NorthBeam Analytics: FY2026 Expense Variance Analysis
A 12-month, department-level Budget vs. Actual tracker for a fictional B2B SaaS company. It covers four cost centers, automated variance calculations, status indicators, and a dashboard with KPI cards and three charts.
Workbook Preview
Interactive Excel workbook. Navigate between tabs to explore the model, variance calculations, and dashboard. Use the Download button below if you want to open it locally and inspect the formulas.
Business Scenario
Challenge
In FP&A roles, monthly variance reporting requires more than raw numbers. Stakeholders need to know which departments are over or under budget, by how much, and why, without digging through spreadsheets themselves.
Solution
This model automates variance calculations in dollars and percentage, flags each month as Favorable or Unfavorable using conditional logic, and surfaces the five most significant variances with one-line business commentary explaining the underlying drivers.
Key Findings
- S&M overspent by $1.38M across the full year, driven by incremental ad spend and an aggressive Q4 push.
- R&D underspent by $610K, but the driver was delayed hiring, not cost discipline, which flags a product roadmap risk.
- COGS overruns grew every month from May onward due to an AWS infrastructure price increase.
- G&A tracked close to budget all year except October, when a one-time legal settlement cost hit.