Planning Automation — How It Works

How It Works

From Input to P&L in 4 Steps

Each planning cycle follows the same flow. Teams enter their numbers, the system consolidates and calculates, leadership reviews and approves.

👥

Teams Enter Inputs

8 teams enter their metrics through the web portal. Role-based access ensures each team only sees their area.

→

⚡

System Calculates

P&L formulas run automatically. Revenue, costs, margins, and profit roll up in seconds.

→

📊

Review & Compare

Interactive P&L view with scenario comparison, waterfall bridges, and cell-level comments.

→

✅

Publish

Export to Excel, PDF, or push directly to Redshift. One click, done.

Before & After

7 Tools → 1 Browser Tab

Everything that used to require switching between Excel, email, Chime, shared drives, and PowerPoint now happens in one place.

Before

❌ Excel model for calculations

❌ Email for collecting inputs

❌ Chime for review discussions

❌ Shared drive for version control

❌ Spreadsheet for tracking status

❌ Manual emails for reminders

❌ PowerPoint for presentations

→

After

✅ Built-in calculation engine

✅ Web input portal

✅ Cell comments & replies

✅ Named cycles (OP2 FY26)

✅ Status dashboard

✅ Automated reminders

✅ Presentation mode + PDF

Features

Built for Finance Teams

Every feature was designed around how the planning cycle actually works — not how software engineers think it should work.

🔄

Scenario Comparison

Compare any two planning cycles side by side. See the variance in dollars, per package, or basis points. Waterfall bridge auto-generates.

P&L View

📝

Smart Input Portal

Fill-forward saves time. Change one month, the rest auto-populate. Revenue updates live when volume or RPP changes.

Input

💬

Cell Comments

Right-click any number to leave a comment. Others reply and resolve. No more email threads about "what's this number?"

Collaboration

🔒

Role-Based Access

Each team only sees and edits their metrics. Admin controls lock dates, overrides, and cycle management.

Security

📈

Waterfall Bridge

Auto-generated variance walk from one scenario to another. Commentary highlights top drivers, tailwinds, and headwinds.

Analytics

🖥️

Presentation Mode

Fullscreen view with highlighter pen. Export to PDF or Excel with one click. No more copying to PowerPoint.

Output

Infrastructure

Simple, Reliable, Cheap

No complex infrastructure. One server, one database, daily backups. Total cost: less than a team lunch.

🌐

Browser

Any browser, any device. Corporate SSO login.

→

🖥️

EC2 Server

Flask app on t3.medium. Auto-restarts. ~$30/month.

→

🗄️

Redshift

Direct write. No manual uploads. Query from anywhere.

→

☁️

S3 Backup

Daily snapshots. Zero data loss risk. Restore in minutes.

Roadmap

From Prototype to Production

We're at Phase 4. All input tabs are built with validated historicals. Completing Economic Profit, then UAT and deploy.

Prototype

✓ Complete

Historical Data

✓ All scenarios loaded

Input Tabs

✓ Vol, Rev, Costs, OpEx

Economic Profit

← You are here

UAT & Review

Team validation

EC2 Deploy

Production ready

Operations

~2 Hours Per Cycle

Down from 10-20+ hours. Most of the admin work is automated — you just monitor and approve.

🚀

Start Cycle

Set active cycle, copy baseline, set lock dates. 15 minutes.

→

👀

Monitor

Check status dashboard, send reminders to pending teams. 5 min/day.

→

🧮

Calculate

Run P&L, check cross-footing, review overrides. 10 minutes.

→

📤

Publish

Export, push to Redshift, lock cycle. 10 minutes.