Actuals Tips
Accounting Inconsistency Error
Do You Compare Your Budget with Actual Data?
Hotlinked Actuals?
How to Import Actuals
Revised Budgets?
Consolidated Actuals Vs Budget Variance Report
Allocations and Actuals Data
Graphing Actuals, Budget & Revised Budget Data
Entering Actuals on a Quarterly basis
Adjusting Debtor Receipts and Creditor Payments after an Actual Month
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Accounting Inconsistency Error
Three tests are applied each time WinForecast recalculates itself to ensure the integrity of the data:
- The net cashflow = the net funds flow
- The closing bank balance = the opening bank balance + the cash flow
- The total capital position = the total net assets in the balance sheet
If you get the message "This forecast has failed its accounting consistency tests", the first thing you should try is to recalculate the forecast - go to your main screen (ie where your record list is), highlight a record name and press Shift + F5.
For a consolidation, from the main screen File>Files in Consolidation,
select the Re-do Consolidation check box then click OK.
If the message continues, recalculate each of the forecasts as above, then re-select the consolidation.
If you are entering in actual data, the main reasons this message would come up would be if:
- If an asset has depreciation entered into the P + L for a month but no asset balance in the Balance Sheet for the same month
- If a loan has an interest amount but no loan balance
- If bank interest revenue has been entered in a positive figure instead of negative in the actual P & L
- Financed Assets have inconsistent actual data entered into them
If you are in budget mode and you get this error message,
view the Balance Sheet and see which month
the total capital position DOES NOT EQUAL the total net assets.
Then calculate the difference in which it is out by.
This amount in one of your records causes the inconsistency.
Which records do I check for the inconsistency
- Composite Stock Records - Make sure you have at least 1 element in this record
- Income & Cost records - Sometimes when using the payment profile, it causes a $1 inconsistency in your capital and retain earnings
position. This is due to using percentages and the rounding of $1.
To fix, change from using payment profile to enter payments.
- Loan records - Interest might have been entered in but no loan balance.
If you have carefully checked the above and are unable to resolve the
accounting inconsistency, please contact us on the below numbers.
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Do You Compare Your Budget with Actual Data?
Each month as the year progresses, you can enter Actual data into a forecast, compare it with budget
data in Variance reports and make Projections for the remainder of the year based on this.
When you first select that you are going to enter Actuals, a new forecast is automatically created
which contains two copies of the forecast's data. One copy will hold the Actual/Projected data, the
other copy holds the Original Budget. You should always give this new forecast a different name.
A third set of data can also be created later in the year from the Original Budget as a Revised Budget,
allowing the Original Budget to be retained.
Actual data is normally obtained from an accounting software package. These provide good profit and loss
analysis, some degree of balance sheet analysis and rarely any cash flow analysis. For this reason, when
entering Actuals you enter the Actual P & L and Balance Sheet data, WinForecast derives the actual Cash Flow.
You can enter Projected data for the remainder of the year in the same way as forecast data.
How to Do It
- From the main screen's menu select Data>Actuals>Set Actuals Month and select the month for which you want
to enter or import Actual Data.
- If you have not previously entered Actuals into the forecast, a new forecast is created for which you provide headings.
If this is the second month for which you have entered Actuals, you are offered the option of creating a Revised Budget.
If you elect not to do so at this time, you can do so later by selecting Data>Actuals>Make Revised Budget from the main
screen's menu.
- If you have previously entered Actuals you are offered the option of updated the Budget to the latest Projection.
- As a general rule if you have answered "NO" to creating a revised budget, you should answer "No" to updating the budget.
If you intend to amend you forecast during the year, it is advised you answer "Yes" to creating a revised budget and
"Yes" to updating the revised budget for each subsequent month.
- Now, select Data>Actuals>Enter Actual P & L. You will be asked for which month you want to enter the data (except for the first month).
You may find it easier to Print the form and mark it up with data from your accounts before entering it.
- Then, select Data>Actuals>Enter Actual Balance Sheet and follow the same process for the P & L.
If you have a lot of records, turn off re-totalling while entering the data. Click OFF the Auto-Retotal
check box to do this. When you want to retotal, click on the Retotal button.
