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Comparison Center is where you answer “how are we tracking?” It puts any two things on the same P&L structure side by side and shows the variance on every line, in dollars and percent, with drill-through to the transactions underneath.

Watch the demo

A full walkthrough: pick versions, read the variance at a glance, and drill to root cause.

Variance Guide

How to read a variance, when a percent is material, and how to follow a waterfall.

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What You Can Compare

  • Rolling forecast versus frozen targets, to see drift since the plan was locked.
  • Actuals versus budget, the classic budget-versus-actual variance.
  • One scenario versus another, to weigh two paths against each other.
  • This version versus last cycle, to see what changed between plans.

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How to Run a Comparison

1

Pick the two sides

Choose a base (what you measure against, usually budget or target) and a comparison (usually actuals or the live forecast).
2

Scope it

Narrow to a department, a parent department, an entity, or the whole company. The P&L structure stays the same on both sides so the lines align.
3

Read the variance

Each line shows base, comparison, the dollar delta, and the percent delta, with cost-direction coloring so over and under read at a glance.
4

Drill to the why

Click any line to open the transactions behind it, or pivot by department, account, entity, or period to find where the delta concentrates.

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Columns You Will See

Variance coloring follows cost direction, not just sign. Spending more than budget reads as unfavorable; earning more revenue than plan reads as favorable. See the Variance Guide for how to read it.

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Common Questions

If the budget version you picked carries no mapped revenue rows, the revenue lines come through as zero. Confirm the version actually holds topline data, or compare against a version that does.
No. A subtotal rolls up its child lines once. If a subtotal looks inflated, it is usually a stale cached view, so refresh the page to re-pull the numbers.
Yes, as long as both sides share the same P&L structure. The comparison aligns on account and department, not on the calendar label of the version.
Once the comparison tells the story, generate a Brief directly from it. Novaplan writes the narrative and builds the waterfall from the same numbers.

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If the Numbers Look Off

  • A line that is blank on one side usually means that account or department is not mapped in that version, not that the value is genuinely zero.
  • If two versions will not reconcile at the bottom, confirm both are scoped to the same entity and the same period range.
  • Chase large unexplained swings through a pivot by department first, then drill into the transactions.
When a comparison surfaces something worth explaining, jump straight to a Brief, or open the Variance Guide to decide whether the gap is material.