Documentation
Scenarios & What-If Analysis
Model multiple futures in parallel and stress-test assumptions without touching your approved baseline.
Scenarios vs. versions
A scenario is a named planning universe (e.g. "Budget", "Upside", "Downside"). A version is an iteration within that scenario. Think of scenarios as horizontal slices and versions as vertical revisions:
| Scenario | Version | FY Revenue | FY EBITDA | EBITDA % | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget | v1 (locked) | 5,100,000 | 1,840,000 | 36.1% | Approved annual plan |
| Upside | v1 (draft) | 6,120,000 | 2,448,000 | 40.0% | +20% revenue; fixed OPEX; higher gross margin |
| Base | v1 (draft) | 5,100,000 | 1,840,000 | 36.1% | Copy of Budget — starting point for reforecasts |
| Downside | v1 (draft) | 4,335,000 | 1,040,000 | 24.0% | −15% revenue; COGS rises to 45%; OPEX flat |
What-If simulator
The What-If simulator lets you specify driver overrides — percentage or absolute changes to any account — and instantly see the cascaded P&L impact without modifying any version.
Navigate to Planning → What-If Simulator. Select a source version, define overrides, and click Run simulation.
Example: Marketing spend +10% → revenue uplift of 8%
Source version: "Budget v1 (locked)". Override: MARKETING = +10% (+51,000 FY). Assumption: each 1% marketing increase drives 0.8% revenue uplift.
| Account | Budget v1 | What-If | Δ Absolute | Δ % | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| REVENUE | 5,100,000 | 5,508,000 | +408,000 | +8.0% | ↑ GOOD |
| COGS | 2,040,000 | 2,203,200 | +163,200 | +8.0% | ↑ COST |
| GROSS_PROFIT | 3,060,000 | 3,304,800 | +244,800 | +8.0% | ↑ GOOD |
| MARKETING | 510,000 | 561,000 | +51,000 | +10.0% | ↑ INVEST |
| OPEX | 1,230,000 | 1,281,000 | +51,000 | +4.1% | ↑ COST |
| EBITDA | 1,840,000 | 2,033,800 | +193,800 | +10.5% | ↑ GOOD |
| EBITDA_MARGIN_PCT | 36.1% | 36.9% | +0.8 pp | +2.2% | ↑ GOOD |
| NET_INCOME | 1,300,000 | 1,493,800 | +193,800 | +14.9% | ↑ GOOD |
Conclusion
Spending an additional 51,000 on marketing yields +193,800 EBITDA — a 3.8× return. The simulation suggests the investment is worthwhile. Click Apply to new version to persist these overrides as a new draft version in the Upside scenario.
Three-scenario summary
Use Version Comparison to place Budget/Base/Upside/Downside side by side:
| KPI | Downside | Budget (locked) | Upside | Upside vs Budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY Revenue | 4,335,000 | 5,100,000 | 6,120,000 | +20.0% |
| FY COGS | 1,950,750 | 2,040,000 | 2,203,200 | +8.0% |
| FY Gross Profit | 2,384,250 | 3,060,000 | 3,916,800 | +28.0% |
| Gross Margin | 55.0% | 60.0% | 64.0% | +4.0 pp |
| FY OPEX | 1,230,000 | 1,230,000 | 1,281,000 | +4.1% |
| FY EBITDA | 1,040,000 | 1,840,000 | 2,670,000 | +45.1% |
| EBITDA Margin | 24.0% | 36.1% | 43.6% | +7.5 pp |
| FY Net Income | 460,000 | 1,300,000 | 2,090,000 | +60.8% |