Contents

Personnel QuickView

Locating Personnel

Reviewing Personnel

Adding Personnel Line Items

Setting up a Line Item’s Properties

Setting up a Line Item’s Details

Editing Personnel

Deleting Personnel Line Items

 

In Planning Maestro, you can analyze your company’s data and create budgets and forecasts for revenue and expenses. After your Actuals (historical financial data) are uploaded into Planning Maestro, you can build your budgets through import templates or manually in the system.

Personnel (your company’s human capital: full-time, part-time, hourly, and contract employees) are a crucial part of your company’s budget. To review, add to, edit, or delete the budgeted amounts for Personnel in Planning Maestro, use the Personnel application, which is in the Worksheets module.

This document shows you, a Planning Maestro user, how to:

• Review budgeted Personnel in Planning Maestro.
• Add budgetary Personnel.
• Edit Personnel line items.
• Delete Personnel line items.

Please Note: You can view any Version of a Plan in Personnel: next year’s budget, best case scenario, etc.

Personnel QuickView

The Personnel application has three main sections:

1. Line items – The middle of the page displays Personnel line items in a table or working screen. You can add and remove columns or filter line items using the Rows, Columns, and Filters sections at the top.
2. Properties – The Properties pane on the right side of the page enables you to add detailed information about dates, descriptions, amounts, schedules, and other information about each line item.
3. Details – The Details pane at the bottom of the page enables you to see how each line item affects your Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and cash flow statements.

Locating Personnel

To manage your Personnel, open the Worksheets module and select Personnel.

The Personnel page opens.

On this page, you can:

• Review existing Personnel (including filtering by name, account number, amount, Spread Method, etc.).
• Add budgeted amounts for new Personnel.
• Edit existing Personnel.
• Delete Personnel.

Please Note: When you first open this page, the page does not display any line items. Use this page to build out your budget via templates or manually.

Reviewing Personnel

The Personnel page is designed as a table or working screen: each column represents a certain category of information, and each row represents one line item. You can customize this table’s layout for yourself and other budget contributors.

To customize your view of this page and see all the information you need, review the current setup of Rows, Columns, and Filters at the top.

To add or remove columns or adjust the calendar view for the Personnel application, see Navigating the Planning Applications.

Please Note: For Personnel, consider moving the Dimension that lists the entity, department, office, company, division, or other location the employee(s) work in from Filters to Rows. Then, you can see each line item’s location in your company as one of the columns in your view.

Adding Personnel Line Items

Step 1: To add a new Personnel line item, select the Add icon (  ).

Please Note: Small businesses may wish to budget for individual employees. Larger businesses may find it helpful to budget by groups of employees who have the same hours, salary, benefits, etc. For example, a large zoo could add a line item named Giraffe Keepers that budgets for the hours and wages for all 20 employees who take care of the giraffes.

The new Personnel line item appears.

Step 2: Use the first few columns of this table to enter the necessary information about this Personnel line item.

• Name – Double-click on the Name field and enter a name for this Personnel line item that you and other employees can easily recognize.

• Account Number – Double-click on this dropdown menu and select an account to charge this line item to.

• Entity (optional) – Double-click on this dropdown menu to select the entity (or department, or division – the business unit of your company) this employee or group of employees belongs to.

Please Note: The Entity, Department, or other business unit Dimension is not automatically included in your view. However, having a column that lists the business unit for each employee can be useful when reviewing Personnel. To add an Entity column to your table, drag the Entity item above from Filters to Rows. See Navigating the Planning Applications for detailed instructions.

• Start Date – Double-click on this dropdown menu to select a Start Date for this employee or group of employees.

Please Note: This date can be a future date for to-be-hired employees.

• End Date – Double-click on this dropdown menu to select an End Date for this line item. You can also leave the default (Never Ends) to let this line item continue indefinitely.

Please Note: An end date ends this line item and all related Period Related Expenses and Hourly Related Expenses (such as health insurance or vacation time).

• Hourly Wage (Input) – Double-click on this field and enter the total amount for this Personnel line item’s wage per hour (whether they are paid hourly or are salaried).

Please Note: Enter the hourly amount for each individual, even if this line item represents a group of employees.

