Entering budget amounts

You can use the Prepare Budgets window to enter budget amounts for each month of the current or next fiscal year. If you want to quickly enter budget amounts for a group of months, you can use the Budget Shortcuts window.

As the year progresses, you can choose to either adjust budget figures or leave them unchanged.

Entering positive and negative amounts

By default, the amount you enter will be assumed to be a positive amount. You can enter negative budget amounts by typing a hyphen before the amount (for example, -$250). When you enter a negative amount, you are indicating that the balance of the account is going to reduce.

Using existing data

If you have already prepared a budget in a spreadsheet or in another software program, you can import that information into your software. For more information on how to import account budgets, see ‘Importing data’.

You can also use the previous fiscal year’s data as a basis for your budget.

To enter the budget for an account

1	Go to the Accounts command center and click Accounts List. The Accounts List window appears.

2	Click Budgets. The Prepare Budgets window appears.

The window lists the Profit and Loss accounts by default.

3	From the Fiscal Year list, choose whether you want to enter a budget for this fiscal year or the next one.

4	From the Account Type list, choose the type of account you want to enter a budget for—Profit and Loss or Balance Sheet.

5	For each month, click in the appropriate row and type the amount. If you want to enter a negative amount, type a hyphen before the figure (for example, -$250).

As you enter data, the FY Total column will display the total budget for each account.




A	The Account Name and FY Total columns display the list of accounts and their current budget totals for the fiscal year.
B	You can enter the budget amount for a specific account and month. You can use the horizontal scroll bar to scroll through the months.
C	Click Shortcuts to open the Budget Shortcuts window from where you can quickly enter budget amounts for the selected account. For more information, see ‘Budget Shortcuts window’ below.
D	Click Copy Amount to Following Months to copy the selected amount to the months that follow.
E	Click Copy Previous Year’s Actual Data to insert the previous year’s account balances for the selected account and month.

6	Click Close to save the budget data and exit the Prepare Budgets window.