Driver-based planning, connected to Finance app

datafinalytics
datafinalytics
in Modeling

Hey Anaplanners,

 

I'm curious about best-practice for building connected, driver-based models. I have a an idea of how I'd do it, but not sure how others would accomplish the same objective. So, I'll present a very simple example to get the point across, with the objective of receiving feedback on how to correct / improve my idea.

 

Let's say we're building models for a roof-repair company and they have a clear operational driver, # of roof repairs. We'll exclude other drivers for simplicity. We'll build two primary models, 1) for the field operations team to input the number of roof repairs they anticipate for their regions and 2) finance model that is connected to the operational model.

 

The field will input the number of roof repairs (e.g., 5 in Jan 2021 for the West region). However, each roofing job can be broken down into labor and supplies, with corresponding GL accounts 1010101 - Labor and 2020202 - Supplies. Finance needs the plan at the GL level of detail, but the field plans at the roof-repair level of detail, so we need to translate the cost of each repair into a GL components to create the financial budgets, based on operational plans.

 

I would solve this by creating a calculation module that applies the historical (e.g., TTM) split between the two cost elements and apply that buy the average cost of a roof repair. This way, when finance reviews the budgets, they have their required level of detail, while allowing the field to be more efficient.

 

Now, what is best practice? How have my fellow Anaplanners solved this in the past?

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