From time to time our customers will ask questions about how to best perform variance analysis in PlanGuru. The reports delivered through our core application allow you to do Budget vs. Actual and basic variance analysis, but these reports will only generate absolute variances. There are many reasons why you're Actual results may vary from what you have previously budgeted, but in order for variances to be actionable you must understand why variances have occurred.
In the attached sample analysis and report demonstrate some concepts for doing more in depth variance reporting. This report not only displays Forecasted and Actual results (as stored in PlanGuru), but also generates 'Adjusted budgeted' amounts for the purposes of calculating multiple variances.
Getting Started With this Sample
1. Save the attached files to your Local Machine or Network. If you need assistance on how to make use of these files see this knowledge base post for more information on how our data files work. https://help.planguru.com/knowledge/locating-sending-and-receiving-planguru-data-files
2. Once you've saved the files to your machine, the last step is to re-point the Excel Report to the data files on your local machine. To do this go to the 'PGR Settings' menu option and click on the 'Analysis Detail' tab, then double-click the displayed row and navigate to the included analysis file.
3. Review the Excel File: Note that only two columns are being pulled in from PlanGuru, everything else is being calculated within the Excel Report. While employing this approach on your own analysis may take some time for the initial setup, you'll be able to save this template and roll it forward month after month with minimal effort.