Add an initiative

Initiatives are added to Financial Planning as nodes. To add an Initiative, you create a type of node called an Initiative Node. The Initiative Node Type tracks the volume, revenue, expense, and capital associated with a new project. Create an Initiative node when you want to model projected incremental impact to your organization such as cost savings, the start of new services, the hiring of additional FTEs, or construction of new facilities. Initiatives are typically created after the base models when historical and base data are completed.

To create an initiative node:

Follow the instructions for creating a node, with the following exceptions:

1. On the first page of the Create New Node dialog, for Node Type, select Initiative.

   

2. On the second page of the Create New Node dialog, note that you do not select Years of history. Initiative nodes start with the first projection year and do not have history.

   

   After completing the form and clicking OK, the new node opens, ready for you to add data.

Note the following differences between Initiative nodes and other node types:

• Financial analysis summary results are provided at the beginning of the node worksheet.

• The first year of data input is the first projection year based on the File Group used. For example, if you are using File Group 2020, then the first data input year in the node is 2020.

• In calculating revenue, contractual allowances, bad debt, charity, and expenses, the required inputs are base rates or drivers (e.g., gross revenue per visit or patient day, contractual allowance percentage, or variable expense per unit) that will then be used to calculate the projection years.