Concept: Actuals Overlay
Actuals overlay is an optional account setting that displays actuals data on plan versions.
Use actuals overlay if you want your team to reference the actuals of prior periods in formulas on the same sheets as they plan.
Example: In 2021, your team created a budget plan version for 2022. With actuals overlay, the plan populates with the actuals data as the year progresses. Formula references in the plan become more accurate and your team can adjust the budget of the coming months as needed.
With actuals overlay, the actuals data covers plan data for:
- Accounts that you’ve enabled for actuals overlay in the account settings.
- Time periods in the plan version that you define in the version settings.
Actuals overlay also covers the formula calculations in the plan.
Actuals Overlay in Sheets
On sheets, actuals overlay data displays green fonts and gray cell backgrounds (locked).
You enable actuals for accounts at the child account. Some accounts with the same parent can have actuals, while others don't. For the actuals periods, the parent account totals only the child accounts with actuals. This total displays a green font with a gray background, just like any actuals overlay.
When you import account structures, you can, although we don't recommend it, disable actuals for a parent account that has child accounts with actuals. During periods with actuals overlay, the parent account still totals only the child accounts with actuals, but the sheet displays the total in black. You can change it back to green by importing the structure again and enabling the parent actuals overlay setting.
When you use a version for actuals overlay, anyone who can view the plan, can view the actuals data, even hidden actuals versions.
Actuals Sub-Versions
When you have actuals sub-versions, you can select the actuals version to use for actuals overlay in each of your plan versions. This is especially useful when you want to make adjustments to actuals without affecting the overlay. In this case, you can make adjustments to a different actuals sub-version than the 1 you use for actuals overlay. Remember that actuals sub-versions roll up to the root, which sums the values.
Version Settings for Actuals Overlay
For effective use of actuals overlay, adjust the version settings regularly.
Actuals overlay displays in the periods between the
Left scroll limit
of the plan version and whichever period is earlier:
- Start of planin the plan version.
- Completed values throughin the actuals version.
Actuals Overlay and the Planning Data Loader
You can use the Planning Data Loader in Design Integrations to automatically update actuals overlay. When you're importing actual data, you can click the
Make New Actuals Visible
check box to automatically sync the Completed values through
date to the latest month of data included in the loader import. Because actuals overlay often corresponds to the Completed value through
date, this option results in an automated actuals overlay update as well. See Create Planning Data Loaders. Actuals Overlay and Formulas
Actuals overlay "covers" formula calculations in the plan version. The data in the plan isn't replaced and we continue to store it. However, the actuals covers it. This includes default formulas in accounts, shared formulas, or formulas that you entered in the sheet. To expose the calculated values in the plan again, you can remove the actuals overlay. See FAQ: Can I Revert Actuals Overlay to Plan Data?
When formulas refer to cells with actuals overlay, the formula calculates the data based on the actuals overlay, not the plan data.
You need to turn on actuals overlay for the account to evaluate formulas based on actuals data. For accounts that have actuals overlay turned off, using formulas that refer to actuals data, or to cells in the sheet that have actuals overlay, results in blank evaluations. When you open Explore Cell, the value remains blank, but you can still see the evaluation in the
Evaluated Formula
section.