Published: April 1, 2024

We have officially implemented Phase 1 of the Anaplan budget tool and are live in the production environment.

Users are already working on the July budget process to strategically plan for FY25. Thank you for making the project a success and for your continued work in Phase 1. Having reached this milestone together, we’d like to take a moment to express our deep thanks to our campus partners for their contributions to the first phase of the tool:

  • To our core team with representation from BFP, VCAA and a school/college for their tireless efforts. This included biweekly vendor meetings, bimonthly stakeholder meetings and the ongoing creation of resources, videos and training materials for our campus end users. A special thank-you to Christy Edwards, from Leeds, who joined the core team for Phase 1 and provided invaluable insights and design recommendations from a unit perspective. 
  • To our project team members from schools, colleges and support units for providing valuable feedback during bimonthly meetings with the core team and for testing each of the end user pages to ensure accuracy.

  • To our subject matter expert subgroups for working with the core team as needed to contribute their expertise and suggestions on specific elements throughout the build with a focus on meeting campus-wide needs. 
  • To Mandy Cole and Danielle Brunner for their leadership and support from Finance and Business Strategy and Office of the Provost.  
  • To our campus stakeholders for requesting a common budgeting tool back in 2021 and taking the time to learn how to use an innovative technology.

While work is still underway to fully complete the Phase 1 requirements across campus, we are beginning to plan for Phase 2. 

Phase 2 will be focused on addressing campus-level needs and beginning work with units on specific requests. Due to the change in deliverables for this phase, the governance structure will also be changing:

  • The core team will consist of campus-level administrators; stakeholders will be brought in as subject matter experts for unit-level applications and design elements.  
  • While the project team won’t continue in Phase 2, stakeholders will have opportunities to provide feedback and join relevant subject matter expert subgroups during this phase. 

We look forward to completing the first round of July budgets in the tool.

As you work on the FY25 budget, please note any features that work well and potential areas for enhancement. We will use this Budget Tool: Phase 1 Feedback survey to collect your feedback and identify opportunities for augmenting the tool for campus.  

As a reminder, the requirement for FY25 is to complete your starting (July) General Fund continuing budgets in the tool, replacing the C-Roll. This includes position budgeting for regular, merit-eligible employees on General Fund continuing budget. Other optional FY25 budgeting includes auxiliary fund (encouraged for units that are primarily auxiliary-based), gift fund (encouraged for units that are primarily gift fund-based), General Fund temporary budgeting and pooled labor.  

Please reach out to us with any questions and review the SharePoint site that contains FAQs, step-by-step guides and instructional videos.  

Sincerely,
Budget Tool Core Team