Scenario Planning & What-If Analysis
Scenario Planning & What-If Analysis
Available from: v1.0.37
Scenario Planning lets executives and finance teams model multiple futures — best case, worst case, and likely case — for financial and workforce decisions. Scenarios are compared side-by-side with real-time data so leadership can evaluate trade-offs before committing to any course of action.
Overview
Organisations regularly face decisions with high uncertainty: a potential restructure, a new market expansion, or preparing for an economic downturn. Scenario Planning provides a structured workspace to build, compare, and stress-test those decisions across financial and headcount dimensions — without touching live data.
Key Concepts
Scenarios
A scenario is a named, isolated planning environment. Each scenario starts from a snapshot of your current real-time data and lets you apply hypothetical changes to model an outcome. Common scenario archetypes:
| Archetype | Typical Use |
|---|---|
| Best Case | Optimistic growth assumptions, full headcount plans, revenue upside |
| Worst Case | Revenue contraction, hiring freezes, cost-reduction targets |
| Likely Case | Baseline plan aligned to current forecasts |
| Custom | Any named scenario for a specific event (e.g. "EMEA Expansion Q3") |
You can create as many scenarios as needed. Scenarios are scoped to your tenant and are not visible across organisations.
Real-Time Comparison
Every scenario is displayed alongside live operational data. This makes it straightforward to see how a modelled outcome diverges from current actuals, and to track how assumptions drift over time as conditions change.
Non-Destructive Modelling
Changes made within a scenario are modelled only — they do not affect live financial records, payroll, or headcount data. A scenario must be explicitly promoted or approved before any changes flow into operational systems.
Use Cases
Workforce Restructuring
Model the cost and headcount impact of a proposed restructure. Adjust department sizes, role mixes, and compensation bands within a scenario to see total cost implications before any announcements are made.
Geographic Expansion
Build a scenario that adds a new office, regional entity, or headcount plan to an existing market. Compare hiring costs, tax burden, and revenue projections across expansion options.
Downturn Response
Create a downside scenario with reduced revenue assumptions to identify where savings are achievable. Model redundancy scenarios, contractor reductions, or budget reallocation and see the full financial effect instantly.
Getting Started
- Navigate to Planning → Scenarios from the main navigation.
- Click New Scenario and choose a starting point (current actuals or a copy of an existing scenario).
- Give the scenario a name and assign it an archetype (Best / Worst / Likely / Custom).
- Apply your hypothetical changes across the Finance and Workforce tabs.
- Use the Compare view to display your scenario alongside real-time data and other scenarios.
- Share the scenario with stakeholders for review, or promote it to begin the approval workflow.
Permissions
Scenario Planning is available to users with the following roles:
| Role | Access |
|---|---|
| Executive | Create, edit, compare, and promote scenarios |
| Finance Manager | Create, edit, and compare scenarios |
| HR Manager | View and contribute to workforce dimensions of shared scenarios |
| Viewer | Read-only access to scenarios shared with them |
Contact your tenant administrator to adjust role assignments.
Notes & Limitations
- Scenarios reflect a point-in-time snapshot of live data taken at creation. They are not automatically updated as live data changes — use the Refresh Baseline option to pull in the latest actuals.
- Side-by-side comparison is available for up to 5 scenarios simultaneously in the current release.
- Scenario data is retained for the life of the tenant and is included in standard data exports.