How to print a Budget Variance Report
Using the Statement of Activities Report, under the section titled, "Statement of Activity Print Columns," choose any column which contains "vs."
Examples of these options are shown in the following image.
What is a Budget Variance?
A budget variance is a difference between the budgeted or baseline amount of expense or revenue and the actual amount. The budget variance is favorable when the actual revenue is higher than the budget or when the actual expense is lower than the budget.
A budget variance is frequently caused by bad assumptions or improper budgeting so that the baseline against which actual results are measured is not reasonable.
Some budget variances can be eliminated through the simple aggregation of line items in the budget. For example, if there is a negative electricity budget variance of $2,000 and a positive telephone expense budget variance of $3,000, the two line items could be combined for reporting purposes into a utility line item that has a net positive variance of $1,000.
As an example of a budget variance, ABC Company had budgeted $400,000 of selling and administrative expenses, and actual expenses are $420,000. Thus, there is an unfavorable budget variance of $20,000. However, the budget used as the baseline for this calculation did not include a scheduled rent increase of $25,000, so a flaw in the budget caused the variance, rather than any improper management actions.
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