The Hierarchy Structure Explained

During the implementation, the consultants worked with Sheila and her colleagues to develop the structure of the hierarchy. The result is best possible aligned with the company’s strategic priorities and internal processes.

The structure of the hierarchy is represented by folders and sub-folders (icon ). The investment plans are created on the lowest level (icon ). In the investment plan, Sheila and her colleagues will later enter the line items, for example, which expenses she plans for which investments, and compare this with the actual expenses.

For each folder and sub-folder Sheila can display a roll-up. To do so, she clicks View roll-up in the respective row. Roll-ups show the bottum-up aggregated data of the child investment plans and sub-folders. With a click on go to investment plan Sheila opens the corresponding plan. For more information see Planning .

For each element of the hierarchy, Sheila can also open a panel that displays the essential data for the element. The data was set during the implementation. To open the panel Sheila clicks the icon .

Sheila also sees in which currency the data for the folder, sub-folder or investment plan is managed. This is displayed in the Currency column. Sheila can plan and forecast in a local currency and this will roll up to a master level investment plan currency.

Structuring Possibilities

Strategic decisions are made during the implementation process to structure the hierarchy on the Budget tab as it is foundational to the successful use and deployment of Spend. Many factors are taken into consideration during this process including, but not limited to, Region, Functional Team, Product Line or Company Division, and Financial Systems.

Region: Many organizations structure investment plans by region since field marketers are running marketing programs within a specific geography. This method ensures currency issues are kept to a minimum.
Functions: Some companies will structure budget plans according to a functional area of spend for example – demand generation, public relations or events.
Product Line or Company Division: This structure divides spend according to a product, business unit or even brand. It is a common format for B2C marketing organizations and may be used in combination with a regional structure.
Financial Systems: Since marketing budgets need to be reconciled with financial systems, many marketing teams classify their budget this way. However, this is not ideal as accounting codes tend to be broader than marketers prefer to think about their investments.

Depending on your marketing organization structure, you may see any combination of hierarchy organization for a given year; as the hierarchy is designed to mirror your marketing organization.

Note

The hierarchy contains budgets for a given year. Each year in Uptempo, a new hierarchy will be created for that years’ budgets.

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