5. Compare Scenarios — plan against plan
Open Budget → Compare Scenarios. Where the Budget Report holds a budget up against actuals, this screen holds two budgets up against each other for the whole year — the screen to open when you have built a draft and want to know exactly what adopting it would change, before you adopt it.
Choose the year, Scenario A and Scenario B, and what to View by — Sales Rep, Customer or Product — then Load. Each group gets one line, in three bands:
| Band | Columns |
|---|---|
| Revenue | A, B, and the difference. |
| Margin | A, B, the difference, and a Margin % column reading A% → B% with the change in percentage points beside it. |
| Units | A, B, and the difference. |
Every difference column is signed and coloured — green where B is above A, red where it is below — so a scan down the page shows immediately who gains and who loses under the other plan. A totals row closes the grid, and Export to Excel takes the whole comparison with you.
The two percentages are each scenario's own margin rate for that group, and the figure in brackets is the movement between them in percentage points. A group with no budgeted revenue in one of the scenarios shows a dash: with nothing to take a percentage of, printing 0.00% would read as a real and disastrous margin rather than an absence.
This screen compares whole-year totals, which is the right altitude for choosing between two plans. When you want the same comparison month by month, set the second budget as Compare with on the Budget Report instead. Adopting is done from there too.