Use actual numbers to create future budgets

Many companies find it useful to base the budget for the future on the actual numbers for the current or past year.

To make this easier, you can export account information in a format that can be used in budget import templates.

Prerequisites

There are a few things that you need to have in place before working with budgets.

• Create or edit all the reporting periods you'll be using, making sure to set them up to be used for budgeting. Reporting periods used for budgeting are typically each month, and cannot overlap.
• Accounts used in the budget must exist in the Chart of Accounts. Check your chart of accounts to make sure all the accounts are there, and if not, create them.
• Dimensions aren't required, but can be included, so if you plan to use them, make sure they exist and are defined the way you expect to use them.

There are 5 basic steps to creating a budget this way:

1. Create a new budget. Later, you'll import the data into the budget.
2. Create the spreadsheet to use to import the existing budget data.
3. Use the financial report writer to get a report containing the actual numbers from the previous period.
4. Update the spreadsheet, using the existing numbers and making any changes for the new budget.
5. Import the data to the new budget.

Using a program such as Excel, you can manipulate the numbers as needed—for example, to grow an area of the budget by 10%. You can also use an import template to distribute budgets to department managers so they can make changes. Keep in mind that, for example, if you budget by location and department, you should export the actuals for each location/department combination.

1. Create a new budget

You'll want to create the new budget before importing the actual numbers.

1. Go to Budgets > All > Budgets repository and select Add (circle) beside Budgets.
2. Give the new budget a unique ID and description.

   Best practice: Use a budget name that doesn't pertain to a particular fiscal year. You can append new time periods to your existing budget so that your financial reports won't require maintenance and you won't need copies of each financial report that uses budgets.

3. Include other optional information about the budget. Get details about budgets here.
4. Make sure that Create a new budget has a check mark beside it.
5. Select Save to save your new budget and be taken to the Budget Details page, which you'll use in the next step.

2. Create a budget import template

Create an import template that you'll use to supply the modified budget and import the budget details. You'll be adding the updated numbers based on the actual numbers from the previous time period.

1. If you're not already at the Budget Details page from the previous step, navigate to your budget list. Next to the budget you just created, select Budget details.
2. Select Add to add a new line to your budget. This line will become the basis for your template.
3. Select an account to add a budget for. Any account is fine - this is just needed to create the first line of the budget template.
4. Select the required fields and dimensions to include for the budget. For example, in companies with more than one entity, you might be required to include the location, and have a budget based on a project or supplier.
5. Select a date range. This can be 1 period if you’d like; you can choose which periods to include on the import template later.
6. Select Show Periods to display the budget reporting periods.
7. Select the checkbox for each time period you're populating. You only need to choose 1 time period for purposes of creating a template.
8. Enter an amount. This can (and probably will) be overwritten through your budget import and does not have to be valid budget information. For example, you can enter .01.
9. Select Save.
10. Select Export and save the file locally as a .csv file.

This becomes your template for importing the updated budget.

3. Create a financial report with the actual numbers

In order to use actual numbers as your base for the new budget, get the actuals from the current period.

1. Go to Reports and create a new financial report.
2. Set the report name to something that will let you recognize the reason for the report, for example, Actuals Export for Budgets.
3. On the Rows tab:
   1. Select Select account groups and choose the account groups to include in the report. These will be included in the budget report. In this example, you might select Expenses (total).
   2. Select Include in report, then select OK.
   3. Leave the Detail level set to Details for all rows.
   4. For Always display, select All.
4. On the Columns tab:
   1. Column 2 should initially be labeled Actual. Add a column to the left of Column 2.
   2. For the new Column 2, set the column type to Account number.
   3. On Column 3 (the Actual column):
      • Set the Reporting Period to Current Year.
      • Click in the Expand by field and select Time Period and leave Show field set to Expand bud. periods.
      • Select Set.
5. You do not need to do anything on the Computations tab.
6. If you budget by location and department, you should export the actual numbers for each location/department combination. On the Filters tab, select the Prompt checkbox for these options:
   • As of date
   • Department
   • Location
7. On the Format tab:
   1. Select the Rows and totals subtab.
   2. For both Hide headings and Hide totals, select All.
8. Optionally, preview the live report.
9. From the Financial Report Writer, select Save.
10. Export the report to a .csv file.
    1. From the Reports center, hover over the report and select CSV.
    2. Set the desired location, if you're using Location.
    3. Set the As of Date set to the end of the period you want the actual numbers for.
    4. Select OK and download the file.

Next, you'll use the financial report you created to create a budget based on the actual numbers.

4. Update the budget import template using the numbers in the report

1. Now that you have the actual numbers imported from your financial report, open the .csv file you just downloaded.
2. For the budget details, make any changes to the numbers. For example, add 10% if you plan to grow by that amount, or lower the budget by a fixed number if you know there will be reductions.
3. Save your template, so that you can import it in the next step.

5. Import the updated budget

After you have the spreadsheet updated with the numbers for your future budget, import the budget details.

1. Go to Budgets > All > Budgets repository.
2. Select Import.
3. Select Browse and select the spreadsheet that contains the budget to import.
4. Set the date format and file encoding. Usually the defaults here are the best choice.
5. Enter an email address so that you can be notified of the results of the budget import: success or failure.
6. Select Import. Select Done to close the notification window.