Financial Budgeting and Forecasting Software Solution

The vendor required to provide enterprise performance management (EPM) system is called “uplan”, which is an implementation of oracle planning and budgeting cloud service.
- The university deployed relatively few improvements to the uplan implementation despite significant developments by oracle to the platform’s capability.
- Software environment
•    “Uplan”: oracle planning and budgeting cloud v25.09.77; this is the current budgeting and Forecast software
•    Oracle PeopleSoft financials 9.2
•    Oracle PeopleSoft campus solutions 9.2
•    Oracle HCM fusion cloud recruiting (core HR and recruiting)
•    Alfresco content services
•    Coupa supplier portal (internally branded as “supply net”)
•    Sail point identity now; used for identity and access management
•    Duo security; used for multi-factor authentication
•    Fresh works fresh service
•    Institutional data warehouse (internally branded “acorn”), on-premise migrating to azure cloud
•    Salesforce tableau
•    Salesforce mule soft any point
•    Google workspace
•    Microsoft office
•    Asset works ready and fixit 13.4
- Data flows into and out of the current EPM system
•    Uplan imports data from PeopleSoft financials:
o    Once monthly: chart-of-account values (fund, department, program, account) and hierarchical structures (department, program) 
o    Twice monthly: actual revenue and expenditure account balance data
•    Uplan imports data from PeopleSoft HCM:
o    Once annually: a “roster” of employee-based salaried staff details including salaries; see “explanation of employee-based salary budgeting method”
•    Uplan exports data to PeopleSoft financials:
o    Once monthly: user-generated forecast data to the forecast ledger
o    Once annually: user-generated budget data to the budget ledger 
o    Once monthly: revenue allocation “transfer” data to the budget ledger; see “explanation of required transfer functionality” 
o    Once monthly: revenue allocation “transfer” data to the general ledger, in parallel with the data sent to the budget ledger
- The new EPM system will enable the following workflows:
•    Users in the university’s faculties and other business units will create their operating budgets and forecasts within the EPM system using a modern, user-friendly interface. 
•    Users in central financial business units will easily supplement the operating budgets within the EPM system by applying institutional revenue and cost allocations. 
•    Approved reviewers will use the EPM system to review and either approve or reject budget and forecast submissions from business units. 
•    Users in central financial business units will easily use the EPM system to consolidate and prepare institutional budget and forecast reporting. 
•    Users in central financial business units will easily be able to model and allocate tuition revenue within the EPM system. 
•    Users will easily be able to trace revenues and costs from the institutional summary level down to specific operating items. 
•    Users will easily be able to use the EPM system to prepare and distribute budget and forecast reports to leadership and other key stakeholders. 
•    Leadership users will be able to use dashboards within the EPM system to review summaries of key budget and forecast data at a glance. 
•    Users will easily be able to use the EPM system to budget and forecast for salary and benefits costs from a roster of employees pulled from the HCM system. 
•    Users will easily be able to use the EPM system to estimate the impact of to-be-hired and vacant positions upon salary and benefits costs. 
•    Users will easily be able to use isolated sandboxes within the EPM system for ad hoc scenario analyses, and then push approved scenarios into live budgets and forecasts if desired. 
•    Users will easily be able to use the EPM system to perform detailed variance analyses across any combination of scenarios: actuals, budget, forecast, year-over-year, etc. 
•    The EPM system will mimic the financial data hierarchy structures from the ERP system, and automatically apply changes at regular intervals. 
•    The EPM system will automatically ingest and import actuals data from the ERP system at regular intervals without requiring manual data cleaning by an administrator. 
•    The EPM system will push approved budgets and forecasts to the ERP system at regular intervals with only minimal intervention by an administrator. 
•    Analysts responsible for data integrity will easily be able to trace errors or anomalies to specific user actions within the EPM system.
•    Users will easily be able to use the EPM system to shift (“transfer”, see below) allocated budget amounts to other departments or programs within their scope of responsibility.
•    Analysts will be able to build and implement new calculation models within the EPM system as desired by leadership. 
•    The EPM system will be modular and flexible enough to change and grow as the university’s needs evolve.