Interpret financial charts and views

The Funds tab on each focus area includes charts and summary views that show how your financial plan is tracking. These views bring together your budget, forecasts, actuals, and baseline data so you can spot trends and identify variances without digging into individual line items.

The Funds tab has two views, Costs and Benefits, which you switch between using the toggle in the upper left corner. Each view shows its own summary tiles, trend chart, breakdown charts, and data table.

Time period picker

The time period picker in the upper right corner of the Funds tab controls what period all charts, tiles, and the data table display. It has three modes:

• Quarter: view one fiscal quarter at a time such as Q3 FY26. Use the left and right arrows to quickly scan to the previous or next quarter.

• Fiscal year: view one full fiscal year at a time such as FY26. Use the left and right arrows to scan between fiscal years.

• Custom: select a start quarter and end quarter to view a custom range that can span across fiscal years such as Q1 FY26 to Q2 FY27. In custom mode, the left/right arrows are not available.

The fiscal year boundaries are determined by the fiscal year start month configured in your Focus admin settings. For example, if your fiscal year starts in January, Q1 is January through March, Q2 is April through June, and so on.

All charts, tiles, and the data table update to reflect the selected period. When viewing a single quarter, the trend chart and data table show only the months within that quarter.

Summary tiles

At the top of the Funds tab, summary tiles provide a high-level snapshot of the focus area's financial position.

The Costs view shows six tiles:

• FY budget: the total funding approved for this focus area for the selected fiscal year. Select the edit icon to change the budget value. Requires the Manage budgets permission.

• Baseline: the total baseline value across all cost items for the selected time period.

• Actuals: the total actual costs recorded across all cost items.

• Remaining forecast: the sum of forecast values for the remaining months of the fiscal year.

• Forecast: the total forecast across all cost items, combining actuals for past months with projected values for future months.

• Variance vs baseline: the difference between the current forecast and the baseline.

Each cost tile also shows a CapEx/OpEx breakdown below the total. Hover over the info icon (ⓘ) on any tile to see a description of what it measures.

The Benefits view shows five tiles: Baseline, Actuals, Remaining forecast, Forecast, and Variance vs baseline. Benefit tiles do not include a budget tile or CapEx/OpEx breakdown.

Trend chart

The trend chart plots your financial data month by month across the selected time period. It is labeled Cost over time or Benefit over time depending on which view is active.

A Cumulative / Monthly toggle in the upper right of the chart lets you switch between:

• Cumulative: shows running totals that build month over month, making it easy to see total spend or benefit trajectory.

• Monthly: shows each month's values independently, making it easier to spot months where values spike or dip.

Three lines appear on the chart:

• Actuals (solid blue dots): the values recorded for each closed month.

• Forecast (blue dashed line): your current projected values for current and future months.

• Baseline (purple dotted line): the plan-of-record values captured when the baseline was set. This line does not change unless you set a new baseline.

Reading the trend chart

• When the actuals line runs above the baseline, you are spending more or realizing more benefit than planned.

• When the forecast line diverges from the baseline, your current projections have changed from the original plan, either higher or lower.

• The gap between actuals and baseline for past months shows historical variance. The gap between forecast and baseline for future months shows projected variance.

Breakdown charts

Breakdown charts show how costs or benefits are distributed across different categories. They help you understand where money is going at a more granular level than the trend chart.

The breakdown chart has two controls:

• Metric selector: choose which financial metric to visualize: Baseline, Forecast, Actuals, or Variance vs baseline.

• Breakdown by: choose how to categorize the data.

The available breakdown dimensions depend on where you are in your focus area hierarchy.

When the current focus area has child focus areas, the Breakdown by menu includes the next level down as a dimension. The label for this option reflects the name your administrator has configured for that level of the hierarchy.

All focus areas, regardless of their position in the hierarchy, can break down by categorization dimensions:

• Cost type: split between labor and non-labor spend.

• Investment category: distribution across strategic categories such as Run the Business and Change the Business.

• Expenditure class: split between CapEx and OpEx.

For benefits, the same structure applies: child focus areas appear as a breakdown dimension when they exist, and Benefit type is available as the categorization dimension.

Cost and benefit item grids

Below the charts, a grid lists all cost or benefit items in the focus area with their monthly values. Each row represents a single item, and each column represents a month in the selected time period.

Grid controls

• Filter: narrow the grid to specific items by filtering on columns such as cost type, sub-type, investment category, or expenditure class. Filters apply to the grid only and do not affect the charts or summary tiles above.

• Customize: control which columns are visible in the grid. Use this to show or hide categorization columns, toggle between forecast, actual, and baseline value layers, or reduce the number of visible months.

Working with the grid

You can edit forecast and actual values directly in the grid by selecting a cell and entering a new value. All changes save automatically. For details on entering values, see Enter forecast and actual values for cost or benefit items.

To create new items, edit item details, or delete items, see Create and edit cost or benefit items. To import or update items in bulk, see Import and export funds data with CSV.

Review financial activity for a focus area

Use the activity panel to see recent changes to financial information for a focus area.

1. Go to the Funds tab on the focus area.

2. Select the Activity icon at the top of the page.

The activity panel opens on the right, showing recent changes such as:

• Cost or benefit items created or deleted

• Baselines set or deleted

• Budget updates

• CSV imports

Activity is shown as a chronological list, most recent first.

To see changes to a specific cost or benefit item's monthly values, right-select the item's name in the Cost items or Benefit items table, then select Show history.

Sub-focus area roll-ups

When a focus area has child focus areas, costs and benefits from children roll up into the parent's charts. Summary tiles, breakdown charts, and trend charts on the parent reflect the aggregated data. To see the details for a specific child, navigate to that child focus area's Funds tab.

Understand variance

Variance is the difference between your baseline and your current forecast or actuals. Once a baseline is set, variance values appear in the Variance vs baseline summary tile, as a metric option in the breakdown charts, and as the gap between lines on the trend chart.

• Forecast variance: how your current projections have changed since the baseline was set. A positive value means you now expect to spend more or gain more than planned. A negative value means your projections have decreased.

• Actuals variance: how real spending or realized benefit compares to what was originally planned. This helps identify where costs are running ahead of or behind the plan.

For past months, variance reflects changes in actuals since the baseline was set. For current and future months, variance reflects changes in your forecast projections.

Select Explain on the Variance vs baseline tile for a summary of what is driving the variance.

Ask Rovo about your financial data

Rovo can help you explore and understand the data on the Funds tab. You can ask Rovo to explain what's driving a variance, break down costs across categories, or summarize trends in a focus area.

To get started, select Explain on the Variance vs baseline tile for a quick summary of what's driving the difference between your baseline and current values. You can also open Rovo directly to ask follow-up questions or explore other aspects of your financial data.

Tips

• Set a baseline before reviewing variance. Without a baseline, variance tiles and the baseline line on trend charts do not appear.

• Check the time period. If charts look empty, you may be viewing a different fiscal year than where your data lives.

• Use breakdown charts for stakeholder conversations. Switching between actuals, forecast, and variance makes it easy to shift the conversation from what happened to what's changing to where the plan is off track.