Timing differences that look like overruns
Budget variance investigations often start with a red number and a worried message from a cost owner. Before you accept the overrun story, reconstruct the calendar. Timing differences create some of the loudest false positives in financial auditing apps.
Common costumes
Open purchase orders that post goods receipt in one period and invoice in another. Accruals reversed a day late. Prepaid expenses amortized on a schedule that does not match the budget profile. Freight invoices that arrive after the close but relate to shipments already counted in volume metrics.
Documentation that ends the debate
A clean timing memo includes three anchors: the economic event date, the posting date in the ledger, and the budget period that was designed to hold the spend. Attach the PO or accrual journal—not a paragraph that says “timing.” Reviewers need the dates more than your adjectives.
When it is not timing
If the next period does not absorb the amount as expected, reopen the case. Timing explanations expire. In our Studio case packs, we include at least one variance that looks like a cutoff issue but turns out to be a rate change—so learners practice withdrawing an early conclusion.