Budgets drafted from your own actuals, with every figure printed by a tool.
Planning & Analysis Manager is the AI planning agent in the Ai1 platform by MyZone AI: it drafts your budget from your own actuals, produces a monthly budget vs actual report with materiality flags and sends the plan and pack to your CFO, with every figure printed by a tool.
Each number in a draft or table is printed by a forecasting or reconciliation tool from your own files, never worked out in its head or retyped.
Variances worth explaining, flagged
Each line is labelled favourable or unfavourable and flagged when it crosses the materiality level you set.
Causes left to people
It never guesses why a line moved. The reason for each flagged variance stays open for someone on your team to explain.
Plans approved in writing
A plan counts as approved only when your approver says so in their own message about that draft. Silence never counts.
Meet your agent
Get to know Kwame
Kwame drafts the budget from the business's own actuals and the CFO's assumptions, runs budget against actual each month with materiality flags and checks the management pack before the CFO sees it. Every figure comes from a tool.
AI agent. Fictional persona; not a real person.
Kwame, the persona of Planning & Analysis Manager
Name
Kwame A.
Role
Financial Planning Manager
Experience
11 years
Work history
Budget analyst at a food wholesaler Management accountant at a regional coffee roaster
Personality
Figures from tools, never guesses, drafts labelled as drafts
Based in
Leeds, United Kingdom
Why Kwame has a personality
AI does better work as a specific expert, so Planning & Analysis Manager works as Kwame (Financial Planning Manager, Leeds, United Kingdom). You can rename Kwame or change the personality, experience and profile settings at any time.
Finance teams that plan a year and review it monthly
Each month
Budget vs actual, line by line, with materiality flags
The numbers
Printed by a tool from your own files, never by hand
Every draft
Labelled draft until your CFO approves it
Variance causes
Left open for a person on your team
Your books
Never changed; your accounting team loads a budget
Capabilities
What Planning & Analysis Manager does for you
Drafts the budget per line and month
Builds a draft for each plan line and month from your actuals and your CFO's assumptions, with a downside case when the assumptions include one. With no assumptions it runs a simple run-rate.
Runs budget vs actual after month-end
Compares actuals with the budget your approver chose, line by line: the variance, the percentage, favourable or unfavourable, and whether it crosses your materiality level.
Stops when the inputs disagree
A run uses one currency and stops if a tool reports another. A line with no budget is shown as unbudgeted, and an odd line name is withheld rather than guessed at.
Asks for the cash view and the pack
Requests the monthly cash view and management pack from the teammates that prepare them, only when they are active. Otherwise it writes a note for a person, marked not sent.
Checks each delivery before it goes on
Confirms each delivery is for the right month, business and currency, has an as-of date and has figures attached. A delivery with no figures is marked missing, not reviewed.
Sends the plan and pack for approval
The budget draft, the management pack, the cash view and its own review result go to your CFO. Its status goes to whoever runs your month-end close.
How Planning & Analysis Manager differs from CFO
CFO sets finance policy and limits and approves plans. Planning & Analysis Manager does the drafting and checking underneath: the budget draft per line and month, the monthly budget vs actual run with materiality flags, and the review of the cash view and management pack. Every figure comes from a tool run on your own files. It sends the result to your CFO and never approves its own plan.
How this differs from the CFO: For finance policy, limits and plan approval, use CFO; Planning & Analysis Manager drafts the budget and runs budget vs actual each month, every figure from a tool.
How it works
From your request to a finished result
It runs inside your Ai1 system and works in the tools you already use. You ask, it works, it reports, and it stops for your OK where it matters.
Tap the diagram to enlarge it
Step 1: Set your plan rules
You give your fiscal year, reporting currency, plan lines, materiality levels and who approves the plan.
Step 2: Draft the budget
A forecasting tool builds each line and month from your actuals and assumptions.
Step 3: Compare each month
A reconciliation tool produces budget vs actual and flags the lines worth explaining.
Step 4: Gather and check
The cash view and management pack are requested from active teammates and checked.
You approve
Step 5: Your CFO approves
Your CFO or plan approver reviews the drafts and decides. Nothing is approved until they say so.
When to use it
Hand these situations to Planning & Analysis Manager
Illustrative photo. How did last month compare with the budget?
If this is you…
…here's what it does
It is time to plan next year
A draft budget per line and month is built from your own actuals, labelled draft and sent for approval.
A month has closed and leadership wants to know how it went
Budget vs actual is laid out line by line, with the material variances flagged for someone to explain.
Someone asks for a quick forecast on one line
A short run-rate forecast comes from the forecasting tool, so even a quick answer rests on a tool run.
Your monthly review keeps arriving with pieces missing
Each delivery is checked for month, currency and figures, and anything missing is named before it reaches your CFO.
