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Requirement

The system will support as many budget versions as we need

Functional Area

Planning

Industries
All
Tags
Budgeting
Versions
DETAILS

Description

This allows the user to create, compare, and manage various budget scenarios and projections. These versions may be clones of a working budget version, or subsets of a budget copied into a smaller version for a specific analysis. They may be created by an administrator or carved out by an individual user for a single department, product, project, and so on.

Example Use Case

Scenario: An international manufacturing firm uses CPM software for planning and budgeting purposes. The company wants to prepare for any eventualities by formulating several budget versions that cater for optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely scenarios. They also want to allow individuals to create what-if scenarios for their specific departments.

Solution: The CPM software should support as many budget versions as needed by the company. Therefore, the software can create and manage a Base Case budget, a Worst Case budget, a Best Case budget, and more. By comparing these budget scenarios, the firm can understand the potential outcomes of different strategic decisions and hence make informed resolutions.

Considerations

This requirement is unique to each organization shopping for CPM software, as it does not require a specific number of versions - only what you may need. Most products on the market are able to support over 10 live versions at any point in time. Some have no defined upper limit. A few, especially on the less expensive side of the market, may not support more than 3. Others will require you to archive versions, or delete them altogether, if you get over a certain amount. You may also be charged storage fees if you have too many.

When thinking about what you'll need, consider the 5-year horizon. How will your business change over that timeframe? How many will you need to use each year? Each month? Will you ever delete any that are no longer needed? What about your users, will they want their own?

Questions to Ask a Vendor

  • Number of Budget Versions: Is there a limit on the number of live (as opposed to archived) budget versions that your CPM software can handle?
  • Version Types: Does the system support creating a version that is a subset of the core working version, such as just one department?
  • Costs: Will we be charged an additional fee if we create versions above a certain amount?