Internal Budget System Development
Budget: $750 – $1,500 CAD
Central Budget Build (CBB)
Functional & Technical Requirements Document
1. Purpose
The purpose of the Central Budget Build (CBB) system is to provide a standardized, secure, and user-friendly platform for internal users to submit, review, approve, and report budget requests. The system will replace spreadsheet-based budget formulation processes and improve data integrity, transparency, auditability, and efficiency.
2. Business Objectives
Simplify budget submission for departments by removing unnecessary accounting and chartstring complexity
Establish a single source of truth for budget requests
Improve workflow control, versioning, and approvals
Provide real-time budget visibility to leadership through dashboards
Reduce manual consolidation, reconciliation, and error risk
3. Scope
In Scope
Internal budget request intake
Approval workflows
Centralized data storage
Reporting and dashboards
Microsoft 365 authentication
Out of Scope (Initial Phase)
Payroll execution
ERP posting or journal creation
External/public user access
Legacy data migration beyond current fiscal cycle
4. Users & Roles
The system shall support the following roles:
Requestor – Creates, edits, and submits budget requests
Approver/Manager – Reviews, approves, or returns requests
Budget Office – Full access to review, edit, finalize, and report
Leadership (Read-Only) – Dashboard and reporting access only
Authentication must use Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD).
5. Functional Requirements
The system must:
Allow users to create, save, edit, and submit budget requests
Support draft, submitted, returned, approved, and locked statuses
Display friendly budget categories while storing accounting codes in the backend
Require justification, priority, and fiscal year for each request
Support one-time and ongoing budget requests
Allow attachments (quotes, supporting documentation)
Prevent edits after final approval
Track submission, approval, and modification timestamps
6. Data & Architecture Requirements
Use Dataverse as the system of record
Include tables for:
Budget Requests
Budget Categories (mapping friendly names to accounting codes)
Departments / Cost Centers
Users / Roles
Support multi-year fiscal tagging
Ensure data integrity and referential relationships
7. Workflow & Automation Requirements
Automated routing of approvals based on role or department
Notifications for submission, approval, and return (email and/or Teams)
Ability to return requests with comments for revision
Audit trail of all workflow actions
8. Reporting & Analytics Requirements
Integration with Power BI
Dashboards must support:
Budget requests by department, category, and status
Submitted vs approved totals
One-time vs ongoing impacts
Fiscal year rollups
Data refresh at least daily
9. Security & Governance Requirements
Role-based access control
Department-level data visibility
Full auditability of changes and approvals
Compliance with internal data governance and security standards
10. Non-Functional Requirements
Intuitive, user-friendly interface with minimal training required
Mobile-friendly access
Scalable for future fiscal cycles
Maintainable by internal staff after consultant handoff
11. Deliverables
Power Apps front-end application
Dataverse data model
Power Automate workflows
Power BI dashboards
Technical documentation and knowledge transfer
12. Success Criteria
Departments submit budgets without using spreadsheets
Reduced manual consolidation by the Budget Office
Leadership can view real-time budget status
System is adopted for the next budget cycle
Functional & Technical Requirements Document
1. Purpose
The purpose of the Central Budget Build (CBB) system is to provide a standardized, secure, and user-friendly platform for internal users to submit, review, approve, and report budget requests. The system will replace spreadsheet-based budget formulation processes and improve data integrity, transparency, auditability, and efficiency.
2. Business Objectives
Simplify budget submission for departments by removing unnecessary accounting and chartstring complexity
Establish a single source of truth for budget requests
Improve workflow control, versioning, and approvals
Provide real-time budget visibility to leadership through dashboards
Reduce manual consolidation, reconciliation, and error risk
3. Scope
In Scope
Internal budget request intake
Approval workflows
Centralized data storage
Reporting and dashboards
Microsoft 365 authentication
Out of Scope (Initial Phase)
Payroll execution
ERP posting or journal creation
External/public user access
Legacy data migration beyond current fiscal cycle
4. Users & Roles
The system shall support the following roles:
Requestor – Creates, edits, and submits budget requests
Approver/Manager – Reviews, approves, or returns requests
Budget Office – Full access to review, edit, finalize, and report
Leadership (Read-Only) – Dashboard and reporting access only
Authentication must use Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD).
5. Functional Requirements
The system must:
Allow users to create, save, edit, and submit budget requests
Support draft, submitted, returned, approved, and locked statuses
Display friendly budget categories while storing accounting codes in the backend
Require justification, priority, and fiscal year for each request
Support one-time and ongoing budget requests
Allow attachments (quotes, supporting documentation)
Prevent edits after final approval
Track submission, approval, and modification timestamps
6. Data & Architecture Requirements
Use Dataverse as the system of record
Include tables for:
Budget Requests
Budget Categories (mapping friendly names to accounting codes)
Departments / Cost Centers
Users / Roles
Support multi-year fiscal tagging
Ensure data integrity and referential relationships
7. Workflow & Automation Requirements
Automated routing of approvals based on role or department
Notifications for submission, approval, and return (email and/or Teams)
Ability to return requests with comments for revision
Audit trail of all workflow actions
8. Reporting & Analytics Requirements
Integration with Power BI
Dashboards must support:
Budget requests by department, category, and status
Submitted vs approved totals
One-time vs ongoing impacts
Fiscal year rollups
Data refresh at least daily
9. Security & Governance Requirements
Role-based access control
Department-level data visibility
Full auditability of changes and approvals
Compliance with internal data governance and security standards
10. Non-Functional Requirements
Intuitive, user-friendly interface with minimal training required
Mobile-friendly access
Scalable for future fiscal cycles
Maintainable by internal staff after consultant handoff
11. Deliverables
Power Apps front-end application
Dataverse data model
Power Automate workflows
Power BI dashboards
Technical documentation and knowledge transfer
12. Success Criteria
Departments submit budgets without using spreadsheets
Reduced manual consolidation by the Budget Office
Leadership can view real-time budget status
System is adopted for the next budget cycle