Standard operating procedure · FI2A · Finance

Annual Budget Cycle

Transactional procedure owned by Budgeting & Forecasting in Finance. 8 numbered steps, 3 of them a person deciding and 5 of them agent work … more

Finance manual Service view

Procedure code

FI2A

Transactional

Rule versions in force

v5.6 · v3.7 · v1.1

3 governing rules stacked over it

In force since

2024-11-06

Earliest effective date across those rules

Last reviewed

2026-07-15

Latest review date across those rules

Rules approved by

Director, Budgeting

Rule health

1/3

2 under review · 0 superseded

There is no document register behind this header. The version, the dates and the approver names are read off the governing rules this procedure runs inside, which is the closest thing the estate holds to a document control record. Nobody wrote these procedures. There is no document library behind this page and no Word file anywhere in the estate. Every procedure below is generated from rows this platform already holds: the line and its ordered stations, the owning team and the person accountable for it, the policy items bound to that team, and the governance gates seeded against the function. The steps, the owners, the gates, the approvers, the dwell times and the volumes are read straight off those rows. The sentences that join them together are generated. Read a procedure as the estate describing itself, not as a document somebody signed.

Purpose and scope

What this procedure is for and where it stops

To run annual budget cycle to one repeatable standard inside Budgeting & Forecasting, part of Finance. more

Entry condition

Runs transactional. Starts when a request lands in the queue.

Exit condition

The unit clears load. more

In scope

Every unit of annual budget cycle raised inside Budgeting & Forecasting, from the trigger below through to the final step.
5 of the 8 steps, which run without a person present.
3 decisions that stop the line until a named person releases it.

Out of scope

Anything outside the envelope set by the owning team. It leaves the line at a gate and becomes the named approver's decision.
Work that belongs to another function. This line records no handoff, so nothing leaves it mid-flow.
The 5 steps carried on the shared AI GBS spine. They are done for this line but not by this function.

Who owns it

Runs the line

Budget Orchestrator

Accountable person

Director, Budgeting

The end of the escalation path. Above them sits Finance Chief of Staff for the function.

That team’s remit

Owns budget line work end to end inside Finance. more

That remit describes the whole team, not this one procedure, so its counts are larger than the ones on this page.

Autonomy

72% now · ceiling 82%

Template issue, chasing, validation and consolidation are pure mechanics and run touchless. more

The procedure, step by step

8 numbered steps · 3 of them stop for a person

A step is one station on the line. more

No.	Step	Who does it	What happens	System of record	Time on the step	In flight
01	Issue templates GBSgbs	Budget Build Agent	Budget Build Agent performs this step unattended on the shared AI GBS transaction spine, outside the function, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Group ERP — Financials	1.8 hrsstandard 3.8 hrs	40
02	Chase submissions GBSgbs	Budget Build Agent	Budget Build Agent performs this step unattended on the shared AI GBS transaction spine, outside the function, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Group ERP — Financials	11 minstandard 16 min	20
03	Validate GBSgbs	Budget Build Agent	Budget Build Agent performs this step unattended on the shared AI GBS transaction spine, outside the function, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Group ERP — Financials	1.6 hrsstandard 2.2 hrs	8
04	Consolidate GBSgbs	Budget Build Agent	Budget Build Agent performs this step unattended on the shared AI GBS transaction spine, outside the function, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Group ERP — Financials	2.0 hrsstandard 4.0 hrs	46
05	Challenge sessions HumanpolicyDecision	Director, Budgeting Releases: Director, Budgeting	Work stops. Director, Budgeting reviews what the line has produced and either releases the unit or sends it back. Nothing downstream of this step runs until that decision is made.Holds until: Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the budget line decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.	Group ERP — Financials	45 minstandard 1.7 hrs	2
06	Executive approve HumanpolicyDecision	Director, Budgeting Releases: Director, Budgeting	Work stops. Director, Budgeting reviews what the line has produced and either releases the unit or sends it back. Nothing downstream of this step runs until that decision is made.Holds until: Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the budget line decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.	Group ERP — Financials	4.2 hrsstandard 5.1 hrs	6
07	Board approve HumanpolicyDecision	Director, Budgeting Releases: Director, Budgeting	Work stops. Director, Budgeting reviews what the line has produced and either releases the unit or sends it back. Nothing downstream of this step runs until that decision is made.Holds until: Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the budget line decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.	Group ERP — Financials	6.4 hrsstandard 15.1 hrs	3
08	Load GBSgbs	Budget Build Agent	Budget Build Agent performs this step unattended on the shared AI GBS transaction spine, outside the function, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Group ERP — Financials	2.2 hrsstandard 2.7 hrs	2

The swimlane

The same steps, laid out by who is holding the work

Three lanes: a person deciding, an agent working, and the shared services spine. more

Person3 stations and 60% of the dwellAgent0 stations and 0% of the dwellShared spine5 stations and 40% of the dwell2 crossings between lanes

Human

decides

Agent

does the work

GBS

shared spine

System

attributed by rule

Group ERP — Financials

Click any station to see who does it, what it costs in time, the rule that gates it and the system attributed to it.

