Setting Up Scenarios and Scenario Groups

This section provides overviews of:

Scenarios, scenario groups, and period maps.
Scenario types.

This section also discusses how to:

Define scenarios.
Define scenario groups.
Define scenario period mapping.

Pages Used to Set Up Scenarios and Scenario Groups

Page Name	Definition Name	Navigation	Usage
Scenario	BP_SCENARIO	select Planning and Budgeting, then select Planning and Budgeting Setup, then select Define Parameters, then select Scenarios	Define planning, budgeting, forecast, and historical scenarios to use in a planning model.
Scenario Group	BP_SCENARIO_GRP	select Planning and Budgeting, then select Planning and Budgeting Setup, then select Define Parameters, then select Scenario Groups	Define a collection of related scenarios to use in planning models.
Scenario Period Mapping	BP_PERIOD_MAP	Click the Edit Period Maps link on the Scenario Group page. select Planning and Budgeting, then select Planning and Budgeting Setup, then select Define Parameters, then select Scenario Period Mapping	Correlate periods between scenarios both for comparison purposes (such as the numbers that the preparer sees for last year's budget next to the entry field for this year's proposed budget) and for seeding purposes (such as providing beforehand the new proposed budget's entries based on last year's entries). Edit the automatically generated scenario period mappings or create new ones.

Understanding Scenarios, Scenario Groups, and Period Maps

This section discusses:

Scenarios and scenario groups.
Period maps.

Scenarios and Scenario Groups

When preparing a plan or budget, you might want to use data that exists in different ledgers. For example, you might want to display prior-year actual and current-year budget data for reference or comparison purposes against a proposed budget to be prepared. Do this by defining a scenario to capture prior-year actuals, a second scenario for the current-year budget, and a third for your proposed budget. You can then gather these scenarios together within a common scenario group. When creating scenario groups, you can include an unlimited number of scenarios. Though you can link a planning model to just one scenario group, models can share the same scenario group.

Scenarios provide the time element to a budget or plan, or history for source or comparison purposes. You select a calendar to use that controls periodicity of the plan and specify the beginning and ending periods of the proposed budget or plan. The scenario also includes a ledger that the system associates with a ledger template. Ledger templates (in conjunction with the general ledger scenario), dictate the physical source of the historical data that the system uses to seed a budget or plan (and the physical target location of the plan or budget); this frames the actual dimensions (ChartFields) that are enabled for use. The dimensions must exist on the physical ledger table. For the planning scenario specifically, this dictates the target of the plan or budget data when it is exported.

Scenario groups enable you to collect related scenarios for use within a planning model. Only scenarios in the scenario group that are associated with the model can be used as source, proposed plan or budget, target, and comparison scenarios. Scenario groups also have time hierarchy and budgeting type functionality. The time hierarchy represents a series of calendars that are collected in increasing levels of detail and that form a time tree. All the proposed scenarios within a scenario group must be associated with calendars that are contained in the time hierarchy. This enables you to group scenarios for various plans (for example, monthly plans, quarterly plans, and annual plans), but prevents you from grouping scenarios for disparate time periods. The budgeting type controls whether the scenarios that are contained in the group represent standard, project, or control type plans. Specific functionality exists for each of these types. Regardless of the budgeting type, all scenario groups can contain scenarios associated with the actual general ledger because it is not updatable by Planning and Budgeting. For example, when you use the control budgeting type for a scenario group, then only scenarios included in the group are associated with Commitment Control ledgers and actual ledgers.

Note: After staging is complete, you cannot change the properties of existing scenarios or scenario groups, and period mapping between staged scenarios becomes display-only. However, you can add new scenarios.

Period Maps

To populate budget period mapping, you must establish (by linking) the data combinations in your model to facilitate any analysis, reporting, target setting, and data sourcing across the various scenarios within a scenario group for a planning model.

Important! The system requires that you establish data combinations to populate budget period mapping.

You can achieve various results. You can:

Retain prior-year budget periods by mapping the historical scenario to the budget periods that are used in the proposed budget or plan in the planning model.

Define the relationship between data and ledgers that do not use the same budget period levels.

