Budgets and Forecasts release notes
Find out what's new and changed in each version of Budgets & Forecasts. This page lists all the releases in the last year, with the most recent release items at the top.
Last updated
Find out what's new and changed in each version of Budgets & Forecasts. This page lists all the releases in the last year, with the most recent release items at the top.
Last updated
Updates for all users:
Working and sum line enhancement: We added more spread options to working and sum lines. Previously, you could only spread evenly in these lines. The additional spread options will help you complete your data entry quicker in these lines.
Dimension filter enhancements:
When a budget has multiple dimension levels, and you apply a filter to one of them, the other dimension levels now dynamically update according to that applied filter. For example, if you operate in three countries and have no filters applied, you'll see all the trading entities listed in the Trading Entity dimension, but if you filter the Country dimension to see the budget for Australia only, then go to filter the Trading Entity dimension, you'll only see the Australian trading entities in the list.
When the Include ### suspense items... setting is selected in the workbook setup, ### is now available as a dimension-level filter, so you can quickly include or exclude those items in the budget or forecast grid.
Other small changes:
The expand/collapse buttons are now grouped together to save space. Click the button on the top-left of the grid to display the expand and collapse options.
We changed some of the icons in the top-right toolbar to match those in other modules.
Updates for budget owners and administrators:
Category dimension: In financial budgets, we replaced the Add category button with a link that takes you straight to the user documentation page that explains how to add a new account group (category) to a budget.
Updates for all users:
Better workflow task information:
The Tasks button now has a Total count and a subtotal of the tasks applicable to the current worksheet. Previously, the Tasks button only showed you how many tasks you had on the currently open worksheet. Now it's clear how many tasks you have in total.
The Tasks window now has a new UI that presents the workflow task details, similar to how they are displayed in the grid, along with the ability to search for a specific task and the ability to view the task list of other tabs in the workbook.
All cell comments in one place: We introduced a new Cell comments button that allows you to quickly view all the cell comments in a workbook. This saves you lots of time, as you no longer need to drill down into the lower levels of the budget to look for comments.
Spread enhancement: You can now spread a range of cells at the workflow level. Previously, you could only spread a range of cells at the total level.
Other changes:
We improved the dimension level filters. Now, when you filter one dimension level and then go to filter another one, the list of that dimension's entities is prefiltered according to the first applied filter. For example, if you initially filter by Country > Australia, then go to filter by Sales Rep, you'll only see a list of Australian sales reps. Previously, you'd see all sales reps in the list. This change makes it easier for you to find the items you're looking for. Please note that this change doesn't apply to the budget setup or session filters.
Updates for budget owners and administrators:
Nested calculation rows: In the budget (Main tab) and the Database, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, and Reference tabs, you can now show nested calculation rows. This means the rows are expandable just like the category rows, so you can see the breakdown for each dimension level underneath. The calculation rows come from the underlying financial statement. By default, the nested rows are not shown, which means only the total calculation values are shown in the worksheet.
Budget hierarchy enhancement: We changed the hierarchy settings in the budget setup to give you more flexibility and make it consistent with other worksheet tab setups. We removed redundant labels and introduced the ability to reorder levels and determine the workflow level. What you can do depends on the type of budget:
In operational budgets, you can now reorder all the levels and select the level at which you want to workflow to sit.
In financial budgets, you can only reorder the middle levels because Category remains at the highest level and Account remains at the lowest level. The workflow continues to sit at the Account level because of the various drivers that might drive those values.
Publishing enhancement: You now have more flexibility when publishing data to an existing stream. Previously, you could only publish to a stream that exactly matched the structure of the budget or worksheet tab you were publishing. This means it had to have the same dimensions and measures. Now you can publish to a stream that partially matches the budget or tab.
We're delighted to announce two exciting items...
Upgrades and services form
A new form, available in the side navigation in Phocas, makes it easy for you to request upgrades and services from within your Phocas site. Your email address is automatically inserted into the form, and you can select from a list of common requests. For example, you might need additional user licenses or databases, or service work, such as ERP migration or training. If you don't see the request you need, simply select the Other option. Then give us some brief information and submit the form. We'll get back to you within a few days with a quote, and then we can get started on your upgrade or service!
