--- title: 5 keys to a meaningful variance report description: Drive business forward with 5 keys to creating variance reports that are meaningful and representative of your actual situation. image: https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/blog/blog-5-keys-to-meaningful-variance-report-feature.png --- ![](https://www.jirav.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported%20sitepage%20images/header-logo.png?width=98&name=header-logo.png) - [ Resources ](https://www.jirav.com/resources) - Menu / Resources - [Resource Center ](https://www.jirav.com/resources) Blogs and resources on all things finance, FP&A, and Jirav [Webinars ](https://www.jirav.com/webinars) Learn more about Jirav and FP&A from industry experts [Events ](https://www.jirav.com/events) See our upcoming calendar of events [Help Center ](https://help.jirav.com/) Guide on how to use Jirav - [ Company ](https://www.jirav.com/company) - Menu / Company - [About ](https://www.jirav.com/company) Learn about Jirav’s story and meet our leadership team [News Coverage ](https://www.jirav.com/news) See the latest news and highlights [Press ](https://www.jirav.com/press-releases) Recent company announcements and updates [Careers ](https://www.jirav.com/careers) View current job openings and learn how to join the Jirav Tower ![business_env](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/business_env.svg) [ For Businesses ](https://www.jirav.com/reporting-planning-purpose-built-for-businesses) ![accounting_calc](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/accounting_calc.svg) [ For Accounting & CFO Firms ](https://www.jirav.com/reporting-planning-purpose-built-for-accounting-cfo-advisory-firms) [ Get a Demo ](https://www.jirav.com/request-demo) [ Sign in ](https://app.jirav.com/) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/April2021/images/banner-shap.png) BLOG # 5 keys to a meaningful variance report [![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/April2021/images/fb-icon.png) ](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://www.jirav.com/blog/5-keys-to-a-meaningful-variance-report/) [![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/April2021/images/tw-icon.png) ](https://twitter.com/share?url=https://www.jirav.com/blog/5-keys-to-a-meaningful-variance-report/) [![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/April2021/images/in-icon.png) ](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://www.jirav.com/blog/5-keys-to-a-meaningful-variance-report/&summary=&source=CeBIT) 4 minute read ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/blog/blog-5-keys-to-meaningful-variance-report-feature.png) Each year you spend weeks with your team, building up your budget for the following year. Hours of discussions filled with critical decisions led you to a great plan. But the plan is only half of the job—what’s missing now is the execution. The other half of the job, the execution, comes from real life. It’s what happens when your best plans meet against the reality of the markets. And if you [choose the correct KPIs](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/choosing-kpis), you can easily see how you’re doing.  How do the actual figures look? How do you measure up against your budget?  Of course, for the business to be successful you need a great product and enough customers to buy your product. But aside from those critical operational aspects, transparently measuring and reporting variances is one of the keys to running a successful business. Indeed it’s not the variances themselves that are valuable—they’re only numbers in a table or charts on a dashboard.  The real value of solid variance reporting is rather the actions resulting from knowing how your business is doing. [Regularly comparing against your baseline](https://www.jirav.com/blog/budget-vs-actual-how-to-do-variance-analysis) can give a pretty accurate indication of this. Good variance reporting can both keep managers accountable for their area of responsibility and highlight areas where improvement is necessary. [Tables and spreadsheets](https://www.k-state.edu/grad/etdr/word/word13/tables.html) are a great first step for variance reporting, but charts and graphs allow you to really visualize what’s going on in the business. A dashboard-style visual approach to variance reporting can make your reporting more accessible to managers at multiple levels in the company—not just for the financially inclined.  Properly designed variance reporting also helps to highlight both challenging areas as well as segments that are really excelling.  Obviously, as important as having a visually compelling report is, you need reliable data behind it. To help you drive the business forward, [variance reports](https://www.goskills.com/Finance/Resources/Variance-report) need to be meaningful and representative of your actual situation. To help make your dashboards really stand out, here are five keys to creating meaningful variance reports: 1. 1. Efficient data flow 2. 2. A meaningful baseline 3. 3. Real-time reporting 4. 4. Actionable insights 5. 