Budget vs actual

Worksheet

Budget, actual and the variance — with nothing judged good or bad for you.

The refusal is the feature

Most variance reports color rows red against a threshold nobody chose. This one has no threshold until you supply one, and where you have not, a row says so rather than showing a reassuring blank.

Actual less budget, and the convention is stated

Positive means actual came in above budget. On a cost line that is usually unwelcome; on a revenue line it usually is not. Which of those you are looking at is something you know and the sheet does not.

The explanation column is the useful one

The variance is arithmetic; why it happened is the part a reader actually needs, and it is the part that only exists if somebody writes it down while they still remember.

Alongside this: Month-end close · Spend report · Capital plan

A worksheet that does arithmetic on figures you entered. It applies no threshold unless you supply one, makes no judgment about whether a variance is acceptable or material, and gives no accounting, financial or tax advice. Everything runs on your device.

Questions people ask

Why does it not tell me which variances matter?
Because materiality is a judgment about a specific operation made by somebody who knows it. A threshold shipped in this tool would make that judgment for everybody who never changed a number they never saw — and they would never know it had been made.
What does the highlight box do?
Nothing until you fill it in. Type a percentage and rows beyond it are counted; leave it empty and every row reads as not assessed, which is different from “fine” and is shown differently.
Is a positive variance good or bad?
The tool does not say. Actual less budget is positive when more was spent or earned than budgeted, which is usually unwelcome on a cost line and usually not on a revenue line. That is exactly the judgment it declines to make, so it states the convention and stops.
Why is the percentage blank on some lines?
Because the budget is zero, and a percentage of nothing is not a percentage. Printing 0% or an infinite overspend would both be wrong.
Does it compare periods?
Each sheet is one period against its budget. Last quarter’s sheet stays as it was rather than being overwritten.