“What does each activity really cost, and can we fund it as it changes?”
Activity-based costing and its time-driven form, driver-based planning, rolling forecasts and all twelve Beyond Budgeting principles — run against the ledger, the cost book, the portfolio and the strategy. Shared costs are assigned by drivers measured from use, not spread by headcount. The forecast stays apart from the target and the budget, and takes in every closed month. Keep your own drivers, cadence and approval rules; when you change them, earlier periods stay as they were run. TBM, FinOps and lean portfolio funding draw on the same costs and drivers.
Runs in
Covers
Activity-based costing · rolling forecasts · Beyond Budgeting
The pressure
Most finance teams agree that cost should follow activity and plans should move with the business. Then the activity model lives in a consultant’s workbook, drivers are re-surveyed once a year, and the forecast is the budget with the months filled in. The target, the forecast and the funding become one number, negotiated once a year. The method decays into a ritual.
What it looks like today
Full coverage
No consultant’s workbook required. Each costing element, planning practice and principle maps to where it runs, against the ledger, the portfolio and the strategy.
Activity-based costing · time-driven ABC · Beyond Budgeting’s 12 principles (2023)
Cost that follows the work.
Two estimates instead of a survey.
Change the driver; the plan follows.
The outlook, updated every close.
Six principles about how people lead.
Six principles about how the numbers work.
What changes
Shared cost spread by headcount
Shared cost assigned by drivers measured from actual use
One number for the target, the forecast and the budget
Targets, forecasts and funding kept as separate numbers — compared, never added
An annual budget re-cut by hand
A forecast that takes in every closed month and re-plans as a new version
Drivers typed into a spreadsheet
Labor, contract and asset drivers calculated from the records behind them
A forecast that moves with the business
Every locked month rolls into the forecast, so the plan always shows actuals behind you and an honest forecast ahead. The budget stays where it was set; the forecast says where you will really land. When the two part, the variance is traced to the driver that moved and the owner who can act — while there is still time to move money.
Where other tools stop
Planning platforms model drivers but not what technology and shared services really cost. Costing tools allocate the past but cannot plan the future. Here activity costs, drivers and the forecast sit in the same plan.
Flexed to how you run
Few companies run activity-based costing or Beyond Budgeting by the book, and they don’t need to. Take the parts that pay off now and leave the rest for later.
Named drivers, not a black box
Every driver is named and editable by finance. Change one and every cost and forecast that depends on it updates.
Precision where it pays
Use measured drivers for the large shared costs and simple rules for the rest. Each assignment shows how confident it is, so you know where to measure next.
Annual budget, rolling forecast, or both
Keep a fixed annual budget beside a forecast that rolls every close. They are compared, never added, so you can move at the pace your board accepts.
Beyond Budgeting in steps
Start by separating the forecast from the target. Then release funding as work proves itself, and move reviews onto business rhythms when you are ready.
When methods change
Activity-based costing and driver-based planning have no official editions. Beyond Budgeting does: the Beyond Budgeting Round Table last revised its twelve principles in 2023. And most finance teams change their own methods every year or two. Dotwork versions your method like any other change: drivers, targets and forecasts move only when you approve, and past periods keep the method they were run under.
Rhythm renamed Coordination — organize around business rhythms and events, not only the calendar year
Re-forecasts and funding decisions triggered by events as well as the calendar
Plans and forecasts narrowed to Forecasts — lean and unbiased, not a political exercise
The forecast kept as its own number, apart from the target and the budget
Performance evaluation reworded — holistic, to guide interventions, not for rewards only
Results read across outcomes, metrics and intent, not a single variance
The management processes reordered to start from targets
Views reordered to match; past periods unchanged
Every framework, one model
Costing and planning methods sit underneath almost every other framework — TBM allocates with them, FinOps forecasts with them and lean portfolios fund with them. Here each of them draws on the same drivers and rate cards.
IT spend taxonomy
Activity drivers carry shared cost into TBM’s pools, towers and solutions, reconciled to the ledger.
