Review variance and board packs

Turn reconciled results into an approved financial review packet.

4 stages · 1 approval

Roles and responsibilities

Cost-Center Head FP&A Analyst FP&A Director CFO System 1 Publish thecomparison basis VarianceAnalyses 2 Explain materialdifferences VarianceAnalyses 3 Prepare the packet BoardPacks BoardPacks · system 4 Approve anddistribute BoardPacks
  1. Step 1Publish the comparison basis
    Variance Review
    PeriodEntityAccountBudget Amount
  2. Step 2Explain material differences
    My Variance This MonthPending
    PeriodEntityAccountBudget Amount
  3. Step 3Prepare the packet
    Upcoming Board PacksDraft
    Pack NumberCycleMeeting DateAs Of Period
  4. Step 4Approve and distribute
    Published Board PacksApproved
    Pack NumberMeeting DateAs Of PeriodBased On Version
Red diamonds require approval.Rows show responsibility for each step.Dashed lines are records the system creates.

Process steps

Follow the process from start to finish. Select a step to see who acts and what changes.

Publish the comparison basis

FP&A Analyst selects the locked budget, transfer cutoff, reconciled actuals and accepted forecast. Compute variance using the effective mapping and thresholds. Zero budget leaves percentage null while absolute variance remains available.

Responsible
FP&A Analyst
Records
VarianceAnalysesBudgetAccountSettings
Effect
Publish a reproducible comparison

Explain material differences

Cost-Center Head supplies the required FluxComments within their scope. Retain the reason, driver and quantified portion. FP&A Analyst reviews the explanation against this exact comparison, preserving earlier commentary if the basis changes.

Responsible
Cost-Center Head
Records
VarianceAnalysesFluxComments
Effect
Retain the owner explanation

Prepare the packet

FP&A Director generates BoardPacks with SnapshotManifest, retained PDF and content hash. The manifest identifies the exact plan, actuals, forecast, transfer cutoff and scenario runs. Draft packets remain within the Finance preparation population.

Responsible
FP&A Director
Records
BoardPacksVarianceAnalysesWhatIfRuns
Effect
Freeze the review packet
Approval required

Approve and distribute

CFO approves the exact packet and Director distributes it. Executive Reader sees only Published Board Packs. A board-mandated budget revision needs separate external resolution evidence and a new draft approval route before locking.

Responsible
CFO
Records
BoardPacksBudgetVersions
Effect
Authorize packet distribution
Approvals and controls

1 approval required in this process

Records and postings

StageRecordsEffect
1 Publish the comparison basis VarianceAnalysesBudgetAccountSettings Publish a reproducible comparison
2 Explain material differences VarianceAnalysesFluxComments Retain the owner explanation
3 Prepare the packet BoardPacksVarianceAnalysesWhatIfRuns Freeze the review packet
4 Approve and distribute BoardPacksBudgetVersions Authorize packet distribution
Data model →

Process reports

All reports

Budget vs Actual vs Forecast

Per Period per Entity per Account: BudgetAmount, ActualAmount, ForecastAmount, Variance, VariancePct, ForecastVariance, with the Cost-Center Head and FluxStatus surfaced inline. Drillable from LegalEntity → Division → Department → CostCenter → Account, with the FluxComments rendered at the leaf. The FP&A Analyst's daily landing report and the close-week defense pack.

Scenario Comparison

Side-by-side WhatIfRuns for one Version: BaselineRevenue, ScenarioRevenue, BaselineOpEx, ScenarioOpEx, BaselineEBITDA, ScenarioEBITDA, RevenueDelta, EBITDADelta, with InputsSummary expanded. Used by FP&A Director and CFO to stress-test the call before it goes to the board.

EBITDA Bridge

Walks from prior-period EBITDA to current-period EBITDA via Volume, Price, Mix, Cost, and Headcount drivers using the BudgetLines × Drivers decomposition. Powers the "what changed" narrative in every BoardPack. US dollars only at this tier.

Headcount & Personnel Cost

Per Entity per Period: Headcount Driver values, AvgSalary, PersonnelExpense BudgetLines (Budget vs Actual), trailing-12 with delta. The cross-walk into Payroll's Headcount Cost ledger and the input to next-cycle workforce planning.

Run by an agent

Agent support

An agent cannot invent board authorization, approve its own transfer, alter locked history or publish a partly reconciled ledger import. Suggested assumptions remain proposals until the appropriate workflow accepts them. A generated PDF is distinct from a CFO-approved packet.

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# Example after configuration $ curl -fsSL https://www.erp.ai/skill.md | paste into your agent › review variance and board packs · publish the comparison basis on VarianceAnalyses, BudgetAccountSettings ✓ FP&A Analyst selects the locked budget, transfer cutoff, reconciled actuals and accepted forecast. › review variance and board packs · explain material differences on VarianceAnalyses, FluxComments ✓ Cost-Center Head supplies the required FluxComments within their scope. › review variance and board packs · prepare the packet on BoardPacks, VarianceAnalyses, WhatIfRuns ✓ FP&A Director generates BoardPacks with SnapshotManifest, retained PDF and content hash. › review variance and board packs · approve and distribute on BoardPacks, BudgetVersions ⏸ approval · waiting for the cfo

Other processes

4 more

Build and approve the budget

Take a scoped proposal through the required financial decisions.

5 stages · 3 approvals

Approve budget transfers

Reallocate budget with balanced changes and clear decision ownership.

5 stages · 2 approvals

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