HES Finance Systems Network
Case Studies in University Finance
Hyperion Budget Tool - QUT
Patricia Alner, Director Planning & Budget
Dean Gordon, Management Accountant
QUT Finance & Resource Planning
5 March 2013
CRICOS No. 00213J
Queensland University of Technology
Hyperion Overview
• Hyperion is QUT’s budget tool, implemented in
July 2011 (replacing OFA - Oracle Financial
Analyser).
• Hyperion is an Oracle based product (using
Hyperion Planning and Essbase) to deliver a
“Web-based and Excel planning, budgeting and
forecasting solution”.
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Main Benefits of Hyperion
• Supports QUT’s decentralised budgeting
process
• Standardises and streamlines budgeting
practices across QUT
• Allows for faster budget entry and consolidation
• Governance bodies have greater confidence in
budget submissions, particularly with improved
accuracy in employee budgets (uses a detailed bottomup approach)
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Hyperion Interfaces
• Interfaces with other QUT Systems:
• from both Alesco (Talent2) for
employee/payroll details and Oracle
Financials for all actual G/L transactions
• to Finance Portal (web based reporting tool)
for all approved budgets and the current
Rolling/Working budget
• Uploads (via ODI) occur on a nightly basis
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Hyperion Modules and Interaction
• There are 2 main modules used for budgeting in
Hyperion:
• 1) Employee Module
• Down to individual position/employee budget per costcode
• 2) P&L Module
• Down to individual G/L budget per costcode
• The budgets entered by users in the Employee
Module links directly to the P&L Module (mapped to
the employee expense G/Ls)
• Note: there is also a Balance Sheet (and Cash Flow) module, used
by FRP for Committee reporting purposes
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Hyperion interfaces and interaction
Hyperion
1
Alesco (HR)
Workforce Module
Position/Employee
appointment details
and payroll
2
3
P&L Module
Oracle Financials
4
Current Year Actual G/L
transactions (non payroll)
Capital purchases
5
Balance Sheet Module
(and Cash Flow)
6
Financial Portal
Budget/Final and Rolling/Working
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2013 Budgeting Scenarios/Versions
Reforecast/Budget
Scenario
2013 Mid-Year
Reforecast
(May-Jun)
Rolling
(starting point previous Budget/Final)
Working
Mid-Year (Reforecast)
Working
Mid-Year (Reforecast)
Final
Rolling
Working
(starting point Mid-Year Ref & any amendments)
2014-2016
Consolidated/
Triennial Budget
(Sep/Oct)
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Budget (Consolidated)
Working
Budget (Consolidated)
Final
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Tools for entering budget data/reporting
• Users have two options, depending on their
preference:
1) Web front end
• Set of budget entry forms (screenshots over)
• Set of standardised reports (HR and P&L)
2) SmartView (Excel based add-in)
• Same set of forms and standardised reports
used in Web front end; and
• create/save adhoc reports for analysis/
reporting (screenshots following)
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Employee Module
Global Values are used for all salary rates (ongoing and
casual) and oncosts, including provision for EBAs.
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Employee Module
Budget Entry Form (Position Detail and Positions Budget)
Each budgeted
employee has a
classification and a
FTE (per month)
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Employee Module
Ability to easily review budgeted employee costs
(for any scenario/version for any costcode)
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Employee Module  P&L Module
Employee Module feeds into P&L Module (mapped to G/L)
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P&L Module
P&L Budget Entry Form (for revenue, nonemployee module expenses and capital
purchases)
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Standard Reports
Set of HR Reports are available to all users
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Standard Reports
Set of P&L Reports are available to all users
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SmartView Overview
• SmartView (Essbase) is a multi-dimensional
relational database, in which users specify
dimension values to return a desired query result.
• Users can query either the Employee or P&L
module.
Essbase
Entity
Account
Job
Cost Code
View
Year
Type
Scenario
Period
(Activity)
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SmartView Adhoc Reporting
Employee query – allows for comparison of actuals to
budgets (can drill down to lowest level of each dimension)
Each module has a
number of
dimensions to query
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SmartView Adhoc Reporting
P&L query – allows for comparison of actuals to budgets
(can drill down to lowest level of each dimension)
Each module has a
number of
dimensions to query
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Assessment to Date / Short Term
Initiatives
• Positive feedback across all levels:
• Budget and Finance Officers (ease of use);
• Faculty/divisional managers (allows for more accurate budgeting
and deeper analysis);
• Central Finance (faster reconciliation; focus has changed to
analysing outputs, rather than the process of data collection); and
• Governance Committees (greater confidence; better reporting
informs strategic decision making).
• Deploying Rolling Forecasts
• Combined Data Reporting using Essbase,
encompassing student load, financials and FTE
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a university for the
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