The driver report, where variances get names

Driver-based planning means the money was computed from assumptions. So when the money moves, the assumptions moved first, and a report that decomposes one into the other turns the explanation meeting into a table.

Note: In Planning, Oracle's module where budgets and forecasts are built, drivers are the assumptions, headcount, rates, volumes, that the money is computed from. This page is the report that shows which drivers moved, because a variance without its driver is just a number.

The whole module is mapped on the Planning index.

RuleExport drivers with the plan, record which drivers feed each line, and compute the decomposition instead of negotiating it.

Neverpresent a forecast move without its driver decomposition. A number that cannot say why it moved invites everyone in the room to supply their own reason.

◆ The decomposition, footed, volume, price, and currency summing to the 9.4M.

The June forecast moved revenue 9.4M above budget. The driver report is where that stops being a mystery. Financials is driver-based planning by design, per the module reference: money is computed from drivers, so the honest explanation of a money movement is a driver movement.

Driver, sample world	Budget	June forecast	Effect on the 9.4M
Unit volume	1,240k units	1,262k units	+6.1M
Average price	steady	+0.4% from July	+2.4M
Currency, translation of 1010-CL, the Chilean subsidiary	plan rate	weaker peso	+0.9M
Total explained			9.4M

The decomposition foots: 6.1 plus 2.4 plus 0.9 is the 9.4. Two design requirements make a table like this possible. Drivers export with the plan, as the Account page requires, because a driver locked in the cube cannot explain anything. And each planned line records which drivers feed it, once, in the model, so the decomposition is computed, not negotiated.

THE USE CASE, SIMPLIFIED

The problem: The forecast moved 9.4M and the explanation meeting takes longer than the forecast did.

What we build: Drivers export with the plan, so every planned number sits beside the assumptions that computed it.

What you get: The 9.4M decomposes into named driver movements, and the explanation is a table, not a meeting.

Forecast explanations taking longer than forecasts?

We export drivers beside the plan and build the decomposition once, and the next 9.4M arrives already explained, with names.

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Terms on this page

driver: An assumption the money is computed from. Volume, price, rate.
decomposition: The move, split into driver effects that foot to the total.
computed, not negotiated: The split comes from the model, not the meeting.
the currency line: Translation effects named separately, so operations and FX never blur.