Budget against actual
Every cost centre and every account in one table: planned, posted, difference in euro and in percent. Click a line and the drill-down shows the postings that make it up.
Controlling
The variance is already worked out when you open it.
Plan figures, posted amounts and cost centres sit in one model, so budget against actual is a view you open rather than a sheet you assemble. Liquidity, prior year and the forecast are on the same board.
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The four comparisons
What a controller looks at over and over
This year against last
The same period twelve months back, on the same axis. Seasonal business stops looking like a collapse in August, and a genuine decline is visible because the comparison is honest.
Forecast against plan
A projection from your own history, with seasonality and trend, placed next to the budget line. You see in March whether the year-end figure is still reachable.
Cost centre by cost centre
One board, filtered per area. The head of production and the head of service open the same address and each sees their own figures, down to the single account.
How it is put together
From two files to a board nobody has to rebuild
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Step 1: The budget comes in as the file it already is
Planning usually lives in a spreadsheet. Point the Excel, CSV or Google Sheets connector at it, and the plan is read from the same file you keep editing – no retyping, no second version.
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Step 2: The actuals come from where they are posted
If your accounting system is not among the 140+ connectors, the honest routes are a read-only database view, an ODBC connection or a scheduled CSV export. Where you invoice through Stripe, Xero or QuickBooks, those connect directly.
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Step 3: The comparison is defined once
Match the plan period to the posting period, agree which accounts roll up to which line, add the variance as a calculated field. From then on every refresh recalculates it – the definition does not travel in someone’s head.
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Step 4: Each area gets its own slice
Row-level permissions per cost centre mean one dashboard can serve everyone without a copy per department. How that is enforced is set out on the security page.
Asked in the first call
The four objections from finance
Our ERP is not on your connector list. Now what?
Then we do not pretend otherwise. The routes that genuinely work are a read-only view on the database behind it, an ODBC connection, or an export to CSV or Excel on a schedule into a folder we read. Bring the system to the demo and we will tell you which of the three applies before you buy anything.
Does someone have to upload the budget every month?
No. The plan file stays where it is and is read again on a schedule. If you revise the plan mid-year, save the file – the next refresh picks up the new figures and the old board keeps working.
Can we get a liquidity view out of this?
Yes, from the sources that hold the movements: billing through Stripe, Xero or QuickBooks, bank and posting data through a database view. Incoming and outgoing become one timeline, and the forecast extends it from your own history.
What stops a variance from being noticed in October?
An alert on the figure. Set a threshold – a cost centre over plan by more than you tolerate – and the mail arrives when it is crossed, not when someone next opens the board.
Bring last month’s budget comparison
Two files are enough: the plan and one export of the actuals. In 30 minutes you see them side by side, calculated instead of pasted.