# Planning & Analysis Manager: Budgets Drafted, Variances Flagged > 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. Canonical page: https://myzone.ai/pages/agents/ai-planning-analysis-agent Part of Ai1, by MyZone AI. Book a Planning walkthrough: https://calendly.com/d/ct6h-tcy-8qf/ai1-demo?a1=Planning%20%26%20Analysis%20Manager&utm_source=myzone.ai&utm_medium=agent-page&utm_content=ai-planning-analysis-agent-final Last updated: 2026-11-10. Reviewed by the MyZone AI team. Budgets drafted from your own actuals, with every figure printed by a tool. ## At a glance - **Built for:** 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 ## What Planning & Analysis Manager does - **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 (https://myzone.ai/pages/agents/ai-cfo-agent): 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 1. **Set your plan rules** (When you install it): You give your fiscal year, reporting currency, plan lines, materiality levels and who approves the plan. 2. **Draft the budget** (When it is time to plan): A forecasting tool builds each line and month from your actuals and assumptions. 3. **Compare each month** (After each month-end): A reconciliation tool produces budget vs actual and flags the lines worth explaining. 4. **Gather and check** (Before anything reaches your CFO): The cash view and management pack are requested from active teammates and checked. 5. **Your CFO approves** (you approve) (Whenever your CFO decides): Your CFO or plan approver reviews the drafts and decides. Nothing is approved until they say so. ## When to use it - **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 ## 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. 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: 10 November 2026. ### What it found - 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. ## Guardrails - 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. ## Frequently asked questions ### 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. ## More on this topic - [Do You Really Need a CFO, or Do You Need Better Data?](https://myzone.ai/pages/blog/ai-financial-health-monitor): Why small businesses lose sight of their finances, and how AI-powered monitoring keeps the numbers in view. ## About Ai1 Ai1 is the AI operations platform by MyZone AI, where each client runs on its own private server. 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. Pricing: https://myzone.ai/pages/services/ai1-pricing. Security: https://myzone.ai/pages/security.