Snapshots overview
Snapshots let organizations edit and save information about their cash position and cash forecasts at a point in time. You can compare the snapshot with actual financials, examine the variance, and use that information to improve cash flow forecasts over time. More specifically, snapshots can be used in the following ways:
- Track cash position and cash forecasts over time.
- Filter the data to show a subset of legal entities that the snapshot was created for.
- Edit the cash position and cash forecast that were generated by the system.
- Conduct what-if analysis to consider optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely views of the cash flow.
- Compare the actual financial performance with the forecast that is saved in the snapshot.
You can create a snapshot by select New snapshot on either the Cash position tab or the Cash forecast tab on the Cash flow forecasts workspace. After a snapshot is created, the inflows and outflows in it can be edited and saved. All saved snapshots are available on the Snapshots tab. To open a snapshot, select its name.
The cash inflows and outflows in snapshots can be edited at any time. When an inflow amount or an outflow amount is edited, the updated amount is prorated to the liquidity accounts that made the original balance. When you've finished editing a snapshot, select Save to save your changes.
To compare actual financial results with a forecast that was saved as a snapshot, select Compare with actuals. The Compare with actuals page will show a comparison of the actual amounts and the forecast. The chart in the upper section of the page shows a comparison of the cash inflows, cash outflows, and bank balances in the overlapping periods between the two snapshots. The grid in the lower section shows a detailed comparison of actual balances per period and the forecasted balance for each liquidity amount. The Variance column in the grid shows the difference between the actual balance in a period to the forecasted balance.