Budgets & Forecasts reports

The Budgets & Forecasts reports print the budgets you set up and compare them with what the books actually recorded. Use Budget Overview to review or share the plan, Budget vs. Actual and Profit & Loss Budget Performance to see how the business is doing against it, and the by Class and by Job versions when you budget departments or jobs separately.

Budgets are entered in Company ▸ Planning & Budgeting ▸ Set Up Budgets (see Set Up Budgets). Until a budget exists for the year, these reports say so rather than showing zeros as if they were a plan.

Where to find them

• Reports ▸ Budgets & Forecasts: Budget Overview, Budget vs. Actual, Profit & Loss Budget Performance, Budget vs. Actual by Class, Budget vs. Actual by Job and Balance Sheet Budget Overview.
• Reports ▸ Report Centre, category Budgets & Forecasts.

The Budget vs Actual screen under Company ▸ Planning & Budgeting is a separate workspace; see Budget vs Actual.

Things to know first

• Fiscal year. Budgets are kept per fiscal year, which starts in the month set for your company. Reports that take an as of date use the fiscal year that date falls in.
• Which budget. Budget Overview, Budget vs. Actual and Profit & Loss Budget Performance use the company budget. A budget set up by class or by job is never added into them; it has its own report.
• Actuals come from the books: income and expense accounts, from postings dated in the period.
• Cash or accrual. Budget vs. Actual and Profit & Loss Budget Performance have an Accrual / Cash switch. Accrual counts income when it is invoiced; cash counts it when the money arrives. They open on the basis chosen in Preferences for summary reports. The budget itself does not change.
• No location or name filters. Budgets belong to the whole company.

See Running a report for dates and the toolbar.

Budgets

Budget Overview

The report's title is Profit & Loss Budget Overview.

What it answers: the income and expense budget for the fiscal year, month by month.

Date: as of one day. Any date in the fiscal year shows that year's budget. The subtitle gives the first and last month.

Columns: Account, one column per month of the fiscal year, and TOTAL.

Rows: an Income section and an Expense section, each listing only the accounts that have a budget, with a Total Income and Total Expense line. The last row, Net Income, is income less expense for each month and the year.

Drill down: none; this report shows the plan, not postings.

Budget vs. Actual

The report's title is Profit & Loss Budget vs. Actual.

What it answers: what each income and expense account actually did in a period against its budget.

Date: a period. Filters: Accrual / Cash.

Columns:

Rows: an Income section and an Expense section, each with a total, then Net Income.

How the budget is matched to the period: only the months your period covers are counted, and a month the period covers only part of is counted by the days covered. Comparing three weeks of trading with a whole month's budget would look like a disaster every time. The note under the report explains when this has been done, and when your period runs outside the budget's fiscal year.

Accounts with no budget: an account that had activity but no budget line is still listed, with a budget of zero, so spending in an account nobody budgeted cannot hide.

Drill down: click an account to open Transaction Detail by Account for it and the same period.

Profit & Loss Budget Performance

What it answers: this month and the year to date against budget, beside the whole year's budget.

Date: as of one day. Filters: Accrual / Cash.

Columns:

Rows: Income and Expense sections with totals, then Net Income. Accounts with nothing in any column are left out.

Budget vs. Actual by Class

What it answers: for each class that has its own budget, the budget beside what was posted to that class, fiscal year to date.

Date: as of one day. The report covers the fiscal year from its first month to that date.

Columns: Account, Budget, Actual, $ Over Budget and % of Budget.

Rows: one section per class with a budget. Under it, each income and expense account with a budget or an actual for that class, then a Net Income line for the class.

See Classes for assigning classes to transactions, and Set Up Budgets for budgeting by class.

Budget vs. Actual by Job

What it answers: for each job that has its own budget, the budget beside what was posted to that job, fiscal year to date.

Date: as of one day, as for the class report.

Columns and rows: the same as Budget vs. Actual by Class, with one section per job.

See Jobs.

Balance Sheet Budget Overview

What it answers: the budgeted balance of each asset, liability and equity account at each month end of the fiscal year.

Date: as of one day (any date in the fiscal year).

Columns: Account and one column per month.

Rows: Assets, Liabilities and Equity sections, listing only accounts with a Balance Sheet budget, each with a total.

When no Balance Sheet budget exists for the year, the report is empty and its note says where to set one up.

Common problems

Every figure is under Actual and the budget column is zero. No company budget exists for that fiscal year. The note says so. Set one up in Set Up Budgets.

Budget vs. Actual shows a smaller budget than I entered. Your period does not cover the whole month or year; the budget is counted only for the days the period covers. Widen the period to whole months.

A class or job budget is not in Budget vs. Actual. Class and job budgets are kept apart from the company budget. Use Budget vs. Actual by Class or by Job.

Cash basis figures differ from accrual. That is expected: cash basis counts income and expenses when they are paid.

Related articles

• Set Up Budgets
• Budget vs Actual
• Cash Flow Projector
• Profit & Loss
• Company & Financial reports