Finance Navigator

The Finance Navigator records detailed costs and funding on staff posts (pay) and development items (non-pay), and provides financial reports on this information. The application is designed to align with HSE-provided public funding in the Republic of Ireland.

Processes

The Finance Navigator supports the following processes:

• Supports WTE-based, Activity-based, and Bed-based funding by HSE
• Automated lookup of annual earnings based on the Post Cost Calculator
• Records developments for pay (posts) and non-pay items (equipment etc)
• Records details required for cost tracking, incl start & end dates
• Records relevant details from HSE funding letters
• Automated calculation of Costs (YTD and EOY)
• Automated calculation of Budget Due (YTD and EOY)
• Automated calculation of HSE Predictor and incremental budget
• Automated projection of future costs by month
• Reports and dashboards with Costs vs Funding analysis
• API-enabled for data integration with other systems

Update ▸ Developments

When you open this screen, you can optionally select from a number of filters. If you leave a selection emtpy, all information will be retrieved. It is recommended to use selections, so you don't have too much data on screen. Once the data is on the screen, you can use the column filters or the Find function (via Ctrl+F or via the Actions menu) to find records.

You can also select a Period for YTD, which is being used for the calculated YTD amounts that are shown on screen. You can select any period, it has no impact on how you enter or update the information itself.

You can enter all relevant details on staff posts and development items, as well as relevant details on the associated HSE funding letters. To add a new record, click the + icon in the first column. If you want to delete a record, choose DELETE as the funding driver.

Click the SAVE button (or Ctrl+S) when done.

These are the most important fields:

• Funding driver - select Activity, Beds, or WTE. This determines how the item is being treated in terms of HSE funding. Select DELETE if you want to permanently delete a record.
• Predictor Category - select the relevant HSE category for each post or item.
• Source - select the relevant HSE category for each post or item.
• Group/Hospital - select the relevant hospital for each post or item.
• Programme - select the relevant programme or activity for each post or item.
• Our Reference - enter the internal reference for each post or item.
• Approved Post - select a post from the PCC list, or one of the "Non-pay" items.
• Grade Earnings - this will automatically show the gross salary of the selected post.
• Earnings - only enter an amount if you want to deviate from the gross salary.
• WTE - enter the "Whole Time Equivalent" factor (between 0.00 and 1.00).
• P/NP - select whether this is a Pay post, or a Non-pay item.
• Recurring - select whether this post or item is recurring (Recurring) or NR multi-month, or one-off (NR in-month).
• Start date - enter the estimated start date of each post or item. This can still be confirmed in the field "Start Date Confirmed".
• HSE End Date - enter the end date as listed on the HSE funding letter.
• End Date - enter the real expected end date (a post or item may run longer than listed on the HSE funding letter).
• Date Approval Letter - enter the date of the HSE funding letter, for reference.
• Primary Notification Number - enter the number on the HSE funding letter, for reference.
• Allocated This Year - enter the (cumulative) amount that HSE has already approved for this year.

All other fields are for reference only, and are not used in the calculation of amounts.

✭ Notes:

The fields Funding driver, Predictor Category, Source, and Group/Hospital are mandatory, and records without all these 4 fields filled in are considered incomplete and will not be saved.

Update ▸ Hospital Entries

This screen is meant for hospitals to change the Start date, Start date confirmed, Post Ref No, or Int recruitment of existing records.

Update ▸ Activities & Beds

Staff posts and development items that have a funding driver WTE are funded by HSE on an individual level, you can record these in the Developments screen.

Activities and bed openings are funded by HSE on a total basis, per programme, and the calculations work differently for that reason.

In this screen you can enter the programmes for activities and beds (each on a separate tab) with the associated start and end dates, and activity targets. The Finance Navigator will combine the costs of the staff posts and development items (by programme) with the HSE funding of that programme.

You can update all relevant details and add or delete records. Click the SAVE button (or Ctrl+S) when done.

Update ▸ Create a Version

This option enables you to create (or refresh) a full copy (a Version) of all staff posts and development items. Versions are saved per the selected month. If you run this multiple times for the same month, the last version always replaces any previous versions for that same month. All reports contain a field Version, which contains either "NOW" or the month in which the version was copied.

