Special Purpose Worksheets Basics

Special Purpose Worksheets provide the ability to build line item budget data from calculations and individual budget details and post the results to specific budget worksheet(s).  

SPW Use Cases

Examples where a Special Purpose Worksheet might be useful:

• Budgeting for attendance at conferences, where registration revenue and expenses are per participant
• Budgeting for an event, where there is income expected from registrations and expenses associated with the event
• Budgeting for expenses related to the purchase of office furnishings, where there are multiple components to be specified (desks, chairs, and filing cabinets) but all costs are to be assigned to the same account
• For churches, budgeting for income, where tithes can be predicted based on historical giving rates and levels of attendance
• Budgeting for an expense based on a value calculated within the worksheet (such as a 10% tithe to Missions on the basis of predicted income, or a 5% license fee based on predicted revenue)
• Budgeting at the departmental level for amounts allocated by management. For example, applying rent or salary cost to departmental budgets, so that the amounts budgeted are predetermined and cannot be changed at the departmental level.
• Budgeting several locations that have similar types of underlying calculations and assumptions; for example, a school that charges tuition and program fees that vary from location to location
  
  

Types of SPWs

There are 3 types of SPWs.

• WSPW – Worksheet-specific Special Purpose Worksheets
  • Accessed from within a budget worksheet
  • Listed on the Planner/Special Purpose Worksheets page
  • Worksheet-specific, only affecting the single worksheet that they are part of
  • Available to any user with access to that worksheet
  • May be modified by importing one or more SPWTs (SPW Templates)

• GSPW – Global Special Purpose Worksheets
  • Accessed from the Planner/Special Purpose Worksheets page
  • Available to non-admin users (with functional privileges and dimension access)
  • Used to impact multiple budget worksheets
  • Used to budget amounts that cannot be overridden at the individual worksheet level

• SPWT – Special Purpose Worksheet Templates
  • Accessed only from the Planner/Special Purpose Worksheets page
  • Available to Admin users only
  • Imported to WSPWs by users
  • Used to post updates to the WSPWs that use them
    
    

Planner > Special Purpose Worksheets

Both Admin and non-admin users can manage and maintain SPWs from Planner > Special Purpose Worksheets. The non-admin user privilege Global SPWs determines which non-admin users can access GSPWs via this screen, and dimension restrictions do apply. (Click for more info: Understanding User Roles and Permissions)

SPW Actions

• Load Budget Year - The default is the current budget year.
• Select Budget Type - The default Planner budget for the specified budget year is displayed. All other budgets for which the user has access are available via the dropdown.
• SPW filters - Depending on user privileges, elect to filter on SPW templates (Admin users only), global SPWs (Admin users and non-admins with the Global SPWs privilege), and/or worksheet-specific SPWs (Admin users and any non-Admin user with the Worksheets privilege).
• Add New Global SPW - Add a new Global SPW.
• Add New Template SPW - Add a new Template SPW.
• Post All Templates and SPWs - Post all SPWs to any affected worksheets.
• Recalculate all Reporting Groups - Recalculate all worksheets where SPWs use reporting groups.
• Resync WSPW Names - Resync WSPW names if a dimension name has been changed, as WSPW names reflect the worksheet dimensions and cannot be modified manually.
• Load Prior SPW - Select an SPW from a prior year's default Dashboard budget and bring it into the current default Planner budget.

User Permissions for SPWs

Admin users can:

• Add and update any global SPWs
• Add and update template SPWs
• Post All Templates and SPWs or Recalculate all Reporting Groups (Reporting Groups are part of Martus’ Plus subscription level)

Non-admin users can:

• View the list of applicable worksheet-specific SPWs and edit them
• View Global SPWs if they have been granted permissions to Global SPWs and those Global SPWs match their dimension restrictions (Click for more info: Understanding User Roles and Permissions)
• Post All SPWs for which they have access

SPWs in the Worksheet

On the budget worksheet, any budget line that is controlled by an SPW has an SPW icon next to it, seen in the image below.

These budget lines can only be updated from the SPW, accessed by clicking the SPW icon.

• If the worksheet is locked, the SPW can be viewed but not modified.
• If the budget line is based on a global SPW, only an Admin or a user with Global SPWs permissions and access to all worksheets in that Global SPW, can view the SPW.

Use Worksheets Actions to Post Global SPWs, and to see all Applicable SPWs for a worksheet.

Reusing SPWs from Prior Years

SPWs can be reused (rather than rebuilt) when starting a new budget year. 

• If the new budget was copied from the prior year, then the SPWs are copied along with it. Access them from the individual worksheet or the Special Purpose Worksheets page.  
• If the new budget was created using the “Framework” method, then budget preparers will need to specifically load any SPWs that they want to use.  

To load a WSPW from a prior year:

• In Planner > Worksheets,  select the worksheet to edit.
• Click Worksheet Action > Create Special Purpose Worksheet. This will display a blank SPW screen. 
• Click Load Prior Year SPW. The WSPW will be filled out with all details from the prior year’s SPW, based on the current default Planner budget for that prior year.
  
  

To load a global SPW or SPWT from a prior year:

• Go to Planner > Special Purpose Worksheets.
• Verify that the current budget year is shown in the dropdown at the top of the screen
• Use the dropdown at the bottom of the screen to select the global SPW or SPWT to be loaded, and click Load Prior SPW.  
• The SPW will be added to the list shown for the current budget year.