Different versions of the budget can be easily put side by side for comparison to actuals throughout the year

Description

Building different versions of the budget and being able to run comparisons to actuals is a crucial feature in Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software. Thie requires the product to support placing, in a report or sheet, multiple versions in columns with a calculated column showing the different between those and actual results.

Example Use Case

Scenario: Acme Corporation is a global company that relies heavily on their CPM software for financial planning. Over time, they prepare multiple versions of their annual budget, including best case, worst case, and most likely scenario. They need to track their actual performance against these versions throughout the year.

Solution: Finance uses the reporting tool's interface to drag different versions on a sheet and lay them side by side, across different periods. The tool's easy-to-understand graphical and text representation helps them understand where they over- or under-shot their budgetary predictions compared to actuals, which serves as valuable input for future budgeting and business decision-making processes.

Considerations

This valuable feature needs to be easy to use, with automated “difference” or “delta” to actuals columns that are easily included in the report. This saves the user from writing a formula for each row and protects data integrity in the report.

Rendering these in a graphical format is helpful, layering the graphs in a line across a time series, showing where the various budget versions diverge. A special “what-if scenario” dashboard can be helpful to keep an eye on the results.

Some systems allow the user to simply drag elements onto a page, Version being one of them. When new versions are added, the reports can be automatically refreshed to include those versions - or not, depending on your priorities.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• Graphical Representation: Does your system make side by side comparison straightforward and visually easy to understand?
• Maintenance: When new versions are added, can the comparative report be configured to automatically add them?
• Report Creation: How do we place versions or scenarios side by side on a report or sheet? Once done, how do we include a repeating column that shows the difference between them and actuals?