Financial Management
Objective: The objective of ITIL Financial Management for IT Services is to manage the service provider's budgeting, accounting and charging requirements.
Part of: Service Strategy
Process Owner: Financial Manager
Process Description
Essentially, the activities and process objectives of Financial Management in ITIL V3 (2007) and the 'Financial Management for IT Services' process according to ITIL 2011 have not changed.
The interfaces between Financial Management and the other ITIL processes have been adjusted to reflect the ITIL 2011 process structure. The process overview of ITIL Financial Management (.JPG) shows the key information flows (see fig. 1).
ITIL 4 refers to 'Service Financial Management' as a general management practice.
Sub-Processes
These are the ITIL Financial Management sub-processes and their process objectives:
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.
Definitions
The following ITIL terms and acronyms (information objects) are used in Financial Management for IT Services to represent process outputs and inputs:
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.
Templates | KPIs
Roles | Responsibilities
Financial Manager - Process Owner
- The Financial Manager is responsible for managing an IT service provider's budgeting, accounting and charging requirements.
| ITIL Role / Sub-Process | Financial Manager |
|---|---|
| Financial Management Support | A[1]R[2] |
| Financial Planning | AR |
| Financial Analysis and Reporting | AR |
| Service Invoicing | AR |
Remarks
[1] A: Accountable according to the RACI Model: Those who are ultimately accountable for the correct and thorough completion of the ITIL Financial Management process.
[2] R: Responsible according to the RACI Model: Those who do the work to achieve a task within Financial Management for IT Services.
Notes
By: Stefan Kempter 
, IT Process Maps.
Process Description › Sub-Processes › Definitions › Roles