5. The ability to create custom reports Mastering these five aspects of variance reporting will help you [drive actions and decisions](https://www.jirav.com/blog/kpi-reporting-team-accountability) in your business. Who needs to do what, by when, in order to achieve the goals you’ve all agreed to work toward? ### 1. Efficient data flow Surely you’ve heard the phrase, “Garbage in, garbage out.” Applicable to many facets of health and business, it’s especially true in financial reporting. Your tables and dashboards, even the decisions you make as a business, are only as good as the information underneath them. While bad or incorrect information can lead to weak or even wrong decisions, clean data efficiently compiled through transparent data flows can keep your variance reporting lean. Jirav can [integrate directly with multiple sources](https://www.jirav.com/blog/product-update/excel-export) and efficiently pull the relevant data for your reporting.  Variance reporting that needs to be heavily analyzed with layers of cumbersome calculations presents a challenge. Complexity can drive inefficiencies or errors in your dashboards, leading to slow decisions. ### 2. A meaningful baseline On the other side of efficient data flows from your actuals, you need a solid, meaningful baseline. Normally the baseline refers to the annual financial budget, but it [could also be a forecast or a budget "high" / budget "low"](https://www.jirav.com/blog/user-invites-variance-formatting-plan-archiving).  A meaningful baseline consists of targets that have been aligned with all members of the management team. The KPIs are coherent when broken down through the different functions and segments. For example, with an overarching goal of $100k net margin, your business needs to drive $500k in sales (KPI1) with an average of 20% net margin (KPI2). With everyone’s buy-in on the common goals, the targets are clear and the whole team knows what they are working towards.  Comparing against a disputed baseline throws up major roadblocks to efficient decision making. Discussion drifts from the actual situation to whether or not the target is actually the target. A clear baseline eliminates discussion about what the goals are and lets you drive improvements. ### 3. Real-time reporting While some figures make more sense to analyze on a monthly level, i.e. personnel and real estate expenses, many can be analyzed in real-time. Revenue, margin, and other marketing KPIs can be reported continuously and reviewed instantaneously.  Variance reports which are updated in real-time allow for them to take on a scoreboard-like function. You can [see how the business is progressing](https://www.under30ceo.com/how-do-you-track-progress-in-your-business/) daily or weekly. Variance reports can be used to analyze marketing campaigns and for testing the efficiency of implemented changes. Real-time dashboards permit all team members to keep a finger on the pulse of the organization and how you’re progressing towards the goal. ### 4. Actionable insights One critical aspect of measuring and reporting variances is to keep in mind that the reports are only as good as the actions they drive. The sole purpose of your reporting is to drive meaningful action. It gives you a chance to look at the scoreboard and see quickly what’s working well and what needs to change. To keep your team focused, it’s best to keep your variance reporting clean and to avoid having too many targets. Ideally, pick several key KPIs per audience and keep them at the forefront. Of course, each team should in turn have their own reports, highlighting the aspects of the business over which they have control. [Driver-based modeling](https://www.jirav.com/product/financial-modeling-forecasting-software) is also a useful tool for getting actionable insights from your data. Use variance reporting and projections to show the impact of specific missed targets. Allow these scenarios to drive action and focus on specific things each team can work on in order to right the ship. ### 5. Ability to create custom reports Variance reporting is nuanced and needs to be customizable — both for the business overall and for each individual team. Because each business has its own specific opportunities and challenges, [each business needs customized variance reporting](https://www.jirav.com/blog/product-update/report-packages).  Cater your variance reports to your audience’s specific needs and allow your teams to adapt their reports as well. Board members and investors need a different level of granularity than individual team members. Choose key, high-level KPIs for executive-level reporting, and give teams the ability to drill down for specific needs and segments.  Letting each team see both how the business is performing as a whole and to focus on their key metrics keeps them involved and shows them how their performance affects the business. ## Keys to meaningful variance reporting Good variance reporting can help everyone on the team stay up to date on how the business is performing. It allows you to regularly see how you’re doing in comparison to the goals of the organization — and to make necessary adjustments.  While these dashboards won’t solve any problems on their own, they will help you highlight problem areas. Use this information to drive actions to improve [underperforming aspects of the business](https://medium.com/organize-for-performance/7-warning-signs-your-company-is-underperforming-and-the-fundamental-thing-you-can-do-about-it-eedaeff63de8).  On the other hand, variance reporting also allows a forum for praising teams and individuals who are doing well and achieving their goals. Even these can benefit from better understanding which of their actions are working best.  