Explore TBMCloud accountability and billing data
Cloud budgets and forecasts live in the same driver-based plan as the rest of the technology budget.
Explore FinOps & FOCUSFunding value streams, not projects
Funding released as work proves itself — Beyond Budgeting’s resource allocation, run as lean budgets.
Explore Lean Portfolio ManagementGoals tied to funded work
Directional, relative targets set as key results, kept apart from the forecast.
Explore OKRsASC 350-40 · ASU 2025-06 · IAS 38
Capital and operating spend planned together, with amortization flowing from the plan.
Explore Software CapitalizationFinOps for AI · token and model spend
Cost per task for agents and people comes from the same rate cards and activity costs.
Explore TokenomicsAI-native costing and planning
Dot measures drivers, prices labor, rolls in actuals and drafts variance explanations. Every number it shows comes from the book, never from the model guessing. Nothing changes until a person approves it, and every change can be undone.
Checks that each shared cost has a driver with a current measurement, and shows the confidence of every assignment.
Prices every role from its rate card by role and location — base rate plus burden — so the plan always carries loaded cost.
Calculates burdened labor cost from FTE and rates, multi-year contracts with yearly uplifts and prepaid terms, and depreciation and amortization schedules for assets.
Type a target on a summary row and it spreads to the detail — proportionally, evenly or by a 4-4-5 or 3-3-4 calendar — leaving locked, actual and formula cells alone.
When a month is signed off and locked, its actuals flow into every open forecast — no copying and pasting.
Traces the variance to the GL lines behind it, flags spend with no plan line and plan with nothing booked, and drafts the explanation.
Flags teams running above or well below their operating capacity against the work they have planned.
Ask Dot for a change — “move this driver from headcount to usage from July” — and see exactly what it would do before anything is written.
Where it runs in Dotwork
Dotwork does not ask you to adopt a new method. The framework becomes a view over the same model these solutions already read and write.
How it compares
Connected-planning and IT costing suites give finance drivers, versions and allocations, each in its own model. Spreadsheets bridge them. Cost & Planning on Dotwork runs activity costing, driver-based planning and rolling forecasts in one book, connected to the portfolio and the strategy.
| Capability | Planning & costing suites | Spreadsheets & BI | Cost & Planning on Dotwork |
|---|---|---|---|
| Driver-based planning | Partly | ||
| Versions, scenarios and a plan of record | Partly | ||
| Targets, forecasts and budgets kept as separate numbers | Partly | ||
| Closed months rolled into every open forecast | Partly | ||
| Activity-based costing with drivers measured from use | Partly | Partly | |
| Labor, contract and asset drivers built in | Partly | ||
| Every shared dollar tied to the ledger — nothing spread to balance | Partly | ||
| Variances traced to GL lines, with drafted explanations | Partly | ||
| Funding released as needed, beside the portfolio it funds | Partly | ||
| Wired to TBM, FinOps, the portfolio and strategy on one model |
Who it is for
“What does each product and service really cost — and can we fund what changes?
“Can the forecast pick up each closed month on its own?
“Which driver should carry each shared cost, and can we prove it?
“What is my target, what is my forecast, and why are they different?
“Where is capacity sitting unused, and what does it cost us?
“Can we fund work as it proves itself instead of once a year?
Before you buy
How to get a number instead of a pitch.
1
Good answer · By a named driver, measured from use, that finance can read and change.
Bad answer · By headcount, because that is how the model was built.
2
Good answer · No. Targets, forecasts and the budget are kept apart and compared.
Bad answer · The forecast is the budget with actuals pasted in.
3
Good answer · They flow into every open forecast as soon as the month is locked.
Bad answer · Copied in by hand before the review.
More in Finance & Cost
Finance & Cost
The standards finance and IT finance use to say what technology costs and who uses it.
The model underneath
Steer, Fund & Optimize and Govern & Deliver all read and write the same Enterprise Operating Model. The first module you license builds the model. Every module after it adds context instead of another silo — and Dotwork AI reads all of it, stopping where the decision is yours.
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