• Related Expenses – To select Period Related Expenses for this individual or group of employees such as FICA payments, taxes, or benefits, select 0 selected (Edit).

Please Note: Period Related Expenses (PREs) are a type of Driver (non-financial factor or variable). To add a PRE Driver to a Personnel line item, first create PREs as their own line items in the Drivers application, which is also in the Worksheets module. Then, use the 0 selected (Edit) link here to attach those PREs to Personnel line items.

Setting up a Line Item’s Properties

After you enter the basic information for each line item, use the Properties pane to add advanced information about the line item (including dates, descriptions, amounts, schedules, and other information about each line item).

Step 1: To add advanced information about this line item, click on the Expand icon (  ) above Properties.

The Properties pane opens on the right.

General

In the General section of the Properties pane, use the fields provided to review the line item’s name and description.

• Name – If needed, click on this field to edit the line item’s name.

• Descriptions 1-4 – You can add up to four descriptions of this line item as reminders or extra information for yourself or other budget contributors. These notes do not appear in reports. To add a description, click on the space beside Description 1, Description 2, Description 3, or Description 4 and enter a description.

To save your changes, click away from these fields.

Date

Use the Date section of the Properties pane to set up the timing of this line item.

• Time Hierarchy – The structure of your calendar view, or how the columns on the right side of the table represent periods, quarters, and years.
• Start Date – If necessary, click on this field and enter the start date for the line item. You can also select the date from the calendar.

Please Note: This start date reflects the start date of the employee or group of employees and later drives some calculations for Period Related Expenses.

• End Date – If necessary, click on this field and enter the start date for the line item. You can also select the date from the calendar.

Please Note: An end date ends this line item and all related Period Related Expenses and Hourly Related Expenses (such as health insurance or vacation time).

Headcount

Use this section of the Properties pane to enter information about this line item’s Headcount: how many employees it represents, the type of employee, and other related methods and schedules.

Please Note: Planned Hours, Hourly Wages, and other information you enter for this line item will be multiplied by the Headcount you enter here.

• Record Type – Click on this dropdown menu and select one of the following options:
  • One Time Hire – Select this option if you are budgeting for an individual or group of employees you hire one time.
  • Adjustable Hire – Select this option if you are budgeting for an employee or group of employees with variable start and end dates (for example, temporary employees you hire for the holiday season). If you select this option, new fields appear below.

Example: To set up a Personnel line item for a group of employees that increases by 20 people every month, enter 20 as the Headcount and Period Amount as the Spread Method.

• Use Data Link – This field only appears if you selected the Adjustable Hire option above. To use a Data Link and connect this line item’s Headcount to information from another application (for example, to a Driver named Office Remodel Project – Contract Employees) click on this toggle switch to switch it to the ON position.

 

• The toggle switch turns green and switches to the ON
• The Headcount (Input) and Spread Method fields disappear.

• A new Data Link field appears below. Select Click to Edit to select the Data Link.

Please Note: For detailed instructions for setting up a Data Link, see Using Data Links.

• Headcount (Input) – This field only appears when you are not using a Data Link. Click on this field and enter the number of employees represented by this line item: “1” if you are budgeting for an individual, or the number of employees in the group if you are budgeting for a group.

Headcount with a One Time Hire:

Headcount with an Adjustable Hire:

• Spread Method – This field only appears if you are budgeting for an Adjustable Hire. Click on this dropdown menu and select a Spread Method, or a schedule for steadily increasing or decreasing the number of employees represented by this line item.

Example: If you want to budget for 5 new employees per quarter, enter 20 as the Headcount and use Quarterly End as the Spread Method. Planning Maestro shows that 5 more employees are hired at the end of each quarter.

• Increase/Decrease Method – This field only appears if you are not using a Data Link. Select 0 selected (Edit) to select an Increase/Decrease Method for this line item, or a scheduled increase or decrease (such as 10 more employees per year).

Please Note: You can create custom Increase/Decrease Methods in the Increase/Decrease Methods application, which is in the Automation module.

• Headcount GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu to select a statistical GL Account (a GL Account that stores non-financial information) for headcount.

