Creating Account Plans

This chapter provides an overview of account plans and discusses how to:

Create account plans.
Create plans for multiple accounts.

Understanding Account Plans

Account plans contain the specific goals and objectives that have been established to manage a company, partner, site, or consumer. You can associate a template with an account plan, or manually enter the information for a plan. An account plan has three main sections:

Plan details

Contains detailed information about the plan, including the plan type, objectives, and status.
Goals

Specifies the quantifiable results that are expected for the account.
Plan team

Lists the people who can view or modify the plan.

You can create a plan for an account by either accessing a company, partner, site, or consumer in the Customers CRM or Partner Profile component or by using the My Accounts page.

Understanding Account Access

A plan has two types of application security, in addition to PeopleTools security, that use the permission list. The row-level application security is implemented by using dataset rules. Plan edit control security ensures that the user has been granted appropriate access before any status changes can be made to the plan.

Plan access follows these guidelines:

When an account and a plan on that account are unassigned, everyone with visibility to the plan can edit and change status.
When a plan has team members, but no one is identified as an owner, everyone with visibility to the plan can edit and change status.
When a plan has team members, and one or more is identified as the owner, everyone with visibility can edit in Draft status, but only the owners or owners' managers can change status from Draft to Active and back.
When a plan has no team members, but an account team exists with no owners, everyone with visibility to the plan can edit and change status.
When a plan has no team members, but an account team exists with one or more owners, everyone with visibility can edit in Draft status, but only the account owners or owners' managers can change status from Draft to Active and back.

Creating Account Plans

This section discusses how to:

Create account plans.
Identify goals and their targets.
Define the plan team.

Pages Used to Create Account Plans

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Account Plan - Header Details	RSP_PLANNING	My Accounts Select an account and click the Create Plan link on the account line. My Accounts Click the View Account Plans link for any account in the Account List. The account plan page from the component definition for the account appears. Select an existing plan or click the Create Plan button. You can also create or modify account plans from the component where the account is defined.	Create or modify an account plan, including objectives, goals, and team members.
Account Plan - Tasks	RB_TSK_EDIT_GRID	Select the Tasks tab on the Account Plan - Header Details page.	Manage tasks for an account.
Account Plan - Notes	RSP_PLANNING_NOTE	Select the Notes tab on the Account Plan - Header Details page.	Add notes for an account.

Creating Account Plans

Access the Account Plan page.

If you create an account plan from a template, the system automatically populates the plan with the information from the template, including objectives, goals, tasks, and so on. You can then modify or add information for the specific account plan.

Plan Details

Plan Type	Select a plan type for the plan. Values might include Field Service, Marketing and Telemarketing, Partner Commerce, Sales, and Support.
Select Template	Select a template to populate the data for the plan.
Plan Name	Enter a name for the plan.
Plan Status	Select a status for the plan. Values are: Draft: The default value when you create a plan. You can edit the plan when it has this status. Active: The plan is in use. When a plan has this status, you cannot edit the goals. Only users who act as plan owners can change the status back to Draft. Inactive: The plan is no longer in use and attainment does not need to be calculated. Canceled: The plan is canceled and attainment does not need to be calculated. Completed: The plan attainment has been calculated and there are no more transactions expected that would change the goal attainment.
Description	Enter a description for the plan.
Time Frame	Select the time frame for the plan.
Currency	Select a default currency for the plan that is used to show all attainment and goals that have to do with a monetary value.
Start Date	Displays the start date for the plan time frame selected.
End Date	Displays the end date for the plan time frame selected.

Objectives

Add New Objective	Click this button to access the Select Objectives page, where you can choose a predefined objective or create a new objective for the plan.
View All Objectives	Click this link to access the Objectives page, where you can view all the objectives for the plan. You can also delete objectives on this page.

Identify Goals

The fields that are available in the Identify Goals page region depend on whether you are adding goals or viewing the progress against existing goals. You can only add goals to an account plan that is in Draft status.

Add Goal

Click this button to add a new goal.

Goal/Metric Name

Select a goal name for the plan.

Target Value

Enter the expected value for the goal.

Type

Select the type of value for the goal. Values are Amount, Percent, Quantity, and Other.

Prorate

This should be set to Yes when the attainment needs to be compared with a prorated value of the target. The prorating is done based on the number of days in the plan period. For example, if the target is to increase revenue by $3 million in 90 days, and the attainment is being measured on the 30th day of the plan, the prorated target appears as $1 million and the assessment appears based on this value.

