Multi-sheet analysis for finance and FP&A analysts
By the Analistable team · Updated · 2 min read
Finance analysts spend most of the cycle assembling data before analysing it: actuals from the ledger, budgets from department owners, entity P&Ls, monthly files to trend. The recurring jobs are consolidation (stack many files) and variance (join two versions on account and period). This page maps them and links the guides.
The jobs behind every monthly pack
| Job | Files | Join key |
|---|---|---|
| Budget vs actual | Budget workbook + GL trial balance | Account code + month |
| Entity consolidation | One P&L per entity or franchise | Account code (after mapping) |
| Month-over-month trend | Twelve monthly exports | Stacked, then grouped by month |
| Forecast versions | Forecast v1 + forecast v2 | Account + cost centre + month |
| Cash flow roll-up | Bank or cash files per entity | Entity + week |
Two things make these harder than they look. Departments send budgets in wide format (a column per month) while the ledger is long, so one side must be unpivoted first. And entities rarely share a chart of accounts, so a mapping table sits between the files.
How Analistable fits
Load the budget, the actuals and the mapping sheet, then ask "variance by cost centre for Q3, largest overspend first". The AI writes SQL that joins all three; you can read the query and check the join keys before trusting the numbers. Because the model is saved, next month you reload the new files and ask the same question.
It does not replace your planning tool or the board-pack workbook. It shortens the step before it: getting many files into one shape and finding the rows that do not tie.
If totals look doubled after a join, a key is repeated on one side. The totals double after consolidating article explains how to spot it.
Start here
- Compare budget vs actuals
- Budget vs actual template
- Multi-entity P&L consolidation template
- Consolidate data in Excel
- Unpivot before merging wide reports
- Calculate month-over-month growth from monthly files
- Combine franchise P&L and budget files
- Cash flow consolidation template
- Excel Data Model relationships
Frequently asked questions
- Can it handle a budget with months as columns?
- Yes. Ask it to unpivot the months into rows, or describe the comparison and the generated SQL will reshape the budget before joining it to actuals.
- How is this different from Power Query?
- Power Query builds a repeatable transformation inside Excel. Analistable answers questions in plain English across loaded files. Many analysts use Power Query for the fixed pipeline and ad hoc questions elsewhere.
- Will it change my model workbook?
- No. Files are read only. Results can be copied or exported, and your source workbooks stay as they were.