What you get
A budget draft per plan line and month, labelled draft
A monthly budget vs actual table with variance, percentage and materiality flags
A review result for the cash view and the management pack
The plan and pack sent to your CFO for approval, plus status for your close
Notes for a person, marked not sent, wherever a teammate is not active
What it won't do
✕Approve the budget or the planHandled by: Your CFO or plan approver
✕Load a budget into your accounting systemHandled by: Your accounting team
✕Build the cash forecast or write the management packHandled by: Your cash and reporting owners
Example budget vs actual report
Example: a budget vs actual and a budget draft for approval
Example with a fictional company. Names, people and figures are invented to show the agent's output. Any resemblance to a real company or person is unintended.
What it was asked: Run budget vs actual for October, show me the draft budget for next year, run the monthly review and send it all to Odile.
Example report
October budget vs actual, labelled draftNext year's budget, draft 1Monthly review: what came back and what is missingSent to your CFO for approval
What it found: 3 findings, with the numbers
October budget vs actual flagged 5 lines worth explaining, including online sales and freight out; causes stay open for a person.
Next year's budget went out as draft 1, per line and month with a downside case, every figure printed by the forecasting tool.
The management pack passed its check, the commentary arrived with no figures and the cash view is waiting on a person.
This is an illustrative example of what Planning & Analysis Manager produces, written by hand from the agent's design for an invented outdoor gear maker with invented figures. Every table shows figures as the tools would print them, labelled draft. No real systems or people were involved. Run date: .
Want a budget vs actual report like this for your own business? Book a Planning walkthrough.
Every Ai1 agent works under human approval. Here is how Planning & Analysis Manager keeps you in control.
Every figure is printed by a forecasting or reconciliation tool from your own data. It never does arithmetic in its head, retypes a number or adds a total nobody asked for.
Everything it makes is a draft. It never approves its own plan, never calls a budget approved on its own and never takes silence as approval.
It never posts to your accounting system, including loading an approved budget, never pays or moves money and never sends anything outside your business.
It never guesses why a line moved. Causes of material variances stay open for a person on your team.
It posts to no channel and sets up no scheduled job. Results are saved as new documents in your project, so earlier versions are never overwritten.
Why teams choose Ai1
Part of Ai1, by MyZone AI
Trusted by leaders at Plastic Bank, Outback Team Building, RMG Advertising, Keeran Networks, and Titan Training Centre.
Human approval is required before any high-impact action.
Bookkeeper keeps the books behind the monthly actuals that every comparison starts from.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions about Planning & Analysis Manager
How can a finance team draft a budget from its own actuals?
Start from your monthly actuals and a short set of assumptions, then build each plan line and month with a forecasting tool, so every figure traces back to a tool run. Planning & Analysis Manager drafts that budget, labels it draft and sends it to your CFO, who approves or changes it.
What should a monthly budget vs actual review show?
Each plan line's budget, actual, variance and percentage, whether it is favourable or unfavourable, and which lines cross the level you set as worth explaining. Planning & Analysis Manager prints every figure from a tool and leaves causes for a person to explain; your CFO approves.
Where do the numbers in a budget vs actual report come from?
From tool runs only. A forecasting tool builds budgets and forecasts, a reconciliation tool produces budget vs actual, and every table points to the saved output it came from. Planning & Analysis Manager never works a number out in its head or retypes one.
How is Planning & Analysis Manager different from CFO?
CFO sets finance policy and limits and approves plans. Planning & Analysis Manager does the drafting and checking underneath: the budget draft, the monthly variance run and the review of the cash view and pack. It sends the result to your CFO and never approves it.
Does it explain why a line is over budget?
It labels each line favourable or unfavourable and flags the ones above your materiality level. The reasons stay open for a person on your team, or whoever writes your management commentary, to fill in. It does not guess at causes.
Will it load the budget into our accounting system?
No. It never changes your accounting system, pays or moves money, or sends anything to customers, suppliers, banks or tax authorities. Loading an approved budget is a job for your accounting team.
Is Planning & Analysis Manager available now?
Yes. Planning & Analysis Manager can be installed in Ai1 today. Each install starts with a short setup in chat where your business gives its own fiscal year, reporting currency, plan lines, materiality levels and plan approver.
About Ai1
How much does Ai1 cost?
Run it yourself on a developer plan, or let our team deploy your agents and oversee them for you. Every plan runs on its own private server, and every price is shown in full. See Ai1 pricing →
Do I get just Planning & Analysis Manager, or the whole platform?
The whole platform. Planning & Analysis Manager is not sold on its own: every Ai1 agent, including this one, is included on Developer Pro and every Fully Managed option, with no per-agent charge. Developer Core includes the development agents. Compare plans →
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