Key tasks: Forecast positions

Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2

You can forecast positions to create a budget for filled or vacant positions and to estimate payroll elements, such as salary and benefits, for each position. You can also create budget amounts by budget cycle, account, and dimension, and then import your forecast data into a budget plan.

You can complete these changes in a temporary environment without affecting your current positions, or you can make the changes to your live data, where they become active immediately.

Note

This feature is available only if Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 is installed and the Budget planning configuration key is selected.

This topic applies only to versions of AX 2012 R2 prior to cumulative update 7. If you are using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 or cumulative update 7 or later for AX 2012 R2, see Work with forecast positions.

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Define budget purpose types

Add an existing position to the forecast with a small modification

Create a new forecast position

Enter budget defaults for a position

Copy a forecast position to the forecast

Update multiple forecast positions

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Click these links to find more information about the concepts that are discussed in this topic.

About budget plans

Define budget purpose types

To generate a budget forecast, you must provide estimates for position-related elements that affect the budget, such as base pay, 401k, and insurance amounts. To avoid entering the information manually for each position, you can create budget purpose types that store values after you have set them up. Budget purpose types can be assigned to multiple positions and can contain additional information, such as the legal entity and main account to use.

For example, you can create a budget purpose type called life insurance that automatically calculates 10 percent of the annual gross compensation for each position that the budget purpose type is assigned to.

  1. Click Human resources > Setup > Budget planning > Budget cost elements.

  2. Click New.

  3. Type the name of the budget purpose type and a description, such as 401k and 401k retirement plan.

  4. Click Add to add a line to the grid.

  5. Select a legal entity.

  6. Select a main account.

  7. Enter one of the following:

    • Percent – If the amount is determined by the annual gross compensation, enter the percentage that is used to determine the amount. For example, you might create a life insurance budget purpose type and enter 10.00 in this field. When this budget type is assigned to a position with an Annual gross compensation value of 60,000, a net amount of 6,000 is estimated for life insurance in the budget forecast.

    • Amount – If the value is not affected by the annual gross income of the position, enter the fixed amount. For example, you might enter 500.00 for a car allowance.

  8. Repeat steps 4 through 7 to add more entries to the grid.

    Note

    Only one line can be added to the grid for each legal entity.

Repeat these steps to create more budget purpose types. When you have finished, you can close the form, or see “Enter budget defaults for a position” in this topic to learn about how to assign budget purpose types to positions.

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Add an existing position to the forecast with a small modification

Add an existing position and change the department so that you can include it in the budget forecast without modifying the original live position.

  1. Click Human resources > Periodic > Budget planning > Forecast positions.

  2. Click Add existing positions.

    Tip

    To filter your choices, press Ctrl+G on the keyboard to view the filter fields. You can limit your search results to a specific field, such as Department.

  3. Select the position and then click OK to add it to the forecast. A message is displayed to indicate that the position was successfully added to the forecast.

    Tip

    To view the new positions, click Refresh.

  4. Double-click the position to open the Forecast position form.

  5. Click Edit.

  6. Update the department and close the form. When this position is used in a budget plan, the new department is used, but the original, current position does not change.

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Create a new forecast position

Use this procedure to add a position that does not already exist to the forecast.

  1. Click Human resources > Periodic > Budget planning > Forecast positions.

  2. Click Forecast position.

  3. Select the job that is associated with the position.

    The following information from the job that you select is copied to the new position:

    • Job description

    • Job title

    • Full-time equivalent employment factor

  4. Enter or accept the default activation date for the position.

  5. Enter the date that the position will be retired, if known.

  6. Optional: If known, enter the position retirement date. When the position is retired, if a worker is assigned to it, the worker Assignment end date changes to the retirement date.

  7. Click Create positions.

    Note

    The remaining steps in this procedure are optional.

  8. Optional: Modify the description of the position. The default description is the description of the job that is associated with the position. Changing the position description does not change the description of the job.

  9. Optional: Select the department that the position belongs to.

  10. Optional: Add reporting relationship information to the position. For more information, see the “Modify the reporting relationships for a position” section in the Key tasks: Existing worker positions topic.

  11. Optional: Accept the title that was copied from the job that is associated with the position, or select a different title for the position.

  12. Optional: Select a position type for the position.

  13. Optional: Accept the full time equivalent (FTE) employment factor that was copied from the job that is associated with the position, or enter a different FTE employment factor for the position.

    If you modify the FTE employment factor for the position, the FTE employment factor for the job that is associated with the position does not change.

  14. Optional: Select a compensation region to associate with the position.

  15. Optional: On the Financial dimensions FastTab, select a legal entity, and then select dimensions for that legal entity to allocate dimensions to the position. For more information, see Create a financial dimension.

  16. Continue to “Enter budget defaults for a position” in this topic.

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Enter budget defaults for a position

The next budgeting cycle is approaching and you must make sure that salary and benefit costs are identified for all filled and vacant positions.

  1. Click Human resources > Common > Organization > Positions > Positions. Double-click a position to open it.

  2. Click Edit to change the position.

  3. Expand the Financial dimensions FastTab.

  4. Enter an amount in the Annual gross compensation field and change the currency, if it differs from the default value.

    Warning

    The Annual gross compensation amount is not used directly in the budget forecast and is only used to calculate other budget purpose values. Most positions will have a specific budget purpose entry in the grid that establishes the base pay as a fixed amount.

  5. Click Add to add a budget purpose type to the position. The related fields are displayed from the Budget purpose types form, but can be changed, if you have to.

    Note

    If the budget purpose type is based on a percentage, the Annual gross compensation amount is multiplied by the Percent value to determine the Net amount value.

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Copy a forecast position to the forecast

Use this procedure to make additional copies of a position that is already in a forecast. For example, you might do this if you originally predicted a need for only one position, but now expect you will need two additional, similar positions for the upcoming year.

  1. Click Human resources > Periodic > Budget planning > Forecast positions. Double-click a position to open it.

  2. Click Copy selected.

  3. Enter 2 in the Number of copies field.

  4. Leave the position duration information unchanged and select the Relationships and Financial dimensions check boxes to copy the information from the existing forecast position.

  5. Click Copy.

  6. A message is displayed to indicate that the positions were successfully added to the forecast.

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Update multiple forecast positions

Use this procedure to update multiple forecast positions at the same time.

  1. Click Human resources > Periodic > Budget planning > Forecast positions.

  2. Select the positions to update.

  3. On the Action Pane, in the Maintain group, click Mass update.

  4. Expand the tab that contains the field to update, and then select the check box of the field to update.

  5. Select or enter the new value.

  6. Click Update. A message is displayed to indicate that the update was successful.

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Find form help

Generate budget plan from forecast positions (form)

Select forecast positions (form)

Announcements: To see known issues and recent fixes, use Issue search in Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS).