Creating a New Plan

Important: To create a new plan, you must have the Manage budgets role. For complete descriptions of each role available in Flexera One, see Flexera One Roles. 

You can create a new plan for the purpose of accurately planning and allocating financial resources within a specific period.

Note:When creating a plan, select the Billing Centers dimensions to enable the billing center users to view the plan segments and actual spend related only to their specific billing centers.

To create a new plan:

1. Click Cloud > Cost Optimization > Cost Planning. The Cost Planning page opens, listing the plans for your tenant.
2. Click New Plan. The New Plan slideout opens where you can define the plan details such as name for your plan, set its date range, and choose between amortized and unamortized cost.
3. In the Plan Name field, enter a name for the plan.
4. Select the start and end dates of the plan:
• Start - Month/Year sets the beginning for your date range.
• End - Month/Year sets the ending for your date range.
5. Choose a Cost Amortization setting from one of the following options:
• Amortized—One-time and upfront costs are spread evenly over the term of the item purchased.
• Unamortized—One-time and upfront costs are shown at the time of purchase.
6. Click Next. The New Plan > Data Grouping slideout opens where you can group data by dimensions.
7. Choose up to five dimensions to use for data grouping:
a. To view dimensions you can group data by, click the following icon:

b. Select the checkboxes next to the dimensions that you want to use. The following dimensions are supported:

Billing Centers:

• Billing Center Level 1
• Billing Center Level 2
• Billing Center Level 3
• Billing Center Level 4

Cloud:

• Cloud Vendor
• Cloud Vendor Account

Resources:

• Availability Zone
• Bill Entity
• Bill Source
• Billing Account ID
• Database Edition
• Database Engine
• Deployment Option
• Instance Type Family
• License Model
• Line Item Type
• Meter Category
• Operating System
• Product Order Name
• Region
• Resource Group
• Resource Type
• Service
• Service Family
• Any rule-based or tag dimensions. See Using Rule-Based Dimensions to Analyze Cost. 
8. Optionally, create a budget Filter to include or exclude any spend in your plan. You must filter out unallocated spend for cost planning. For example, you can use the filter to include only a specific cloud vendor or to exclude spend such as tax or support charges.

Important:The Filter settings are only available in the current step of the Cost Planning Wizard. After you create the budget, these budget filter settings cannot be changed.

9. Click Next. The New Plan > Confirm Data Grouping slideout opens.

Confirm these settings to lock in the date range and data grouping dimensions and to start entering forecast data.

10. Review your settings for the new plan and click Next. The New Plan > Project Forecast slideout opens.
11. To create a forecast, do one of the following:
• Enter the projected forecast data for each data grouping dimension for each month in the date range.
• Click Fill Forecast and select Historical Data to automatically retrieve forecast data from the AI model. For more information, see Fill Forecast.
• Click Fill Forecast and select Upload File to upload a CSV file. For more information, see Fill Forecast.

Note:Consider the following:

• You can edit the projected forecast data at any time.
• Any forecast data field that is blank or negative is treated as $0.00. Any rows that are blank are treated as unbudgeted.
• You can export the forecast data to either CSV or Excel (XLSX) by clicking the Export CSV or XLSX button. Hover over the button icon to view the button name.
• You can use the downloaded CSV file as a template to upload the forecast data in the Fill Forecast slideout.
12. Click Next. The New Plan > Define Budget slideout opens.
13. To create a budget, do one of the following:
• Enter the budget data for each data grouping dimension for each month in the date range.
• Click Fill Budget and select Copy From Forecast to copy the projected forecast data. For more information, see Fill Budget.
• Click Fill Budget and select Upload File to upload the CSV file. For more information, see Fill Budget.

Note:Consider the following:

• Any budget data field that is blank or negative is treated as $0.00. Any rows that are blank are treated as unbudgeted.
• You can export the budget data to either CSV or Excel (XLSX) by clicking the Export CSV or XLSX button. Hover over the button icon to view the button name.
• You can use the downloaded CSV file as a template to upload the budget data in the Fill from File slideout.
14. Click Save. After the new plan is created, it appears in the plan list on the Cost Planning page.

Fill Forecast

The Fill Forecast option enables you to fill the forecast values based on one of the following options:

• Historical Data—Enables you to automatically generate forecasts based on previous data. This feature utilizes AI based forecasting with a nonlinear model that learns seasonality, trends from the past data, and provides reliable predictions for the future periods.

