Assumptions

An assumption is your best guess at your goal for a particular measure. An allocation is the sum of that measure on the lower items in the hierarchy. The Variance is the difference between the two. For each level in the hierarchy, the program tracks Assumptions, Allocations, and Variance between the two numbers for the Budget Amount, Expected Revenue, Expected Quantity and Expected Responses.

Icons indicate whether there is a direct match between the assumed and allocated amounts, or whether a variance is positive or negative.

For a higher level item in the hierarchy, you can break down assumptions by the number of items below that item. For example, if your hierarchy contains a top level of “Strategy” with “Planned appeals” directly below it, you can list the assumption amounts for your Strategy by each Appeal. For planned marketing efforts, you can break down by segment.

As an example, say you are establishing the Budget Amount for a Campaign/Appeal hierarchy. For the campaign, you set the Budget Amount assumption at $10,000.

You then add three appeals, each with its own Budget Amount; $5,000, $3,000 and $1,000. You are allocating portions of the $10,000 assumed campaign budget to the appeals. For this campaign, your Budget Amount Assumption is $10,000, the Budget Amount Allocation is $9,000 ($5,000+$3,000+$1,000); therefore, the Budget Amount Variance is $1000 ($10,000-$9,000).