Custom, real-time reporting of key KPIs can help you ensure you’re focusing attention where it’s needed the most.   ![Kelli Blystone](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/blog/kelli-blystone-profile-pic.png) ##### Kelli Blystone Kelli is the Senior Content Strategist for Jirav. Published October 19, 2022 ###### Related topics - [Finance and fp&a](https://www.jirav.com/blog/topic/finance-and-fpa) - [Featured](https://www.jirav.com/blog/topic/featured) ## Related blog posts ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/blog/blog-how-to-maximize-the-value-of-variance-report-feature.png) Finance and fp&a #### How to maximize the value of your variance report [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/how-to-maximize-value-of-variance-report) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/blog/blog-jirav-named-leader-high-performer-and-more-in-fall-2022-g2-reports-feature.png) Finance and fp&a #### Jirav named Leader, High Performer, and more in Fall 2022 G2 Grid reports [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/jirav-named-leader-high-performer-and-more-in-fall-2022-g2-grid-reports) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/blog/blog-budget-vs-actuals-how-to-do-variance-analysis-feature.png) Finance and fp&a #### Budget vs actual: how to do variance analysis [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/budget-vs-actual-how-to-do-variance-analysis) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/blog/blog-monthly-reporting-package-best-practices-feature.png) Finance and fp&a #### Monthly financial reporting package best practices [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/monthly-financial-reporting-package-best-practices) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/blog/blog-how-accounting-firms-monetize-shift-in-client-expectations-feature.png) Finance and fp&a #### How accounting firms can monetize the shift in client expectations [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/how-accounting-firms-can-monetize-shift-in-client-expectations) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/blog/blog-top-financial-dashboard-kpis-board-reporting-feature.png) Finance and fp&a #### Top 5 financial dashboard KPIs for board reporting [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/top-5-financial-dashboard-kpis-for-board-reporting) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/Jirav%20Blog-%20Right%20Way%20to%20Budget.webp) Finance and fp&a #### The Right Way to Budget: A Professional Guide to Strategic Budgeting [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/the-right-way-to-budget-a-professional-guide-to-strategic-budgeting) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/blog/Finance-hero-award.png) Finance and fp&a #### Introducing the Jirav Finance Hero awards [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/introducing-the-jirav-finance-hero-awards) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/man-on-working-reporting.jpg) Finance and fp&a #### How to Uplevel Your Reporting Game with Jirav’s Enhanced Reporting Features [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/upleveling-reporting-with-jiravs-enhanced-reporting-features) [Load more](##) ## Let’s get started! [ Request a demo ](https://www.jirav.com/request-demo) ![](https://ws.zoominfo.com/pixel/GayWM7nWYSEC9X3nq2tn) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Kelli Blystone", "url" : "https://www.jirav.com/blog/author/kelli-blystone" }, "dateModified" : "2022-10-19T19:57:13.568Z", "datePublished" : "2022-10-19T19:57:13.000Z", "headline" : "5 keys to a meaningful variance report", "image" : [ "https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/blog/blog-5-keys-to-meaningful-variance-report-feature.png" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://www.jirav.com/blog/5-keys-to-a-meaningful-variance-report", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/Jirav%20Logo%20-%20176x75%20(small%20logo).png" }, "name" : "Jirav" } } ``` ```json { "@context" : "http://www.schema.org", "@type" : "AccountingService", "address" : { "@type" : "PostalAddress", "addressCountry" : "United States", "addressLocality" : "San Francisco", "addressRegion" : "CA", "postalCode" : "94102", "streetAddress" : "25 Taylor Street" }, "description" : "Jirav is a business planning software powering financial planning and analysis in the cloud with all-in-one forecasts, budgets, reports, and dashboards", "geo" : { "@type" : "GeoCoordinates", "latitude" : "37.782585", "longitude" : "-122.411255" }, "image" : "https://www.jirav.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Jirav_SitePageAssets_Feb2018/Jirav%20Logo%20for%20top%20nav.png?width=1200&height=510&name=Jirav%20Logo%20for%20top%20nav.png", "logo" : "https://www.jirav.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Jirav_SitePageAssets_Feb2018/Jirav%20Logo%20for%20top%20nav.png?width=1200&height=510&name=Jirav%20Logo%20for%20top%20nav.png", "name" : "Jirav", "openingHours" : "Mo, Tu, We, Th, Fr 09:00-17:00", "priceRange" : "$100/month-$750/month", "sameAs" : [ "https://www.instagram.com/gojirav/", "https://www.linkedin.com/company/jirav/", "https://twitter.com/GoJirav", "https://www.facebook.com/GoJirav/" ], "url" : "https://www.jirav.com/" } ``` ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org", "@type" : "Article", "articleBody" : "The top 5 tools for CFOs today\n

