Configuring the Account Growth driver

The Account Growth driver allows you to configure global growth rates incorporated into the following calculation methods:

• BalanceSheet calculation method library:
  • Cash Flow
  • Simple Interest
  • Non-Interest
• Non Interest income and expense calculation method library:
  • Annual Growth Rate
  • Annual Growth Rate with Manual Adjustments
  • Input Total
  • Input Monthly
  • Input Detail
  • Prepaid Contract

The Acct Growth driver allows you to quickly configure growth rates by account; account and department grouping; or by account, product, and department grouping.

To configure the Acct Growth driver:

1. From the Command Center home page, click Financial Planning.
2. Open the budget, scenario, or forecast for which to edit the driver.
3. Click the Drivers & Assumptions tab.

4. Click the Acct Growth Drivers link.

   NOTE: The driver opens in the Desktop Client and displays the Acct Growth Driverssheet by default.

5. For the Interest earning asset accounts and Interest bearing liability accounts sections, in the Balance Growth Rate Method column, double-click the ellipsis next to the blue cell to select an alternate Balance Growth Rate Method for budget accounts. The method selected determines how the system calculates projected balances when using the Apply Growth Rate option.

   NOTE: This step is optional.

   

   Click to enlarge image

   Method	Description
   Remaining base year then annual growth	For the base year, the balance growth is calculated from the last actual period and the balance growth is spread evenly over the remainder of the year. Plan years use the Annual growth rate method. For this method, enter the base year growth rate to be utilized for the remainder of the year. Plan years are for the full year.
   Growth with seasonality	The balance for each projected period is calculated by applying the growth rate to the prior year’s balance for the same period. Note that this method is only available for the Simple Interest and Non-interest calculation methods. It cannot be used for the Cash flow method.
   Annual growth rate	Growth is calculated from the last period of the prior year to the last period of the projected year. The balance growth is then spread evenly across the projected months. In the case of the base year, the last actual period is subtracted from the calculated balance for the ending period and spread across the remaining projected year. For this method, enter growth rates for the full year including the Base year.

6. Choose a Non-Interest income and expense Growth Rate Method for each Non-interest income and expense account. The method selected will determine how projected non-interest income and expenses are calculated. The seven methods available are as follows:

   Calc Method	Description
   Annual growth rate	The Annual Growth Rate calculation method uses global growth rates defined in ACCT Growth Drivers to project future growth in account balances. Users can adjust global growth rates up or down. The calculation method first projects the annual totals and then spreads the totals to each month within the respective year through a user-defined spread method of either Even, Days (in the month), or Historical (trend). The right-most column of the Axiom Growth Rate calculation method (not shown) contains a user input cell to capture comments of up to 50 characters in length.
   Annual growth rate with manual adjustment	The Axiom Annual Growth Rate With Manual Adjustment calculation method uses global growth rates defined in ACCT Growth Driver to project future growth in account balances. Users can adjust global growth rates up or down. The calculation method first projects the annual totals and then spreads the totals to each month within the respective year through a user-defined spread method of either Even, Days (in the month), or Historical. There is also an additional row to capture manual adjustments to growth projections. The right-most column of the Axiom Annual Growth Rate With Manual Adjustment calculation method (not shown) contains a user input cell to capture comments up to 50 characters in length.
   Input Total	The Axiom Input Total calculation method contains a single row where users can input totals for the base year remaining and each future plan year. The calculation method then spreads the totals to each month within the respective period through a user-defined spread method of either Even, Days (in the month), or Historical. The Historical spread method offers a seasonal option where balances are spread based on the monthly changes over the prior 12 months (seasonality).
   Input Monthly	The Axiom Input Monthly calculation method contains a single row with unlocked blue cells in the projection columns in which users can manually input amounts. The right-most column of the Axiom Monthly Input calculation method (not shown) contains a user input cell to capture comments up to 50 characters in length.
   Input Detail	Assign the Axiom Input Detail calculation method to accounts that users will want to itemize the budgeting assumptions for the account. The calculation method comes standard with three lines of input detail. Users can enter a detail description up to 50 characters in length in the blue cells below the account description. If necessary, users can add more detail lines by double-clicking Add More Detail at the bottom of the calculation method. Enter income/expense amounts in blue cells within the projection columns to the right. Each detail line that has a value greater than 0 in any of the projection columns will be saved to the plan report table. The detail descriptions will be saved to the plan report table Comment column.
   Non-Interest Driver Based Growth	The Axiom Non-Interest Driver Based Growth calculation method projects expenses by multiplying the volume of a statistical driver assigned to by a unit rate driver assigned to GL account in the Other Rates driver table. It multiplies the driver rates assigned for the given account in the Other Rates driver table for the specific account by the associated statistical volume. The calculation method looks up the rate from the DriverInfo tab and inserts it into row 3 of the calculation method. The DriverInfo tab’s AQ8 query pulls in rates from the Other Rates driver table. The statistical volume is to be manually entered number in row 4 of the calculation method. The statistical account is assigned in the ACCT dimension table’s AX_StatAcct column for the given account. The calculation method multiplies the Driver rate from row 3 by the Statistical Volume in row 4 to generate monthly expense.
   Existing Prepaid Contract	Assigning this method to a non-interest expense or income account specifies the given account as one for which existing prepaid contract data will be used to project future expenses.

7. Populate annual growth rates.

   IMPORTANT: For ACCTS using the Remaining base year then annual growth method, the Base Year growth rate is for the remainder of the year. When changing the base period in a budget or forecast, the growth rate will need to be adjusted as well.

8. Click the Save button on the Axiom ribbon to save growth rates to the database.

9. Close the Acct Growth Drivers document when input of growth rates is complete.

NOTE: The driver configurations for Department dimension grouping column and Product dimension grouping column directly affect the Lookup key values of the Acct Growth driver table. These two configurations are recognized by BalanceSheet and NonInterest calculation method libraries so that they know how to properly reference Lookup column key values from the DriverInfo sheet.