Run the procedure

One unit walked along that swimlane on the happy viable agentified path

Press run and a single unit enters at station 01. Each station takes exactly the dwell this platform records for it and is held by whoever the estate says holds it. more

speed

worked clock

00:00

allowance clock

00:00

stations cleared

0/8

the happy path, worked time0 min of 19 hrs

the same run against its allowance0 min of 35 hrs

Human

decides · 3

Agent

does the work · 0

GBS

shared spine · 5

run log

Nothing has happened yet. more

where the worked time goes19 hrs a unit

Person11 hrs · 60%Shared spine7.7 hrs · 40%2 crossings between lanes

what makes this path viable

The lanes are the recorded lanes. 3 of the 8 stations stop for a person and every one of them still does on this run.
Every one of the 3 decisions is still taken by the people who hold them. The happy path is that each one is released first time, not that it is skipped.
The owning team is held to a 82% autonomy ceiling and this run sits at 40% unattended, inside it.
1 system is attributed across the stations, and 0 of them are connected. Nothing in this run has been watched executing against a real system of record.

what would have to change

2 of the 3 decisions can be handed over inside the 82% ceiling. more

could move to the agent lane

05 Challenge sessions — held by Director, Budgeting, 45 min a unit
06 Executive approve — held by Director, Budgeting, 4.2 hrs a unit

stays with a person

07 Board approve — The last decision on the line. Something on every procedure ends with a person, so this one is never offered.

what this run is, and what it is not

This is a run, not a forecast. more

Happy means nothing goes wrong: no station raises an exception, no gate sends the unit back, no rework loop fires and nothing sits in a queue between stations. more

The second clock is the allowance. more

A decision may be handed to the agent lane only if two things hold … more

The run reads the station rows only. more

What this run does not model: arrival patterns, contention between procedures for the same person, shift patterns, weekends, learning curves, and the cost of anything. more

Run it again, going wrong

The same unit, the same stations, broken the way the estate already records breaking

This is the same unit on the same stations, breaking. more

No break below was chosen. more

One play head, two tracks, the same scale. The clean run stops when it runs out of stations; the other one keeps going.

As written

8 stations, nothing waiting, nothing sent back

0 min of 19 hrs

now Issue templates · Budget Build Agent · 1.8 hrs

As the ledger has it

the same stations, plus 5 categories the estate already counts

0 min of 40 hrs

now Issue templates · Budget Build Agent · 1.8 hrs

personagentshared spinework the break addsnobody working it

What breaks, and where it is counted

No break below was chosen. more

What the two runs say together

5 counted categories land on this procedure. more

What this run cannot claim

These breaks are shown together on one unit so the shape of a bad day fits on one screen. more

Attestations on this estate are written against intake items, not against procedures, so a step done off the platform cannot be matched to the attestation that covers it. more

Two clocks run. Worked time is the sum of the time the work is actually being done … more

Roles and responsibilities

3 named parties

The responsibility grid is assigned by a rule, not lifted from a chart. more

Party	RACI	Steps	Duty	Escalates to
Budget Orchestrator orchestrator	Runs the line	0	Sequences this line, holds its timetable and decides what has to surface to a person. more	Raises to Director, Budgeting when a unit falls outside the envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Budget Build Agent agent A3% autonomy · ceiling A3% 91% clean · 7% overridden	Responsible	5	Runs the repeatable portion of budgeting & forecasting inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.	Escalates to Director, Budgeting when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Director, Budgeting person	Accountable and responsible	3	Holds 3 decisions on this line. more	Accountable to Director, Budgeting for the decisions held here.

Party

RACI

Steps

Duty

Escalates to

Budget Orchestrator

orchestrator

Runs the line

Sequences this line, holds its timetable and decides what has to surface to a person. more

Raises to Director, Budgeting when a unit falls outside the envelope or confidence drops below the floor.

Budget Build Agent

agent

A3% autonomy · ceiling A3%

91% clean · 7% overridden

Responsible

Runs the repeatable portion of budgeting & forecasting inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.

Escalates to Director, Budgeting when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.

