Budgeting & Forecasting | Annual Operating Plan

Run the AOP cycle without the spreadsheet sprawl.

Open a planning cycle and hand each owner their slice. Collect submissions, route them through review and sign-off, and keep every version intact. The approved plan becomes the budget of record and feeds budget vs actual from the moment the first journal posts.

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What the system does

Capability, input, output.

Capability	Input	Output
Cycle management	Cycle name, period, deadline, participating entities	Structured planning cycle with owner assignments and status tracking
Owner submissions	Department or cost-centre budget input	Versioned submission per owner, collected in one place
Review and sign-off	Reviewer chain, approval rules	Routed review steps with an audit trail from submission to approval
Version history	Each saved or submitted version	Full version log. Prior versions readable and comparable. Nothing overwritten.
Version comparison	Any two plan versions	Side-by-side variance across accounts and dimensions
Budget of record	Approved AOP version	Live budget baseline that actuals post against from day one of the period

Cycle management

Input

Cycle name, period, deadline, participating entities

Output

Structured planning cycle with owner assignments and status tracking
Owner submissions

Input

Department or cost-centre budget input

Output

Versioned submission per owner, collected in one place
Review and sign-off

Input

Reviewer chain, approval rules

Output

Routed review steps with an audit trail from submission to approval
Version history

Input

Each saved or submitted version

Output

Full version log. Prior versions readable and comparable. Nothing overwritten.
Version comparison

Input

Any two plan versions

Output

Side-by-side variance across accounts and dimensions
Budget of record

Input

Approved AOP version

Output

Live budget baseline that actuals post against from day one of the period

Standards + connections

An AOP process wired to the systems that own the numbers.

The approved plan lands directly on the ledger structure your actuals use. There is no remap between the planning tool and the books, so budget vs actual is live without an import step.

Regulations we work within

Zero-based and incremental AOP

Start each line from zero or carry forward the prior year. Both approaches run in the same cycle, so teams can choose the method that fits their cost base.
Multi-entity and multi-currency

Each entity submits in its functional currency and rolls up to the group plan at your chosen rate, the same consolidation your financial statements use.
Approval audit trail

Every submission, revision and sign-off is timestamped and attributed. The audit trail satisfies internal governance and external audit requirements without a separate log.

Connects to

General Ledger Approved plan posts to the same chart of accounts actuals use
Accounts Payable Committed spend checked against departmental budget
Workforce Planning Headcount and personnel cost flow into the AOP automatically
Budget vs Actual Approved AOP becomes the baseline the moment the period opens

Annual Operating Plan FAQ

What buyers ask.

How does the AOP cycle work in practice?

A finance administrator opens a cycle, sets the period and deadline, and assigns each department or cost centre to an owner. Owners receive their slice of the chart of accounts and submit their numbers. Finance reviews, requests revisions, and routes the consolidated plan through sign-off. The approved version becomes the budget of record and actuals post against it from the first day of the period.

Are prior versions kept if we revise the plan mid-cycle?

Yes. Every save and every submission is a discrete version. Nothing is overwritten. You can pull up any prior version, compare it line by line to the current draft, and promote a previous version to the working plan if needed. The version log is part of the approval audit trail.

Can we compare this year's AOP to last year's plan or actuals?

Yes. The version comparison view places any two versions side by side with a variance column. You can compare draft to approved, this year's AOP to last year's, or the plan to the prior rolling forecast. The comparison uses the same account and dimension structure as your financial statements.

Does the approved plan feed budget vs actual automatically?

Yes. The approved AOP version becomes the live budget baseline. As journals post during the period, variance is calculated against it in real time. There is no export step and no manual tie-out between a planning file and the books.

Related features

Open a planning cycle and close it with an approved budget of record.

Connect your books, assign owners and set a deadline. Submissions collect in one place, review routes automatically, and the approved plan feeds budget vs actual from day one of the period.