# Understanding Marketing Spend

## Overview

The Spend Insights view compares planned spending against actual expenditures. Open it from **Forecasts** in the **Budget** section of the sidebar. It helps you track variances, monitor year-to-date progress, and make informed decisions about your financial resources.

![Spend Insights](https://docs.etropo.com/images/budget/spend/spend-insights.webp)

## Key Features

### Variance Analysis Table

The main component of the Spend Insights view is the variance analysis table, which displays:

- **Period Data**: Shows planned and actual spending for the selected period (month or quarter)
- **Variance Metrics**: Calculates the difference between planned and actual spending in both absolute amounts and percentages
- **Year-to-Date (YTD) Analysis**: Tracks cumulative planned and actual spending throughout the year
- **Forecasting**: Projects total yearly spend and shows remaining yearly budget

### Hierarchical Data Organization

The table organizes financial data in a hierarchical structure:

- **Budget Total**: (Admin only) Shows aggregated totals across all categories
- **Category Summaries**: Displays totals for each budget category
- **Line Items**: Shows individual items within each category

Categories can be expanded or collapsed to focus on specific areas of interest.

For budgets that use [master categories](https://docs.etropo.com/budget-planning/structure#master-categories), variance analysis includes master category rows showing aggregated totals for all child categories, making it easier to analyze spending at a higher organizational level.


## How to Use

### Selecting Time Periods

Use the Period Selector in the top-right corner to:

1. Choose between monthly or quarterly views
2. Select the specific period you want to analyze

### Filtering Data

The Filter allows you to narrow down displayed items by:

- Category
- Currency
- Status
- Owner
- Total Cost
- Monthly Cost

### Interpreting the Data

#### Reading the Columns

- **Planned**: The budgeted amount for the selected period
- **Actual**: The actual spend recorded for the period
- **Variance**: The difference between planned and actual amounts
- **Percent**: The variance expressed as a percentage of the planned amount
- **YTD Planned**: Year-to-date planned spending
- **YTD Actual**: Year-to-date actual spending
- **Total Yearly**: Forecasted total spend for the year
- **Remaining Yearly**: The projected remaining budget for the year

#### Understanding Variance Values

- **Positive Variance (Green)**: Indicates spending less than planned (under budget)
- **Negative Variance (Red)**: Indicates spending more than planned (over budget)
- **Missing Actuals**: Shown as "-" when no actual data is available

### Variance Calculation

Variances are calculated using the following formulas:

1. **Amount Variance**: `Planned Amount - Actual Amount`
   - A positive value means under budget (favorable)
   - A negative value means over budget (unfavorable)

2. **Percentage Variance**: `((Planned Amount - Actual Amount) / Planned Amount) * 100`
   - Displayed with a "+" or "-" sign to indicate direction
   - Shows the percentage deviation from the plan
   - Rounded to one decimal place (e.g., "+10.5%")
   - Shows "100%" for complete variances

3. **Variance Status Classification**:
   - The system uses thresholds to classify variances as "normal," "warning," or "critical"
   - Warning-level variances display a yellow alert triangle
   - Critical-level variances display a red alert triangle

### Forecast Calculation

Etropo calculates two types of forecasts:

1. **Total Yearly Forecast**: 
   - Represents the projected total spending for the entire fiscal year
   - Calculated by combining actual spending to date with planned spending for future periods
   - For line items with seasonality or changing monthly plans, the forecast reflects these patterns

2. **Remaining Yearly Budget**:
   - Shows the difference between the total yearly forecast and the year-to-date actual spending
   - Calculated as: `Total Yearly Forecast - YTD Actual`
   - A positive value indicates remaining budget available
   - A negative value indicates projected overspending by year-end

## Tips for Effective Analysis

1. **Focus on Significant Variances**: Pay special attention to items with large percentage variances or warning indicators
2. **Compare Categories**: Analyze which categories have the largest variances to identify areas needing attention
3. **Track Trends**: Monitor how variances change over time to spot developing issues
4. **Review YTD Performance**: Use year-to-date figures to understand cumulative budget performance
5. **Check Forecasts**: Review remaining yearly budgets to ensure sufficient funds for the rest of the year

## Navigating Between Views

Use the sidebar to move between the views of a budget:
- **Budget** opens the [Budget Editor](https://docs.etropo.com/budget-planning#plans-actuals-and-variance) with the **Plans**, **Actuals** and **Variance** tabs
- **Forecasts** opens the Spend Insights view
- **Allocation**, under **Dashboards**, opens the [Allocation dashboard](https://docs.etropo.com/budget-planning/dashboard)

## Currency Handling

The system automatically handles currency conversions for multi-currency budgets, displaying all figures in your default currency for easier comparison.

[Learn more about the automatic currency conversion here](https://docs.etropo.com/budget-planning/currencies)

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Source: https://docs.etropo.com/spend-tracking/spend-insights