Financial Budgets

Overview

Note: Help content (except videos) has been updated to reflect the UI/UX changes in BQE CORE.

In BQE CORE, we have project budgets that help in tracking the expected revenue and cost of projects against the actual values. However, you can also create company-wide or department-wide financial budgets for the upcoming fiscal year. Financial budgets are high-level estimations and internal calculations useful for predicting and allocating the income and expenses of a business. They allow you to define cost and revenue benchmarks that can be used for running comparison reports and setting up budget-related notifications. As the year progresses, you can run a comparison report to see how the company finances are holding up against what you have budgeted.

The financial budgets are more granular and allow you to set and compare amounts at the account level. CORE pulls the profit or loss data of each account from the reference year and compares those actual values to the current budgeted values. This comparison helps in creating more accurate budgets for the future. CORE tracks each account in the budget and informs you about the actual amount earned or spent, and whether the account is over-budget or under-budget. Click to watch this video on creating financial budgets in CORE.

financial_budget_thumbnail.png

Financial budgets are very useful for accountants, CFOs, project managers, and executives who need accurate financial information for future planning and budgeting. They help you plan ahead so you can stay on top of your expenses and revenue. Although you can create budgets at any time, year-end is a great time to start planning for the next year. The financial budgets can be monthly, quarterly or annual.

Field Descriptions

How To

Create Financial Budgets from Scratch

Create Financial Budgets from Existing Budgets

Batch Update Financial Budgets

Reset Values

Show/Remove Blank Rows

Show/Hide Columns in Grids

Export Financial Budgets

View Reports

Apply Filters

Mark Screen as Favorite

Field Descriptions

Field Name Field Description
Financial Budgets > Create Financial Budget >
Name Name of the financial budget, say R&D Budget 2024.
Fiscal Year Period for which the financial budget is being created, say Next Fiscal Year or any Custom date range. Selecting a predefined fiscal year sets the Start Date automatically as January 1 and End Date as December 31 of the selected year. In case of a custom date, you can choose any start and end date range.
From-To This is the start and end date of the financial budget period when it is effective. You must select it in case of Custom fiscal year. Selecting a predefined fiscal year sets the Start Date (From) automatically to January 1 and End Date (To) to December 31 of the selected year.
Financial Budget Details: Description You can enter any additional information about the financial budget here. The description should allow others to understand what the financial budget is about or get some details about it.
Class

Typically, classes are transaction entities that are useful for grouping items and reporting. You can set up financial budgets by class that you use to denote, say company departments, regions or type of work, to track the expected income, expenditure and profits. Example: If you specify a class for the financial budget and keep the reference year as 2024, CORE prefills the account matrix with the classified transactions only from that year. If you update the class, the reference values get updated for the associated accounts accordingly.

Reference Year Period used as a reference for the budget comparison. It can be the previous fiscal year. The Reference Year options are blank if there are no previous years with actual data to reference.
Prefill Allows you to prefill the budget grid with the actual values from the selected reference year. This is available in the create mode only when you select the Reference Year, but not in the edit mode.
  • Yes, Duplicate Previous Actuals: Actual data of the selected year is copied and then populated in their corresponding fields in the account matrix.
  • Yes, % Change Previous: A percentage change from the actual data of the selected year is populated into their corresponding fields in the account matrix. You can set a positive or negative percentage value.
  • No: No amount is prefilled into the account matrix. This is the default prefill option set for you.
% Change Percentage by which you want to increase the budget amount from the reference year's actual amount for the selected accounts. You can adjust the values by percent. This is available in the create mode only, not in the edit mode, when Prefill is set to Yes, % Change Previous.

Info Bar:

Total Budgeted Income

It is calculated as the sum of all income minus the sum of the cost of goods sold (COGS).

Total Budgeted Income = Total Income - Total COGS

Total Budgeted Expense It is calculated as the sum of all expenses.
Net Profit

The net profit represents the summation of all profits from the operating income accounts. It is calculated as the total budgeted income minus total budgeted expense.

Net Profit = Total Budgeted Income - Total Budgeted Expense

Interval This determines if the financial budget is broken down into intervals such as monthly, quarterly, or yearly. By default, the interval selected is Annual. It is not needed in case of Custom fiscal year.
Accounts The type or category of account selected for the financial budget, for example, Income, Other Income, Cost of Goods Sold, Expense, etc. You can view all individual accounts, such as Consulting Fees, Interest Income, Reimbursable Expenses, Depreciation, etc. under these account types. Only active accounts are displayed here.
Reference Year Values Displays the profit or loss data of each account from the selected reference year for the selected interval. This helps in estimating the values for the budgeted period.
% Change Percentage by which you increase the budget amount from the reference year's actual amount for the selected accounts. You can adjust the Budget column values to reflect the change here in percentage.
Budget Displays the budget amount for each account for the current or future year being budgeted. In case of quarterly and monthly intervals, CORE displays multiple amount columns (Q1/Q2/Q3/Q4 or Jan/Feb/Mar ...) and the Budget column in that case is uneditable and represents the total amount.
Memo You can enter any additional information or notes about the financial budget here. For example, you can enter a memo to describe the budget values for each account.

 

Create Financial Budgets from Scratch

You can create financial budgets either from scratch or from an existing budget.

To create a new financial budget from scratch, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Financial Budgets screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    FinancialBudgetsCreate.png

  2. Click Create Budget on the top-right and select From Scratch.
  3. On the Create Financial Budget screen, enter the required information. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
    • Name: of the financial budget
    • Fiscal Year
    • Description
    • Class
    • Reference Year: for the budget comparison
    • Prefill: grid with the actual values from the selected reference year
      - Yes, Duplicate Previous Actuals
      - Yes, % Change Previous
      - No

    • % Change This is available in the create mode only, not in the edit mode, when Prefill is set to Yes, % Change Previous.

