What is meant by Planning and control settlements?
The term "planning and control accounting" refers to the systematic recording, analysis, and control of planned data and actual accounting data within a company. These accounting processes are used to verify whether the initially planned costs, revenues, or budgets align with the actual incurred values. This allows businesses to identify deviations and take corrective or optimization measures early on.
Typical software functions in the area of "planning and control accounting":
- Creation of Planned Values: Definition and input of planned costs, revenues, or budgets for specific periods or projects.
- Plan-Actual Comparison: Automated comparison of planned values with actual accounting data.
- Variance Analysis: Detailed analysis of deviations between planned and actual values to identify causes.
- Reporting: Automatic generation of reports on variances for management decisions.
- Forecasting Functions: Based on past accounting and variance data, forecasts for future periods can be generated.
- Budget Control: Monitoring of budget compliance and automated alerts in case of budget overruns.
- Integration with Financial Accounting: Automatic transfer of accounting data into the financial accounting system for consolidation and reporting.