This best practices article will explore the essential steps for effective data management and collaborative planning with Cube. In the video and steps below, you'll learn more about preparing your data and collecting inputs from budget owners. 

Before you begin

1. Ensure your budget owners have been invited to Cube and have the correct permissions. 

2. Have a template ready to use for your budgeting and forecasting. This can be a templated reporting package you typically use, or you can use one of our templates (download our template). Either way, your template needs to be Cubified, or aligned to work with your Cube dimensions.

Collaborative budgeting and forecasting steps

1. Update and tie out your data.
   
   Ensure that all data within Cube is up to date and accurate. This involves refreshing and verifying the data within Cube. 
   
   
2. Create your scenarios.
   
   From the Dimensions page in the Web portal, add your new Scenario dimension or duplicate an existing Scenario dimension to push data back into Cube. For example, your Scenario may be named Annual Budget ‘24 and Headcount Forecast ‘24.
   
3. Publish templates from the Spreadsheet add-on and leverage the Library page in the Web portal to share files.
   
   
   
   
4. Set up your spreadsheet model.
   
   At Cube, our department budget workbook often include Department Variances, OpEx Variance, Travel & Expenses, Headcount, CapEx, OpEx by Vendor, Vendor BvA, and always have a drivers tab to ensure successful fetching and publishing. 
   
   
5. Use your drivers as spreadsheet filters.
   
   Create filters for each department and month so your department leaders can filter to their specific reports and submit their values.
   
   
6. Add a status tab.
   
   Create a status tab for your Department leaders to manage the planning process collaboratively.
   
   
   
7. Share with department leaders and budget owners and request they apply their changes.
   
   We recommend setting up a meeting to show them how to use their template and publish data. Including a tab with steps to follow in your workbook empowers your team and ensures process alignment. 
   
   Be sure they've been invited to Cube and have appropriate permissions to access the data in the spreadsheet.
   
   You can share this supporting article to show them the process.
   
   
8. Make forecast changes.
   
   Use the input template provided within your model to make changes or add new expenses related to operating expenses or other metrics. Be sure that you are working on the correct forecast columns.
   
   Reference historical data: Utilize historical data in your model as a reference point for making your forecast. Make sure to distinguish between data that you can change (forecast) and data for reference (actuals).
   
   
9. Publish data to Cube.
   
   After making changes, click the publish button in the Spreadsheet add-on to update Cube with the new data. Include any relevant memos to explain the changes made.
   
   
   
10. Lock down your budget and forecasts once complete.
    
    Go back into Scenarios in the Web portal and lock down your budget and forecast with write protection to compare at the end of the month, quarter, or fiscal year.
    
    
    
11. View impact on reports.
    
    Return to other reports, such as the department variances tab. Use Cube's fetch feature to immediately view the impact of the changes against the original forecast. Then, analyze variances and view status updates.
    
    
    
12. Communicate and collaborate.
    
    Encourage questions and collaboration among team members to ensure everyone understands the planning process and the impact of changes.
    
    You can also leverage the audit trail via the Web portal to track who made changes, what changes were made, and when they occurred.