Seeing how the year is going against plan is where a budget pays off. Business Sensor compares every budgeted account with what was actually posted to it.
Before you start
- You need the Financial Statements permission.
- Actual figures come straight from your books, so record the month's transactions first.
Steps
- Open the budget from Accounting → Budgets and choose the Budget vs actual tab.
- Choose Up to and including a month. You see, per account:
- the month's budget and actual
- the budget and actual to date
- the variance (actual minus budget)
- how much of the year's budget is used
- Read the colours: green is good news (more income, or less spending, than planned) and red is not. The bar turns amber at 80 % and red past 100 %.
- For a department budget, choose a department at the top right to see just that department. All departments (totals) shows the company.
- To see the budget on the profit and loss report, open Reports → Profit & Loss and choose Compare to budget. Budget and Variance columns are added for the months inside the chosen dates.
Tips
- The net profit to date (budget and actual) is shown at the top of the tab.
- On the profit and loss report, the budget covers whole months that fall inside the dates you choose. Pick whole months for a fair comparison.
Common problems
- A department shows less spending than expected. Some transactions can't be traced to a department, for example general journals and vendor journals. A note above the table shows how much spending this year is unallocated. Record spending as expenses with the right department, rather than as journals, if you want it in the department's figures.
- An account has actuals but no budget. It was not budgeted. It is listed so you can see the unplanned spending.
- Figures look out of date. The comparison uses posted transactions. Refresh after recording the latest documents.