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Budgets

Month-by-month annual budgets with copy-forward, approval locking, variance alerts, payroll/capex estimates, rolling forecasts, Excel import/export, and multi-business roll-up.

What it does

A full fiscal year's budget - one amount per revenue/expense account per month, laid out as a spreadsheet-style grid - tracked live against what actually posted to those accounts, with the variance called out directly for whatever date range you're reviewing. Copy last year's plan forward as a starting point, lock it once approved (with a reopen path if it needs a correction), and auto-fill payroll and fixed-asset depreciation lines straight from the employee and asset registers instead of guessing. A rolling forecast blends closed months' actuals with the remaining open budget so the full-year number updates as the year goes. Import or export the whole grid as Excel/CSV for offline editing, and anyone managing more than one business gets a blended roll-up across all of them.

Why it matters

A P&L shows what happened; a budget is the only thing that tells you whether what happened was on plan, so overspending gets caught during the period instead of after it closes.

How to use it

  1. Open Budget from the sidebar to see the year's status at a glance.
  2. Go into Budget Plan and fill in a monthly amount for each account that matters - leave the rest blank, or copy last year's plan forward and adjust.
  3. Use the payroll/capex estimate buttons to pre-fill those lines from your employee and asset registers, then lock the plan once it's approved.
  4. Open Budget vs Actual to see the real variance for any date range, with alerts on any line over your variance threshold.

Main buttons and actions

  • Edit the monthly grid
  • Save budget
  • Copy forward from last year
  • Approve/lock or reopen a plan
  • Estimate payroll from employees
  • Estimate capex from fixed assets
  • Import/export Excel
  • Switch fiscal year
  • Change report period

Example workflow

  1. Build out the year's budget once, account by account, month by month - copying last year forward and auto-filling payroll/capex to save re-entry.
  2. Lock the plan once it's approved so it can't drift; actuals update automatically as orders, bills, and expenses post to those accounts.
  3. Check variance mid-period to catch overspending before period close, and watch the rolling forecast for where the full year is heading.