Update ▸ Import Grade List

This option enables you to import an Excel file with new or revised list of grades and annual earnings. The file needs to contain the following 4 columns: Code, Grade, Category, Earnings. Once you have imported a new file, the new earnings will immediately take effect when you select (or re-select) a post in the Developments screen. If you want the system to apply the new earnings to ALL existing (live) development records, run the Update Grade Earnings option (saved versions will not be affected).

Calculations

Based on the information, the Finance Navigator automatically calculates a number of financial amounts, and makes these visible across multiple screens and reports. The amounts can not be manually changed, they are calculated from the information that is recorded for staff posts and development items. The amounts are the following:

• Annual Cost - the full annualised cost of an item if it was carried for a full year. If the item has no start date, or if its End date is in a previous year, the annual cost is set to zero.
• Cost YTD - the cost for this year, up to the selected period, based on the start date and End date.
• Cost This Year - the full cost for the entire year, based on the start date and End date.
• Budget Due YTD - the budget that is due from HSE, up to the selected period, based on the start date and HSE end date.
• Budget Due EOY - the full budget that is due from HSE for the entire year, based on the start date and HSE end date.
• Predictor - the predicted amount for the full year, based on extrapolating the costs in the last 3 months. This amount is always extrapolated up to the end of the year, ignoring any end date (thus replicating the calculation made by the HSE Predictor system itself). The Predictor is set to ZERO for items without Start Date or with an HSE End date in the previous calendar year.
• Incremental HSE - the net difference between Cost This Year, Cost YTD, and Predictor.

See this section for a detailed overview of all formulas.

Reports

When you run reports, you can optionally select from a number of filters. If you leave a filter emtpy, all information will be retrieved.

You can also select a Period for YTD, which is being used for the calculated YTD amounts that are shown in the report. These are calculated in realtime.

Once the report is on the screen, you can use the Find function (via Ctrl+F or via the Actions menu) to find records.

Development Report

This report shows the costs and funding of all staff posts and development items, for all funding drivers.

The report has multiple dynamic layouts, which you can edit (if your user permissions allow that). To edit a layout, select Actions ▸ Change layout. To export a report to Excel or PDF, select Actions ▸ Export or print. To read more about report actions, click here.

Development History

This report shows the current data ("NOW") side-by-side with the selected VERSION of the costs and funding of all staff posts and development items.

Activity & Bed Report

This report shows the costs and funding of programmes for activities and beds (each on a separate tab) with the associated start and end dates, and activity targets. The report combines the costs of the staff posts and development items (by programme) with the HSE funding of that programme.

✭ Notes:

Before you run this report, always open the Activities & Beds screen first and click Save, to ensure that all links to associated development records, and all resulting calculations, are being updated.

Predictor Upload

This report generates export data for upload into the HSE Predictor System (v4.7 for 2023). It calculates Incremental amounts by month for the current year, and Annual Cost amounts by month for the following year, either for the current data or for any saved version. To export this data to an Excel or CSV file, select Actions ▸ Export or print.

User roles

User permissions are determined by user roles. You can assign one or multiple roles to each user. The Finance Navigator provides the following user roles:

• Manage: create/edit users, create versions, import grade lists, change & save report layouts
• Finance: view all reports, all update screens
• Hospitals: view all reports, update "Hospital Entries", run "Predictor Upload"
• View: view all reports, no updates

To create or edit users, please refer to this page.

The special role Define is reserved for system configuration and should never be assigned to any end user.

Support

XLReporting uses the latest technologies (HTML5/CSS3) and works on any modern web browser such as Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, Edge. Chrome offers the best performance, but the choice is yours. Internet Explorer is not supported, as it has known security weaknesses and (as of 2022) is no longer supported by Microsoft. Safari version 8 and older is also no longer supported.

To work efficiently with XLReporting, please note that:

• Your computer needs an internet connection
• Your screen must be at least 1024px wide
• Your computer needs at least 2Gb memory
• Your browser needs to allow javascript

Formulas

The Finance Navigator uses the following formulas: (you can read these in Excel-style)