Glossary

Consolidated Profit & Loss Monthly Variance Report

Written by Nils R. | Jul 17, 2020 7:00:00 AM
What is a Consolidated Profit & Loss Monthly Variance Report ? Consolidated Profit & Loss variance reports are considered corporate HQ analysis tools and are used by CFOs and Group Controllers to easily view consolidated as well as subsidiary performance against budget. A key functionality in this type of report automatically produces a multi-tab output based on a consolidation tree selected at run time. The top entity displays on the first tab, while divisions and their subsidiaries show on the following tabs. The year-to-date column can be expanded to see each underlying period. You will find an example of this type of report below. Purpose of Consolidated Profit & Loss Variance Reports Companies and organizations use Consolidated Profit & Loss Variance Reports to easily view both the consolidated results and those of their subsidiaries, and compare them to the budget or forecast. When used as part of good business practices in a Finance & Accounting Department, a company can improve its performance analysis, as well as, reduce the risk that corporate decision-makers cannot determine consolidated budget variances by drilling down to the related figures at the subsidiary level. Consolidated Profit & Loss Variance Report Example Here is an example of a Consolidated Profit & Loss Variance report with underlying subsidiary reports on each subsequent tab. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Consolidated Profit & Loss Monthly Variance Report Example[/caption] You can find hundreds of additional examples here. Who Uses This Type of Report ? The typical users of this type of report are: Executives, CFOs and Controllers. Other Report s Often Used in Conjunction with Consolidated Profit & Loss Variance Reports Progressive Finance & Accounting Departments sometimes use several different Consolidated Profit & Loss Variance Reports, along with consolidated balance sheet and cash flow reports and other management and control tools. Where Does the Data for Analysis Originate From? The Actual (historical transactions) data typically comes from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like: Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) Finance, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC), Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Sage Intacct, Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage 500, Sage X3, SAP Business One, SAP ByDesign, Acumatica, Netsuite and others. In analyses where budgets or forecasts are used, the planning data most often originates from in-house Excel spreadsheet models or from professional corporate performance management (CPM/EPM) solutions. What Tools are Typically used for Reporting, Planning and Dashboards? Examples of business software used with the data and ERPs mentioned above are:
  • Native ERP report writers and query tools
  • Spreadsheets (for example Microsoft Excel)
  • Corporate Performance Management (CPM) tools (for example Solver)
  • Dashboards (for example Microsoft Power BI and Tableau)
Corporate Performance Management (CPM) Cloud Solutions and More Examples