Data & Analytics / Advanced

Automating Budget Analysis Case Study

KPMG MADA Program Team

November 2023

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Summary

This case study material is intended for use by undergraduate or graduate accounting faculty aiming to provide learners with real-world experience related to key managerial accounting concepts, including budget variance analysis, forecasting, and break-even analysis. This case is designed for students with a basic understanding of Alteryx, specifically its Join, Transform, Preparation, and Reporting tools. Data sets included.

Content

This case study, developed by the KPMG Master of Data and Analytics Program Team, has been designed to give instructors a meaningful way to incorporate Alteryx Designer into a managerial accounting classroom. Because greater understanding of data and analytics is commonly identified by experienced accounting and auditing professionals as an area of important for new hires, the need for university faculty to incorporate data analytic tools, especially Alteryx, in their classes is at an all-time high.

Overall, the case study will illustrate how Alteryx can be used to automate the budgeting and forecasting process, which is typically a manual process performed in Excel. The case will also highlight the importance of data presentation and how the Alteryx Reporting tool can help communicate insights from data analysis. The materials include a complete set of facilitator notes and Alteryx solution files.

The primary target audience for this case is a managerial accounting class, at either the undergraduate or graduate level.

Learning objectives

Through completion of this case study, students will be able to:

Explain the managerial accounting concepts related to preparing a budget analysis, gross margin calculations, budget allocation, break-even analysis, and forecasting.
Construct Alteryx workflows that will calculate and present a budget versus actual analysis, disaggregated by revenue stream and location, using company-supplied data.
Construct Alteryx workflows that will calculate the break-even point of a key financial metric.
Construct Alteryx workflows that will calculate forecasted sales based on assumptions provided, including growth and churn rates.
Draw conclusions for the business based on these data insights gathered.