A variance is the difference between budget and actual. Harbor Oak’s report shows variances as favorable (positive) or unfavorable (in parentheses):

• Income above budget is favorable.
• Expenses below budget are favorable.
• Income below budget, or expenses above budget, is unfavorable.

Read the month first, then the year-to-date (YTD) columns. A single month can be noisy. A variance that keeps growing in the YTD column is a pattern.