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When establishing budgets for a new financial year, it's crucial to note that the Budget Type is the cornerstone that shapes the Budget, which in turn can be modified to guide the forecast.
Should there be an existing forecast aligned with the budget, then the budget's structure is not amendable. The following diagram illustrates how each subsequent layer is informed by the preceding one.
To use a budget structure from a previous budget, the simplest method to create a new budget is to navigate to the previous one and select 'Copy'.
If you wish to create a fresh budget, navigate to the 'budget type' screen and select 'New' to begin from scratch.
If you have copied you must rename the budget so that it can be created as the same name cannot be used twice.
Additionally, choose the accounts/attributes necessary for the budget and the subsequent forecast, since the forecast can only be generated from the accounts chosen in the budget.
If the structure available does not allow the addition of new accounts/attributes, then consider either creating a new budget type or copying a more relevant budget structure.
Values that appear in purple when added to a budget indicate they were either not previously included in the Chart of Accounts (COA) structure or have been inserted as a field in one of the header rows, which subsequently influences the rows below it.
This suggests that creating a new budget category is necessary to incorporate the desired account or attribute values.
It is also important to remember that when copying a budget for a new financial year from an existing budget, that the periods will need updating. Not doing so will mean the figures go against the year you are copying from.
To set up new periods in a copied budget, go to the periods tab on the budget, highlight all the existing periods and then click delete to remove them.
Once that is done either click the wizard or select buttons to create the periods for your new budget.
When everything is done click create.
If you have the financial year open for the budget you want to create, then clicking select will allow you to choose the financial year to populate the periods.
To then create a new forecast, click the 3 dots on your created budget and on the dropdown click the create forecast option.
Then just edit the description or leave as is if preferable if it will be the only forecast under this budget and then click create.
Mistakes can be made! To delete a budget forecast, click on the icon highlighted on the screenshot below and then delete. You should only really be doing this if there is an error with the budget or associated forecast.
Then to add the figures to a budget forecast, click the dropdown arrow next to import and click export.
This then produces a file to add budget figures to which is unique to the budget.
If you have added attributes to any of the accounts and want to see them, they can be revealed by exposing any hidden columns on the spreadsheet. (From Column 'E' onwards)
Do not under any circumstance edit the spreadsheet details produced when the export is created, only add the numbers required to be imported. Amending the structure of the budget forecast import file will likely lead to errors.
When an import is successful it will show the values entered for the forecast in green such as the below example.
Even if you have more accounts on your budget than you actually need you only need to enter values where required for your budget. Entering zeros where not needed will make the budget look bloated, difficult to read and slow the loading performance.
Errors will be shown in red. The below example is when attempting to import a budget export from a different forecast.
Each budget forecast export is unique to that specific budget and therefore can only be used with that budget. Attempting to use one file for all budgets and their subsequent forecasts will not work even if the accounts and attributes are the same.
When imported successfully the forecast should look like the below.
If you wish to edit the forecast in the future do not click submit as that will lock in any figures and there is no means to unpost the forecast. It will still work with any reporting if you wish to leave it in the open status.
It is also worth noting that example above shows blank lines where there are no values. This can be toggled on the budget type by amending the setting highlighted below to remove the blank lines that have no values. This does not include where 0 has been entered in the field.
Need more help? Check out this video for step by step demonstration: How to Set up Budgets
How to manage budgets
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