In this episode, Nona walks through how to manage budgets in the Zoined platform, from setup to corrections.

You’ll learn how to:

• Fill in the budget template

• Review and validate your budget

• Fix mistakes in the budget figures

Zoined's Planning feature allows you to create and analyze Budgets, Forecasts, and Targets for any KPI available in your portal. By uploading your plans, you can compare actual performance against expected values in reports, dashboards, and email reports.

Planning is available under Settings → Planning.

When creating a plan, the first step is to decide what type of plan you want to create.

Although Budget, Forecast, and Target are technically created in exactly the same way inside Zoined, they are typically used for different business purposes.

A Budget is your company's primary financial plan.

Most businesses create a budget before the beginning of a new financial year to define expectations for the coming months. A budget is commonly used to establish:

Think of the Budget as the company's original plan for the year.

For example, management may decide that sales should grow by 10% compared to last year. This growth target then becomes the budget that actual performance is measured against throughout the year.

A Forecast is an adjusted version of the Budget.

Unlike the Budget, which is usually created once before the year begins, a Forecast is created during the year when new information becomes available.

Examples include:

Rather than replacing the original Budget, a Forecast reflects your latest expectations based on what has happened so far.

A Forecast answers questions such as:

"Based on everything we know today, what do we expect the rest of the year to look like?"

Many companies create one or several Forecasts during the year while keeping the original Budget unchanged for comparison.

A Target is slightly different from a Budget or Forecast.

Instead of planning the company's overall financial performance, a Target is usually created for a specific KPI or operational objective.

Examples include:

Targets are commonly used to motivate employees or teams by defining realistic performance goals.

For example, rather than budgeting total sales, a company may decide that every salesperson should increase the Average Purchase Value by 10%.

These Targets can later be compared against actual performance to see whether the objective has been achieved.

To create a new plan:

The first step is to select the time period your plan should cover.

For example, if you are preparing next year's annual budget, you would select:

You can create plans for:

The selected period determines which dates will be included in the planning template

Plans can be created at different levels:

Choose the level that best matches how you monitor your business.

For example:

Remember that a more detailed budget provides greater flexibility later when analyzing results.

Now select which planning version you want to create.

Available options include:

Although these plans are created in exactly the same way, each serves a different purpose.

For example:

Almost every KPI available in Zoined can be planned.

Common examples include:

You may include multiple metrics in the same planning template.

Plans can also be grouped by business dimensions, for example:

Tip: A more detailed grouping provides greater flexibility later.

For example:

Instead of budgeting only by:

consider budgeting by:

Zoined can always aggregate detailed data into higher levels.

For example:

Restaurant + Product Category

can automatically be viewed as:

However, the opposite is not possible.

If your budget only contains totals for each Restaurant, you cannot later drill down to Product Categories because that information was never included in the plan.

Recommendation: Create plans at the most detailed level that is practical for your business.

After downloading the template, open it in Excel.

The template contains:

The previous year's values serve as a convenient reference when creating the new plan.

For example, to increase sales by 10%, simply multiply last year's value by 1.10 and fill the formula down the column.

This allows you to build a complete annual budget quickly using standard Excel formulas.

There are some filling in the template scenarios you can consider:

If your planning template contains multiple metrics, each KPI is budgeted independently.

For example, you might include:

If you expect both KPIs to increase by 10%, simply apply the same Excel formula to both columns.

However, each KPI can also have a different planning logic.

For example:

In this case, you can apply each metrics with different Excel formula (different multiplier). Since the template is an Excel workbook, every metric can be planned independently.

Once the template is complete:

After the upload has finished, the planning data is processed automatically.

Within a few moments, the new Budget, Forecast, or Target becomes available throughout the Zoined portal.

You can immediately begin comparing:

in reports and dashboards.

If you discover a mistake or your business situation changes, you can simply update the Excel file and upload it again. Plans can be updated at any time.

Simply:

Zoined replaces the previous planning values with the updated ones, provided that the uploaded file uses the same plan type, metrics, groupings, and time level.

This makes revising your plans quick and straightforward.

Suppose you originally budgeted sales for every restaurant, but later learn that one restaurant will close during the year.

For example:

Restaurant Goa closes in February.

Instead of recreating the entire budget, you only need to adjust the affected rows in the Excel template.

For all rows from February onward:

After saving and uploading the updated file, Zoined automatically replaces the previous values with the revised budget.

This allows your reports to reflect the latest business plans without rebuilding the entire planning file.

You do not need to recreate an entire plan if you later decide to budget another KPI.

Instead:

Zoined automatically combines compatible planning data and uses the most appropriate planning values when displaying reports.

This makes it easy to expand your planning over time without affecting the work you've already completed.

If multiple planning files exist, Zoined automatically selects the planning data that best matches the report you are viewing.

For example:

Zoined automatically retrieves the correct Budget for each KPI, allowing both metrics to be compared against their planned values without requiring a single combined planning file.

This flexibility allows organizations to maintain separate planning files while still producing unified report.

The default comparison names may not always match the terminology used within your organization.

Fortunately, the comparison labels can be customized.

Navigate to:

Settings → Configuration → Comparisons

From here you can rename comparison values.

For example:

After saving the changes, the new names become available throughout Zoined when selecting comparison periods.

This is particularly useful if your organization maintains multiple budgeting scenarios or uses company-specific terminology.

Sometimes you may want to compare two different budget scenarios.

For example:

Since Budget, Forecast, and Target are technically separate plan versions, many organizations use:

Once multiple planning versions exist, they can be compared just like any other comparison period.

For example, you may compare:

This allows management to understand:

Targets are especially useful when monitoring operational KPIs.

Suppose management wants every restaurant to increase its Average Purchase Value.

Rather than assigning the same value to every location, you first review the current performance.

For example:

Immediately, it becomes clear that Harlem already performs significantly better than the other restaurants.

Instead of creating one identical target for every location, you may decide to create different targets based on current performance. You can do that by simply applying Excel formulas for different restaurant.

Once uploaded, open an Analytics report using:

The Target appears alongside the actual KPI values.

For example:

This makes it easy to see which locations are performing above or below expectations.

One of the advantages of creating detailed planning data is the ability to drill down into the underlying performance.

Suppose a restaurant does not achieve its target.

Rather than only seeing the restaurant total, you can drill down:

Now you can compare each employee individually.

For example:

From this report, it becomes clear that Lucy consistently achieves higher Average Purchase Values than Melinda.

This type of analysis helps managers identify opportunities for coaching and improvement.

For example, if one salesperson consistently achieves higher Average Purchase Values, management may encourage other employees to adopt similar selling techniques, such as:

Rather than simply identifying that a restaurant missed its target, drilling down allows managers to understand why performance differs and where targeted improvements can be made.

To get the most value from Planning in Zoined: