Variance analysis
Budget vs Actual Analyzer
Rank what actually moved against budget, in the direction that counts as better for each line, with a walk from budget to actual that reconciles.
Input data
One row per line item. The natures offered follow the statement.
Applies to what you type and to every figure on the page.
| Line item | Nature | Budget | Actual | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Tip: paste a rectangular range from Excel or Sheets.
Profit against budget
+$4.00
Profit finished $4.00 favourable against budget. Favourable movements of $13.00 were partly offset by $9.00 of adverse movements. COGS is the largest single driver at 36.4% of total movement.
- Budget
- $20.00
- Total favourable
- +$13.00
- Total adverse
- -$9.00
- Actual
- $24.00
Profit walk
Budget through the ranked drivers to actual
Budget
$20.00
COGS
-$8.00
Revenue
+$7.00
New product revenue
+$4.00
Marketing
+$2.00
Payroll
-$1.00
Actual
$24.00
Drivers
Every line, ranked by absolute impact. Impact is the direction that counts as better for that nature; raw variance is simply actual less budget.
| Line item | Nature | Raw variance | Variance % | Impact | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COGS | expense | +$8.00 | 13.3% | -$8.00 | 36.4% |
| Revenue | income | +$7.00 | 7.0% | +$7.00 | 31.8% |
| New product revenueUnbudgeted | income | +$4.00 | n/a | +$4.00 | 18.2% |
| Marketing | expense | -$2.00 | -25.0% | +$2.00 | 9.1% |
| Payroll | expense | +$1.00 | 8.3% | -$1.00 | 4.5% |
No percentage: the budget is zero, so there is no base to divide by.
Reuse the analysis
Copy the summary, or export the rows and the chart.
Transparent by design
How this calculation works
Favourable describes the direction a metric moved, not a judgement about the business. Inventory above budget is an asset that rose, and your working-capital view of it may be the opposite.
Raw variance
Actual minus budget, for every nature. Never re-signed.
Impact
Actual minus budget for income, assets and capital. Budget minus actual for expenses and liabilities, so positive always means favourable.
Variance %
Raw variance divided by the absolute budget. Not calculated where budget is zero, or where budget and actual sit on opposite sides of zero. A line that falls to exactly zero keeps its percentage.
Contribution
Absolute row impact divided by the sum of all absolute impacts. A materiality scale, not a balance sheet total.
Profit walk
Budget profit plus the impacts equals actual profit, with income added and expenses subtracted.
Balance sheet walks
Net assets and capital walk separately and are never added: net assets are capital, so one total would count the same movement twice.
Reconciliation
Where a walk does not land on its actual endpoint, the expected, calculated and residual figures are all shown. A difference is never spread across the lines.
Chart aggregation
The chart draws the top eight drivers and one Other bar. The driver table beside it always keeps every row.