Planning and forecasting
Forecasts from closed books, not a mid-close export.
Zenday forecasts from your reconciled actuals, with each budget variance traced to the entries behind it.
Halden Software’s September close and fourth-quarter forecast. A sample company, with illustrative figures.
Refreshed at sign-off, not rebuilt every month.
Re-forecasting usually means another export and rebuild after the close. The day your controller signs off, budget-to-actual and the forecast refresh on their own.
See reporting and dashboardsBudget variances explained without the digging.
Explaining budget to actual usually means digging through GL detail. The agents trace each variance as they do flux, so your team reviews commentary instead of writing it.
Every account tested
Each account is compared with budget at your threshold: a dollar amount and a percentage you set.
Every variance traced
Each variance over the threshold is traced to the entries behind it, like commissions over budget from quarter-end deals.
Commentary drafted
The explanation comes written, with its entries attached, for your team to review before it reaches the CFO.
Errors fixed before they reach the forecast.
A forecast built before the close carries every error the close later fixes. When a renewal is reclassed to prepaid, the forecast starts from the corrected books.
Revenue forecast from the contracts you have.
A revenue forecast kept in its own spreadsheet rarely ties to deferred revenue. Zenday’s comes from your ASC 606 schedules, the same ones tied to the GL.
See revenue recognitionQuestions controllers and firms ask first.
What is a rolling forecast?
A forecast that’s updated every month with the latest actuals, rather than a budget set once a year. Zenday re-forecasts from the reconciled actuals once each close is signed off, so every update starts from closed books.
How is budget-to-actual variance explained?
The same way as flux: each account is tested against your threshold, and every variance over it is traced to its entries with commentary drafted. Your team reviews the explanation instead of writing it from an export.
Why start the forecast from closed books?
So the corrections made at close are already in it. A forecast built from a mid-close export still carries the errors the close went on to fix, like a renewal expensed in full.
Does the revenue forecast use our contracts?
Yes. Contracted revenue comes from the ASC 606 schedules built from your contracts, so the revenue forecast and deferred revenue start from the same figures.