Compare actuals, budgets and forecasts

The Phocas Financial Statements and Budgets and Forecasts modules complement each other seamlessly. If you have both these modules, you can move between them to solve these common problems:

How do I compare my actuals to budget?

Suppose you have finished your Profit and Loss budget (and Balance Sheet, if required) and moved into the new year. Now you want to measure your actuals vs budget.

1. In Budgets and Forecasts, publish the budget to a new stream.

2. In Financial Statements, add the new stream to a budget.

3. In Financial Statements, change your view of the financial statement to display the actuals vs budget values. Typically, you need to perform the following actions (in any order):

   • Change the period to display the latest closed period.

   • Remove the Previous (year) columns to make the actuals vs budget comparison easier to see.

   • Change the budget data to display the new budget stream.

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How do I measure the impact of my forecast against budget?

As a result of completing the above task, you can clearly see how you’re performing against budget. But suppose things have changed in a few areas and now you need to forecast values that are different to the budget.

1. In Financial Statements, analyze the financial information to identify the emerging issues for which you need to forecast the difference.

2. In Budgets and Forecasts, create a forecast from an existing Profit and Loss budget (and Balance Sheet, if required).

3. In Budgets and Forecasts, edit the forecast values in the forecast(s) as required and use the flagpole to review the results of Actual + Forecast vs Actual + Budget.

How can I see my actual+forecast result against my budget?

As a result of completing the above task, you have a forecast that accounts for changes in the budget. Now you want to measure your actuals vs budget vs forecast.

1. In Budgets and Forecasts, publish the forecast to a new stream.

2. In Financial Statements, add the new stream to a budget.

3. In Financial Statements, change your view of the financial statement to display the actuals vs budget vs forecast values. Typically, you need to perform the following actions (in any order):

   • Change the period to display the latest closed period.

   • Remove the Previous (year) columns to make the actuals vs budget vs forecast comparison easier to see.

   • Change the budget data to display both the budget and forecast streams.