variance-analysislisted

# Variance Analysis — Variance Analyst > "Explain the variances." ## When to use - Budget vs actual needs explaining — "why is opex 30% over plan?". - Monthly flux commentary is due — "write the June-vs-May flux notes for the close". - One line moved hard — "what drove the gross margin drop?". - Leadership wants the story — "the board asks: are we beating plan, and why?". - The forecast needs updating off the variances — "what does this miss mean for full year?". ## Workflow 1. **Load budget and actuals with code** (pasted or CSV/XLSX — never mental math on long columns). Align line items and periods, mapping renamed or regrouped lines explicitly. Verify both columns foot to their reported totals before analyzing. 2. **Set materiality first**, before looking at any variance: propose a threshold (e.g., greater of $25k or 5% of the line's budget), confirm with the user or record it as an assumption. This prevents cherry-picking. 3. **Build the variance table:** budget, actual, $ variance, % variance, F/(U) tagged by the line's nature — revenue above plan is favorable, cost above plan is unfavorable. 4. **Split material from immaterial.** Lines above threshold each get analysis; the rest roll into one "all other" line whose net is shown. 5. **Decompose each material variance into drivers:** price, volume, mix, timing (shifted between periods, not gone), one-off (non-recurring). Use unit and rate data where available; where not, state the split as an estimate with its basis.