Budgets

Budgets

Overview

Budgets is a financial tool used to estimate and track your business's future income and expenses. By setting a budget in CustomBooks™, you can compare your planned goals against your actual spending to make informed decisions and ensure your business remains profitable.

To open Budgets: Navigate to Accounting → Budgets.



Creating a Budget

To create a new Budget:
  1. Navigate to Accounting → Budgets.
  2. Click Create → New / Import.
  3. Enter the Year. Check the Fiscal Year checkbox if applicable.
  4. The Budget Type defaults to Income Statement.
  5. Enter the Budget Description.



  6. Choose a Pre-fill option:
    1. Pre-fill the data from a file (Data Import).
    2. From another Budget
    3. From the actual data.
    4. Do not pre-fill: Start with a blank budget.



  7. Enter Budget amounts: * If the data is not pre-filled, enter the amounts for each month; the Total will update automatically as each month is added.
    1. Alternatively: Enter the Total for the entire year, and the system will automatically split the amount evenly across all 12 months.
  8. Click Save or Save and Close to finalize the budget.




Budget vs Actual Report

The Budget vs Actual Report calculates actual income and expenses and compares them against your budgeted figures. The report displays the budgeted amount, the totals of associated transactions, the variance amount, and the variance percentage.
  1. Drill Down: You can double-click any amount to "drill down" and view the specific transactions included in that total.
  2. Account Grouping: Sub-totals are organized by account type, including: Income, Cost of Goods Sold, Expenses, Other Income, and Other Expenses.
  3. Performance Metrics: The report also displays subtotals for Operating Income, Gross Profit, and Net Profit.
Notes
Note: The report generates these totals based only on the specific accounts that were included when the budget was created.

To run a Budget vs Actual Report:

  1. Navigate to Reports → Budget vs Actual Report.
    1. Alternatively: Go to Accounting and, under the Reports section, select Budget vs Actual Report.
  2. Select the desired budget from the Budget dropdown menu.
  3. Click Run Report.


Report Levels and Variances

Report View Modes

The Budget vs Actual Report offers two primary modes tailored for different needs:
  1. Present Mode: Optimized for quick viewing and formal presentation (e.g., PDF export). It provides a clean, high-level summary showing totals and variances, with formatting locked to the highest report level.
  2. Analyze Mode: Designed for detailed inspection and editing of the data. This is where you can drill down into transaction details, export the report, change formatting, and access all settings.


Variances

On a Budget vs Actual Report, variances show the difference between your Actual performance (what really happened) and your Budgeted figures (what you planned).
  1. Dollar Variance ($): This is the absolute monetary difference between your Actual results and your Budgeted amount.
  2. Percentage Variance (%): This is the dollar variance expressed as a percentage of the Budgeted amount. it shows the rate of deviation from your plan.
  3. Combined Variance ($+%): This option displays both the monetary difference and the percentage side-by-side for each line item. This provides a complete picture, showing both the magnitude ($) and the relative impact (%) of the deviation from your budget.




Report Settings

Report settings allow users to customize the content and appearance of the Budget vs Actual Report.

General Settings

These settings control the scope and basic layout of the data presented:
  1. Accounting Method: Select the accounting reporting method (Accrual or Cash). Note: The default reporting method is whatever method is selected in the main Accounting Settings.
  2. Display By: Defines how the report data is grouped (Years, Quarters, Months, etc.).
  3. Account Presentation: Choose how accounts are displayed: Account Description Only, Account Code Only, or Account Code and Description.
  4. Show Zero/Inactive Accounts: Option to Show/Hide accounts that have zero balances or are marked as inactive.
  5. Show % of Budget: Displays the Actual amount as a percentage of the Budgeted amount.
  6. Show "Total" Column: Adds a summary column to the right side of the report that aggregates the data across all selected periods
  7. Sort Fields: Define the primary sorting criteria, such as by Account Type, Account, As of Date, Section, Division, or Variance ($, %).



Filter Settings

Filters refine the transactions or accounts included in the report:
  1. Filter by Account Type, or Account.
  2. By Report Period.
  3. By Amount RC or Amount RC Budget.
  4. or by Variance, Variance %, or % of Budget.


Header/Footer Settings

Used for document identification and branding:
  1. Set the Title, Header text, and Footer text (optional) for the printed or exported report.


Charts Settings

Optional addition of visual elements like a Line, Bar, or Pie Chart directly onto the report to illustrate trends.



Format Settings

Page Setup: These settings control the physical layout for printing:
  1. Adjust Paper Size
  2. Adjust the Margins
  3. Orientation (Portrait/Landscape).
  4. Choose to print in Color or Black & White.
  5. Set Pages per Sheet
  6. Set the Scaling for print optimization.



Format Numeric Field: Controls how numbers appear in columns:
  1. Increase or decrease the Decimal Precision.
  2. Set Display Value for Zeroes (e.g., -, Zero, or 0.00).
  3. Define Negative Number Presentation (e.g., (1.1), -1.1, or - 1.1).
  4. Option to display negative numbers in RED.


Command Buttons

These buttons provide direct actions related to managing, viewing, printing, or distributing the report configuration and output:
  1. Run Report: Generates the report based on the currently selected settings and view mode.
  2. Settings Drop-down:
    1. Hide Settings: Collapses the entire settings panel from view.
    2. Save Settings: Saves the current configuration to your user account with a custom name for later use.
    3. Select Saved Settings (Load): Loads a previously saved report configuration.
    4. Restore Default Settings: Reverts all report options back to the system default values.
  3. Open New Report: Opens a new, blank Budget vs Actual Report tab/window.
  4. Print: Sends the currently viewed report configuration to a connected printer.
  5. Export: Converts the report output to various file types (PDF, XLSX, DOCX, etc.). Note: This button is only enabled when the report is in Analyze View Mode.
  6. Send via Email: Attaches the report output and prepares an email for distribution.



Check out the video below to learn more about how to create Budgets and run Budget vs. Actual report.



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