Today, Vantage is launching the ability to report on the forecasted performance of a budget. When assigning a budget to a Cost Report, you can see that budget tracked against your forecasted costs.
Previously, budgets were only displayed up to the point at which accrued costs had been ingested by Vantage. This meant that customers viewing a Cost Report could only see the budget displayed up until the latest date of costs being available by the providers driving those costs. When viewing the budget directly on a budget performance page, the performance would only be shown up until the current month.
Now, future budget periods will be displayed and compared to the forecast of a Cost Report. When viewing a Cost Report, you can select a forecast period via the date picker. If a budget extends into the forecasted period, you’ll be able to visualize your budget alongside the forecasted costs. On the budget performance page, you will be able to see the future forecasted period compared against the budget.
Vantage Cost Report with forecasted budget and costs
This feature is now available for all users. To get started, navigate to any Cost Report with an assigned budget. You can then select a Forecast Period from the Date Picker and apply to see how the budget tracks against the future forecasted months. To learn more about budgets in Vantage, see the Budgets documentation.
Vantage budget performance with month-to-date and forecasted performance
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is being launched today?
Today, Vantage is launching the ability to view budgets into the future. This feature allows you to compare a forecast, up to the same number of months into the future which you have stored in the platform historically, to the budgeted amount.
2. Who is the customer?
The customer is any Vantage user who has budgets assigned to reports.
3. How much does this cost?
This feature is free to all users.
4. How can I compare budgeted costs to a forecast?
When viewing a Cost Report, the budget will be drawn until the end of the forecast. The budget performance at the top of the report will continue to display the month-to-date performance against accrued costs.
When viewing a budget, select the Performance tab to see how the budget has performed historically, as well as against the future forecasted months.
5. How can I create a budget into the future?
When you are creating budgets for a period, you can either leave the Period End field blank to have the budget continue indefinitely or enter a date in the future.
6. Can I view budgets across several months?
Yes, you are now able to view budgets and their performance across more than one month. Before this update, a budget would be displayed on a Cost Report only when viewing a single month of costs.
7. Are budgets available on all chart view types (e.g., bar, line, etc.)?
Budgets are available on line charts, bar charts, and area charts.
8. Are budgets available for all date bins (e.g., cumulative, day, week, month)?
Budgets are available for all date binning options.
9. Is it possible to expand the available dates beyond my current retention period?
You can contact support@vantage.sh to have this period modified.
10. Can I export budget performance?
Not at this time, but this feature is on the roadmap.
