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Cycle Setup

Define a Budget Cycle

A Cycle represents an iteration or portion of an Activity (e.g. Original Budget, Final Budget). Each activity must have at least one Cycle, and further Cycles may be defined if other iterations are to be performed. The Activity’s Supervisor can Open and Close a Cycle. When a Cycle is Open, Contributors will be able to input budget figures into Input Forms and Hubble Ledgers designated to that Cycle. Budget Entry is only allowed in Open Cycles, which effectively controls where you are in the budgeting process.

Cycle Setup

Since Cycles belong to an Activity, they are managed in the Activities tab of the Budget Setup dialog. The tab is accessed by selecting Activities from the Budgeting Menu or selecting the Activities tab from the Budget Setup dialog. Budgeting Administrators or Activity Supervisors can create or edit a Cycle.

A new Cycle can be created from scratch, or by copying an existing Cycle:

  • To create a new Cycle, highlight the Activity that the Cycle will belong to and select New > New Cycle.

  • To create a new Cycle from a copy of an existing Cycle, highlight the existing Cycle and select Copy.

  • This feature will copy the configuration of Cycle’s description, ledgers, forms, scope, and notifications. Note, any budgeting inputs made in the source Cycle will not be copied to the new Cycle.

Budgeting Cycle Identification

After defining a unique name and, optionally, a description, select the Hubble Ledger(s) to use with the cycle.

All ledgers that have been added are defined through the Hubble Ledger tab in the main Budget Setup dialog are listed; to manage this list, you must return to that dialog.

One or more ledgers can be used in a cycle, and only the selected ledgers may be submitted by contributors for this cycle. The ledgers form an implicit part of the cycle’s scope.

Tip: Best Practices regarding cycles:

  • Cycle descriptions should identify the original creator and due date in order to make it easy to identify responsible parties and deadlines.
  • It is important to take caution when deleting a budget cycle because when you do this, all associated data will be deleted as well.

Budgeting Cycle Forms

In the Forms tab within the New Budget Cycle dialog, select the form(s) to be used with the budgeting cycle. All the inquiries that have been previously added as input forms via the Forms tab in the Budget Setup dialog are displayed. If the cycle is not open, you can add forms to the cycle.

Permissions on a form can also be changed as needed through the Permissions button. Note that a cycle can use more than one form, and a form can be used in more than one cycle.

Note: A Budget Form is related to one, and only one, Hubble Inquiry.

Once an inquiry is selected for an input form, it cannot be associated with another input form. Because it can cause issues with budgeting further in the process, users are prevented from doing this in the first place within Budget Setup.

If you try to associate an inquiry with multiple forms, you get the error, “The same report cannot be associated with multiple input forms.”

Budgeting Cycle Scope

Overview

The areas or cells within forms which Contributors are able to edit and submit are controlled by budgeting scopes. A scope defines the code combinations for which submissions will be added, for example a set of periods and a set of object accounts. A budgeting scope can be set on any of the following fields:

Subledger Category Codes

  • Company
  • Subsidiary
  • Business Unit
  • Subledger – G/L
  • Currency Code – From
  • Subsidiary – Alternate
  • Ledger Types
  • Object Category Codes
  • Object Account
  • Posting Edit Code
  • Account Currency
  • BU Category Codes
  • Alternate Object
  • Period
  • Fiscal Year

Set Up Scope

Scope can be set up by individual participant or by cycle. Multiple users can have the same scope applied but if all participants within the cycle should have the same scope, set up the scope by cycle so it applies to all participants within that cycle. To be submissible, a given cell in the form must match both scopes simultaneously.

Set Scope by Participant

Setting up the scope for an individual contributor is done at the activity level. When you create or edit the activity, click Participants. At the contributor level, set the scope by right-clicking and selecting Add Scope.

Set Scope by Cycle

Setting up the scope for all participants within a cycle is done at the cycle level. When you create or edit the cycle, go to the Scope tab. Click Add to define a scope for the cycle.

Define Scope

Whether adding Participant or Cycle Scope, the Set Scope dialogue box will be similar. Use standard functionality to filter for those fields budget entry will be permitted. In other words, the fields are scoped-In. The fields included in the scope definition must be present in the Input Form grid.

Participant Scope Example

In the below example, the selected contributor will only be able to submit budgets for Company 00001 accounts where the Object Account is between 5000 and 9999. Anything outside of those parameters will be restricted for that contributor only.

Remember, if Business Unit Security is defined for the Contributor in JD Edwards, the user cannot view or submit for any other business unit.

Cycle Scope Example

In the below example, all contributors will only be allowed to enter budgets for 2018. If an input form contains columns for any other year, they will not be submittable.

Model Scope

Within the Set Scope dialog, there is a checkbox for Model Scope. This option is used to restrict input cells so they are only updated through the Apply Model functionality. When checked, the scope you are defining can only be populated from the Microsoft Excel model; the user cannot manually type into the cell.

Tip: Best Practice: Utilize the Model Scope feature to ensure that Microsoft Excel model results imported into Hubble are not accidentally overwritten by users.

The default formatting style Model Cell Style is applied to all cells in which the Model Scope has been applied. (The default is a light gray background; however, this can be changed in Defaults tab within Formatting.)

In the example below, we have set the option for Object Account 5002.

You see in the input form that when you are entering in the budget, the Model Scope has been applied and you are unable to manually enter budget information for Object Account 5002. Those cells Model Scope have a light gray background (the default format for Model Cell Style):

Budgeting Cycle Notifications

Notification emails can be sent in a variety of situations, including when opening cycles and seeking approval for submissions. The email feature requires a compatible email client such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.

In the Notification tab of the Edit Cycle dialog, you have the option to set which email notifications are active, and you can edit the text of the email that will be sent in each situation.

Mark the checkbox to Enable Notifications as well as the checkbox next to the appropriate email notification to activate it. To edit the text in a message, highlight the description you wish to change and select Edit Text.

In order for this feature to work, you must have the email address set up in the user’s profile within Administrator. When a notification is created, it opens as an email window and can be sent at that point.

Budget Entry and Workflow

Once a Cycle has been setup, it can be opened to allow for Budget Entry. The status for each Contributor and Form is tracked and viewable from the Cycle Status dialog. Contributors will enter amounts via Enter Budget Mode and save their entry via Finish or Save & Continue. When the Contributor has completed making changes, they will Finalize the Form. Once Finalized, the Contributor will not be able to access Enter Budget Mode or make further changes.

Finalizing the form will signal to the Approver that it is ready for review. The Approver will then Approve or Reject the Form. If Rejected, the Contributor will once again be able to access Enter Budget Mode and Finalize once appropriate changes have been made. If Approved, the Form will be marked as Approved and the entry can be Uploaded to JD Edwards E1 if desired.

The Cycle can be closed to further restrict entry, and the cycle will remain in this stage until the Cycle is reopened for the start of the next Budgeting Cycle. Whether the cycle is open or closed, various reports can be created to report on the budget amounts, often for variance analysis or continuous forecasting.