If you haven’t already read the Accounts Overview, see Budgets for more information.
You can choose from two ways of entering budgets for your accounts:
To manually enter budgets for an account
Note: The 13th period can’t be budgeted
If your fiscal year is set up to use 13 periods, you can’t assign a budget to the 13th period. That period is meant to be used for adjusting entries only.
The account you want to update should be displayed in the History and Budgets window.
- In the Budget column, enter the amount of expected activity for the account. Keep in mind that you should enter the expected activity for the account, not the expected balance of the account at the end of each month. For example, if your March budget for an account is $10,000 and your April budget is $10,500, enter $500, not $10,500, in the Budget column for April.
Idea: Remember how positive and negative numbers affect accounts
Be sure you properly indicate whether the amounts in the Budget column should be positive or negative. “Positive” and “negative” may appear to mean the opposite of what you expect; for example, if you enter $100 for an expense account, you indicate that the account will cost you $100 for the month.
- Click OK when you’re satisfied with your entries in the History and Budgets window.
To use budget shortcuts to enter an account’s budget
The Budget Shortcuts window should be displayed.
- Enter a budget amount and a frequency, and then enter a monthly dollar increase or monthly percentage increase.
- When you’re satisfied with your entries in the Budget Shortcuts window, click OK. The History and Budgets window will appear again, displaying the monthly budgets that were calculated in the Budgets column.
- Click OK in the History and Budgets window when you’re satisfied with the budgets that appear in the window.
Creating accounts - Step 4