Director, Budgeting

person

Accountable and responsible

Holds 3 decisions on this line. more

Accountable to Director, Budgeting for the decisions held here.

Decision points and escalation

3 places this procedure stops

05 · Challenge sessions

45 min

Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the budget line decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.

Director, Budgeting

06 · Executive approve

4.2 hrs

Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the budget line decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.

Director, Budgeting

07 · Board approve

6.4 hrs

Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the budget line decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.

Director, Budgeting

Handoffs out of this procedure

Nothing leaves this procedure for another function. It completes inside Budgeting & Forecasting.

The rules this procedure runs inside

3 governing rules

Budgeting & Forecasting Decision Envelope

under review

FI2-POL-200 · envelope · vv5.6

Agents in this lane may act without a human when the budget line sits inside the stated value, risk and confidence envelope. more

Approved by Director, Budgeting · in force 2026-02-23 · reviewed 2026-04-23

Binds Budget Build Agent, Rolling Forecast Agent, Assumption Tracking Agent, Submission Chase Agent, Consolidation Agent

LATAM · US

Budgeting & Forecasting Evidence Standard

active

FI2-POL-201 · evidence · vv3.7

Every autonomous decision writes inputs, the rule version applied, the model and prompt version, the output and a reversal path. more

Approved by Director, Budgeting · in force 2025-04-23 · reviewed 2026-07-15

Binds Budget Build Agent, Rolling Forecast Agent, Assumption Tracking Agent, Submission Chase Agent, Consolidation Agent

Global

Budgeting & Forecasting Escalation Rule

under review

FI2-POL-202 · escalation · vv1.1

Escalation is mandatory when confidence falls below the floor, when two options sit inside the confidence band, or when a break condition on a ratified position fires. more

Approved by Director, Budgeting · in force 2024-11-06 · reviewed 2026-05-05

Binds Budget Build Agent, Rolling Forecast Agent, Assumption Tracking Agent, Submission Chase Agent, Consolidation Agent

APAC

Systems this procedure touches

1 named · 0 connected

System attribution is a rule, not a reading. more

System	Vendor	Domain	Criticality	Steps	Connection
Group ERP — Financials	SAP S/4HANA	ledger	critical	8	modeled

0 of the 1 systems on this procedure is connected to the platform, and none of the twenty-six in the estate register is. 1 of them are marked as taking a write back, which is a property of the system, not a live path from here.

How it performs

End to end

19.1 hrs

Summed from the time each step sits, standard 34.9 hrs — running at 55% of the standard.

Touchless

76%

Agent share

63%

A week

3,814

In flight

127

Effort a week

682 human minutes · 461 agent minutes

Volume multiplied by the time on each step. more

Assurance over this procedure

4 governance gates sit above it

The twenty-four controls and eighteen exception classes in this platform are held at estate level … more

Gate	What trips it	Who releases it	Clock	Waivable
Payment above $100,000 approval	Any single payment or batch exceeding $100,000	Controller and treasurer	4 business hours	No
Nonstandard journal entry approval	Any entry outside the approved recurring library, including estimates and reserves	Controller	1 business day	No
New or changed bank details approval	Any change to supplier or employee banking information	Treasury and supplier master owner	2 business days	No
External disclosure or board forecast approval	Any external report, statutory filing or board-committed forecast	CFO	3 business days	No

Next to it on the same team

Budgeting & Forecasting

Rolling Forecast

FI2B

Reallocation Request

FI2C

All of Finance

What this document is and is not

These procedures describe the modeled estate. more

Actions

What is waiting on a person

What one procedure document gives you, and what to check before you treat it as the standard.

151

named approvers appear across the library

Every decision point on every procedure carries a job title, not a queue. more

143

steps in the library hand their unit to another function

A handoff is where a procedure stops being one team’s problem. more

controls exist in the estate, and they belong to no procedure in particular

Controls and exception classes are held estate-wide. more

Operations

What this desk is allowed to start

A surface that only reports is not operable. more

Trigger and bound

A procedure document prints purpose, scope, entry and exit, the numbered steps with the actor on each, the roles and their RACI position, the swimlane, the decision points and escalation, the handoffs, the governing rules with version and approver, the systems by rule and the timings. more

Live observability

What the record shows right now

The whole library, by lane, so a single document can be read against the estate it came from. more

Current distribution

2,748 steps

Agent, inside the function1,38951%

Agent, on the shared spine85131%

Person deciding at a gate50818%

Is policy and strategy coming to fruition

Whether the written intent is holding here

Half. The document is complete and every actor on it is measured more

Not holding on the record

A procedure here carries a version, an approver, an in-force date and a last-review date. more