Note: that you do not enter the balance for the main bank account of retained earnings - WinForecast derives these from the data
that you have entered for both the Actual P & L and Actual Balance Sheet.
- While entering the Actual Balance Sheet (after entering the Actual P & L), click on Recalc to
recalculate the forecast and update the main bank balance. If the bank balance doesn't agree with
that shown on your accounts, check for errors in the data entered.
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Hotlinked Actuals
Were you aware that you can use Hotlinks when you have set your forecast for actuals? If you have hotlinks established, most of the actual P&L data can be hotlinked.
Note: If you are not using hotlinks already and do not need to, you can enter in the Actuals through the usual means of Data>Actuals>Enter Actual P&L as explained in Do You Compare Your Budget with Actual Data?
How to do it
- From the Options menu select Other Options.
- Click the Advanced Tab.
- Select Import Actual Data in Hot-link check box so the hotlink will consider the link in actual terms also.
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How to Import Actuals
Actual data can be imported month by month and you must import both the P&L and the Balance Sheet separately.
To assist in formatting the data correctly, there is a capability of exporting the Opening/Actual Balance Sheet and Actual P & L to use as a template.
- View the appropriate Opening/Actual screen, either:
- Data > Opening Balance Sheet > Enter Opening Balance Sheet OR
- Data > Actuals > Enter Actual P&L OR
- Data > Actuals > Enter Actual Balance Sheet and right-click the mouse on it.
- Select Export and then Clipboard or CSV File as required.
If you are importing from the clipboard:
- Highlight the cells you want to import. This must include two adjacent columns;
the column which the record names have been entered AND
the column which contains the data
- Go to the forecast you are entering actuals to and select
- Data > Opening Balance Sheet > Import Opening Balance Sheet OR
- Data > Actuals > Import Actual P&L OR
- Data > Actuals > Import Actual Balance Sheet
- Select �Clipboard�
- Once you have imported all your Actuals for this month, view all your reports in turn, to check their accuracy.
If you are importing from a CSV file:
- The spreadsheet must include two adjacent columns;
- the column which the record names have been entered AND
- the column which contains the data. Save the CSV file
- Go to the forecast you are entering actuals to Select
- Data > Opening Balance Sheet > Import Opening Balance Sheet OR
- Data > Actuals > Import Actual P&L OR
- Data > Actuals > Import Actual Balance Sheet
- Select CSV File
- Select the location and name of the CSV file you created and saved
- Once you have imported all your Actuals for this month, view all your reports in turn, to check their accuracy.
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Revised Budgets
When you start to enter actuals for your forecast�s second month (ie Data>Actuals>Set
Actuals month), you will be asked: "Do you want to create a Revised
Budget?" What you are being asked is if you want to create a revised
budget, which has been updated with the actual data you�ve entered AND
include any changes you have made to PROJECTED figures for months that
have not yet been set for Actuals.
If you answer YES, you will be given the option to view the variance reports (ie VIEW>VARIANCE REPORTS) with
either the revised or original budget. ��( Recommended if you are continue to update your budget data )
If you answer NO to the above question, you can always go and create a �revised budget later on by going to
Data>Actuals>Make Revised Budget.
For future months�when you set them for actuals you will be asked: "Do you want to change the Revised Budget from Month X to
Month X to the current projected figures?" Which is basically asking - do you want to update your current revised budget with
your current projections? Select as appropriate and be reassured that your original budget will remain unchanged as you have
created a revised budget and are updating only the revised budget.
Click Here for a step by step approach to creating a revised budget.
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Allocations and Actuals Data
Last month we looked at how to assign costs in a central operation to
each of its operating units in a budgeting mode.
In accounting terms, this is known as allocations.
This month, we will look at how to enter actual data in the central operation's
forecast and the associated operating unit's forecasts.
When first entering actual data into forecasts with allocations, the actuals month must be set both for the
forecast providing the allocations and for each of the forecasts receiving them.
Further, for the forecasts receiving allocations, the source of allocations must be
changed to the new allocating forecast into which actuals are to be entered.
How to do it
First select the forecast providing the allocations and set its actuals month
(Data>Actuals>Set Actuals Month).
This creates a new forecast which must be given a name and saved.
In turn, select each forecast receiving allocations and set its actuals month.