New user documentation site
If you're reading this note, you're looking at our new user documentation site! We've moved our user documentation to this new platform and given it a fresh look with enhanced content display and search functionality, along with an easy-to-remember URL: docs.phocassoftware.com
Please update any bookmarks you have to the old site, which will be retiring soon.
Menu enhancements: All the menus, such as the dimension filters in the grid, have an updated style, so they now look and behave consistently. We also implemented new functionality to make it easier for you to select multiple items in menus with long lists. You can click and drag to select the items and use the Shift+click and Ctrl+click keyboard shortcuts.
Updates for budget owners and administrators:
Ability to clone comments: By default, when you clone a workbook, the cell comments in that workbook are now copied into the new workbook. Clear the checkbox to prevent this from happening.
Worksheet tab enhancements:
We’re changing the way you add a worksheet tab to make it quicker and easier to select the one you need. Now when you click the Add tab button, you get a list of tab types to choose from straight away. In the next release, this list will include tab descriptions.
Related to the above point, we made the process of adding a tab consistent across all types of tabs. All tab setups are now in a side panel (drawer).
In the Balance Sheet tab, we reorganized the settings and added a checkbox to control the inclusion of the Cash Flow tab. The checkbox setting makes the Cash Flow tab creation process more intuitive and consistent with other settings. Note that if you already have a Balance Sheet tab with a Cash Flow tab, this checkbox will be selected in the Balance Sheet setup by default. If you clear it, you’ll delete the Cash Flow tab.
Allocations enhancement: You can now edit individual allocations rules in bulk. This is suitable when you select all individual from accounts and allocate them to a single account code in each branch.
Small UI and wording changes:
In the budget setup we changed the Template label to Statement to make it clear that the items in this setting list correspond to the statements created in the Financial Statements module.
In the Publish screen, we made some visual changes to clearly differentiate the Export to Excel option from the other publishing options, as it doesn’t publish data to the underlying database.
Navigation improvements:
The Budgets & Forecasts menu now lists up to 100 budgets and forecast items, ordered by the most recently opened. You can search for all items including those not shown in the list. We also updated the style of the button that takes you to your Budgets & Forecasts homepage, where you can get your full list of items. Also, on your Budgets & Forecasts homepage, we changed the budget workbook icon to match the one that displays on your Phocas homepage, so you can easily identify your budget workbooks in both places.
The Recents menu now lists the 20 most recent Phocas items you've opened. Previously, this list only displayed the 10 most recent items.
Wildcard search: You can now use an asterisk to perform a wildcard search. This is particularly useful when trying to find a specific account code. For example:
*100 returns matching items that end with 100, such as 220100.
100* returns matching items that start with 100, such as 100125.
To do a contains search, put an asterisk on both sides of the search term, such as *100*, such as 220100, 100125, and 100100.
Enhancements to additional measures for driver-based budgeting (budget owners and administrators):
We added an Opening row that allows you to take an opening balance into consideration, similar to what a Balance Sheet does, to track movement in values across the budget period. For example, this could be the movement in the quantity of customers, staff, or stock. A common use case for this row is for demand planning as part of inventory or fund management.
You can now populate the input rows with either zeros or data from a baseline stream. Previously, you had to select a stream. This enhancement allows you to have a different baseline for the input rows in the worksheet. For example, you can populate the top-level rows in the budget with data from a stream but then add an input row that contains zeros instead of that stream data.
We added labels to the parent measure rows to identify what the values represent. You can edit these labels in the setup. Previously, only the child rows had labels.
Several worksheet tab enhancements (budget owners and administrators):
When adding a Balance Sheet tab, you can now use the start month of the budget to get the opening balance. Previously, you had to select a month before the budget start month.
