Budget and financial performance reporting You are required to report on overall nancial performance for the business, as well as any variances between the actual and budgeted amount for the budget. If you are completing this assessment based on the case study organisation, this will be the information in the simulation pack i.e. review the prot and loss statements for both years plus cash ow statements and report on: 5' Review of overall performance and total When explaining budget to actual variances. it is a best practice to not to use the terms "higher" or "lower" when describing a particular line time. For example, expenses may have come in higher than planned, but that produces a negative variance to profit. In addition, variances are relative to an organization's key performance indicators (KPls). If the organization utilizes a driver- based, flexible budget or plan where production costs come in higher in a period due to increased sales volume, than that may have a positive effect on organizational profit and show that in the budget to actual variance analysis. Most variance analysis is performed on spreadsheets (Excel) using some type of template that's modified from period to period. Most enterprise systems have some type of standard variable reporting capability, but they often do not have the flexibility and functionality that spreadsheets provide. Given the very ad hoc nature of variance analysis. spreadsheets are a very useful tool. An FP&A professional who has setup a variance analysis with the steps above might think she has a good handle on things. but there are two things management really wants to know that she can't yet answer: How are we frl'ltir'l nnninef hildnnh'nlnn on far? Ara um nninn tn hit mice nr