Budget versus actual variance analysis and monthly CFO commentary
A single format from the Virtual CFO Toolkit pack. Management accounts · line items follow Schedule III, Division I · price and volume analysis.
- 7 pages
- 170
- Word, PDF and Excel
- 30 October 2026
- 30 October 2026
What it covers
- 1Budget versus actual variance analysis and monthly CFO commentaryManagement accounts · line items follow Schedule III, Division I · price and volume analysis
Not included
What you will still need outside this format:
- Any audit or assurance report, including the drawing power certificate a bank may ask for: it should come from a CA who has not prepared the figures (FV03-I7).
- The bookkeeping engagement letter, where the firm also keeps the books (FV06-B2).
- Stamp duty on the engagement letter under the Stamp Act of the State where it is signed.
- The client's sanction letter: margins, eligibility periods and covenants must be taken from it.
- Fuller data processing terms if the client wants them (FV07-G6).
- Board meeting notice, agenda and minutes (FV01-C7).
- Legal advice on the information rights and reserved matters in the client's shareholders' agreement.
Read the opening
The first part of the format, as it downloads. Blanks are highlighted.
[Name of the client] · month ended [Period end date] · prepared by [Name of the firm]
BUDGET VERSUS ACTUAL AND MONTHLY CFO COMMENTARY
An internal management document, compiled from unaudited books. It sits behind page 1 of the MIS pack (MIS pack, commentary and summary, FV06-L10-1) and feeds the board and investor update. Use the same trial balance for all three.
How the workbook works
1. One budget, phased by month. Enter the Board-approved budget, phased month by month on the drivers that move it (working days, seasonality, price changes, hiring dates, campaign calendar), not one-twelfth of the annual figure. Where the budget has been reforecast, keep the approved budget in the budget columns and show the reforecast in the commentary: a budget that is overwritten every quarter stops measuring anything.