Years

The Planner is used to create and execute marketing plans over and for multiple years. As an administrator, you create these years on the > Planner > Settings > Years page. You also define the fiscal year during the initial setup of the system.

Note

An application for a market development fund (MDF) is always dated to the current calendar year. If you use the Market development fund (MDF) function, the current calendar year must therefore be entered for the planning in the Planner.

You can set the starting month of a fiscal year other than January during the initial setup of the system. The prerequisite is that no planning elements or other data have been created yet. If you would like to track the starting month for your fiscal year at a later point, make a note of the text under >Planner > Settings > Years. This text specifies the starting month of your fiscal year.

You also need to decide which logic will be used to calculate the individual budget values in the budget view. Click > Planning > Settings > Years and define whether the budget values defined for the individual planning elements are totaled using the Top-Down Method or the Bottom-Up Method.

Top Down

Bottom Up

Budget calculation using the top-down method is suitable for companies whose marketing planning is centralized and where the individual marketing areas use centrally defined budgets.

Budget calculation using the bottom-up method is suitable for companies whose individual marketing departments create their own budget plans and in which the total budget is not defined.

Effects:

  • Exchange rates can be defined for each month. The annual budget in the reference currency is calculated with the exchange rate of the first month of the current year.

  • "Horizontal" automatic totals (the total of the monthly budgets) are deactivated.

Effects:

  • Exchange rates can be defined for each month. Changes are taken into account during recalculation.

  • "Horizontal" automatic totals (the total of the monthly budgets) are activated.

  • The annual budget total is calculated from the individual monthly values.

A dropdown list lets you choose between the Top-Down Method and the Bottom-Up Method logic for budget calculation. Monthly exchange rates are applied.

Note

You cannot change the planning type of a year if at least one budget entry has already been created for the year. Remove all budget entries for a year if you want to change its planning type.

When you switch from the Top-Down to the Bottom-Up Method, note the following:

  • "Horizontal" automatic totals (the total of the monthly budgets) are activated automatically.

When you switch from the Bottom-Up to Top-Down Method, note the following:

  • "Horizontal" automatic totals (the total of the monthly budgets) are deactivated automatically.

Note

You have to log in again to apply the changed logic for the budget calculation and to reload the views.

Exchange rates for new years are applied as follows: The new year applies the exchange rate of the last month in the initial year for all months. You can subsequently edit the applied exchange rates.

A year that contains at least one element with a blanket order and an assigned release order cannot be deleted. Before deleting, all assignments of release orders must be deleted.