Working with Variance Reporting

The Variance Reporting feature automates the process of managers submitting explanations for variances between monthly budgets and actuals. In addition to collecting manager comments, Variance Reporting also prompts managers to submit proposed action plans for bringing their department's actuals in line with targets.

The following table lists the types of Variance Comments Collection reports available:

Types	Reports
Comment Input	Dept Variance – Flags variances for a single department and allows the manager to enter comments and action plans. The report provides drill-downs to SubLedger, Trend, and Scorecard reports to investigate the underlying causes of variances. MultiDept Variance – Flags variances across multiple departments. Use this report when you only want to input comments and action plans. Unlike Dept. Variance, this report has no drill-down capabilities.
Comment Review	12Month Comment Review – The Monthly Departmental Variance Comment Review report displayed the previous 12 months of variances across all departments. This report has no drill-down capabilities. Variance Review – An executive review report that displays results from the comments collection process. This report has no drill-down capabilities.

The Variance Comments Collection reports have different purposes:

• Allows you to collect variance explanations and action plans for correction on a monthly basis.
• Enables one-stop shopping for the department manager by providing drill-downs.
• Provides an additional report to input variance explanations and actions plans for multiple departments at the same time.
• Provides an Executive Review report that displays results of the comments collection process.

NOTE: You can ignore the Dept Variance Alert report, which is located under the Comment Input folder. This report is used by your Axiom System Administration team for monthly report processing activities.