Commitment Analysis in P&L Databases

Overview

It is often useful to track total commitments for the current month by adding actual expense for the month to date to open commitments for that month.

This can be achieved by using a file containing open commitments together with the actual expense file in crosstabulation analysis.

Crosstabulation Definition

A suitable set of columns definitions may be created via Crosstabulation Manager.

 The assumption here is that files will be as follows:

#1 = Actual expense

#2 = Open commitments

Column definitions above are as follows:

1. Actual expense for the year to the previous month (PM), e.g. for a March analysis this would be YTD February actual expense
2. Actual expense for the current month (CM), e.g. for a March analysis this would be March actual expense
3. Open commitments for the current month (CM), e.g. for a March analysis this would be March open commitments
4. Total commitment for the current month (column 2+column 3)
5. Total commitment for YTD (column 1+column 4)

Running Reports

• Select Reporting > Crosstabulation Analysis > Custom File Selction
• Select the current year actual expense and open commitment files
• Select January to December

• Select any report definition (or none)
• Select any set of items
• Select any level of detail
• Select the relevant crosstabulation definition (Commitment Analysis)

Example Report