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A few concepts run through the whole platform. Learn these once and every screen reads clearly.

Budget versions

A budget version is a named container for a plan: its forecast window, assumptions, headcount, revenue, and derived GL. You always work in the context of one version.
  • The live version (unlocked) is where active planning happens.
  • A locked version is a frozen snapshot. You compare against it but cannot edit it.
A version’s label year is just a label. Plans are driven by the forecast window (start and end month), not by the version’s name.

Actuals vs forecast

Novaplan keeps actuals (what happened, immutable) separate from forecast (what the engine projects, regenerated on each run). Reports stitch them together at the boundary month so you see a continuous picture without ever mixing the two universes.

The three planning universes

UniverseWhat it modelsWhere you plan it
HeadcountPeople, open positions, and fully loaded costPlanning -> Headcount
RevenueARR, pipeline, contracts, and recognized revenuePlanning -> Revenue
GLThe general ledger that every dashboard readsDerived automatically
Headcount and Revenue each derive into the GL, so a dashboard built on the GL always reflects your latest people and revenue plans.

Lock levels

Locking freezes a version so numbers cannot drift after a cycle closes. Lock levels range from locking only external-facing data up to locking everything. Locked data is served from a snapshot, so historical comparisons stay stable forever.

Scenarios

A scenario is a what-if layered on a version: change a few assumptions (hiring pace, growth rate, attrition) and compare the result against the base without disturbing it. See Scenarios.

Dimensions

Departments, entities, accounts, products, channels, and regions are dimensions. They power every filter, group-by, and pivot. Admins manage how raw data maps onto canonical dimensions in Admin -> Dimensions.