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  • Analytics
    • Take a tour of Analytics
    • Work with the grid
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    • Customize your view (Analytics)
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      • Change the properties (Analytics)
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  • Financial Statements
    • Take a tour of Financial Statements
    • Overview of access to financial statements
    • Customize your view (Financial Statements)
      • Change the properties (Financial Statements)
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      • Change the current data
      • Change the budget data
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    • Filter the financial information
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    • Manage financial statements
      • Overview of financial statements and dimensions
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          • Functions for Profit & Loss calculations
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        • Set the revenue row in a Profit & Loss statement
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          • Common account mapping for Cash Flow statements
        • Rebuild the database
      • Set the financial year end date
      • Map the Retained Earnings account(s)
      • Restrict access to accounts
      • Manage budget streams (Financial Statements)
        • Create a budget (Financial Statements)
      • Use statistical streams
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      • Map categories from your Chart of Accounts
  • Budgets & Forecasts
    • Overview of key terms and concepts
      • Budgets versus forecasts
      • Users and data access
      • Relationship with the Financial Statements module
      • 3-statement budgeting
      • Filtering methods
      • Demand planning
      • Loan repayments
    • Take a tour of Budgets & Forecasts
      • Explore the budget workbook
      • Explore the forecast workbook
      • Explore the Balance Sheet and Cash Flow budgets and forecasts
    • Customize your view (Budgets & Forecasts)
      • Filter a worksheet (search for items)
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      • Spread totals
      • Revert to the baseline values
      • Edit the Balance Sheet budget
      • View and use headcount data
    • Refresh a workbook
    • Use workflows
      • Contribute to the workflow
      • View the workflow history
      • View workflow comments
    • View budget information in a chart
    • Open baseline, comparative, or opening balance data
    • Review the budget or forecast
      • Add and view cell comments
      • View and restore the cell history
      • View the audit log
      • Compare actuals, budgets and forecasts
    • Export a workbook or worksheet tab
    • Manage budgets and forecasts
      • Create a budget workbook
        • Filtered budget or forecast
        • Multi-currency budget
        • Unclassified data
        • Period types in budgets
        • Additional measures for driver-based budgeting
      • Create a forecast workbook
      • Clone a workbook
      • Import a budget or forecast
      • Edit the workbook setup
      • Roll a budget forward
      • Add more detail to a budget or forecast
      • Add worksheet tabs (drivers)
        • Balance Sheet and Cash Flow tabs
        • Manual Entry tab
        • Database tab
        • Headcount tab
          • Headcount tab FAQs
        • Reference tab
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        • Allocations tab
        • Scratch Pad tab
      • Manage worksheet tabs
      • Add notes to a workbook
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      • Publish a budget, forecast or other worksheet tab
      • Fix the baseline in a budget
      • Delete or restore a workbook
      • Delete a stream (Budgets & Forecasts)
      • Troubleshoot performance issues
  • Rebates
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    • Get started with Rebates
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  • CRM
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  • Administration
    • Overview of access to data (Administration)
    • Users
      • Add, update or delete a user account
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    • Profiles
    • Folders (Administration)
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    • Periods (Administration)
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      • Add a budget file to a financial database
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    • Sync
      • Automatically join or split items during Sync (split view)
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    • Reserved words and characters
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  • OTHER INFORMATION
    • File upload
    • Encrypt (share secrets)
    • Glossary
    • Release notes
      • Analytics release notes
      • Financial Statements release notes
      • Budgets and Forecasts release notes
      • Rebates release notes
      • Administration release notes
    • System requirements
    • Technical limitations
    • Security information
    • Scheduled upgrade and maintenance periods
    • More help and support
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On this page
  • Budget
  • Forecast
  • Budget versus forecast
  • How they work in Budgets & Forecasts

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  1. Budgets & Forecasts
  2. Overview of key terms and concepts

Budgets versus forecasts

Learn about what budgets and forecasts are, and how they are different.

A clear understanding of budgets and forecasts is useful to new users of the Budgets and Forecasts module, whether you’re a budget owner managing the process or a contributor in the workflow.

Budget

A budget quantifies expected performance and provides a detailed representation of the business's future goals. It is updated once a year. If adjustments are required during the year, the budget transitions into a forecast. Budgets allow businesses to measure performance by comparing their budget values to actual results.

Forecast

A forecast combines the actual results from past months with projected values for the remaining period. It is regularly updated throughout the year. Forecasts are forward-looking, allowing businesses to estimate sales or profit for future periods and understand their current direction.

Budget versus forecast

Whereas the budget reflects where the company plans to go, the forecast reflects where the company is actually heading.

How they work in Budgets & Forecasts

In Budgets & Forecasts, you start with a budget workbook and convert that into a separate, linked forecast workbook.

  • The new forecast workbook integrates the budget and actual data in one place, allowing you to easily see how your business is trending against the budget. You can then adjust for market conditions and more accurately predict future results.

  • The budget workbook continues to exist, allowing you to compare changes you make in the forecast to the original budget values.

In the forecast, you’ll see the actual data up to a certain point, followed by your budget data in the remaining period. This data continues to update as time progresses. For example, suppose you budget for a 12-month calendar year, and you're budgeting at the end of January. In your forecast, you’ll see your actual results for January plus the 11 remaining budgeted months. When budgeting in June, you’ll see the actuals for 6 months (January to June) plus the remaining 6 months' budget values.

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Last updated 8 months ago

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