Managing Benefits

A benefit is an outcome an initiative is expected to deliver — such as a cost saving, an efficiency gain, or revenue growth — that contributes to your organization's strategic goals. Each benefit has a plan for what it will deliver over time, and where enabled, actuals and a forecast that track how it's going. Benefits are created on initiatives and listed on each initiative's Benefit Register.

Before benefits of a given type can be created, an administrator needs to configure and enable the relevant classification — see Configuring Benefit Classifications (Advanced Model) or Configuring Benefit Classifications (Simple Model).

Creating a benefit

To create a benefit:

1. Navigate to the initiative where you want to create the benefit.
2. Click the Create menu.

3. Select Benefit.

   

4. Select a benefit type from the Classification drop-down.

   

5. Enter a Name.
6. Enter a Description.
7. Select a Start Date for the benefit to be delivered.
8. Select an End Date.
9. Assign a Benefit Owner to deliver the benefit.

10. Click Create.

    

Custom fields mapped to the classification also appear on the form, along with any fields unlocked in the classification's configuration.

Finding your benefits

There are two places to find benefits:

• Benefit Register — every benefit under an initiative. Navigate to the Benefit Register of the level above your initiative.
• My Benefits — every benefit you own, across all initiatives. Open your Personal Dashboard and select My Benefits in the side menu. It's a quick way to find the benefits waiting on your values.

Click a benefit to open its page.

The benefit page

A benefit's page opens on its Dashboard tab. It has two tabs, and a set of controls at the top right:

• Dashboard — an overview of the benefit. See The Dashboard tab.
• Plan — the benefit's values. See Recording benefit values.
• Edit — the benefit's details. See Editing a benefit.
• Timeline (clock icon) — a history of changes to the benefit and its values, and its comments. See The benefit's Timeline.
• Menu (three lines) — Add / Update Baseline, to take a baseline of the benefit, Launch [workflow name]..., to send the benefit for approval where a workflow is enabled, and Archive…. See Launching a workflow and Archiving a benefit.

The Dashboard tab

The Dashboard tab is made up of these panels:

• Properties — the benefit's owner, classification, dates, unit, and other settings, with its Benefit Progress.
• Benefit Realisation Plan — a chart of the benefit's baseline, plan, forecast, and actuals over its duration, with each series' total. Plan and forecast totals show how far they've moved from the baseline.
• Benefit Delivery — the benefit's start and end dates, and the milestones it's linked to, with each milestone's original date, current date, status, and variance in days. Where a delayed milestone has pushed back the benefit, a message shows the delay and the forecast start date.
• RAID Items — risks linked to the benefit. Click New to create one.
• Pending Approvals — changes to the benefit waiting on approval.

Benefit progress

A benefit's Benefit Progress shows how much of its planned value has been delivered so far, as a percentage. It compares the benefit's most recent actual against its final planned value: a benefit planned to reach $200,000 with $50,000 recorded so far is at 25%. A benefit with no actuals recorded yet is at 0%.

Progress answers a different question from the Amplify Index. Progress shows how far through delivery a benefit is, based on what's actually been achieved. The Amplify Index shows whether it's expected to hit its plan by the end, based on its forecast. A benefit can be at 25% progress and still be on track, if it's early in its delivery.

Progress also rolls up. An initiative's progress — shown as Benefits Delivered on its Performance Dashboard — is the average progress of every benefit under it, including benefits at the levels below, weighted by each benefit classification's Benefit Weighting.

The benefit's Timeline

Click the Timeline (clock) icon to see the benefit's history — approvals, changes to its details and values, ownership changes, archiving, documents, and comments. In the Advanced Model, it also shows the benefit being moved to another initiative.

To add a comment:

1. Type your comment in the comment box. To notify someone, type @ followed by their name.
2. Click Post Comment.

Commenting needs permission to update the benefit. For filtering and searching the Timeline, see Activity Timelines.

Recording benefit values

A benefit needs its values kept up to date until it's delivered. Where a benefit uses a Benefit Formula, its values are calculated from its measures, so record them on the measures instead — see Managing Measures.

