tiles (optional) |
Planview administrator |
Impact Analysis visual tiles provide portfolio managers with the ability to visualize and compare investment scenario impacts across portfolios. Impact Analysis tiles are a unique type of output that are created on the Planning menu, using the Analyze button. They can only be viewed on the Planning Portfolio View ribbon. Users with access to the Planning menu can create as many tiles of this type as needed to analyze data in different ways. As an administrator, the Analyze tile can be enabled or hidden from the Ribbon Options screen within Global Options. |
Enabling or Disabling the Analyze Tile Understanding Impact Analysis Report Tiles |
Create investment dependencies (optional) |
Planview administrator |
An investment dependency is a connection between two entities that describes how those entities influence one another from an investment perspective. For example, if project A is dependent on project B, you must commit to project B if you are going to pursue project A. If project C is codependent with project D, both must be pursued, or neither pursued. Work and project dependencies are often created on the Work View screen, but the decisions on which investments to approve are done within Investment and Capacity Planning. The system uses both investment approval status and dependency type to help determine whether an dependency between investment entities is valid or results in a conflict. As an administrator, Use Investment Dependencies can be enabled within Global Options. Then you can configure alerts for dependencies, add information about them to Planning Column Sets, and use them on both Work and Planning menus. |
How to use Investment Dependencies in Investment and Capacity Planning |
Understand investment approval status values
Investment approval status is an alternate structure used in investment and capacity planning. It is used to show or exclude potential project investments within specific sections on the planning pages, or trigger successive lifecycle workflows for the relevant projects based on the selected value.
The table below describes when each investment status should be used and where they are displayed on the Investment and Capacity Planning screen.
Status | Description | Visibility |
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Pending |
Indicates the investment opportunity has been identified, however, the business case has not been completed and the opportunity is not ready to be considered. Investments with this status are not displayed on the Investment and Capacity Planning screen. |
Will not appear on Investment and Capacity Planning screen |
Analyze |
Indicates the investment opportunity has been identified and the business case prepared. The opportunity can be considered, however, no final investment decision has been made. |
Below the line – Analyze view
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Accept |
Indicates the investment opportunity has gone through the investment and capacity planning process and that your organization has chosen to proceed with the investment. Anything approved in the previous planning cycle will already appear above the line (in-flight). |
Above the line – Analyze view Included in Shift and Balance Views |
Conditional |
Indicates the investment has gone through the investment and capacity planning process and has been accepted under certain conditions. |
Above the line – Analyze View Included in Shift and Balance views |
Refuse |
Indicates the investment opportunity has gone through the investment and capacity planning process and your organization has chosen not to accept it. |
Below the line – Analyze View |
Resubmit |
Indicates the investment opportunity has gone through the investment and capacity planning process via a lifecycle, and your organization initially refused to accept it. The opportunity has been revised and should be reconsidered. This status is used in investment and capacity planning if your system is configured for lifecycles. |
Below the line – Analyze View |
Set up the investment approval status alternate structure
Step | Role | Description | Resources |
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Understand and enable the investment approval status (OpCapAppr) | Planview administrator |
Investments (or projects) must have an investment status (OpCapAppr alternate structure) of Analyze, Accept, Conditional, or Refuse to be included in a planning portfolio. As an administrator, you must edit the investment demand structure, then the status must be added to all potential and in-flight projects. Things to consider:
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Investment Approval Alternate Structure (OpCapAppr) Updating Investment Approval Status and Priority |
Create a new planning portfolio and confirm configuration and data
Step | Role | Description | Resources |
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Create a new planning portfolio |
Planview administrator |
Create a new planning portfolio. For detailed information about how to create the portfolio see Capability usage. |
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Confirm configuration and data | Planview administrator |
From the planning menu, navigate to the Investment and Capacity Planning tab. Use the View dropdown to select each view option, and make sure the portfolio displays rows for each option. If no data displays, review this criteria:
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Understand Where Investment and Capacity Planning Obtains Its Information |