FP&A Budget Forecasting System

FP&A (Financial Planning and Analysis) is a tool for budget forecasting.

Budget holders can use the system each month to:

• review their budgets
• review their spend to date
• provide a full year forecast against each of their service areas

The budget holder is responsible for checking that all transactions to date are valid and correct. The full year forecast needs to be as accurate as possible.

What the system is used for

• Service Managers and Finance will review the forecasts and feed them into monthly reports for the whole Council.
• Directors can see the expected financial position for their directorate. The information can be used to support financial decisions.
• Producing quarterly reports for members.

Budget holders need to follow the monthly timetable so that forecasts are completed, reviewed and posted into Unit4 ERP for reporting purposes. 

Access the FP&A Budget Forecasting System

How to use FP&A for forecasting

How to access and navigate the system FPA04 (PDF, 4MB)

There are 2 parts to forecasting, Pay forecasting and Non-Pay forecasting. There are differences between them, there’s guidance for each one in the form of video’s, power points and quick cards.

• Payroll forecasting guidance FPA07 (MS PowerPoint, 5MB)
• Revenue forecasting guidance FPA02 (MS PowerPoint, 5MB)
• Forcasting for vacancies tool (MS Excel, 31KB) - Tool to assist with forecasting for filling vacancies, on here you will find annual and part year costs by grade on the sheet labelled ‘Costs’ and the sheet labelled ‘fte’ shows a list of hours converted to fte to help if your vacancy is not full-time

There are some reports that will be useful to you when you forecast.

• Establishment Report on running R2R317 (MS Word, 815KB)
• General Transaction Listing on running R2R227 (MS Word, 122KB)
• Budget Enquiry Report on running R2R200 (MS Word, 354KB)

Forecasts need to be:

1. Submitted’ by the Forecaster (Tier6)
2. Approved’ by the Approver (Tier5)
3. Finally reviewed and challenged by your Service Manager (Tier4) and Finance in a monthly meeting. There will be an opportunity for the Service Manager to override any forecast if necessary.

Once your service has set an annual forecast you will need to review and amend it where neccesary each month.

• Payroll Forecast – Payroll Calculator form, review staff charged to your cost centres, review and amend manager adjustments and new forecast planning lines
• Main Forecast form, review and amend where necessary ‘Forecaster Override’ column for other revenue and income codes.

• Guidance for reviewing and updating a revenue forecast FPA05 (MS Powerpoint, 5MB)

When to forecast

Forecasting start’s each month on working day 2 for service users and ends on working day 14. 

Your forecast will be posted back from FP&A to Unit4 ERP. The forecasting timetable (MS Excel, 24KB) has the dates each step needs to be done by but essentially:

• Forecasters (Tier6’s) have 5 working days to submit a forecast
• Approvers (Tier5’s) have 2 working days to review and approve a forecast
• Service Managers (Tier4’s) have 5 working days to meet with budget managers and finance to agree a final figure

The forecast timetable is set and fixed for the year, if the forecast is not done in line with the timetable you are at risk of your forecast being wrong, and therefore being reported wrong.

If you are absent during the forecasting process you will need to let your service manager or accountancy know if there will be any material amendments to be made along with a supporting note.

You will receive an email from ‘EastFPAForecasting’ to let you know that FP and A has been updated for the current period.

• Forecast Approval Process (MS Word, 400KB)

How to view agreed forecasts in Unit4 ERP

On working day 14 of each month your agreed annual forecast will be posted into Unit4 ERP.

Forecasters, budget and service managers will have access and your figures will populate the following reports:

Objective Report - R2R217

R2R217a Budget Manager Objective (excluding sub centre); the report shows by cost centre and will be used by services who do not generally use sub centres to monitor their costs.

R2R217b Budget Manager Objective (including sub centre); the report shows by cost centre and will generally be used for Adult Social Care as they use sub centres to monitor their costs

• How to run R2R217 Budget Manager Objective’ report (MS Word, 151KB)

Subjective report R2R219

R2R219a Budget Manager Subjective (excluding analysis codes); the report shows by account code but excludes analysis codes and will be useful for services who forecast subjectively for example Facilities Management

R2R219b Budget Manager Subjective (including analysis codes); the report shows by account code but analysis codes which show only against actual costs and will be useful for services who forecast subjectively for example Facilities Management

• How to run R2R219 Budget Manager Subjective’ report (MS Word, 147KB)