When publishing a Reference tab that uses a balance forward stream, we now implement the same logic that is used when publishing a Balance Sheet tab. Therefore, if you publish to a new stream, a new balance forward stream is created in which the opening balance and deltas for each month are published, rather than the monthly values. If publishing to an existing stream, you can only publish to an existing balance forward stream.
You can now apply a tab-wide format for the measures in the Manual Entry tab. This saves time, as all rows you add in the tab will get this measure formatting. You can then edit the format for individual rows as required to override that default format. For example, you can add a default format of two decimal places for all the values but then change the row that contains exchange rate data to have four decimal places.
We added warning messages to the Headcount tab import process to let you know when a file contains duplicate ID records. We don't support duplicate IDs; they must be unique. However, when you import data they can have duplicate IDs in the file. The duplicates aren’t imported, so you might see that the imported data is different from the data you have in file. For example, if you have 240 rows in the file and 202 are duplicates, only 40 rows will be imported. We also made some minor label changes on the Headcount tab for consistency with the corresponding items in the setup and better understanding.
Allocations tab: Budget owners and administrators can now add a new type of tab to budget and forecast workbooks. The Allocations tab allows you to split costs, revenue, and other items across different areas of your organization. You can then switch between viewing your pre-allocation and post-allocation values.
Exports include workflows: Budget owners and administrators will now see the workflow status and workflow assignee details when they export a workbook or worksheet. This information provides a quick and easy way to determine which items have uncompleted workflows or which users still have tasks assigned to them that they haven’t submitted yet.
Cell menu enhancement: We added more options to the Cell menu we introduced in April. This menu is available to all users and becomes active when you click a cell in a worksheet. The menu is contextual, so the available options depend on the cell you’ve selected. For example, you can view the transactions and comparative data for cells in comparison rows. These options are still also available in the contextual right-click cell menus. As part of this work, we removed redundant options from the right-click menus.
Headcount Input tab export for administrators: The option to export the Input tab is now available for administrators of that particular Headcount tab. Previously, only the budget owner could export an Input tab. This makes it easier for Headcount administrators to export the data to which they have access. If you’re not an administrator for a specific Headcount tab, you’ll only be able to export the Output tab.
Quicker access to workbooks: In the side navigation menu, the Budgets & Forecasts menu item now has a sub-menu of your recently opened workbooks. Previously, when you clicked this menu item, you went straight to the Budgets & Forecasts homepage. In the new sub-menu, you can click a workbook to open it or click the More button to open the Budgets & Forecasts homepage.
Session filters: You can now open a workbook in session mode, in which temporary filters are applied to its dimensions (levels in the workbook). As the filtered workbook only includes the relevant data, it loads much quicker and is faster to navigate. This feature is particularly useful for large workbooks that typically take a longer time to load. This feature has a similar output to the filters you can apply in the budget setup but the key differences are:
Users: Session filters apply to you only, whereas budget filters apply to all users. All users can apply session filters but budget filters must be set by the budget owner and administrators.
Time: Session filters are temporary; they last for the session only, so you can change them without impacting the structure of the workbook. If you reload the budget or close and reopen a budget, you’ll lose the filters and see all the original data again.
When you publish a budget with session filters applied, only the filtered rows will be published, and other rows in the budget stream will remain as they were.
Easier access to comparative data: You can now open baseline and comparative data in the underlying database directly from within a workbook. For example, in a Sales budget in which comparison lines have been set up, you can open that comparative data in the Analytics module, in a forecast, you can open the actuals in Financial Statements or Analytics (as applicable), and in a Balance Sheet budget, you can open the opening balance in Financial Statements.
More functions: We introduced a new batch of functions you can use in formulas, including PMT, FV, and ROUNDUP. To give you a better view of the grid, we also replaced the in-product help text with a link to this function information.
Column groups in forecasts: You can now group the period columns in forecast workbooks. Previously, the group feature was only available in budget workbooks.
Easier access to workbook setup: Budget owners and administrators can now open a workbook’s setup directly from the Budgets & Forecasts homepage, so you can edit the setup without having to open the workbook. This new option is particularly useful for large workbooks that typically take a longer time to load.
