Plan and review a budget

Create budget scenarios, review their history, lock an approved version, and compare plans with actuals.

Plan and review a budget

Use budget scenarios to develop a plan, retain its review history, and compare the agreed version with actual financial performance. Keeping budgets close to statements helps reviewers move between planning assumptions and reported outcomes.

Budget workflow

Create a scenario
  → enter or update planned values
  → review changes and history
  → lock the agreed version
  → compare budget, forecast, and actuals

Create scenarios deliberately

Use separate scenarios for plans that represent meaningful alternatives, review stages, or forecast revisions. Give each scenario a purpose that another reviewer can understand without relying on private context.

Examples include:

• the initial annual plan;
• a management-review version;
• an approved budget;
• a later forecast that incorporates actual performance.

Avoid creating a new scenario for every minor edit when the existing scenario’s history provides the required traceability.

Review the plan

Before treating a scenario as ready:

1. Confirm the intended period and financial scope.
2. Review material lines and the assumptions behind them.
3. Compare totals across relevant scenarios or versions.
4. Check the scenario history for unexpected changes.
5. Validate that the plan aligns with the statement structure used for reporting.

Budget review is a financial control, not only a successful save operation. Reconcile material totals and document the business assumptions through your team’s planning process.

Lock an agreed version

Lock a version when it should become a stable comparison point. Locking distinguishes the approved or reviewed plan from work that is still changing.

Before locking, confirm:

• the correct scenario and version are selected;
• required reviewers have completed their checks;
• material assumptions and totals are understood;
• the reporting structure is ready for later actual-versus-budget comparison.

If the plan needs to change after approval, retain a clear distinction between the original locked version and a revised scenario or forecast.

Compare plan and performance

Use financial statement views to compare actuals with budgets and forecasts. Keep the entity, period, dimensions, and currency aligned before interpreting a variance.

For a material variance:

1. Identify the statement row and period where it appears.
2. Confirm that the budget and actual use comparable scope.
3. Drill into actual transactions to explain the realized value.
4. Review the budget assumptions or scenario history for the planned value.
5. Record whether the difference reflects timing, volume, price, classification, or a changed business assumption.

Related content

• Build and review financial statements
• Investigate transactions
• How financial data flows through Control