If you map actual ledger data based on monthly periods to a budget ledger based on quarterly budget periods, identify each of the three months in the first ledger (actual) to map to a single quarter in the second ledger (budget). The amount for a quarter is equal to the sum of the amounts for the three months that you map to the quarter. Refer to the following table for a mapping of monthly periods to quarterly budget periods:

Periods in Ledger A	Budget Periods in Ledger B
Fiscal year 2007, month 1	Fiscal year 2008, quarter 1
Fiscal year 2007, month 2	Fiscal year 2008, quarter 1
Fiscal year 2007, month 3	Fiscal year 2008, quarter 1
Fiscal year 2007, month 4	Fiscal year 2008, quarter 2
Fiscal year 2007, month 5	Fiscal year 2008, quarter 2
Fiscal year 2007, month 6	Fiscal year 2008, quarter 2

To map a budget ledger with an annual budget period to a budget ledger based on quarterly budget periods, the system can divide the total value for the year by four to calculate the amounts to place in each quarter by using the available multiplication factor.

Note: The multiplication factor can also be set to 0, allowing you to use zero amounts for specific budget periods.

Understanding Scenario Types

Depending upon your business requirements for building plans and budgets, three scenario types are available that allow update in Planning and Budgeting:

Top-down

Typically used for single or multiyear strategic planning at higher levels, and can be used as planning targets or guidelines when you are entering detailed bottom-up budgets. You cannot define a top-down scenario as a partial year plan.
Bottom-up

Used for annual or multiyear detailed budget plans, which can also include areas such as asset and position budgeting. You cannot define a bottom-up scenario as a partial year budget.
Forecast

The forecast scenario can be used to reforecast strategic or detailed plans or budgets. It has the unique distinction of allowing partial year planning scenarios and requiring a start date for updates (Data Source page for the activity scenario), thereby locking down or closing certain periods that cannot be updated.

See Data Source Page.

See Scenario Page.

Budget Periods — Data Entry Grid

For all line item activities, the source or seed data populating the proposed plan or budget is referred to as the base budget (BASBUD method). The Base version of the budget contains all the base budget amounts after data staging, but the other versions (all working versions and Master) will apply any method defaults assigned by the coordinator.

For planning scenarios that are not more than 13 periods (such as a one-year monthly budget), all periods will fit into the data entry grid for line items. But if you are working with multiyear budgets that contain more than 13 periods, an additional Page field will appear above the grid so that you can toggle between the different fiscal years or groups of budget data.

For all line item activities under the forecast scenario type, the periods that are locked are unavailable for entry; that is, no updates are allowed for these closed periods. When you stage the data for closed periods, the amounts that are displayed are those from the source or seed data, as defined on the Data Source page. You are responsible for defining both the data sources and the defaults for closed periods, because no updates will be allowed for those periods in a forecast scenario.

The amounts that you see for the closed periods in the line item activity are really the base budget (BASBUD) amounts that were inserted during data staging, and they are not updatable. The amounts remain the same across all budget versions (Base, Master, and working versions).

Note: When you export data for a forecast scenario type, all periods are exported, both closed and open periods. This gives you the option of choosing the forecast as a data source for another activity, allowing all periods to be sourced and staged into the new line item activity.

Scenario Page

Use the Scenario page (BP_SCENARIO) to define planning, budgeting, forecast, and historical scenarios to use in a planning model.

Navigation

select Planning and Budgeting, then select Planning and Budgeting Setup, then select Define Parameters, then select Scenarios

Image: Scenario page

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Scenario page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

Copy Scenario

Click to copy the scenario and create a new scenario with similar properties.

In the page that appears, enter a new, unique scenario ID and short description for the scenario that you want to create, and then click OK.

Note: The short description of the scenario must also be unique, because the scenario ID is unique. For example, you can have two scenarios that have unique IDs, but their descriptions must also be unique and cannot have the same short description name.

Scenario Details

Scenario Type

Select the type of scenario. Values are:

Bottom Up: Intended for detailed budget preparation, during which you can edit data for all periods that are defined within the scenario. You can apply all available method types to the bottom-up scenario type except those that you exclude from the method group ID that is defined for an activity in a planning model. It does not allow you to define partial years in your scenario date range.

Forecast: Intended for reforcasting your budget, you can edit data in open periods within the scenario starting on and after the first period to update; however, you cannot edit data before that period. The first period to update is defined in the planning model on the Data Source page for the activity scenario, and you can define partial years in your scenario date range. You can apply all delivered methods except for the following: ASSET (from asset budgeting), POSBUD (from position budgeting), AMTFTE (amount per FTE), AMTHC (amount per headcount), ECODRV (Economic driver), ANN% (Annual growth percentage), and PER% (Period growth percentage).

History: This scenario type is intended as a source or for comparison purposes and does not require any update. You cannot edit any of the data. Because this data does not allow edit, use of methods does not apply. But remember that many methods may reference history as a source for the formula or method calculation, and need to be available as a scenario.

