FS-DOC-03Operations
Process Runbook / SOP
Budget Planning and Approval
[YourCompany.com] · Management Department · Prepared by FullSpec · [Today's Date]
This runbook is the day-to-day operating guide for the Finance Manager running the automated Budget Planning and Approval process. It covers what triggers the workflow, which steps happen automatically, where your attention is required, and what to do when something goes wrong. FullSpec has built and configured the automation end to end. Your role is to review flagged variance lines, clear the consolidated draft for approval, and act on any exception alerts that reach you.
01Process overview
The Budget Planning and Approval process collects cost and revenue estimates from all department heads each planning cycle, consolidates those submissions against prior period actuals from Xero, routes flagged variances to the Finance Manager for review, and then sends the cleared draft through DocuSign for formal sign-off before archiving the signed document to Google Drive. The entire collection, consolidation, and routing sequence runs automatically. The Finance Manager intervenes only to review flagged lines and to confirm the draft is ready for approval. The process handles between 6 and 15 department submissions per cycle and runs 1 to 4 times per year.
Process name
Budget Planning and Approval
Trigger
Budget cycle opens: a scheduled date in the master planning calendar fires the automation at the start of each planning period.
Final output
A signed, archived budget document in Google Drive and a Slack notification confirming final approval and the archive location.
Agents running
Submission Coordinator Agent, Budget Consolidation Agent, Approval Routing Agent
Tools involved
Google Forms, Google Sheets, Xero, Slack, DocuSign, Google Drive
Weekly volume
1 to 4 cycles per year, each involving 6 to 15 department submissions
Human checkpoint
Finance Manager reviews flagged variance lines in the master Google Sheet and marks the consolidated draft as cleared for approval before DocuSign routing begins.
Process owner
Finance Manager
Process Runbook / SOPPage 1 of 4
FS-DOC-03Operations
02Step-by-step: what happens and who acts
What you actually need to do: Your one required action in this process is to open the master Google Sheet once the Budget Consolidation Agent has finished, review any rows flagged for variance, make adjustments or add comments as needed, and then mark the draft as cleared for approval. Everything before and after that step is handled automatically by the automation.
Step
What happens
Who acts
Type
1
The planning calendar triggers the workflow automatically at the scheduled cycle start date. No manual action is needed to open the round.
Automation
Automated
2
Each department head receives a personalised Google Form link via the automation. The form is pre-populated with their department name and prior period actuals drawn from Xero, giving them a consistent starting point.
Automation
Automated
3
The Submission Coordinator Agent monitors which departments have submitted. At 48 hours and again at 24 hours before the deadline, it sends targeted Slack reminders only to those who have not yet responded. No chasing by email is required from you.
Submission Coordinator Agent
Automated
4
Once all submissions are received, or when the deadline passes, the Budget Consolidation Agent validates each form response, checks for missing fields and out-of-range figures, maps line items to the correct cost centres, and writes the consolidated draft to the master Google Sheet.
Budget Consolidation Agent
Automated
5
The Budget Consolidation Agent pulls prior period actuals from Xero via API and appends variance columns to the master sheet, highlighting any line where the submitted figure deviates beyond the configured threshold.
Budget Consolidation Agent
Automated
6
You open the master Google Sheet and review the flagged variance lines only. You can adjust figures, add a comment, or accept the submission as is. Once you are satisfied, you mark the draft as cleared for approval using the status cell in the sheet. This is your single point of action each cycle.
Finance Manager
Human
7
The Approval Routing Agent detects the cleared status and generates the final budget summary document. It creates a DocuSign envelope, routes it to the configured approvers in the correct signing sequence, and monitors for completion.
Approval Routing Agent
Automated
8
Once all DocuSign signatures are collected, the Approval Routing Agent saves the signed document to the correct Google Drive folder for the period and posts a completion notice to the finance Slack channel. The master sheet is updated to approved status automatically.
Approval Routing Agent
Automated
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FS-DOC-03Operations
03Handling exceptions
Situation
What the system does
What you do
A department submission has missing fields or invalid figures
The Budget Consolidation Agent flags the incomplete submission in the master Google Sheet with the specific fields that failed validation. It does not include the incomplete row in the consolidated draft. A Slack alert is sent to the Finance Manager.
Open the flagged row in the master sheet. Contact the department head directly to request a corrected submission via the same Google Form link. Once the corrected response is received, the agent re-validates and includes it automatically.
A department submits twice, creating a duplicate entry
The Submission Coordinator Agent detects multiple responses from the same department and flags the conflict in the master sheet. The later submission is held in a separate review tab rather than overwriting the first.