Today you can find dozens of financial tools across every vertical of the financial world. Some are a great fit for smaller businesses, others are designed for companies with hundreds of employees. There are also industry-specific ones, and even some accounting suites that cover 99% of all needs for 99% of businesses.

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This list is an overview of good all-rounder software or the ones that you can start with and later integrate for additional solutions for your specific use case.

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1. Netsuite

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Tool type: ERP

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Netsuite fits into the Enterprise Resource Planning tools category. These are solutions that organizations, typically very large ones, use to keep track of their accounting, business operations, inventory, procurement, compliance, and much more. ERPs are essentially a hub for everything that goes on in an organization and can provide instant snapshots of what’s going across every area of the business.

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Oracle’s Netsuite is one of the most popular ERPs in the market since it provides one of the most robust implementations and has the support of Oracle, which makes its integration a lot more streamlined than if another solution was used.

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Netsuite’s features and capabilities include:

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  • Easy to scale the solution for growing businesses
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  • Cloud based so it can reduce the overhead compared to physical servers
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  • Real time financial dashboards and analytics
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Pros of CFOs using Netsuite:

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  • Allows CFOs to plan and execute strategies at a global level
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  • Gives the ability to build accurate financial models for complex organizations
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  • Allos CFOs to delegate non-critical financial activities with increased confidence
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Alternatives to Netsuite:

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  • SAP ERP
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  • Sage Intacct
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  • Microsoft Dynamics NAV
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2. Stripe

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Tool type: Payment processing

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Payment processing software has become an essential part of businesses everywhere. Ever since online shopping has become mainstream, having access to reliable and secure payment processing has been a driver for an ever increasing number of payment processing Fintech solutions to hit the market.

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Stripe is one of the biggest players in the payment processing space. It started out focusing on payment processing but has now expanded its capabilities to include financial services and risk mitigation features to round out the payment suite. Another important aspect of Stripe is its ability to integrate with your ERP of choice or accounting suite so that you can make sure you get full functionality without the need to have siloed software.

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Stripe’s features and capabilities include:

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  • A dedicated API to make integration fast and easy, even without the need of a technical team
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  • Solutions for businesses of every size
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  • The ability to add in-person payment processing, subscriptions, and invoicing
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Pros of CFOs using Stripe:

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  • It has powerful transaction analysis which allows you to automatically monitor fraudulent transactions without impacting legitimate users
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  • It has customizable business data reporting so you can update your books automatically, get instant cash flow updates, and stay on track of key KPIs such as monthly recurring revenue
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  • Allows you to get intelligence from your users, such as average revenue per user, active subscribers, and what amount of payments comes from each card issuer
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3. Procurify

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Tool type: Purchasing software

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CFOs have always had the unique challenge of being able to balance both a tight control over their teams’ spending while also ensuring their teams have what they need to operate efficiently. In other words, CFOs and financial teams have to find a compromise to make sure that they don’t become the bottleneck in the operation.