Hours

Use this section of the Properties pane to set up schedules and methods for employee(s)’ work hours. You can set up work hours using one of two methods:

1.        Planned Hours	2.        Work/Pay Schedule
You can enter the total sum of hours for this employee/group of employees per year.	You can select a schedule for this employee/group of employees’ work (hours per day) and pay schedule (when they are paid).
Example: 2080 hours (40 hours/week for one year)	Example: Monday through Friday, 8 am-5 pm, with a Friday payday

Use the fields below to set up hours according to Planned Hours or a Work/Pay Schedule.

• Use Work Schedule – To use a Work Schedule (for example, Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm), click on this toggle switch to turn it to the ON position.

• The toggle switch switches to the ON position (see below).
  • The Planned Hours (Input), Spread Method, Increase/Decrease Method, and Recognition Schedule fields disappear (because these fields are relevant to Planned Hours, not to a Work/Pay Schedule).

 

• If you chose to use a Work Schedule, skip down to the Work/Pay Schedule section below.
  • Use Data Link – This field only appears if you left the Work Schedule toggle switch in the OFF position above. To use a Data Link and connect this line item’s amount and schedule for hours to information from another application (such as connecting it to a Driver for the work hours scheduled for a specific project) click on this toggle switch to switch it to the ON
    • The toggle switch turns green and switches to the ON position.
      • The Planned Hours (Input) and Spread Method fields disappear.
      • A new Data Link field appears below. Select Click to Edit to select the Data Link.

Please Note: For detailed instructions for setting up a Data Link, see Using Data Links.

• Planned Hours (Input) – This field only appears if you are not using a Work Schedule or a Data Link. Enter the number of hours planned for this employee or each employee in this group for one year.

Please Note: For Planned Hours, most companies budget 2080 hours for a full-time employee who works 40 hours a week.

• Spread Method – This field only appears if you are not using a Work Schedule or a Data Link. Click Even to open this dropdown menu and select a Spread Method for this employee(s)’ Planned Hours. This Spread Method determines how this line item affects your Income Statement and Balance Sheet (because you owe employees their wage per hour times Planned Hours).

Example: If you chose to enter the number of Planned Hours per year, and the employees represented by this line item work the same number of hours per period, use the Even Spread Method. You can also use a Work/Pay Schedule (see below) or create a custom Spread Method for hours using the Spread Methods application, which is in the Automation module.

• Increase/Decrease Method – This field only appears if you are not using a Work Schedule. To add an Increase/Decrease Method for hours, select 0 selected (Edit).
• Work/Pay Schedule – This field only appears if you are not using a Data Link. The default Work/Pay Schedule is Monday through Friday, with an 8-hour day and a Friday payday. To select a custom Work/Pay Schedule, select Default Work/Pay Schedule to open this dropdown menu and select a different schedule. You can create custom Work/Pay Schedules through the Work/Pay Schedule application, which is in the Automation module.

Please Note: You can still use a Work/Pay Schedule if you chose to set up this Personnel line item by Planned Hours. The schedule simply spreads out the Planned Hours you entered on the calendar (for example, setting a Monday-Friday workweek vs. a Sunday-Thursday week).

Using Planned Hours with a Work/Pay Schedule shows the expense based on the spread of the Planned Hours (wage per hour multiplied times Planned Hours) and how the Work/Pay Schedule affects the Balance Sheet (because you need to make sure you have enough cash for each pay day).

• Planned Hours GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu and select a statistical GL Account for planned hours.
• Regular Hours GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu and select a statistical GL Account for regular hours.

Wage

Use the Wage section of the Properties pane to enter information about the employee(s)’ hourly wages (for both hourly and salaried employees).

• Use Data Link –To use a Data Link and connect this line item’s wages to information from this application to another application (such as a different Personnel line item that records wages for a larger group of employees) click on this toggle switch to switch it to the ON position.

• The toggle switch turns green and switches to the ON position.
• The Hourly Wage (Input) and Spread Method fields disappear.
• A new Data Link field appears below. Select Click to Edit to select the Data Link.

Please Note: For detailed instructions for setting up a Data Link, see Using Data Links.

• Hourly Wage (Input) – This field only appears if you are not using a Data Link. If necessary, click on this field and edit each employee’s wage per hour.
• Spread Method – This field only appears if you are not using a Data Link. Click on Even to open this dropdown menu and select Period Amount.

