“Can we still move money before the period closes?”
Planning, Budget & Forecast puts budget, forecast and actual spend side by side, using the same numbers as Cost Allocation. The approved plan is locked and versioned, with alternatives kept beside it. When spending drifts, you see the cause and the owner while there is still time to act — and next year’s plan starts from this year’s, not a blank grid. The grid works like the spreadsheets finance already knows.
Rooms you open
Methods supported
Part of Fund & Optimize · How do we plan, allocate and optimize resources?
The pressure
Budgets are built in one tool, forecasts in a spreadsheet and actuals in the accounting system. By the time the three meet the quarter is over, and overspend is something to explain instead of something to fix. When strategy changes mid-year, re-planning means a new spreadsheet and a lost month.
What it looks like today
What changes
Budget, forecast and actuals in three places
One view, with every gap tied to a cause and an owner
Re-planning means a new spreadsheet
Re-planning means a new version beside the approved plan
Overspend explained after the close
A clear forecast of where you will land — while you can still change it
Decide before the close
Spend so far against budget and forecast, with where the period will end up if nothing changes. Plan and actual are compared, never added together, so a decision to slow down or move money happens while it can still change the result.
Where other tools stop
Planning tools track budgets. Reporting tools chart actuals. The decision — move money now — falls between them.
The rooms
Each room answers one question a leader actually asks, with the view that answers it and the measures that say whether it is working.
A room is a ready-made view that answers one leadership question, built on the same shared data as every other room.
Room 01
“What is the approved plan, and what alternatives did we consider?”
The locked, approved plan beside its alternatives — versions compared, never added together, with finance and headcount planned together.
How you know it is working
Room 02
“Are we on plan, how good is our forecast, and where are we off?”
Budget, forecast and actual in one view, with each gap tied to what caused it and who owns it.
How you know it is working
Room 03
“Can we change course during the period instead of explaining it afterward?”
Spend so far against budget and forecast, with where the period will land — so decisions happen before the close.
How you know it is working
Built for finance teams
Ready-made financial views, set up for your organization rather than custom-built — and a grid finance teams are comfortable working in all day.
Works like a spreadsheet
Keyboard navigation, copy and paste from Excel or Google Sheets, and CSV import and export.
Formulas that understand time
Refer to last month or next month without building lookup tables.
Branch and compare
Create an alternative from an existing plan, keep track of where it came from and compare line by line.
Approve and publish
Submit and review by cost center. If numbers change underneath an approved plan, you are warned — nothing is silently overwritten.
Who it is for
“Are we landing on plan, and what do we move if we are not?
“Which gaps have a real cause, and which are noise?
“Where can I move money without re-planning every project?
“What is my target, and how am I tracking against it?
What it replaces
How it is licensed
Planning, Budget & Forecast is licensed within Fund & Optimize, with Cost Allocation included underneath.
Start in IT, one function or a division. Cost Allocation is included automatically with every module.
See pricingMethods and frameworks
Dotwork does not ask you to adopt a new method. The frameworks your teams run become views over the same model.
TBM
Technology Business Management: a standard way to categorize IT spend and who uses it.
FinOps
The practice of making teams accountable for what they spend on cloud.
More in Fund & Optimize
“Where does the money actually go — and can I trust the number?”
Explore“What is the cloud bill actually paying for?”
Explore“What does this AI actually cost — and what did it return?”
Explore“Do we have the people for what we just funded?”
Explore“What did we buy, what have we used, and who owns the renewal?”
ExploreThe 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.
See the Enterprise Operating Model© 2025-2026 Dotwork, Inc. All rights reserved.