Creating a baseline or approving a forecast is the process of approving a submitted, current working plan version for use in reporting and accounting. For security reasons, this process can be performed by a different project member than the person who entered and submitted the working plan version.
When the budget baseline/forecast approval function is called, Oracle Projects changes the status of the Current Working plan version to either Current Baseline or Current Approved, and copies it to create a new current working plan version. All previous baseline or approved plan versions become historical versions.
If the Use Workflow for Status Changes option is enabled for a financial plan type, then the system automatically creates a budget baseline or an approved forecast after the Current Working plan version is submitted, and if it passes all Workflow approvals and other submission requirements. See Understanding the Submit Process.
For contract projects in Oracle Project Billing, the baseline function verifies that the plan version amounts for a financial plan type that is designated as an approved revenue budget equal the total funding for the project or the top tasks within the project (if task-level funding is used). If this check is successful, then the system creates a new baseline plan version for the approved revenue budget plan type. If the amounts are not equal, then Oracle Projects issues an error and does not create a new baseline.
If you create a plan version that is not time-phased (uses a time phase of None), and if you use the default start and end dates from the project or the project tasks, then the following rules apply:
If you are planning at a project level and you change the start or end date of the project, then you must create a new budget baseline or approved forecast to reflect the new dates.
If you are planning at a task level and you change the start or end date of a task, then you must create a new budget baseline or approved forecast to reflect the new dates.
Before you can create a budget baseline or approved forecast from a current working plan version, you must submit the plan version. See: Submitting Budgets and Forecasts.
Before you can create a baseline for a plan type on a contract project that is designated as an approved revenue budget, you must enter a funding amount that is equal to the plan version amounts. If you are funding at the top task level, then you must enter revenue amounts at the top task or lowest task levels. If the baseline process fails for an approved revenue budget plan version because the funding does not equal the plan version amounts, then you must change either the plan version amounts or the funding amounts before you can successfully create the baseline.
You can create a budget baseline or approved forecast for a submitted, current working plan version from the Maintain Budget Versions or Maintain Forecasts versions page. For more information, see: Maintaining Plan Versions.
When you create a budget baseline or approved forecast, the following events occur:
Oracle Projects calls the Budget Verification extension
By default, the Budget Verification extension does not include any budget baseline or approved forecast requirements. You can customize the extension to match your company's rules for creating a budget baseline or approved forecast.
The Budget Verification extension has two possible outcomes:
If the plan version fails the baseline/approval requirements, then the system issues an error message and no status change is made.
If the plan version passes the baseline/approval requirements, then Oracle Projects changes the plan version status to Baseline or Approved.