Please Note: Only the Period Amount Spread Method calculates wages correctly. Do not use any other Spread Method.

• Increase/Decrease Method – To add an Increase/Decrease Method to wages (for example, a 2% raise every year) select 0 selected (Edit).
• Wage GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu to select a GL Account for wages.

Related Expenses

Use the Related Expenses section of the Properties pane to use Period Related Expenses (PRE) (such as FICA taxes or benefits) for this line item.

• Related Expenses – Select 0 selected (Edit) to add a Period Related Expense.

Please Note: Period Related Expenses (PRE) are a type of Driver (non-financial factor or variable). To add a PRE to a Personnel line item, first create PREs as their own line items in the Drivers application, which is also in the Worksheets module. Then, use this link to attach those PREs to Personnel line items.

Personnel Properties

Use the Personnel Properties section of the Properties pane to select an Allocation Method for this line item.

• Allocation Method – To use an Allocation Method for this line item, or spread its cost or use across multiple departments, offices, products, or other Dimensions of your company, select None (Edit).

Example: You can spread the cost of your IT employees across departments.

 

Please Note: You can add and edit Allocation Methods in the Allocation Methods application, which is in the Automation module.

Statistical Data

Use the Statistical Data section of the Properties pane to enter information for your statistical data GL Accounts: the GL Accounts you use to collect data about your company to use for analysis later. Statistical GL Accounts record non-financial information you can view later in reports: for example, your employee headcount per department.

Please Note: Planning Maestro can import statistical accounts from your company’s General Ledger. You can also use these accounts to help you set up Data Links.

• Total Hours GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu and select a GL Account to record the total hours for this Personnel line item (Overtime, Shift Premium, and Other).
• Overtime Hours GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu and select a GL Account to record your overtime hours (any hours beyond 40 hours per week).
• Other Hours GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu and select a GL Account to record your other hours (hours not classified as Overtime or Shift Premium).
• Shift Premium Hours GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu and select a GL Account to record your shift premium hours (hours outside of the regular workday, such as holiday, weekend, or night hours).
• Total Expense GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu and select a GL Account to record your total expense for this Personnel line item (wages plus all benefits).
• Gross Wages GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu and select a GL Account to record your employees’ gross wages (regular wages plus any HREs and PREs included in gross wages).

Please Note: HREs (Hourly Related Expenses) and PREs (Period Related Expenses) are Drivers from the Drivers application, which is in the Worksheets module. You can choose to include or deduct each HRE and PRE from your regular or gross wages or keep them separate. For a full definition of HREs and PREs, see the Planning Maestro Glossary.

• Adjusted Gross Wages GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu and select a GL Account to record your adjusted gross wages (gross wages minus HREs and PREs deducted from regular or gross wages).
• Regular Wages GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu and select a GL Account to record your regular wages (base wages, or headcount times hourly wage times hours, plus any HRE or PRE included in regular wages).
• Adjusted Regular Wages GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu and select a GL Account to record your adjusted regular wages (regular wages minus HREs and PREs deducted from regular wages).
• Related Expenses GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu and select a GL Account to record your related expenses: PREs (Period Related Expenses), which are a type of Driver.
• Average Hourly Rate Overall GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu and select a GL Account to record your average hourly rate overall (for Overtime, Shift Premium, and Other hours combined).
• Total Expense Per Headcount GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu and select a GL Account to record your total expense per headcount (total expense divided by headcount).
• Gross Wages Per Headcount GL Account – Click on this dropdown menu and select a GL Account to record your gross wages per headcount (gross wages divided by headcount).

Setting up a Line Item’s Details

The Details pane shows advanced accounting details, or how each Personnel line item debits or credits GL Accounts related to Personnel, in the P&L statement (Profit and Loss, or Income Statement), and in the Balance Sheet over the time period you are viewing. Use the Details pane to review how this line item debits or credits various GL Accounts.

Please Note: The Details pane is useful for accountants who are running reports such as the Income Statement. If you are a budget contributor (department head or manager) who just needs to enter your budget for the coming year, you most likely do not need to use the Details pane.

Step 1: To open the Details pane, select the line item in the table, and then select the Expand icon (  ) in the bottom right.

The Details pane opens. This pane displays a table.

