What is Budget Variance?
Difference between actual and budgeted figures.
How to calculate it
Calculate Budget Variance as: (Actual − Budget) / Budget × 100. Pull the inputs from your connected data and track the trend over time in your dashboard.
Examples
Example 1
You budgeted $200k for marketing and spent $230k -> +15% variance; investigate the overspend.
Example 2
Marketing was budgeted at $200k but spent $230k -> +15% variance; the overspend funded a campaign that beat its pipeline target, justifying the variance.
Why it matters
Budget variance is the difference between actual and budgeted figures and drives accountability and forecast accuracy across the business. Investigating variances surfaces both problems and opportunities, and it sharpens future planning. Only flagging unfavorable variances misses the equally important lessons from favorable ones.
Benchmark context
Within plus or minus 5-10% is often acceptable; persistent large variances in either direction indicate the budgeting process needs attention.
Common pitfalls
Only flagging unfavorable variances.
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