Who is this article for?

Users who need to understand Planning Periods.

No special access or permissions are required.

Planning Periods allow for audit planning to happen periodically (for example, 2014 or Q4 2014) and require that each Entity-Process within the active Audit Universe be assessed against each relevant Planning Risk.

1. Understanding Planning Period attributes

A Planning Period has the following attributes:

• Name – Give the planning period a name
• Order – The order to display the planning period on the data grid
• Start Date – The beginning of the planning period
• End Date – The end of the planning period
• Description – Give the planning period a description
• Active State – Either Draft (default), Live or Closed

2. Understanding Active States

A Planning Period can be one of three active states:

Draft

• When a planning period is first created it will be draft
• Attributes of the Planning Period itself can be modified
• The Planning Period cannot be launched and does not contain any data

Live

• Set by a senior user when it is time to begin making assessments
• The Planning Period will be populated with a set of the required assessments
• The Planning Period can now be launched and items can be assessed
• Candidate Audits can be created and converted into real Audits

Closed

• Set by a senior user when it is time to stop making assessments
• Planning Period can still be launched but everything within is read-only
• Candidate Audits can also no longer be created or converted into real Audits

3. Moving from Draft to Live

When a Planning Period is set to Live from Draft, the following steps take place:

1. Creates an Entity Period and Process Period for each active Entity and Process.
2. Creates an Entity-Process Period for each active Entity/Process.
3. Creates a Planning Risk Assessment for each Planning Risk in each Entity/Process.
4. Takes a snapshot of the Audit Universe at this point in time and applies the Planning Risk Entity/Process Type criteria.

Note: If the Audit Universe is modified after this point, it will not affect the current Planning Period(s).

It is possible to have more than one Planning Period Live at one time.

Important: It is possible to move a Planning Period from Live back to Draft, but this will have the effect of deleting all data stored within the Planning Period. It is not possible to recover this data.

4. Signing off and moving from Live to Closed

A Planning Period cannot be Closed until all of the Entity-Process Periods contained within it have been approved. All data will become read-only once the Planning Period is Closed.

5. Understanding Planning Period rules

The following rules apply to Planning Periods:

• Can be added at any time
• Can be opened at any time
• Cannot be un-opened once any of its Entity-Process Periods have been completed
• Cannot be closed until all its Entity-Process Periods have been approved
• Can be un-closed at any time
• Cannot be deleted once any of its Entity-Process Periods have been completed

6. Understanding Entity-Process Period rules

The following rules apply to Entity-Process Periods:

• Cannot be completed until all its Planning Risk Assessments have a rating
• Cannot be un-completed once it has been approved
• Cannot be approved until it has been completed
• Cannot have execution edited once it has been approved
• Cannot be un-approved once the parent Planning Period has been closed

7. Understanding Planning Risk Assessment rules

The following rule applies to Planning Risk Assessments:

• Cannot have execution edited once the parent Entity/Process has been approved

8. Understanding key planning features

8.1 Maintainable libraries of Planning Risks

• Planning Risks are maintainable separately per Client (in multi-client mode)
• Optionally apply weightings to different Planning Risks
• Optionally restrict which Planning Risks are assessed based on Entity Type and Process Type criteria

8.2 Planning Periods concept

• Planning Periods may be of variable lengths
• Snapshot of the universe taken when the Planning Period is initialised
• Optionally work across multiple Planning Periods at the same time
• Completion and Approval sign offs over each planning cycle

8.3 Planning Risk Assessment options

• Simple out-of-the-box assessment model, automatic roll-ups across the universe
• Customer-specific assessment models as a straightforward customisation service
• Optionally restrict parts of the universe or risks for assessment by individual owners
• Optionally copy in assessments from a previous Planning Period
• Multi-select and assess risks in bulk, for faster data input
• Navigators and quick filters to easily interrogate the assessments

Note: Please be aware that each Entity could have a different Matrix Configuration configured and a warning will be displayed if the bulk operation is not valid.

8.4 Planning Risk Exposure analysis

• Flexible, graphical display of scores and ratings by universe matrix
• Toggle between Average and Max rating modes
• Expand/collapse universe and drill into more detail
• Display and navigate into the detailed work

8.5 Scheduling features

• Flexible, graphical display by universe matrix
• Colours based on Scheduling Factors, Planning Risks or Specific Risks
• Values based on Count of Candidates, Coverage % or None
• Auto-suggest the schedule based on any combination of Scheduling Factors: Fixed Frequencies, Last Audit Rating, Planning Risk ratings, Specific (Entity) Risk ratings

8.6 Candidate Audits concept

• Candidates are potential assignments, not visible to general users until confirmed
• Create Candidates individually or in bulk, based on the Scheduling Factors
• Candidates may have flexible Entity/Process scope, same as eventual Audits
• Visual indicators of possible over and under planning across the universe (Over - Candidate exists where not needed according to Scheduling Factors; Under - Needed per Scheduling Factors, but no Candidate exists)
• Qualify and amend Candidates before committing them as real Audits
• Attributes of the Candidate pass through into the Audit properties