Review both submissions in the sheet. Delete or archive the version that should not be used. Mark the row as resolved. The consolidation agent will then process the remaining entry on its next check.
A department head does not submit before the deadline
The Submission Coordinator Agent has already sent 48-hour and 24-hour reminders. After the deadline passes, the Budget Consolidation Agent proceeds with the submissions received. The missing department is flagged in the master sheet and noted in the variance review section.
Decide whether to wait for the late submission or proceed without it. If you choose to wait, do not mark the draft as cleared until the missing entry is received and validated. If you proceed without it, note the exclusion in the sheet before clearing the draft.
An approver in DocuSign does not sign within the reminder window
The Approval Routing Agent sends automatic DocuSign reminders on a configured schedule. If the envelope remains unsigned after the maximum configured wait period, the agent posts a Slack alert to the Finance Manager naming the outstanding signer.
Contact the approver directly using the details in the contact table in Section 04. If the approver is unavailable, refer to your delegation of authority policy and contact FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com if the signing order needs to be changed in the system.
Xero actuals cannot be retrieved (API timeout or permission error)
The Budget Consolidation Agent retries the Xero API call up to three times with a short delay between attempts. If all retries fail, it logs the error in the master sheet, leaves the variance columns blank, and sends a Slack alert to the Finance Manager.
Check whether Xero is experiencing an outage via the Xero status page. If the issue is an OAuth permission error, contact your Xero account administrator. As a fallback, you can manually paste prior period actuals into the variance columns in the master sheet and mark the Xero pull as manually completed before clearing the draft.
A connected tool is unavailable (Slack, DocuSign, or Google Drive outage)
The automation retries the failed step up to three times. If the tool remains unavailable, the workflow pauses at the failed step and logs the error. No data is lost; the workflow resumes from the paused step once the tool recovers.
Check the relevant tool's status page to confirm the outage. No action is needed while the retry window is active. If the outage persists beyond two hours and the cycle is time-sensitive, contact FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com so the team can assess whether a manual workaround is needed for that step.
04Who to contact and when
Fill in the rows marked with placeholders once your team is confirmed. Keep this table updated whenever roles change so the right person is reached quickly during a live cycle.
Role
Name
How to reach them
Finance Manager (Process Owner)
[Your name]
[Rep email]
CEO (Budget Approver)
[Your name]
[Rep email]
Operations Director (Budget Approver)
[Your name]
[Rep email]
Xero Account Administrator
[Your name]
[Rep email]
DocuSign Account Administrator
[Your name]
[Rep email]
FullSpec Builder
FullSpec team
support@gofullspec.com
FullSpec Support
FullSpec support
support@gofullspec.com
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FS-DOC-03Operations
05Ongoing maintenance
Before each new budget cycle
Confirm the cycle start date is correct in the master planning calendar sheet so the scheduled trigger fires on the right day. Update the list of department heads and their Google Form recipients if any roles have changed since the last cycle.
Finance Manager
When the Google Form template changes
Notify FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com before making structural changes to the Google Form (adding, removing, or renaming questions). Field mapping between the form and the master sheet is configured in the automation layer and must be updated to match any structural change. Minor label edits that do not affect field IDs are safe to make independently.
Finance Manager, then FullSpec
Monthly (or after each cycle)
Open the master Google Sheet and spot-check three to five completed submission rows against the archived DocuSign document to confirm figures carried through correctly. Note any discrepancies and contact FullSpec if a field mapping error is suspected.
Finance Manager
Monthly
Review the error log tab in the master Google Sheet. This tab records any failed API calls, validation rejections, and paused workflow steps. If recurring errors appear against the same step or tool, raise them with FullSpec before the next cycle begins.
Finance Manager
When team or approver roles change
Update the DocuSign signing order and the Slack notification recipients to reflect the new approval hierarchy. This requires a configuration change in the automation. Contact FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com with the updated signing list and any changes to delegation rules.
Finance Manager, then FullSpec
Quarterly
Review cycle volume and turnaround time against the baseline KPIs: budget cycle turnaround target of 8 days, submission completion rate target of 97%, and finance review time per cycle target of 8 hours. If any metric has drifted significantly, review whether the variance threshold, reminder timing, or signing order needs adjustment.
Finance Manager
The most common maintenance issue for this process is a structural change to the Google Form breaking the field mapping between submitted responses and the master consolidation sheet. This causes the Budget Consolidation Agent to write figures to the wrong columns or skip rows entirely, often without an obvious error. Always contact FullSpec before adding, removing, or renaming a form question, and run a test submission immediately after any form change to confirm the mapping is intact.
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