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How practical is BC 365 budget analysis?

Posted on by 573
Using BC 365 SaaS v23.3. We are looking at creating some role dashboards to help our department heads view their current budget spend. Initially this seemed pretty straightforward. As do most projects I suppose. :) 
 
Figure point to the defined budget, filter those specific GL account codes for their department, and then pull up matching GL entries covering the specified date range. We can slice and dice by dimension codes as well. Where we are running into a philosophical challenge involves the reactive logic behind analyzing this budget spend. In most all cases, the budget spend is coming from posting purchase invoice lines. Showing billed amounts we owe the vendors. But what this logic fails to take into account is released purchase orders. Amounts we have already committed to spend with the vendors. That we will be billed for and that will affect our budget.
 
For an example, let's say we have $30,000 remaining for our budgeted annual digital marketing spend. And our buyer thinks it's fine to order another $25,000 of digital marketing. So they go in to create a new purchase order for this. But they aren't aware that there is already a released purchase order someone else created last month for $30,000 that was sent to a different vendor for digital marketing. We wouldn't realize we are already at budget, and wouldn't see this until all invoices were sent to us and are sitting in BC 365 awaiting payment.
 
How do companies handle this? We are looking to create custom AL code to add these purchase order line amounts to what the GL account amounts already reflect. I suppose that's the alternative, right?
  • Greg Kujawa Profile Picture
    Greg Kujawa 573 on at
    How practical is BC 365 budget analysis?
    Thanks for reminding me how Microsoft has made it easier leveraging Power BI into BC 365. Since I've already created a worksheet page that compares budget lines against purchasing, I can expose that page as a web service and get at things that way to slice and dice. And take that PBI report and insert it into the role dashboard. Appreciate the insight, as always! 
  • Verified answer
    YUN ZHU Profile Picture
    YUN ZHU 72,895 Super User 2024 Season 2 on at
    How practical is BC 365 budget analysis?
    Hi, personally, I recommend using Power BI, which can be displayed in the Power BI chart on the BC page
    In Power BI apps, there are also first-party and third-party reporting apps that can be used directly.
    As for the data issues you mentioned, you can consider using AL Language to define a page that contains the data you need, then publish it to Web Service, and finally use Power BI to create a chart.
     
    Hope this can give you some hints.
    Thanks.
    ZHU
  • Greg Kujawa Profile Picture
    Greg Kujawa 573 on at
    How practical is BC 365 budget analysis?
    As I alluded to, we are looking to create a role dashboard so our department heads can see a quick shot of their budget versus spend. Trying to avoid exporting and cobbling in Excel. Or having to combine sections of posted spend versus committed purchase order amounts. We are along our way in terms of a worksheet page that is accomplishing this. Slow going, but getting there!
  • gdrenteria Profile Picture
    gdrenteria 11,796 Most Valuable Professional on at
    How practical is BC 365 budget analysis?
    HiI think you could rely on some solutions that support what was mentioned. Someone is sure to fit your requirement.
    Best regards
    Gerardo
  • Suggested answer
    Valentin Castravet Profile Picture
    Valentin Castravet 24,597 Super User 2024 Season 2 on at
    How practical is BC 365 budget analysis?
    What tool are you using to compare your budget vs. actuals? Are you simply exporting the G/L entries to excel and looking at it there?
     
    You could do what you're trying to achieve using a third party reporting tool such as Power BI or Jet Reports. Your report would display/pull 3 things: your actuals from your GL, your budget that you load into the G/L Budgets, and then a third section for released purchase orders or purchase order lines. I would do it that way. Creating custom AL code seems overkill for this. 
     
    Valentin Castravet
    Zander ERP Services 

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