Values can be recorded in three places:

• The benefit's Plan tab — one benefit at a time. Described below.
• An initiative's ledger — every benefit under the initiative, in one grid. Switch the Benefit Register to its ledger view, where enabled for the initiative. It's quickest when you're updating several benefits for the same period.
• The My Benefits ledger — every benefit you own, across all initiatives, in one grid. Open My Benefits from your Personal Dashboard and switch to its ledger view.

See Ledger View for how ledgers work.

The Plan tab has two sections:

• Benefit Realisation — a chart of the benefit's plan, actuals, and forecast, with each series' total.
• Ledger — every period's value, grouped by financial year, with a column for each series, such as Plan, Actual, and Forecast. A total is shown at the top. Click Measure to open the benefit's measure.

To record values on the Plan tab:

1. Open the benefit.

2. Click the Plan tab.

   

3. In the Ledger, click a period's value. The columns shown depend on how the benefit is configured.
4. Enter the new value.

5. Click Save, or Undo to discard your changes.

   

Approvals

Where approval is turned on, changes to a benefit's values are sent for approval, wherever they're entered. The new values are saved straight away, and the approval signs them off:

• Actuals — each period's actual value is approved on its own, when it's entered or changed.
• Plan and Forecast — the series' total is approved, when it changes. A change to a period's value that leaves the total the same doesn't need approval.

Changes waiting on approval are shown in the Pending Approvals panel on the Dashboard tab. Changing a value again while it's waiting on approval updates the same request, and its approvers are asked again.

Where a change is rejected, the value stays as it was entered, but isn't approved. To send it for approval again, change it — a new actual value, or a new plan or forecast total, starts a new approval from the workflow's first step.

Launching a workflow

As well as the approvals that start when values change, a benefit can be sent for approval by hand, from its Menu (three lines). Two workflows can be launched this way, where your organization has them enabled:

• Benefit Workflow — approves the benefit as a whole, whenever it needs signing off.
• Milestone Workflow — approves one of the milestones the benefit is linked to. Offered only where the benefit is linked to milestones.

Each is listed under its workflow name, which your organization may have changed. Its approvers come from the workflow's first step.

Launching the Benefit Workflow

To launch the Benefit Workflow:

1. Open the benefit.
2. Click the Menu (three lines).
3. Select Launch [workflow name]..., such as Launch Benefit Workflow.... A dialog named after the workflow opens.
4. Enter your Approval Commentary for the approvers.
5. Review the approvers for the workflow's first step. Where the workflow allows approvers to be modified, add or remove approvers.
6. Click Submit.

Launching the Milestone Workflow

To launch the Milestone Workflow:

1. Open the benefit.
2. Click the Menu (three lines).
3. Select Launch [workflow name]..., such as Launch Milestone Workflow.... A dialog named after the workflow opens.
4. Select the milestone to approve. Milestones are listed under the initiative they belong to. The milestone's Original date, Current date, and Variance in days are shown below it.
5. Enter your Approval Commentary for the approvers.
6. Review the approvers for the workflow's first step. Where the workflow allows approvers to be modified, add or remove approvers.
7. Click Submit.

In both dialogs, the approvers for the workflow's later steps are shown too, but only the first step's approvers can be changed. Where the workflow's only step is a self-approval step, the dialog shows "This workflow does not require 3rd party approval." instead of approvers, and the field is named Commentary. An approval is due seven days after it's launched. For setting up these workflows, see Approval Workflow Types.

Editing a benefit

A benefit's Edit page changes its details. It doesn't record values — see Recording benefit values for that. The page shows the benefit's Classification, which can't be changed, and its Name, Start Date, End Date, and Benefit Owner. Other fields appear where they've been unlocked in the classification.

To edit a benefit:

1. Open the benefit.
2. Click Edit. The Edit page opens.
3. Change the fields as needed.
4. Click Save, or Cancel to discard your changes.

Archiving a benefit

To archive a benefit:

1. Open the benefit.
2. Click the Menu (three lines).
3. Click Archive….

For configuring benefit types, see Configuring Benefit Classifications (Advanced Model).