Top Down:Intended for strategic or higher-level planning, you can edit data in all periods that are defined within the scenario. It does not allow you to define partial years in your scenario date range. You can apply all available methods to a Top Down Scenario type except the following: ASSET (from asset budgeting), POSBUD (from position budgeting), AMTFTE (amount per FTE), and AMTHC (amount per headcount).

Note: If you require a scenario that contains a period range that does not equal a full fiscal or calendar year, you must use the Forecast Scenario type. For example, assume that you need to prepare an 18-month budget (1.5 years). Because the last six months represent a partial year, the system needs to consider this six-month time period as a Forecast Scenario type, even though it updates all time periods.

Ledger ID

Enter the ID of the ledger that you want to associate with the scenario.

The setID of the scenario determines the valid options. The system derives the ledger ID from the ledger table (PS_LED_DEFN_TBL) that you import from Financial Management using your ETL process. When you run the ETL process, the system populates the corresponding EPM Warehouse table PS_PF_LED_DEFN_TBL. Modify the ledger that is associated with the ledger ID using the Detail Ledger: Definition page as part of setting up the operational structure within Performance Warehouse. Ultimately, ledgers are associated with ledger templates that specify the physical ledger table that is used. This ledger table, such as BP_LED_BUDG_F00, controls which dimensions the system can read from or the system can write to. The ledger that you select here determines which type of calendar you can select to associate with this scenario. Commitment Control type ledgers enable you to select budget period calendars only; otherwise, you can select detail and summary calendars only.

GL Scenario (general ledger scenario)

Select a general ledger scenario to identify a unique combination or assumption that is related to historical or proposed financial data.

This scenario, which differs from the Planning and Budgeting scenario that you are creating using this page, is used as a filter for selecting data from the source ledger tables. Similarly, it is the value that is written to the ledger tables upon export, unless overridden, whereas the Planning and Budgeting scenario is not stored in ledger tables. If you are using data from another Planning and Budgeting scenario to assign planning targets to the proposed budget, create a unique general ledger scenario for the planning target scenario. If you are using another Planning and Budgeting scenario to seed your proposed budget, define an additional general ledger scenario after populating the general ledger scenario with the seed data.

Note: The general ledger scenario is not required and is, in fact, hidden when the ledger represents actuals; that is, the LEDGER_F00 table does not contain the general ledger scenario field.

Calendar ID

Enter the calendar ID that you want to assign to this scenario.

Your choices are limited by the setID of the calendar (driven off of the setID of the scenario) and by the type of ledger that is selected. (For example, only budget period calendars are available with a commitment control ledger type.) The type of calendar that you select dictates whether the From and To period ranges represent fiscal year and accounting period combinations (as in the case of detail and summary calendars) or budget periods (as in the case of Budget Period calendars). Budget period calendars also make available the transaction type for entry.

Note: Detail calendars make available the fiscal year and accounting period drop-down list boxes.

Budget calendars make available the transaction type and budget period drop-down list boxes.

Start Fiscal Year and Start Period

Select the fiscal year and accounting period that represents the start of the range that you want to associate with this scenario (such as 2008 and 1 for period 1 of fiscal year 2008).

Note: These drop-down list boxes are available when you select a detail calendar.

End Fiscal Year and End Period

Select the fiscal year and accounting period that represents the end of the range that you want to associate with this scenario (such as 2009 and 12 for period 12 of fiscal year 2009).

Note: These drop-down list boxes are available when you select a detail calendar.

Note: Generally, you should define from and to period ranges as representing a full year or multiple years, rather than partial years. For example, for a 2008 proposed monthly budget you define the following values: Start Fiscal Year and End Fiscal Year values are the same, 2008; Start Period is 1; and End Period is 12. These values represent a full year for the proposed budget. If you require partial year budgets, such as 18 months for a 1.5 year budget, you need to use the Forecast Scenario type for the months past the 12^th month.

Trans Type (transaction type)

Select a transaction type for controlled budget scenario types to determine from the ledger which data the system references during data staging and is used for comparison purposes. Values are:

Original: Represents the original adopted budget. The system selects ledger rows with 0, 3, and 5 as transaction types located in PS_BP_LED_KK_F00.
Final: Represents the current or amended budget. The system selects ledger rows with 0, 1, 2, 3, and 5 as transaction types located in PS_BP_LED_KK_F00.