More information: We improved the error messages that display when one or more tabs in a workbook are not available. The messages are now more informative, so you can try to resolve the issue yourself before contacting our Customer Support team. For example, it might be that you don't have access to the underlying database, you don’t have permission to view a specific data item in that database, or a data item in the database can no longer be found, such as if it was deleted by another user. We also improved similar messages in other areas of the product.
Dimension separators: We added visual separators to the dimensions list in the workbook setup, so you can easily determine which dimensions belong to the same group. These groups correspond to those set in the underlying database.
All users will benefit from the following two updates:
New menus: We completed the new menus work with the addition of the Row and Cell menus. These menus give you a range of functions for working with the rows and cells in the worksheet all in one place. The options are contextual, so their availability depends on your selected row or cell.
New font: We updated the font to make the data easier to read.
Budget owners and administrators will benefit from these enhancements:
Headcount setup: The Headcount driver setup now opens in a panel that slides out from the right side of your screen, just like the setup of most other tabs. The functionality of the Headcount tab remains the same, however, the new setup streamlines the tab creation process and paves the way for us to add new feature in the coming months. Please note that Headcount user documentation and videos are currently being updated, so the current content might be out-of-date for a short time.
Tab clone and export options:
When you clone a tab, you can also now include the data (cell values) in the cloning process. Previously, the option to clone the data was not available; you could only clone the tab setup (structure).
You can now quickly export a single tab, bypassing the usual export process. The new export option is available when you right-click the tab name or use the new Tab contextual menu.
Both of these options are available when you right-click the tab name or use the new Tab contextual menu.
Custom measures in the Manual Entry tab: You can now customize the format of measures in each row on the Manual Entry tab to define the number of decimal places of the values and add a prefix or suffix to those values. We introduced custom measure formatting in February (version 3.7), but the Manual Entry tab was not included at that time.
All users will benefit from the following two updates:
Workflow enhancements: We’ve introduced a more efficient way to manage workflows. The new Expand and Select feature allows you to select an entire level in a worksheet hierarchy to view its workflow summary and then automatically expand and select rows of a specific workflow status. For example, in a Sales budget, all rows beneath a salesperson can be selected and assigned to a single user. Previously, the salesperson level would need to be fully expanded and each of the underlying rows selected individually. For more information and a video, see Reassign or submit multiple tasks in bulk (budget contributors) or Assign multiple tasks to a user simultaneously (budget owners and administrators).
New menus: We’re in the process of introducing new menus to the workbooks to give you an easier way to discover all the great features and an alternative way to initiate specific actions. For example, some actions were previously only available by right-clicking on various parts of the workbook. In this release, you’ll see the improved Budget (or Forecast) menu and a new Tab menu. In the next release, we’ll introduce additional menus.
Points to note:
We moved some of the action buttons (icons) from the right of the screen into the new menus.
We moved the ability to switch between a budget and its linked forecast(s) into the new Budget/Forecast menu.
We removed the ability to access your Budgets & Forecasts homepage via the Budgets button. To return to that homepage, simply use the Phocas menu on the right of your screen.
We removed the Refresh button and replaced it with the Refresh workbook option in the Budget/Forecast menu.
Budget owners and administrators now have these additional options in Database and Reference tab setups:
Add levels: Previously in a Database tab, you could add hierarchy levels to the worksheet via the blue Add button. This option is no longer available there, as you can now add levels within the tab setup. The new location ensures consistency with the Reference tab and allows for more flexibility; you can apply filters to the levels, control the level at which the workflow sits, and reorder the levels without being restricted by the workflow level.
Select the workflow level: Previously, the workflow sat at the lowest level in the tab setup, but now you can control where it sits. This change gives you more flexibility in your approach to the workflow. You might want to move the workflow to a higher level where you want to do the assignment. For example, you can put the workflow at the salesperson level, so you only need to assign that higher level row to the salesperson, but they’ll get all the child rows, such as customers or items, to complete.