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To make this critical role of CFOs and financial teams more efficient, implementing software has become the best way to make sure operations have access to the funds they need to keep the business running. As a bonus, financial teams can have the reassurance that budgets are being maintained.

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Procurify is a tool that focuses on giving financial teams control over the spend without slowing down operations. It does this with a dedicated communication platform that gives its users the ability to classify into different buckets the amounts that need to be spent. It then makes sure that you don’t have to rely on sifting through your email inbox to reference spend requests and authorizations.

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Procurify features and capabilities include:

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  • Real-time budget tracking
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  • Customizable approval flows for spending and payment authorization
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  • Complete integration with accounting software and ERPs
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Pros of CFOs using Procurify:

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  • Centralized approval and authorization
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  • Instant access to budget tracking
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  • Gives you a detailed view into your purchasing pipeline
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4. Gusto

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Tool type: Payroll

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Without a doubt, payroll is one of the most critical tasks that financial teams need to make sure go with any hiccups. Any problem in this space can add complications to your operation and human resources. Payroll software has become the default way for organizations to manage their payroll since they make the process quicker and less prone to human error.

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Gusto is the preferred choice of businesses due to its pricing, ease of use, and ability to scale for organizations that are growing quickly. As is expected of every Fintech product, Gusto allows complete integration into your existing Fintech stack.

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Gusto’s features and capabilities include:

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  • Solutions for every size business. Plans start at $25 per month and they also offer corporate level solutions
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  • Easy way to manage payroll, taxes, vacations, and employee benefits
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  • User-friendly interface
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Pros of CFOs using Gusto:

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  • It reduces the total amount of time dedicated to processing payroll
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  • It integrates with your other financial apps so that you can get updated HR data
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  • Automatic calculations so that you can decrease the occurrence of human errors
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5. Jirav

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Tool type: Analytics, forecasting, and financial modeling

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As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the role of the CFO has changed. It's no longer focused solely on compliance and bookkeeping. Today’s CFO needs to be able to collaborate with the CEO and operations on the direction the business needs to take to achieve its goals. The key to achieving these goals is the ability to make financial data-driven decisions.

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Jirav empowers CFOs to make the data-driven decisions by giving them a central hub for the organization’s financial analytics, forecasting, and financial modeling. The whole concept behind Jirav is to enable CFOs and financial teams to focus on the strategic side of their role while spending the least amount of time consolidating reports and spreadsheets to create reports. One way Jirav does this is through its advanced user management features, which allow the CFO to create customized reports without having to invest days preparing them.

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Another of its unique features is its Allocations functionality. Allocation allows you to easily categorize income and spend between departments to reflect their true categorization.

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Jirav’s features and capabilities include:

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  • Building driver-based financial models
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  • Providing forecast runway with integrated cash forecasting
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  • Projecting sales and revenue based on various aspects
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  • Budgeting by department
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  • Allocating overhead expenses
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  • Streamlining monthly reporting
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  • Forecasting your workforce
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  • Comparing multiple scenarios
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  • Changing assumptions on the go
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Pros of CFOs using Jirav:

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  • Instant access to all your financial data
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  • Ability to create more accurate forecasts and financial models
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  • Makes scenario planning much more efficient and easy to share the data with key stakeholders
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Ready to build a Fintech stack?

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Today’s Fintech gives CFOs and financial teams tools that make their jobs easier and more effective. This, in turn, lets you focus more of your time on guiding your team instead of wasting hours staring at spreadsheets. Take a tour of the Jirav platform to learn more about how it works together with your other Fintech solutions to give you a better understanding of your organization’s finances.", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Jirav" }, "datePublished" : "2022-06-16", "name" : "5 CFO tools to save time, maximize value", "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "name" : "Jirav" }, "url" : "https://www.jirav.com/blog/5-cfo-tools-to-save-time-maximize-value" } ```