Do not select a transaction type for the proposed budget ledger. (The system assigns the new original budget a zero value during the export process for transaction type to indicate that it is the original budget.) The system uses the selected transaction type to filter ledger data into the planning model during the data staging process for the historical analysis base types. Transaction types are located in the commitment control ledger in the Performance Warehouse (PS_BP_LED_KK_F00) and stored as translate values in this way:

0 = Original
1 = Adjustment
2 = Transfer Adjustment
3 = Transfer Original
4 = Closing
5 = Roll Forward

Note: This drop-down list box is available when you select a budget period calendar.

From Budget Period and To Budget Period

Select the budget periods that represent the start and end of the range that you want to associate with this scenario (such as 2005M01 and 2006M12 for the first period of the 2005 budget year to the 12^th period of the 2006 budget year).

Note: These drop-down list boxes are available when you select a budget period calendar.

Rate Combo Name (rate combination name)

Select the rate combination name that you want from those that you defined using the Rate Combinations page.

Note: For History scenario types, this field is unavailable.

Note: If any change is made to existing values in this section, a warning message appears that states: Time periods in the scenario have been changed. You will have to regenerate the time hierarchy tree in all scenario groups that use this scenario.

Scenario Group Page

Use the Scenario Group page (BP_SCENARIO_GRP) to define a collection of related scenarios to use in planning models.

Navigation

select Planning and Budgeting, then select Planning and Budgeting Setup, then select Define Parameters, then select Scenario Groups

Image: Scenario Group page

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Scenario Group page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

Copy Scenario Group

Click to copy the scenario group.

When prompted, enter a new, unique scenario group ID. The new scenario group inherits copies of all elements, including scenario associations and period maps, and transfers you to the new group to update as necessary.

Budgeting Type

Select the desired budgeting type. Values are:

Controlled Budget Ledger: The planning model uses commitment control tables and budget periods from the commitment control ledger (PS_BP_LED_KK_F00). The controlled budget ledger supports multiple currencies, statistical budgeting, and planning targets for monetary values. You can define and use the following activity types for a control budget: line item, position budgeting, and asset budgeting.
Project Budget Ledger: The planning model uses the tables that contain project budgeting ChartFields (or dimensions), fiscal year, and accounting period from the Project Budget ledger (PS_BP_LED_PROJ_F00). The Project Budget ledger supports multiple currencies, statistical budgeting, and planning targets for monetary values. You can define and use only line item activity types for a project budget.
Standard Budget Ledger: The planning model uses standard budget tables, fiscal year, and accounting period from the Budget ledger (PS_BP_LED_BUDG_F00). The standard Budget ledger supports multiple currencies, statistical budgeting, planning targets for monetary values, and statistical accounts. You can define and use the following activity types for a standard budget: line item, position budgeting, and asset budgeting.

Note: Balance sheet planning that uses a starting balance period can be used in project and standard budgeting types, but controlled budget types do not support this starting balance period.

Time Hierarchy

Enter the time hierarchy that you want.

The system filters available time hierarchies by setID as driven by the setID of the scenario group.

Note: You cannot change the time hierarchy after any scenario in the group is staged nor can you select or change to a time hierarchy that does not fit the scenarios within the group. That is, the time hierarchy must be defined with calendar IDs that match those that are used by the nonhistory scenarios in the group.

Create New Time Hierarchy

Click to access the Time Hierarchy page and create a new time hierarchy if one does not already exist.

The system enters the new time hierarchy that you create in the Create Time Hierarchy field.

See Defining Time Hierarchies.

Generate Period Maps

Click to have the system automatically create scenario period mappings for all combinations of scenarios within the group (except history type scenarios that you can map from but can never map to, because they cannot be edited).

For you to stage a scenario, the planning scenario must have all of its periods mapped by the source scenario. If you save the scenario group without mapping the periods for the scenarios therein, a warning message appears.

A system algorithm creates the generated period mappings that attempt to align source and target periods. (For example, period 1 of 2004 in a source scenario maps to period 1 of 2005 in the target scenario.) However, if the number of periods in the source (from) and target (to) are not the same, the system fills in mappings for all the periods that are necessary in the target scenario as place holders. You must edit the period mappings to confirm their accuracy and to update them as needed.

Note: If too many scenarios are in the scenario group, and if a problem occurs saving the scenario group, then change the time-out value parameter to provide the system sufficient time to complete the process.

Edit Period Maps

Click to access the Scenario Period Mapping page and edit the automatically generated scenario period mappings or create new ones.

