Put the budget and the actuals side by side, see which lines deserve a question, and report it on one page.
An Excel workbook for a budget-versus-actual review. Type each budget line with its department, budget and actual; the variance, the variance as a percent of budget, a favorable or unfavorable label and a materiality flag fill themselves in. The sign convention (actual minus budget, or the reverse), the threshold (an amount and a percent, both or either) and what to do with reversal lines are settings, and every sheet states them.
The Departments sheet adds the lines up by department, with each department's share of spend, budget and actual per head from the headcount you type, its material lines on each side and a status, plus checks that the department totals tie out to the lines. The KPI summary puts the totals, the department table, a bar chart of variance by department and five sentences on what the total hides on one A4 page.
It comes filled in with Clearstone's budget from Follow the Money: all 1,000 lines and the five departments. It finds what the book finds: 193 lines beyond a threshold of 10 percent and €5,000, 87 of them over budget by €684,315 between them; a Sales reversal line (an actual of −€2,377) left out with its budget; and Legal, a department with six people and no budget lines. Clear the yellow cells to start your own.
XLSX for Excel 2010 or later and LibreOffice, five sheets. Formulas only, no macros; no function needs Excel 2019 or Microsoft 365.