Apply a filter: We introduced the concept of a tab-wide filter, similar to the budget-wide filter that’s available on the Main tab. This setting allows you to filter the data that is displayed in the tab for a single entity in one dimension. The dimension does not appear in the grid hierarchy. For example, if the Main tab has a budget filter (Country > Australia), you might want the same filter on the Sales database driver tab. Previously, a similar result could be achieved by adding levels filtered to a single dimension, but that added unnecessary hierarchy levels to the budget and reduced the number of levels available for other dimensions, given that we only allow a total of six levels in a tab.
In an upcoming release, we’ll move the Headcount setup to a side panel (drawer) to be consistent with the other tab setup processes. We’ll also introduce some more spread enhancements.
We made several backend improvements to enhance the performance of the Budgets & Forecasts module. Budget workbooks and the data within their tabs now load much faster, giving all users a smoother experience.
Budget owners and administrators:
When you add a Database driver tab to a financial budget, you can now select a Financial Statements template to determine the layout of the contents on the new tab. For example, you might want it to be the same as the Profit and Loss statement used in the Main tab. Selecting the same template as the Main tab template also ensures that any categories with reversed signs (to show negative values as positive and vice versa) will also have reversed signs in the Database tab. Previously, this could only be achieved via manual workarounds. You can edit the setup of existing Database tabs to apply a template.
The Publish feature now displays in a slide-out panel rather than a window. We also reinstated the message that informs you of the worksheet you are publishing and the destination database. The functionality remains the same.
We introduced several headcount enhancements, the first in a series of changes that form part of the headcount redesign:
You now manage headcount users at a global level, not at the headcount tab level. This user management is separate from the headcount tab setup. When a workbook has more than one Headcount tab, you now only need to invite a user once. After they create a password, they will be able to access all headcount tabs, so long as they are assigned to tasks in the respective tab workflows.
You now set headcount administrators at the worksheet (tab) level, not the workbook level. Previously, the headcount administrators were stored against the workbook, so when a workbook had more than one Headcount tab, each of those tabs had the same headcount administrators. This change brings additional security to your headcount data. You can have multiple headcount tabs, each with a different administrator. You continue to manage the headcount administrators from the Headcount setup window. The budget owner is always a headcount administrator. When the owner of a workbook is changed, the new owner is automatically added as a headcount administrator, and the old owner is removed.
If you delete a Headcount tab, you now have the option to delete the sum rows in the Main tab that would otherwise remain.
Enhancements to additional measures for driver-based budgeting:
We changed some labels to ensure consistency in the different places you can add additional measures.
You now have the option to publish the Days, Working, and Lookup rows to measures in the underlying database.
We added colored dots to visually connect the types of measures you can add with their respective rows.
Budget owners and administrators:
We redesigned the setup windows for workbook tabs, comparison rows, and forecasts. The new designs match those we recently released for the budget setup, where the windows were replaced with panels that slide out from the right side of your screen. In a future release, we’ll finalize these designs, so you might see some small changes to their wording and layouts.
As part of the above design changes, in the Database driver tabs:
You can now populate the worksheet with zero values instead of stream values. This option was previously only available in Reference tabs.
We made a small change to the way you manage who can edit Input and Working rows in additional measures (lock a row for editing).
You can now customize the format of measures that are displayed in the grid.
All users:
We enhanced the spread a target > evenly option that is available for calculated measures. The option is now called Evenly between periods. While the target is still spread proportionally between the rows, it is no longer spread proportionally across the period, as each month in the period gets the same target.
We renamed non-financial budgets to operational budgets, to better describe the contents of those budgets. Financial budgets are based on a financial database and operational (non-financial) budgets are based on other databases, such as Sales, Purchases, and Inventory.
Budget owners and administrators - Publishing enhancements:
We redesigned the Publish window. The new version makes it easier for you to select the publishing method, as tooltips clearly differentiate each one, and if you have already published a tab to a specific stream, that method and stream will be selected for you by default.
You can now publish the data to a specific date range in the stream, giving you a different way to partially publish the budget.
