Microsoft Forecaster data protection
Microsoft Forecaster data protection
Any budget administrator will tell you that the key to a successful budget is maintaining accurate data. Microsoft Forecaster ensures that the historical information you load into your financial reports stays intact. But did you know that you can actually "lock down" financial data in your Actuals column to prevent it from being changed? This page will tell you how.
When working with a Forecast input set (which will have a mix of Actual and Forecast columns), you should prevent the Actual data from changing. This setup will require that you create two separate versions of the input set—for example, version A5 for Actual 2005, and version F5 for Forecast 2005. As the Actual data is loaded into the Forecast input set, you will need to modify the column set to display the Actual columns instead of the Forecast columns.
The key is to prevent the Actual data from being modified after it has been loaded. Two levels of locking data in an input set exist:
1. | Lock the data so that it can never be changed. |
2. | Lock the data so that a user cannot directly input the new data. However, a load of new data or a recalculation of the original data is allowed. |
Using historical periods
To prevent the Actual data from being modified in any way, set Historical periods in the version of the budget you're working with. Because Actual data is loaded into each period, you should set it to Historical. The following steps explain how to set periods as Historical:
1. | Log in to Microsoft Forecaster as an Administrator. An Administrator will have access to the menu options necessary to make these changes. |
2. | Click the Administration link on the left side of the screen and click the version worksheet. |
3. | Locate the A5 Actual version and locate the Historical Periods column. |
4. | Double-click this column and select the period(s) to set as Historical. If data has been loaded for periods 1 through 5, select all these periods. The other way to add historical periods is to type directly in the Historical Periods column. The required syntax is to separate the period numbers by a comma—for example, 1,2,3 or 1,3,5. |
Note
Make sure the Actual periods have been set as Historical before opening the input set. This will prevent any calculations defined in the calculation set from being performed and from overwriting your Actual data. In addition, this setting prevents users from directly inputting data.
Using locked columns and lines
To prevent the Actual data from being typed over but allow the loading or recalculating of the Actual data, lock the Actual column(s) in the column set:
1. | Log in to Microsoft Forecaster as an Administrator. |
2. | Click the Setup link on the left side and click the Columns worksheet. |
3. | Locate the column to be locked, and in the Locked column, type an X. |
Instead of a column of data not being overwritten through input, you may have an account that should not be available for modification by direct input. For example, the account data will always be imported or loaded. In this case, you would lock the individual account, like this:
1. | Log in to Microsoft Forecaster as an Administrator. |
2. | Click the Setup link on the left side, and click the Lines worksheet. |
3. | Locate the account you want to lock, and in the Show column, select L for Locked from the drop-down list. |
Note
An example of an account that might be locked is a Statistical account used as the basis for a calculation. Locking this account would prevent a user from accidentally typing a value in it.
Using workflow
Within workflow, the status of a center's budget can be changed to lock that center from direct input. Microsoft Forecaster has various workflow statuses, and each status has a different level of locking predefined.
In progress | Open for all input. |
Submitted | Locked from input by the person who submitted the budget. However, the person the submitted budget rolls up to can make changes. |
Approved | Locked from input by the person who approved the budget. However, the person the approved budget rolls up to can make changes. |
Completed | Locked from input by anyone. |
Note
Data can still be loaded or imported into a center's budget regardless of the workflow status.
