Plan grid
A "category × months" table: enter amounts month by month, or a total for the period that is spread evenly.
What a budget and plan vs actual analysis are
A budget is a plan of income and expenses for a period, broken down by category. Plan vs actual analysis compares that plan with what really happened, showing where the business overspends and where income falls short. For how a small business can build a budget, read the guide to small business budgeting.
How a budget is structured
- Period: a month, a quarter or a year. It can start in any month, so the financial year need not be the calendar year.
- Plan lines: an income or expense category with amounts by month. A line can be narrowed to a project, a direction, an account or a legal entity.
- Actuals are taken from your transactions automatically; you do not enter them by hand.
- Scenario: the name of a plan variant, such as base, optimistic or pessimistic.
The budget is kept in the workspace base currency.
What you can do
Budget execution
Plan, actual, variance and variance percentage by month and in total, separately for income, expenses and the net result.
Cash or accrual basis
A switch decides which date puts an actual into a month: the payment date or the accrual month.
Scenarios and comparison
Several budgets for the same period can be compared side by side by category, with variances measured against the first.
Copying
Copy a budget to the next period or into a new scenario, take amounts from the plan or from actuals, and scale them by a percentage.
Approval and CSV
An approved budget is locked against changes and can be returned to draft. Execution can be downloaded as CSV.
How to read execution figures
| Metric | How it is calculated | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Variance | Actual minus plan | Expense plan 1,000 EUR, actual 1,150 EUR: +150 EUR |
| Variance, % | Variance / plan × 100 (not shown if the plan is zero) | 150 / 1,000 × 100 = 15% |
| Execution, % | Actual / plan × 100 | Income: plan 10,000 EUR, actual 9,200 EUR, execution 92% |
| Net result | Income minus expenses | Plan 10,000 − 7,000 = 3,000 EUR |
Who it is for and what it answers
A budget is for owners and finance managers who want to control costs in advance instead of explaining overspending afterwards. It answers questions such as:
- Where are we over plan, and by how much?
- Is the income plan being met month by month?
- What will the result be under the optimistic and pessimistic scenarios?
- Which costs were not planned at all? Actuals with no matching plan line are shown separately.
A plan line on a group of categories collects the actuals of all its subcategories. Limits: the budget is kept in the base currency, approval is a single step, and execution is exported as CSV. The actuals come from the same transactions as the cash flow statement and the P&L.
Frequently asked questions
What period does a budget cover?
A month, a quarter or a year. The start can be any month, so a financial year that differs from the calendar year is supported. Amounts are entered by month within the period.
Where do actuals in a budget come from?
From the transactions in the system: it assigns actual income and expenses to plan lines by category, project, direction, account or legal entity. Planned operations that are not completed, and transfers between accounts, are not part of actuals.
Can I keep several versions of a budget?
Yes. Every budget has a scenario, such as base, optimistic or pessimistic. Budgets for the same period can be compared by category on one page, and a new scenario can be created by copying and scaling the amounts by a percentage.
What does approving a budget mean?
An approved budget is locked: structure and amounts cannot be changed until it is returned to draft. The name, notes and archiving can still be changed. A user with the right to manage budgets can approve.
Can I copy a budget to next year?
Yes. By default a copy is created as a draft for the next period of the same length. Amounts can be taken from the plan or from the source's actuals and multiplied by a factor, for example to add 10%.