You can customize your calendar view in the Details pane separately from your view in the main application.

Example: You can set your Details pane to a different calendar view from the main application. In the screenshots below, the main application’s calendar view is of 2022, while the Details pane has a calendar view of 2020-2022.

The columns of the table present the following information:

• Transaction Type – This column displays what type of transaction this line item debits and credits: GL Accounts, increases, decreases, and payments.
• DR/CR – This column shows whether the line item is a debit or credit in each transaction.
• Account Number – This column shows the GL Account Numbers.

The rest of the columns display the calendar view you set up above.

Reviewing Personnel Details

Use the Personnel section of the Details pane to review how this line item debits or credits statistical GL Accounts over the time period displayed in the application. These statistical GL Accounts record useful non-financial information, such as the number of Planned Hours.

Please Note: Use the [Time] dropdown menu under Columns to control your calendar view, or what periods, quarters, and years you can see in this panel. Use the Properties pane to edit the statistical GL Accounts debited or credited for this line item. You can also edit the amount per period individually (see below).

Reviewing P&L Details

Use the P&L (Profit & Loss) section of the pane to review how this line item debits or credits GL Accounts from your P&L (Profit and Loss, or Income Statement).

Reviewing Balance Sheet Details

Use the Balance Sheet section of this pane to review how this line item debits or credits asset, liability, and equity accounts.

Please Note: This line item’s effect on Balance Sheet accounts depends on the wage per hour, headcount, pay schedule, and other information you entered in the main application or the Properties pane.

Editing Personnel

Editing Individual Line Items

Step 1: To edit line items in the Personnel application, reopen the Personnel application. Open the Worksheets module and select Personnel.

Step 2: Use the Transaction Row Filter to determine what type of transaction amount you want to edit on the page. Each line item contains different transaction amounts for Hours, Wages, etc. To view a different transaction amount, click on the dropdown menu and select the type of amount you want to see.

Example: To change the Planned Hours of several employees or groups of employees at once, click on the Transaction Row dropdown menu and select Planned Hours (Input). The Amount field in the table changes to reflect the Planned Hours of each line item. Then, you can edit each line item’s Planned Hours individually in the table.

Step 3: Select any line item on this page to edit its amount, properties, or details.

Please Note: You can tell an amount is editable if it displays in blue (as opposed to the read-only black).

Step 4: To edit an amount for a specific period, double-click on the amount’s cell in the table and enter the new amount.

• When you enter a new amount and click away, the amount changes.
• The text changes from blue to purple.
• All users who can access this application and the related Dimensions (building blocks of your budget) can see this purple text.

Step 5: To reverse this change and return to the original amount, double-click on the amount’s cell in the table, press Delete, and then press Enter.

• The amount turns back to the original (the total amount as divided by the Spread Method).
• The text changes back from purple to blue.

Please Note: If you edit any item on this page connected to another line item through a Data Link, all other items connected through the Data Link also change.

 

Please Note: For detailed instructions about how to reverse a change to an individual period amount, see Navigating the Worksheets Applications.

Editing Multiple Line Items

To edit multiple line items quickly and easily, you can:

• Use the Export/Import tool – Export this page as an Excel spreadsheet, edit as needed, and then import it back in. To export an Excel spreadsheet, hover over the Export/Import icon (  ) and select Export Data Projections to Excel from the dropdown menu.

An Excel spreadsheet downloads to your computer. Open this Excel spreadsheet to edit these line items, and then import them back into this application. For detailed instructions, see Exporting/Importing Excel Templates in Worksheets.

Deleting Personnel Line Items

Please Note: You cannot recover a deleted Personnel line item.

Step 1: To remove a line item from the Personnel page, select the line item and select the Delete icon (  ).

Step 2: A popup message appears. Click Confirm.

The line item disappears from the page.

Please Note: You cannot delete a line item connected to other line items through a Data Link. If you try, a warning message appears and shows you how this line item is used in other Data Projections (other line items).

To delete this line item, remove all the Data Links connected to it (listed in the popup message) first. You can:

• Remove this line item from a Record Set.
• Remove the Data Link from the other item(s) connected to it.
• Delete the other items connected to this line item through Data Links.

For detailed instructions for using Data Links, see Using Data Links in Planning Maestro.