This creates a new forecast which must be given a name and saved.
Then you must change the allocation source to be the forecast with actual data
created from the original forecast providing allocations.
To do this:
- Go to File>Allocation Resources.
- Click Add and add it to the list.
- Then click Substitute and select the previous source.
- Click Substitute again and then Remove to remove the previous source.
- Click OK.
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Graphing Actuals, Budget & Revised Budget Data
Sage WinForecast Professional provides the capability of displaying the data
from any line of any of the five basic reports graphically.
You can include data from more than one report line on a single graph.
If you have entered actuals into a forecast, you can also display data
from the original budget to compare actual/projected with budget.
How to do it
- To make a new graph, click the New Graph option on the main window�s toolbar, or select View>New Graph from the main window�s
menu bar.
- To select the data you want to graph, go to File>Graph Records & Name then click on the Select Records in Graph button
- Once you're in the Select Record screen, firstly select the report which contains the data you want to graph. This option is
on the top left hand corner of the screen.
- Once you have selected the report, select the record by clicking on the record name once and click the Add button.
- To display revised budget data, select from the Use option (found on the bottom center of the screen) "Revised Budget Data" or
if you want to display original budget then select "Original Budget Data".
- To display Actual data, just highlight the record and click on Add. It will automatically default to Use Forecast Data
which contains Actuals up to date and projected data.
If you wish to change the form of the graph, go to File>Graph Properties and click on the More button. You will then see the
various types of graphs you can change to.
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Entering Actuals on a Quarterly Basis
Even though WinForecast is based on entering data on a monthly basis,
you can enter actuals on a quarterly basis. However, if you entered
your budget on a monthly basis and choose to enter your actuals
quarterly, bear in mind that when you view the quarterly variance
report that it will compare your quarter actuals with that month's budget.
Eg. Quarter to March Actuals vs March Budget.
To change the report layout, go to File>Report Layout and change
report columns to Quarter/Year to Date.
The best option is to enter quarterly budgets if you are going to
enter quarterly actuals too.
How to do it
Entering Actual Profit & Loss
- Set actuals to the last month of the first quarter - Data / Actuals / Set Actuals Month / September (assuming we've set the
forecast to start from July - June). Click OK
- Enter in the actual Profit & Loss for the quarter to September. Click OK.
- Then go to Data / Actuals / Enter Actuals to July and clear out any data that is there.
- Do the same for August.
Entering Actual Balance Sheet
- For the Balance Sheet, go to Data / Opening Balance Sheet / Enter Opening Balance Sheet
- Right mouse click on the screen and export (we are going to import the opening balance sheet into July and August)
- Click OK to exit out of opening balance sheet screen.
- Click on Data / Actuals / Import Actuals Balance Sheet. Choose July then click OK.
- Once you've import the Balance Sheet to July, import it again to August.
- Then go to Data / Actuals / Enter Actual Balance Sheet to September. This is where you enter your YTD balance sheet actuals.
(As we are entering actuals on a quarterly basis, we are assuming that there are no movements in July and August.)
When you come to do the next quarters actuals, zero out the actual Profit & Loss for October and November and enter the quarterly
actuals in December.
For the Balance Sheet side, export September's actual Balance Sheet using the above method and import it into October and November.
Then enter the actual Balance Sheet for December.
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Adjusting Debtor Receipts and Creditor Payments after an Actual Month
When actuals have been set and the actual closing debtor and creditor balance have been entered,
you'd need to specify when you'd expect to collect and pay that closing balance in the projected months going forward.
How to do it
For debtor receipts:
- Data>Opening Balance Sheet>Opening Accounts Receivable
- Under the receipts column, enter the debtor amount you expect to collect in the months going forward or
use days credit/payment profile to have WinForecast calculate it for you.
For creditor payments:
- Data>Opening Balance Sheet>Opening Accounts Payable
- Under the payments column, enter the creditor amount you expect to pay in the months going forward or
use days credit/payment profile to have WinForecast calculate it for you.
NOTE: If you specify to Enter Receipts/Payments, then you'd need to manually update the receipts and payments each time actuals has been set.
If you set it to use days credit or payment profile, then receipts/payments will be calculated for you.
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