For budgets set up with the Year period type, you can now publish to months. The new option splits the budget period value proportionally by 12 and publishes to each month in the year.
If you publish a tab that contains a lot of data, the data is now published in chunks. The publishing progress displays in a loading screen, with error messages and a Refresh button available in the case of any errors.
All users:
You can now refresh the audit log list and export the list to Microsoft Excel.
You can now spread by date. This new spread option allows you to spread a total using the number of days in each period as the proportion for the spread. You can select calendar days, weekdays, or a working day calendar to determine the number of days.
Dimension filter enhancement - We added functionality to the dimension filters to make it easier for you to see the number of entities you have selected.
Scratch Pad tab: We added a new type of worksheet tab that supplements the Manual Entry and Lookup tabs. The Scratch Pad tab offers more flexibility, as it's totally unstructured and allows you to import data from Microsoft Excel to drive values in the other tabs.
Loan mini drivers: We added two new types of mini driver templates for the Balance Sheet. The loan (amortization) mini drivers allow you to calculate interest payments and principal values for loans.
We consolidated the right-click context menus with the corresponding Budget, Tab, Row, and Cell menus that we recently introduced on the top-left of the grid. The respective menus are now consistent with each other, so you have two ways to access the same options. For example, whether you right-click a cell or click the Cell menu, you get the same menu.
We updated the help links that take you to our user documentation. The links now take you to this user documentation site. We also added more links in places where you might need help, such as in worksheet tab setups.
Tab descriptions: Following on from the improvements we made to the add tab process in the last release, you’ll now see descriptions under each tab type, to help you select the worksheet tab that best meets your needs. To accompany this work, we updated the descriptions that display when you hover over a tab name at the bottom of the workbook.
Ability to use semicolons when searching: When using the search box at the top of a worksheet, filtering a dimension list on a worksheet, and filtering a dimension in the workbook setup, you can now use semicolons in your search terms to quickly search for multiple items simultaneously. This functionality was already available in the Analytics module, so now you can copy codes from the Analytics grid and paste them into Budgets & Forecasts for filtering purposes.
Ability to view transactions in forecasts: Previously, you could only view transactions on a comparison row, but now you can view transactions for anything on the left side of the forecast flag pole, as those values are actuals.
Derived rows now visible: Items that come from Financial Statements but are currently unsupported in Budgets & Forecasts (such as statistical rows or calculation rows that use the BAL function) now display in the budget. You’ll see the name in a light grey color. If there are any errors in those rows, a dash will display in the periods columns instead of the values. The inclusion of these rows means the budget better reflects the underlying financial statement and avoids confusion, as such items are no longer missing.
In the Manual Entry tab setup, you can now select a hierarchy, making this tab more configurable. This works similarly to the same setting in the Lookup tab. It adds dimension columns to the grid from which you can select from a list of entities.
Homepage enhancements
Now when you apply one or more filters and sort orders to the grid on your homepage, your selections are retained. This means the next time you view your homepage, it'll look exactly as you left it. This effectively lets you set up your homepage to always display only the items you're interested in.
In addition:
We introduced a Clear filters option to simultaneously clear all the filters you've applied.
We changed the filtering behavior, so fewer clicks are required to get the results you're looking for. Now if no options are selected, this is equivalent to all options being selected.
We changed the style of the tab filter buttons above the grid to make them easier to see.
We now display the description of items in the grid, where available, so you can quickly determine their contents.
New navigation now turned on for all users
In September 2023, we launched a new navigation menu on the left side of Phocas. Recently, we identified that some users were still using the old navigation method, so we migrated them to the new navigation today. If you’re one of those users, you’ll notice the visual difference. The new navigation brings the following benefits:
Easier movement between the different Phocas products and sections.
Resource Centre: Easy access to in-product help and news, new user documentation site, and other learning resources. The old navigation pointed to the old user documentation site, which is no longer being updated.
Upgrades and service request form: Quick way to contact us about making additions to your site.
Product feedback form: Tell the development team what you like about Phocas.