Important:On the usage of Artificial Intelligence Technologies, consider the following:

• This data is not shared with any third parties or external entities.
• This data remains segregated and is not combined with any other customer’s data, ensuring complete data isolation and privacy.
• Upload File—Enables you to upload a CSV file that matches the grouping template defined during plan creation.

Note:You can download the CSV file by clicking the Export CSV or XLSX button on the New Plan > Project Forecast slideout, use it as a template, and update it if required before uploading.

To fill forecast for historical data:

1. Click Fill Forecast. The Fill Forecast slideout opens.
2. From the File Source option, select Historical Data.
3. From the Lookback period dropdown list, select one of the following options:
• 3 Months
• 6 Months
• 12 Months
• 24 Months
4. Click Apply. The system populates forecast values starting from the current month, based on the selected historical data. The past months are filled with actual spend data.

Note:Consider the following:

• After the forecast data is populated, you can do the following:
• Edit the forecast values.
• Select another lookback period by clicking Fill Forecast. The Overwrite Forecast dialog box appears. Click Confirm. The system updates the forecast data only from the current month.
• Once the forecast is overwritten, the old forecast data cannot be recovered.
• Past forecast months are populated with actual spend data.

To fill forecast by uploading a file:

1. Click Fill Forecast. The Fill Forecast slideout opens.
2. From the File Source option, select Upload File.
3. To select the CSV file that matches the predefined Forecast grouping defined while creating the plan, do one of the following:
• Click Browse Files, and select the file.
• Drag the CSV file.

Note:You can also download the CSV file by clicking the Export CSV or XLSX button on the New Plan > Project Forecast slideout, use it as a template, and update it if required before uploading.

4. Correct any errors in the CSV file and upload the corrected file.

Note:The system checks for the following errors before uploading the file:

• Month/Year Mismatch—Ensure the Month and Year columns match the template format.
• Column Name Mismatch—Verify all column names exactly match the template.
• Invalid Spend Values—Ensure spend values are numeric, without text or special characters.
• Account ID/Numbers—Ensure the column is set to Number format to prevent data changes. Do not auto-format in Excel.
5. Click Apply.

Note:Consider the following:

• After the forecast data is populated, you can do the following:
• Edit the forecast values.
• Upload another CSV file by clicking Fill Forecast. The Overwrite Forecast dialog box appears. Click Confirm.
• Once the forecast is overwritten, the old forecast data cannot be recovered.

Fill Budget

The Fill Budget option enables you to fill the budget values based on one of the following options:

• Copy From Forecast—Enables you to define the budget by copying the projected forecast data.

Note:The Copy From Forecast button is disabled if no projected forecast data is available.

• Upload File—Enables you to upload a CSV file that matches the grouping template defined during plan creation.

Note:You can download the CSV file by clicking the Export CSV or XLSX button on the New Plan > Define Budget slideout, use it as a template, and update it if required before uploading.

To define budget by copying the projected forecast data:

1. Click Fill Budget and select Copy From Forecast. The Data Overwrite dialog box appears, asking you to confirm if you want to import the forecast data into the budget.
2. Click Apply Changes to confirm. To edit this data, double-click in the cell, and enter the updated budget data.

To define budget by uploading a file:

1. Click Fill Budget and select Upload File to upload the CSV file. The Fill from File slideout opens.
2. To select the CSV file that matches the predefined Budget grouping defined while creating the plan, do one of the following:
• Click Browse Files, and select the file.
• Drag the CSV file.

Note:You can also download the CSV file by clicking the Export CSV or XLSX button on the New Plan > Project Forecast slideout, use it as a template, and update it if required before uploading.

3. Correct any errors in the CSV file and upload the corrected file.

Note:The system checks for the following errors before uploading the file:

• Month/Year Mismatch—Ensure the Month and Year columns match the template format.
• Column Name Mismatch—Verify all column names exactly match the template.
• Invalid Spend Values—Ensure spend values are numeric, without text or special characters.
• Account ID/Numbers—Ensure the column is set to Number format to prevent data changes. Do not auto-format in Excel.
4. Click Apply.

Note:Consider the following:

• After the budget data is populated, you can do the following:
• Edit the budget values.
• Upload another CSV file by clicking Fill Budget and selecting Upload CSV. The Overwrite Budget dialog box appears. Click Apply Changes.
• Once the forecast is overwritten, the old forecast data cannot be recovered.