In our first post in the Detail Budgeting series, we noted that a common issue among budgeters was an inability, in traditional budgeting systems, to enter enough explanatory detail.  True Sky Budgeting and Planning provides a number of solutions to this issue, including how Line Item Detail can be used in a Standard Template and in the case when data entry is only allowed at the detail level (see previous posts).

In this post, we will review the Pivoted Line Item Detail Template, which is useful when a Budgeter prefers to enter data to multiple accounts for a single event (think a single Conference with many different expenses).

At this point in our usual deployment, we begin to hear from the budgeters.  ‘Alright,’ they say, ‘We understand the need for detail budgeting.  But we don’t want to enter the same description for a group of accounts – can’t we budget by event or trip, where we enter one description and use that same description in several accounts?’

For this, True Sky Budgeting and Planning offers the Pivoted Line Item Detail Template.

In the above example, each Event or Trip is entered as a single entity – with budgeted amounts against a series of accounts.  In this way, budgeters can see the costs for individual trips.  A summary page using a Standard Template design can then be used to review the total costs for each of the accounts.

…and Open Line Item Details can be used to Review descriptions and amounts.

Detail budgeting is a valuable means to capture as much information as possible during the budgeting and forecasting cycle.  The greater the information that is gathered during the process, the more accurate the budget or forecast can be.  Storing that detailed information so that it is readily available improves the efficiency of the budgeting process and creates more time for analysis and review.

Conclusion of the series:

True Sky Budgeting and Planning offers three distinct methods for entering budgeting details:

• Line Item Detail can be entered into Standard Template-based Assignments
• A Line Item Detail Template can be used to only allow data to be entered at the detail level
• A Pivoted Line Item Detail Template allows budgeters to enter data for a single description to a group of accounts

By providing means for more detailed data capture, True Sky Budgeting and Planning helps to make your Budgeting process more efficient and less painful for the budgeters, the approvers and the reviewers.