Variance · Compare

Where you beat last year or the plan, and by how much

Monthly reports and board packs compare actuals with last year and the plan, month by month and region by region. In Power BI that means a clustered column chart where the gap is hard to read, plus separate measures and charts for the variance and the variance in percent, each with its own conditional colours. The IBCS standard solves this with solid actuals, a grey previous year, an outlined plan and the variances in their own small charts, but the visuals that draw it cost from about $800 a year for ten users.

Try Pro free for 14 daysDownload

Free to use, with no watermark and no time limit. Pro from $3 per viewer a year.

Revenue beat last year in every monthRevenue by month, actual against previous year
ΔPY %ΔPYAC PY+6.5Jan+4.8Feb+4.4Mar+6.4Apr+6.2May+4.8Jun+4.8Jul+5.1Aug
Light report
Revenue beat last year in every monthRevenue by month, actual against previous year
ΔPY %ΔPYAC PY+6.5Jan+4.8Feb+4.4Mar+6.4Apr+6.2May+4.8Jun+4.8Jul+5.1Aug
Dark report

What it shows

Variance draws your actual as dark columns in front of last year’s grey columns or the plan’s outline. Above them are two small charts: the variance in money as bars and the variance in percent as pins. A variance is fjord blue when it is better and ember orange when it is worse, and you say whether higher or lower is better, so costs work too. The header gives the total, such as “Total +5.4% vs previous year”. Months, quarters and years run as columns; regions, products and other categories turn into bars with the variance charts beside them. A percent measure such as gross margin gets its variance in percentage points.

How to set it up

Add Variance from AppSource or the .pbiviz file, then drag in:

Category
Months, quarters or years, or regions, products or customers.
Actual
The measure, such as revenue.
Previous year
Optional: last year’s figure, such as a SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR measure.
Plan
Optional: plan or budget.
ForecastPro
A forecast for the periods that have no actual yet.

Read the full Variance guide

In the report

  • Hover a month or region for the actual, the comparisons and both variances.
  • Click one to filter the report to it; the others dim.
  • Light or dark background, high-contrast mode, and your own colours.
  • Tab into the chart and move between categories with the arrow keys; screen readers hear each one as a sentence.
  • The format pane, the labels and the messages are in English and Norwegian.

Free and Pro

FeatureFreePro
Columns or bars, actual against previous year or plan, in the IBCS look✓✓
Absolute and percent variance charts, better and worse colours, lower is better✓✓
Sorting, total, value and variance labels, percentage points for percent measures✓✓
Tooltips, click to filter, keyboard, high contrast, light and dark✓✓
Forecast: the rest of the year, hatched, in the chart and in the total—✓
Both comparisons: variance against plan and previous year at once—✓
Line chart with the gap to the comparison shaded—✓
Top N with Others for long lists of regions or products—✓

Free features always work, with no key and no tag. Pro features need a licence key for Variance or Everything. Without a valid key, Variance leaves out the forecast, shows one comparison, draws columns instead of a line and shows every category, with a short notice and a “Try Pro free” button. A paid key keeps Pro working for 7 days after it runs out, so a late renewal never breaks a report.

Your data stays in your report

Variance makes no network calls and stores nothing outside the report. The licence key is checked inside the visual, so it also works offline, in Report Server and in locked-down tenants.

How the visuals handle data

Pro licence
$36per creator a year
$3per viewer a year

For Variance alone. The entire suite is $90 per creator and $7.50 per viewer, or license the whole organisation.

See pricing

More Grafpoint visuals