Variance Analysis (Plan-Ist-Vergleich)

1. Goal: Automated "Why?" Detection

Problem: Knowing that you missed the budget is easy. Knowing why takes hours of digging. Finance teams spend 80% of their time finding the variance and only 20% fixing it. Solution: An engine that not only calculates the difference but auto-analyzes the root cause (Price vs Volume vs Timing).

2. Core Value Proposition

• Proactive: Alerts stakeholders during the month ("You are trending to overspend"), not just after.
• Context: Distinguishes between "Bad Variance" (Waste) and "Good Variance" (We sold more, so we paid more commission).
• Closure: Forces owners to explain the gap (Commentary).

3. Workflow: The Analysis Loop

1. Ingest Plan: Import Budget (Excel/CSV) at the beginning of the year.
2. Monitor Actuals: Track GL spend daily.
3. Detect Variance:
   • Formula: Variance % = (Actual - Budget) / Budget.
   • Trigger: If Variance > 10% AND Amount > $1,000 -> Create "Variance Incident".
4. Auto-Explain (AI/Rules):
   • "Is it a new vendor?"
   • "Did a recurring payment happen twice?"
   • "Is it a timing issue?" (Budgeted for Jan, paid in Feb).
5. Assign: Send "Variance Incident" to Cost Center Owner.
6. Resolve: Owner replies: "One-off event, will not recur."

4. Data Model

BudgetLine

• budget_id
• cost_center_id
• gl_account_id
• period (Month)
• amount

VarianceIncident

• incident_id
• period
• cost_center_id
• gl_account
• budget_amount
• actual_amount
• variance_amount
• auto_root_cause: TIMING | PRICE | VOLUME | NEW_SPEND
• owner_comment
• status: OPEN | EXPLAINED | RESOLVED

5. UX/UI

• The "Heatmap": P&L view where cells are colored by variance intensity (Red = Over, Green = Under).
• The "Inbox": "You have 3 unexplained variances this month. Please clarify."
• The "Bridge" Chart: Visualizes how the variance happened.

6. Integration

• Inputs: Budget (CSV), GL Actuals.
• Outputs: Variance Reports, Forecast Adjustments.