Higher Ed – Salary Assumptions

What are Personnel Assumptions in a Higher Education Budget Model? Employee-focused Assumption Forms are considered driver-based templates and are often used by budget managers to input various salary and benefit rates that will be used in the personnel payroll budget. Key functionality in this type of form provides input of any type of pre-determined cost or rate that is needed for the detailed personnel budget. This can include rates per salary grade, merit increases, Medicare, insurance, and other benefits. You will find an example of this type of form below.

Purpose of Personnel Assumption Forms Universities and colleges use Personnel Assumption Forms to enter key personnel cost drivers before the detailed employee budget is entered. When used as part of good business practices in a Budgeting and Planning department, an institution can improve its employee budget process, as well as, reduce the chances that personnel expenses are not updated if underlying drivers change after the planning process has commenced.

Who Uses This Type of Form? The typical users of this type of form are: Budget Officers and HR Managers. Other Forms Often Used in Conjunction with Personnel Assumption Forms Progressive Budgeting and Planning Departments sometimes use several different Personnel Assumption Forms, along with payroll, capex, operating expense and revenue templates, in addition to other management and control tools.

Where Does the Data for Analysis Originate From? The Actual (historical transactions) data typically comes from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like: Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) Finance, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC), Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Sage Intacct, Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage 500, Sage X3, SAP Business One, SAP ByDesign, Acumatica, Netsuite and others. In analyses where budgets or forecasts are used, the planning data most often originates from in-house Excel spreadsheet models or from professional xFP&A solutions.

Built for higher education finance teams and aligned with Solver's xFP&A platform, this Solver report template connects directly to your ERP data via the Solver Data Warehouse, enabling near real-time analysis with minimal setup. Designed for QuickStart deployment, it can be activated rapidly so your team can focus on analysis and decisions — not data preparation.

What is the Higher Ed – Salary Assumptions in Solver? The Higher Ed – Salary Assumptions is a pre-built xFP&A report template in Solver designed for higher education organizations. It delivers key financial and operational metrics in a single, easy-to-use interface — purpose-built for higher education finance workflows.

Who uses this Solver report template? This template is primarily used by CFOs, controllers, and higher education finance teams in higher education organizations who need accurate, timely data to support planning, reporting, and decision-making. It is particularly valuable for higher education finance teams managing budgets, forecasts, and performance reviews.

Where does the data come from? Data is sourced automatically from your ERP system through the Solver Data Warehouse, which integrates with platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics 365 Finance, Acumatica, Sage Intacct, and other leading ERP solutions. Once connected, the template updates in near real-time with no manual data entry required.

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