Note: If you have generated your period maps but later add an additional scenario to the scenario group, clicking the Generate Period Maps button does not overwrite anything you have already manually added or adjusted. The period map generation functionality creates new maps. You should verify that the maps suit your business needs, and make any necessary manual adjustments.

See Scenario Period Mapping Page.

Generate Time Hierarchy

Click to regenerate the time hierarchy when you add or remove a scenario from the scenario group or when you modify time periods in one of the scenarios.

This process synchronizes the changes with the existing time hierarchy.

After the generation process completes, the following confirmation message appears: Time hierarchy generation is complete.

Scenario

Enter the desired scenario.

Click the Create Scenario link to add a new scenario. The system enters the new scenario in the Scenario field.

You can add scenarios to scenario groups at any time; however, you cannot change or remove them if the affected scenario is staged. When you add scenarios to a scenario group, they automatically become available within any model that uses the group. All nonhistory type scenarios in a group must conform to the calendars that are included in the time hierarchy that is associated with the scenario group.

See Defining Time Hierarchies.

Description

Click to access the Scenario page and review details about the scenario.

Scenario Period Mapping Page

Use the Scenario Period Mapping page (BP_PERIOD_MAP) to correlate periods between scenarios both for comparison purposes (such as the numbers that the preparer sees for last year's budget next to the entry field for this year's proposed budget) and for seeding purposes (such as providing beforehand the new proposed budget's entries based on last year's entries).

Edit the automatically generated scenario period mappings or create new ones.

Navigation

Click the Edit Period Maps link on the Scenario Group page.
select Planning and Budgeting, then select Planning and Budgeting Setup, then select Define Parameters, then select Scenario Period Mapping

Image: Scenario Period Mapping page

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Scenario Period Mapping page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

Period Map Search

Select this link to return to the Scenario Period Mapping search page.

Start Fiscal Year and From Period

Select the fiscal year and accounting period for the source scenario that you want to map from (such as 2005 and 1 for fiscal year 2005, period 1).

You can map multiple periods to a target scenario period. The system aggregates amounts in the source periods into the target period (such as aggregating months 1 through 3 from the source scenario into the first quarter of the target scenario).

The nonhistory scenario (the To Scenario field) requires that all its periods have a map, but all periods in the From Scenario field do not need to be used.

For balance sheet accounts, the starting balance will always be the first chronological period, because the system automatically generates it. A start and end fiscal year are associated with the starting balance, and you can map multiple periods into the starting balance (period 0), or use an existing source that may be defined as Period 0 in the ledger.

Note: These drop-down list boxes are available when you select a detail calendar.

End Fiscal Year and To Period

Select the fiscal year and accounting period for the target scenario that you want to map to (such as 2006 and 1 for period 1 of fiscal year 2006).

You can map a source period to multiple targets. Use the multiplication factor to divide the amount of a source period among several target periods. Or assign 0 (zero) as the multiplication factor when you want no starting amounts for the period, because all target periods require a period map.

For balance sheet accounts, only the first fiscal year on the target side can have a starting balance (period 0). Although each fiscal year on the source side may have a period 0, only one fiscal year can have a period 0 on the target side. Furthermore, the end fiscal year period supports 0 only if the value for the end fiscal year is the first year (lowest value) within all the end fiscal years.

You can map the same source period into multiple target periods.

Note: These drop-down list boxes are available when you select a detail calendar.

From Budget Period and To Budget Period

Select the budget period for the source scenario from which you want to map and for the target scenario to which you want to map.

You can map multiple source periods to a single target period. The system aggregates the source period amounts into the single target period.

You can map multiple target periods from a single source period. Use the multiplication factor to divide the amount of the source period among several target periods.

Note: These drop-down list boxes are available when you select a budget calendar.

Note: If you map a quarterly source scenario to an annual target scenario, the PER% method will apply an incremental % to the sum of the four quarters.

Multiplication Factor

Enter the multiplication factor that you want.

The stage process multiplies the amounts for the source period by the multiplication factor and inserts it into the amount of the target period. For example, to increase the amounts of last year by 5 percent, you can map the periods of last year to those of this year and use 1.05 for the multiplication factor. Similarly, you could cut the amount of a period by a percentage if you were splitting the amounts of one period across several target periods (such as splitting a quarterly amount across three monthly periods). You can also use a zero multiplication factor to have no amounts apply.

Note: If your source has a period 0 (starting balance) that you want to ignore for purposes of mapping to the target, you can map the period 0 to any other period in the target, or you can apply a multiplication factor of 0.0. For example, you may want to do this when working with a Commitment Control budget, because it does not recognize period 0.