Personnel cost budgeting is often done in Excel even when the company already has a payroll system. Data has to be exported manually, consolidated in spreadsheets, formulas checked and everything redone each time the inputs change. The more actively a company plans - more scenarios, more vacancies, more management reporting - the more noticeable the effort becomes.
We explain how a manufacturing company moved from spreadsheets to the budgeting module in 1C:ZUP and what it brought to the work.
Context
UCMS Group client since 2022
- Manufacture of furniture, windows and various home systems
- Two legal entities
- 350+ employees
What matters most in a provider:
- Expertise in
budget
ing
- Customisation of solutions
to
the company's needs
- Automation experience
in 1C:ZUP
Outsourcing
- HR administration
- Payroll
Implementation
- Personnel cost budgeting module in 1C:ZUP
Implementation time Starting point: budgeting in Excel and changes in accounting
Payroll and HR administration have been handled by UCMS Group specialists since 2022. Personnel cost budgeting remained on the client's side and was done in Excel.
To get an up-to-date budget, data had to be exported from 1C:ZUP and matched manually to the budget model through pivot tables and formulas. Recalculating the budget in several versions, for example under different salary indexation scenarios, meant starting from scratch.
In parallel the company was revising its accounting structure: adding analytical dimensions by financial responsibility centre and wanting to see data not only in amounts but also in the number of positions.
Read also:A case study on automating a unique loyalty programme for the same company
Delivery: how the budgeting module works
The personnel cost budgeting module is UCMS Group's own development, implemented as an extension of 1C:ZUP. Calculations are performed inside the system based on data on employees, the staffing schedule, salaries, bonuses, taxes and insurance contributions.
The module's functionality is configured around the company's needs. For this client the module took the following specifics into account.
- Even allocation of costs.The company sets an annual amount of expenses and allocates it evenly across months, without tying it to the actual dates of bonus payments or planning vacation pay separately. The module is configured for this logic: formulas are set for each item, amounts are calculated and spread evenly across periods. Deviations of actual payments from the plan are visible in the plan-versus-actual comparison.
For shift-based and hourly-paid employees the average annual number of hours is used, which allows the payroll fund to be planned without month-to-month fluctuations.
- Analytics by financial responsibility centre (FRC).We improved the analytical dimensions by FRC, taking the specifics of the two legal entities into account, and configured the linking of vacancies to FRCs. We set up different reporting versions: a detailed report for internal analysis and a condensed one for controlling, without detail by accrual.
- Planning headcount changes.The company actively plans growth: 40-50 vacancies are included in the budget. For each open position the module calculates the planned costs for the year: salary, taxes and bonuses. This data is used in recruitment: recruiters see the planned cost of a specific position.
- Planning variable costs.Business trips, anniversary bonuses and other one-off payments are hard to predict precisely. The company includes them as a percentage of the previous periods' fund, and this indicator is configured in the system. For items with a historically clear pattern, a calculation based on actual data can be used: the module takes accruals for past periods and uses them as the basis for planning.
After configuring the module we ran training: we showed how to generate reports, recalculate scenarios and add new vacancies. The logic of working with the module turned out to be clear, but the budget is recalculated once a year and each time you have to get back into the settings, check the input parameters and allow for new items. That is why the client hands the budget calculation to UCMS Group specialists.
Elena Terekhina, software developer at UCMS Group:
“Specialists can now take budgeting information into account promptly, even at the last moment. For example, last time we managed to budget 20 new vacancies and recalculate the data for a new separate subdivision in four hours. In Excel such a scenario would have taken several days.”
Results
- Budget calculation went from several days to several hours.
- Plan-versus-actual analysis is produced in 1C:ZUP without additional data processing.
- Detail is available in different dimensions, from the organisation level down to individual positions.
- Several budget scenarios can be calculated in parallel: changing key parameters automatically recalculates the dependent indicators.
Since the 2022 implementation the company has run budgeting in the module, and the system keeps evolving. New algorithms that UCMS Group develops for other clients are added to this configuration where needed, without reworking the architecture and without downtime.
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