Plan, budget, and manage multiple sub-projects under a single pre-approved business case using Project Pools. A Project Pool is a business case that has been approved but does not progress directly to a project. Instead, it acts as a parent that distributes its planned, budgeted, and approved amounts to multiple child sub-projects.

The benefit of using a Project Pool is that sub-projects linked to it are treated as pre-approved, which can eliminate or reduce the need for a full Delegation of Authority (DoA) approval cycle.

Key Concepts

• A Project Pool is a business case flagged as a pool — it stays in approved status and does not progress to a project stage.

• Sub-projects (children) are initiated as business cases and linked to the Project Pool as their parent.

• When a sub-project is submitted, Planned (P), Budgeted (B), and Approved (A) amounts are automatically distributed from the pool to the child.

• If a sub-project is fully covered by the pool's pre-approved amount, the DoA workflow is skipped.

• If a sub-project exceeds the pool's remaining approved amount, the shortfall goes through the normal DoA process based on the full planned amount.

• Distributions are triggered on submission — not on approval — to prevent two sub-projects from claiming the same funds simultaneously.

• If a sub-project is rejected, returned, or deleted, its distributions are reversed back to the pool.

• Only users who have access to the pool (via auth groups or as a Collaborator) can link a sub-project to it.

• A Project Pool cannot be linked as a child of any other initiative. Nested pools (a pool that is itself a child of another pool or any initiative) are not supported and could cause unpredictable outcomes.

Allowed Relationships

Pool Types Suffix

1. Create a Project Pool

   • Create a Proposal Initiative with desired Investment amount (do not flag as Pool)

   • Include the Proposal on Portfolio request and complete it

   • Proposal should be transitioned to Business Case

   • Tick the Pool checkbox on the business case form to flag it as a pool.

   • Complete the initiative then submit for approval through the normal workflow.

   • Once the CAPEX controller approves the business case, it will move to approved status — project ID is not required at this stage.

2. Create a Sub-Project Linked to the Pool

   • Create a new Business Case for the sub-project.

   • Save the initiative as a draft first to generate an Initiative ID.

   • Click the Link icon in the initiative header and add a Child relationship.

   • In the pool selection dropdown, choose the Project Pool — it will appear with an (approved) suffix. Closed pools should not be visible on the dropdown.

   • Complete and submit the business case as normal.

3. Amount Distribution on Submission

   • On submission, the system automatically distributes Planned, Budgeted, and Approved amounts from the pool to the child based on the child's investment amount.

   • Both the pool (parent) and the sub-project (child) headers will show the updated distribution amounts after submission.

   • The Parent tab on the child initiative shows all distributions that have been applied.

   • Click on any budget or approval amount in the Financial Summary to see where it came from.

4. DoA Approval Workflow for Sub-Projects

   • If the sub-project's planned amount is fully covered by the pool's remaining approved amount → DoA workflow is skipped. The sub-project moves straight to Capex Approval Requested and triggers SAP project creation.

   • If the sub-project's planned amount exceeds the remaining approved amount → the full planned amount goes through the normal DoA process (not just the shortfall). For example: if a pool is approved for $10M and sub-project 1 draws $8M (leaving $2M), then sub-project 2 is initiated for $2.5M — the DoA for sub-project 2 is triggered on the full $2.5M, not the $500k delta.

   • Once a sub-project completes the Capex Approval and SAP processes, it transitions to project stage and is managed as a standard project from that point.

   • Confirm the approval sequence by clicking the Participants icon in the initiative header.

5. Reversals — Rejected, Returned, or Deleted Sub-Projects

   • If a sub-project is rejected, returned, or deleted, all distributions are automatically reversed back to the pool.

   • If the sub-project's planned cost is reduced after submission, a partial reversal is processed. The returned budget cannot be less than the approved amount, and the approved amount cannot go below actuals or forecast.

6. Supplementing a Project Pool

   If a Child initiative requires more funding than the Pool's remaining approved amount can cover, the Pool itself can be supplemented to increase its approved amount.

   • The supplement is raised on the Parent Pool, not on the Child directly.

   • Once the Pool supplement is approved, the Child initiative can proceed through its own workflow drawing on the newly available funds.

   • The supplement follows the standard approval chain (Manager → Sponsor → DoA) based on the total Pool value, inclusive of all amounts already distributed to Children.