Actual vs Budget (Power BI Report)
APPLIES TO: Generally available in Business Central 2024 release wave 2 (version 25.1).
The Actual vs. Budget report provides a clear overview of your organization's sales performance by comparing the sales amounts and quantities you sold with the budget figures. This report helps the organization track progress towards sales targets and analyze sales data by item categories and items.
Use the report
This report helps finance and sales teams track sales performance against budgets.
CEOs can easily track and compare your sales performance against your budget to ensure that you meet sales targets. This report provides a comprehensive overview of the entire organization's sales performance, which helps you make informed decisions when you manage budgets.
Sales managers can use this report to analyze sales data and make decisions about inventory management. The variance and budget amount variance indicators in the report show how specific item categories and items are tracking against their budget amounts. This report helps you understand which items are selling well, and which items to restock or discontinue. With this information, you can optimize your inventory and ensure that your store is always stocked with the products that your customers want to buy.
Salespeople can monitor the variance metrics to ensure that you meet your sales targets. This report shows the sales performance of the specific item categories and items that you sell. The budget amount and variance figures in the report help you understand where you might focus your efforts to improve your sales performance. With this information, you can identify opportunities to increase sales and optimize your approach to selling specific items.
Key performance indicators
The Actual vs Budget report includes the following key performance indicators (KPIs) and measures:
- Sales Quantity
- Sales Amount
- Budget Quantity
- Budget Amount
- Budget Amount Variance
- Budget Amount Variance %
- Budget Quantity Variance
- Budget Quantity Variance %
Click on the link for a KPI to learn more about what it means, how it is calculated, and what data was used in the calculations.
Tip
You can easily track the KPIs that the Power BI reports display against your business objectives. To learn more, go to Track your business KPIs with Power BI metrics.
Data used in the report
The Actual vs Budget report uses data from the following tables in Business Central:
- Item
- Item Category
- Value Entry
- Sales Line
- Item Budget Entry
Try the report
Try the report here: Actual vs Budget
Tip
If you hold down the CTRL key while you select the report link, the report opens on a new browser tab. In this way, you can stay on the current page while you explore the report on the other browser tab.
See also
Track your business KPIs with Power BI metrics
Ad hoc analysis of sales data
Built-in sales reports
Sales analytics overview
Sales overview