Table of Contents
1. Introduction
You can create multiple budgets to track various aspects of your business performance, such as actuals vs. initial budgets, revised forecasts, or specific project outcomes. The configurable comparison report allows you to report on the difference and variance for any time period and budget combination.
The budgets feature is available on Medium and Large accounting subscriptions.
The profit and loss comparison report is available on all subscriptions
2. Access to budgets
Go to Settings > Configure system > Toggle features and Toggle on Budgets.
When enabled, go to Reports > Budgets to access this feature.
3. Creating budgets
Hit ‘Create budget’ to start setting up a new budget.
3.1. Budget name
Enter a budget name that identifies its purpose.
3.2. Budget periods
Enter the period end date for the first budget period. For example, if you’re creating an annual budget, enter the year end date. If you want to report on monthly performance, enter the end date for the first month.
Enter budget amounts against the account codes for that period.
Note: Enter positive amounts for both sales and costs.
Tip: Clear Books will enter the result of a calculation entered into any amount field.Select ‘Budget accounts only’ to show just the account codes for which you have entered values.
3.3. Adding periods
Where more periods are required, use the copy icon above the period column to create a new period with the same values. Enter the end date for the new period.
Alternatively, use ‘+ Add period’ to create a new empty period.
Change or enter any amounts as required in new or copied columns.
Use the ‘Save’ button at any time to store the periods and amounts.
Tip: You don’t need to finalise values or add all periods. You can return to the budget to refine it at any point.
4. Managing budgets
Use the icons in the ‘Action’ column to change or remove budgets.
4.1. Edit
Select the edit icon against a budget to view and edit the values in it.
4.2. Archive
Select the archive icon to remove the budget from selection when reporting. The ‘Archived’ filter option will show archived budgets. Select the ‘Unarchive’ icon to restore to budget to the active list.
4.3. Delete
Use the delete icon to permanently remove the budget.
5. Reporting
Hit the ‘View budget report’ button and you will see a comparison of the current financial period with your new budget values.
5.1. Difference column
This shows the result of the first column (default: actual values) minus the second column (default: budget values) deducted from the
5.2. Variance column
This shows the difference between the actual and budget amounts as a percentage of the budget amounts.
Note: Favourable differences and variances are displayed in dark font colour and unfavourable amounts in red.5.3. Drill down
Click on amounts in the actual column to see the transactions that make up that amount.
Click on budget amounts to navigate to the budget entries that make up that amount.
5.4. Change reporting dates
Enter your required date ranges in the column filter fields and hit ‘Find’ to run the report for your new period selection.
5.5. Choose different budget
Select a different budget to report on in the ‘Budget’ column filter field.
5.6. Adding columns
In addition to modifying the initial columns, you can also add new columns to the report by clicking ‘+ Add column’.
For each column you can specify the date range, amount type, specific project/budget, and which comparison columns to show if required.
Note: Leave prior column comparison as ‘None’ if you don’t want to show a difference/variance between the previous column and that column.
5.7. Reordering columns
Use the handle icon against each column definition to drag and drop columns in the required order in the report.
Hit the ‘Find’ button to see the reordered columns
6. Projects
If you are using the projects feature, you can compare project actuals with project budgets that you have created.
Choose the project in the ‘Project’ column filter field and choose your required project budget to compare with in the ‘Budget’ column filter field.
7. Permissions
You can permit or deny access to the budget feature on the user permissions page under the ‘Reports’ section.
Access to the comparison report is controlled by the ‘Profit & loss’ permission.
