Budgeting & Forecasting | Driver-Based Planning

Plan on drivers, not hard-coded numbers.

Define the assumptions that move your business. Tie revenue to units and price, headcount to fully-loaded cost, cloud spend to usage. Change one driver and every dependent line recalculates. The model explains itself when someone asks how you got there.

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What the system does

Capability, input, output.

Capability	Input	Output
Driver definition	Units, price, conversion rate, headcount, usage metrics	Named drivers stored in a reusable library
Formula linking	Driver values + formula expressions per plan line	Plan lines that recalculate when any upstream driver changes
Full-model recalculation	A single driver edit	All dependent lines updated instantly across budgets, forecasts and scenarios
Assumption audit trail	Driver history + user edits	A timestamped log of every assumption change with the before and after value
Driver library	Drivers defined once across teams	Shared assumptions reused across plans, forecasts and scenario models
Scenario sensitivity	Driver range or distribution	P&L and cash outcome under each driver assumption, side by side

Driver definition

Input

Units, price, conversion rate, headcount, usage metrics

Output

Named drivers stored in a reusable library
Formula linking

Input

Driver values + formula expressions per plan line

Output

Plan lines that recalculate when any upstream driver changes
Full-model recalculation

Input

A single driver edit

Output

All dependent lines updated instantly across budgets, forecasts and scenarios
Assumption audit trail

Input

Driver history + user edits

Output

A timestamped log of every assumption change with the before and after value
Driver library

Input

Drivers defined once across teams

Output

Shared assumptions reused across plans, forecasts and scenario models
Scenario sensitivity

Input

Driver range or distribution

Output

P&L and cash outcome under each driver assumption, side by side

Standards + connections

Driver models that stay in step with the business.

Drivers are linked to the same ledger that runs payables, receivables and payroll. When actuals land, the variance surfaces against the driver-derived plan, not a separate file.

Regulations we work within

Zero-based budgeting (ZBB)

Every line is justified by its drivers rather than copied from last year, so the model is auditable from first principles.
Rolling forecast alignment

Driver changes feed rolling forecasts automatically, so re-cutting the outlook is a driver edit, not a manual rebuild.
Board and audit readiness

Assumption logs and formula linkages give auditors and the board a clear line from input to output for every plan number.

Connects to

Revenue and Sales Units, price and conversion drivers tied to booked revenue
Workforce and Payroll Headcount and fully-loaded cost drivers linked to payroll actuals
Infrastructure and Usage Cloud and usage drivers wired to vendor invoices
Finance and Accounting Driver-derived plan lines reconciled against the general ledger

Driver-Based Planning FAQ

What buyers ask.

What is a driver in this context?

A driver is any measurable input that causes a financial outcome. Units sold, average price, headcount count, fully-loaded cost per head, server usage, conversion rate. You define the drivers that are meaningful to your business, store them in a shared library, and link plan lines to them with formulas. Change the driver and the dependent lines follow.

How is driver-based planning different from a standard budget grid?

A standard budget grid holds hard-coded numbers. If you need to re-run a scenario or update an assumption, you edit cells one by one and hope no links break. In a driver-based model, the number in every plan line is derived from an explicit assumption. Changing the assumption recalculates the whole model, and the audit trail shows exactly what changed and when.

Can we reuse the same drivers across different plans and forecasts?

Yes. Drivers live in a shared library, not inside a single plan. Revenue unit and price drivers defined for the budget are the same ones used in the rolling forecast and each scenario. Updating a driver in the library propagates to every plan that references it, so there is one version of each assumption.

How do actuals feed back into the driver model?

Actuals land from the operating ledger against the driver-derived plan lines, producing variance the moment a journal posts. You can also update a driver with the actual value observed in the period, letting the model recalculate the remainder of the year from the revised assumption rather than from stale original inputs.

Related features

Build a driver-based plan on your own ledger.

Define the drivers that move your business, link your plan lines to them, and let the model recalculate when assumptions change. The first run uses your own actuals, your own headcount and your own metrics.