Use the Trial Balance>Budget Entry screen to easily compare planned or expected results to actual results. You can create a new budget by entering all new information manually or importing budget data from an existing spreadsheet, or you can create a new budget by using a previous budget, selecting relevant data for the new budget and renaming it.
You can create budgets by department, and you can create multiple budgets for any period. If you have existing budgets, you can review or edit these budgets by selecting them from the Recent Budgets drop-down list. Click a link in the Account Code/Description column to enter or edit budget information.
Once you have created your budgets, you can go to the Reports>Company>Budget Report screen to create a report which you can use to analyze your budgets separately or in comparison to actual results. You can analyze individual or consecutive periods, both separately and in comparison to the year-to-date or annual budget.
If you are creating your first budget, your screen appears with the fields you need to create the budget. Follow the steps below. If you have already created your first budget, click the add action bar icon to create another budget. Then follow the steps below.
To create a budget using the Budget Entry screen:
Select the end-date of the year to include in the new budget from the Fiscal Year drop-down list.
Enter a name for the
budget in the Name field.
The
name helps you to identify the budget easily, if, for example, you
create budgets by department having a descriptive, unique name is
helpful.
Use the drop-down list in the Select Source field to specify a source for the budget. You can select one of the following:
Previous Budget: Select this option to copy the budget from a previous budget. The Create From field appears, listing the available budgets from which to create the new budget. Select the budget on which to base the new budget.
Manual: Select this
option to enter all amounts for the selected periods manually.
The Select Period field
appears. Select Monthly,
Quarterly, Semi-Annual,
or Annual to determine
the periods in your budget. Select a period option equal to or
greater than the number of periods you specified on the Setup>Company>Periods
screen.
Note: You can select this
option if you have no prior budget or actual data, or you can
use the Import action
bar item to import budget data into the system from an existing
spreadsheet.
Previous Data: Specify this option to base the target year's budget on a previous year's actual data by period.
Annualized Previous Data: Select this option to base the budget on a previous year's annual data, divided evenly by the number of periods you specify. The Select Period field appears. Select the number of periods by which to divide the annual data from the earlier year on which you are basing your budget.
Note: If you want, you can specify a department from the Select Department drop-down list to create a budget for a specific department.
Click Create to see your Budget Entry screen worksheet, listing account codes and descriptions for all your revenue and expense accounts.
Review the details of your budget on the Budget Entry screen worksheet. To compute the net income for each period, click Refresh Profit/Loss at the bottom left-hand side of the worksheet.
To add to or edit your budget,
Click a link in the Account
Code/Description column for a particular account to open the
Enter the Budget dialog.
Budget amounts are entered and saved by individual account.
Enter the appropriate figures in the Enter
the Budget dialog, either by entering amounts for each period,
or entering a total in the Distribute
Amount field and clicking Spread
to distribute that amount by period.
In general, enter revenue and expense amounts as positive numbers.
Enter contra accounts as negative amounts. You can only enter integers,
and the last period absorbs any rounding differences. If you use the
Spread button, you can adjust
any spread amounts by period.
Note: To delete a budget, select Delete from the Related Actions panel.
To see any recent budgets, select the budget from the Recent Budget drop-down list.
For more information about:
The Budget Report, see Access Company Reports
Setting up periods, see Set Up Company Information