Financial Management
From IT Process Wiki
ITIL Financial Management: Overview
Process Objective: To manage the service provider's budgeting, accounting and charging requirements.
Part of: Service Strategy
Process Owner: Financial Manager
ITIL Financial Management: Process Definition
Essentially, the activities and process objectives of the Financial Management process are identical in ITIL V2 and ITIL V3. Financial Management for IT Services was part of "Service Delivery" in ITIL V2.
The following sub-processes are part of Financial Management according to ITIL V3:
Sub-Processes
- Financial Management Support
- Process Objective: To define the necessary structures for the management of financial planning data and costs, as well as for the allocation of costs to services.
- Financial Planning
- Process Objective: To determine the required financial resources over the next planning period ("IT Budget"), and to allocate those resources for optimum benefits.
- Financial Analysis and Reporting
- Process Objective: To analyze the structure of service provisioning cost and the profitability of services. The resulting financial analysis allows Service Portfolio Management to make informed decisions when deciding about changes to the Service Portfolio.
- Service Invoicing
- Process Objective: To issue invoices for the provision of services and transmission of the invoice to the customer.
ITIL Terms: Financial Management
- Budget Request
- A request for a budget, typically issued from any of the Service Management processes at the same time when compiling a Request for Change. An approved Budget Request means that the required financial resources for implementing a Change are approved by Financial Management.
- Budget Allocation
- A budget allocated by the Financial Manager to implement a Change. Budget Allocations are issued in response to Budget Requests originating from any Service Management process in conjunction with Requests for Change.
- Cost Data for Service Provisioning
- The cost for providing a service, calculated by Financial Management as a basis for calculating the price a customer is expected to pay for a service.
- Financial Analysis
- The Financial Analysis is an important input to the Portfolio Management process. It contains information on the costs for providing services and provides insight into the profitability of services and customers (see also: ITIL Checklist Financial Analysis).
- Financial Data Categories
- Various categories are used to structure financial data, as a means to gain insight into the underlying costs of service provisioning and service profitability.
- Indirect Cost Allocation Table
- A table used to allocate indirect costs that are shared among multiple services, defining the rules how those costs are spread among the services.
- Invoice
- The invoice for the delivery of a service or product.
- IT Budget
- The IT Budget is an annual financial plan that provides a forecast of expected expenditures and allocates financial resources to the various service management processes and organizational units within the IT organization.
Additional Information on Financial Management
ITIL KPIs and Checklists
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Financial Management
- Checklists Financial Management: Checklist Financial Analysis
ITIL Roles in Financial Management
- Financial Manager - Process Owner
- The Financial Manager is responsible for managing an IT service provider's budgeting, accounting and charging requirements.
