Workpapers - change Variance to Change or Movement (it is not a variance, it is a movement from one year to the next, which is expected)
It's bad enough that new Workpapers only show "Variance" for CY vs LY rather than CY vs supporting Workpapers (the whole point of workpapers).
This is not a Variance... it is a Change or Movement.
Variance is defined as:
- the fact or quality of being different, divergent, or inconsistent
- the state or fact of disagreeing or quarrelling
- a discrepancy between two statements or documents
You'll notice that these all suggest a variance is not good (it's a difference of facts, quality, disagreement, discrepancy).
In the accounting world we try to solve or explain variances. A change or movement from last year/period is completely expected.. a variance, is not.
The terminology is very poor.
Sam Gray
shared this idea
Hi everyone, as mentioned in my last update I'm happy to share that we've now made this update and introduced a 'Supporting balance' column and updated the column previously known as 'Variance' to now be named 'Change'.
We've also added a new 'Variance' column that shows the difference between the supporting balance figure the and the current reporting period. 😊
Again, thank you all for sharing with us on this idea.
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Jo Bosson
commented
Great to hear that Supporting Balance will be re-instated - this is whole point of a workpaper, to agree to a supporting balance!!! Will be watching closely on this.
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Jo Bosson
commented
I find it incredibly frustrating that the NEW workpapers no longer has the option to enter a Supporting Balance.
The whole point of a workpaper is to check off the balances to your supporting documentation. I've never seen a workpaper not have a supporting balance option that then reconciles back to the ledger and gives out any variance from that point.
How the NEW workpapers are setup is not allowing for this at all and completely agree with Sam that the wording of Variance is irrelevant in this aspect when comparing current yr to previous variances are expected!!!
We NEED a Supporitng Balance Back again!!