Calc Method (calculation method)

Displays how the attainment for the goal is to be calculated. Values are Manual or Automatic. If you specify Automatic, select a term to use for the calculation.

See Understanding the Measurement of Plan Goals.

Measured By

Click this link to select the term name used to measure the goal.

Assessment

Select an assessment name for the goal. The assessment name determines the image that the system displays and the variance indicator.

Attainment

Enter a measure of the goal attainment. This field is enterable for goals with a calculation of Manual.

If the calculation method is Automatic, the calculated attainment appears.

Calculate Attainment

Click to calculate the goal attainment according to the term that you specified.

Variance %

Displays the variance percent associated with the assessment. The unlabeled column to the right of this column displays an indicator of whether this is a positive or negative variance.

Copied From Template

Displays whether the system copied the goal from a template.

See Understanding Planning Templates.

Plan Team Members

Add Team Member	Click this button to add a team member to the plan. A new page opens where you can search for persons to add to the team if the values you entered in the First Name and Last Name fields do not uniquely identify a person.
Owner	Specifies that one of the team members is the owner of the plan. You do not have to specify anyone as the owner of the plan. If you do not specify an owner, then anyone who can access the plan (according to dataset security) can change the status of the plan. If you specify one or more owners, then only the owners or the owners' managers can change the status.

Managing Tasks for an Account

Access the Account Plan - Tasks page.

See Creating Sales Tasks and Adding Notes for a Lead or Opportunity.

Note. If you create task from a planning template, task dates are derived from the template. The task start date is the plan start date plus the offset days from the task group template. The task end date is the task start date plus the duration days from the template.

Adding Notes for an Account

Access the Account Plan - Tasks page.

See Viewing Lists of Notes.

Creating Plans for Multiple Accounts

This section discusses how to create plans for multiple accounts.

Page Used to Create Plans for Multiple Accounts

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Selected Accounts	RD_SEL_ACCOUNT	My Accounts Select one or more accounts from the results list. Click Create Plans for Selected Accounts.	Enter parameters to create plans for one or more accounts. Note. All selected accounts must have the same role.

Page Name

Object Name

Navigation

Usage

Selected Accounts

RD_SEL_ACCOUNT

My Accounts

Select one or more accounts from the results list.

Click Create Plans for Selected Accounts.

Enter parameters to create plans for one or more accounts.

Note. All selected accounts must have the same role.

Creating Plans for Multiple Accounts

Access the Selected Accounts page.

Note. You must select accounts with the same role and setID to create plans for multiple accounts.

Plan Type	Select a plan type for the plan.
Select Template	Select a template to populate the data for the plan.
Frequency	This field appears only if a template is selected. The frequency displayed is the same as specified in the selected template.
Plan Name	Enter a name for the plan.
Description	Enter a description for the plan.
Time Frame	Select the time frame for the plan.
Start Date	Displays the start date for the plan time frame selected.
End Date	Displays the end date for the plan time frame selected.
Select Plan Status	Select Create in Draft Status to create the plan with a status of Draftor select Activate Automatically to create the plan with a status of Active.

Add Goal	Click this button to add a new goal.
Goal/Metric Name	Select a goal name for the plan.
Target Value	Enter the expected value for the goal.
Type	Select the type of value for the goal. Values are Amount, Percent, Quantity, and Other.
Prorate	This should be set to Yes when the attainment needs to be compared with a prorated value of the target. The prorating is done based on the number of days in the plan period. For example, if the target is to increase revenue by $3 million in 90 days, and the attainment is being measured on the 30th day of the plan, the prorated target appears as $1 million and the assessment appears based on this value.
Calc Method (calculation method)	Displays how the attainment for the goal is to be calculated. Values are Manual or Automatic. If you specify Automatic, select a term to use for the calculation. See Understanding the Measurement of Plan Goals.
Measured By	Click this link to select the term name used to measure the goal.
Assessment	Select an assessment name for the goal. The assessment name determines the image that the system displays and the variance indicator.
Attainment	Enter a measure of the goal attainment. This field is enterable for goals with a calculation of Manual. If the calculation method is Automatic, the calculated attainment appears.
Calculate Attainment	Click to calculate the goal attainment according to the term that you specified.
Variance %	Displays the variance percent associated with the assessment. The unlabeled column to the right of this column displays an indicator of whether this is a positive or negative variance.
Copied From Template	Displays whether the system copied the goal from a template. See Understanding Planning Templates.