Master view of all departments showing which user has not submitted their budget

Description

A master view of the budgeting workflow allows management to track the progress of budgeting tasks, send out notifications or reminders, and streamline workflow for better efficiency. This requirement implies that the system includes a process workflow tracker in the first place.

Example Use Case

Scenario: An enterprise with numerous departments uses CPM software to manage its budgeting process. However, due to the size and complexity of the company, tracking individual budget submissions and identifying delays becomes a daunting task.

Solution: With the master view over the entire budgeting workflow, the company's management can easily see an overview of all departments in one place. It identifies which users have not submitted their budgets, and automatic notifications are triggered. This results in smoother budgeting processes and more efficient collaboration.

Considerations

Workflow management tools in CPM are incredibly helpful in both accelerating the budgeting process and increasing adoption across departments. Reminders, walkthroughs, and so on help non-finance users keep on task and enables executives to see who is delaying critical processes.

This specific feature is mandating an overall view of the entire process, showing all tasks (there could be hundreds), the status, the due date, and the responsible party. Some CPM tools on the market do a really nice job at this, and almost all of them (included the Excel add-in vendors) do this in a web interface. This is in large part because Excel is not a good project management tool at all.

If you are going to have more than about 20-30 department heads, we recommend investigating workflow / collaboration tools as part of your evaluation.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• High-Level Workflow Views: Do you include collaboration tools? If so, does it allow for the assignment of tasks and a view of everyone's responsibilities?
• Notification Features: How does the system handle notifications for task due dates and reminders? Can we trigger them from a master view of the workflow?
• Integration with Model: If the user saves their budget, does it automatically mark it as submitted in the workflow view? Or do they also have to check a box saying they completed the task?