Variance Analysis - Current Solutions & Workarounds
Mental/Manual Analysis
- What it is: No formal tools - variance analysis done through manual inspection
- How they use it: Check account balances, compare to what was expected
- Limitations: Time-consuming, not systematic, no historical tracking
- Used by: ON
Custom Dashboards
- What it is: Palm dashboards showing forecast vs actuals
- How they use it: Visual comparison of predicted vs actual values
- Limitations: Still in development, need more drill-down capability
- Used by: ON
Manual Workarounds
Daily Balance Checks
- What they do: Manually check if funded accounts have correct balances each morning
- Why: No automated alerts for payment failures or unexpected balances
- Source: ON (2025-11-11)
Exception-Based Monitoring
- What they do: Assume everything works; only investigate when told or when seeing huge variance
- Why: Can't verify every transaction; focus on treasury-initiated payments only
- Source: ON (2025-11-11)
Quarterly Forecast Version Saving
- What they do: Save forecast versions quarterly, keep actuals separate, compare over time
- Why: Need to track forecast accuracy; learn from past variances
- Source: Sonder (2024-10-03) - "We can go back and say, well, how accurate were we forecasting?"
Google Holiday Searches
- What they do: Google local holidays when unexplained variances occur (zero collections, etc.)
- Why: Holiday schedules across countries are hard to track; cause timing variances
- Source: Sonder (2024-10-03) - "We sometimes just Google it, right?"
Cross-Team Investigation
- What they do: Reach out to payroll, FP&A, or other teams to explain variances
- Why: Treasury sees the result but doesn't know the "why" behind it
- Source: Sonder (2024-10-03) - "We have to go ask people that are the experts there"