    • Interval
  4. Expand the account types in the account matrix and enter the relevant budget details after referring to the Reference Year Values:
    • % Change

    • Budget

  5. Click Save & Done. Check Field Descriptions above for details.

Create Financial Budgets from Existing Budgets

When you create financial budgets from existing ones, most of the data gets cloned from the existing budgets to the new ones. You can edit and add more details to it later.

To create a new financial budget from an existing one, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Financial Budgets screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    FinancialBudgetsCreateExisting.png

  2. Click Create New on the top-right and select From Existing.
  3. On the Create Financial Budget from Existing dialog, choose the budget from which you want to create a new one.
  4. Click Continue.
  5. On the Create Financial Budget screen, enter or edit the required information. Check Field Descriptions above for details.

    financial_budgets_create_existing2.png

    • Name: of the financial budget
    • Fiscal Year
    • Description
    • Class
    • Reference Year: for the budget comparison
    • Prefill: grid with the actual values from the selected reference year
      - Yes, Duplicate Previous Actuals
      - Yes, % Change Previous
      - No
    • % Change: This is available in the create mode only, not in the edit mode, when Prefill is set to Yes, % Change Previous.
    • Interval
  6. Expand the account types in the account matrix below and edit the relevant budget details. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
    • Reference Year Values
    • % Change
    • Budget
  7. Click Save & Done.

Batch Update Financial Budgets

You can batch update the financial budgets information in the detail view.

To batch update a financial budget, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Financial Budgets screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    FinancialBudgetsDetail.png

  2. Select a financial budget on the grid list and click Detail on its row.
  3. In the detail view, expand the account types in the account matrix and select the records you want to change. You can select all the accounts by checking the main check box.

    financial_budgets_batch_update2.png

  4. Click Actions > Batch Update.
  5. On the Batch Update dialog, make the relevant changes.
    • Percent change
    • Memo
  6. Check the disclaimer at the bottom and click Update.
  7. The batch changes are reflected in all the selected records. Click Save & Done.

You can also check the detailed video on batch updating records in CORE.

Reset Values

If you set up your financial budget to pre-fill the account matrix with the reference year values at the time of budget creation and then made some changes, you can revert all the values to the original pre-filled amounts.

To reset a financial budget:

  1. Open the Financial Budgets screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    FinancialBudgetsDetail.png

  2. Select a financial budget on the grid list and click Detail on its row.
  3. In the detail view, expand the account types in the account matrix and select the records you want to reset. You can select all the accounts as well by checking the main check box.

    financial_budget_reset.png

  4. Click Actions > Reset Values. You are prompted to confirm this action. Click Yes.
  5. The values are reset to their original values. Click Save & Done.

Show/Remove Blank Rows

You can have CORE remove the account rows that have no budgeted amounts entered in them. It hides the rows for individual accounts and not account categories. However, the sub-totals still show up. You can then opt to show those blank rows with no data.

To remove blank rows:

  1. Open the Financial Budgets screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.
    FinancialBudgetsDetail.png
  2. Select a financial budget on the grid list and click Detail on its row.
  3. In the detail view, expand the account types in the account matrix.

    financial_budget_remove_rows.png

  4. Click More > Remove Blank Rows. All the rows with blank values are removed from the grid.
  5. If needed, you can always go back and click More > Show Blank Rows to display them again in the grid. Click Save & Done.

Note: Besides this, you can collapse or expand all rows in the grid (account matrix) by clicking More > Collapse All Rows or Expand All Rows, respectively. This is useful if you want to see what was budgeted for each account.

Show/Hide Columns in Grids

You can configure the fields or columns that appear on the grid. You can hide or show columns and sort the order of columns according to your requirements.

To do so, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Financial Budgets screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    FinancialBudgetsShowHide.png

  2. In the list view, click More > Show/Hide Columns on the action bar.
  3. Select or un-select the column names in the drop-down list, say Status.
  4. Next, click the column name you want to sort the data by, say End Date.
  5. Click once for ascending order (A-Z) and twice for descending order (Z-A).

Note: You can resize the column widths on the grid and then reset them, if needed (More > Reset Column Widths).

You can also check the detailed video on navigation and customizing grids in CORE.

Export Financial Budgets

In CORE, you can export financial budgets to the Comma Separated Values file format. CORE exports data from all available columns and not just the columns visible in the grid.

To export the financial budget records to a .CSV file, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Financial Budgets screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    FinancialBudgetsMoreMenu.png

  2. In the list view, click More > Export as CSV.
  3. A .csv export file is created and saved on your system at the default download location, say your desktop. Click to open the spreadsheet.

You can also check the detailed video on exporting data in CORE.

View Reports

Besides the general financial budget reports, CORE also offers some in-context, individual budget-level reports that can be accessed from the row-action menu.

To view a report:

  1. Open the Financial Budgets screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    FinancialBudgetsReports.png

  2. In the list view, click More > View Reports.
  3. Select a report from the Report List dialog. It opens in the viewer.
  4. Alternatively, select a budget on the grid whose report you want to view and click dropdown-caret.png to select a relevant report for it.
  5. Preview the report and then choose to export or print it.

You can also check the detailed video on running and managing reports in CORE.

Apply Filters

To view selective data on the grid, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Financial Budgets screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    FinancialBudgetsFilter.png

  2. In the list view, click filters-01.png on the right.
  3. On the Filters panel, select a filter from the drop-down, say Active.
  4. Click Add Filters to specify more filters.
  5. When you have finished, click Apply Filter. You can see selective data now.
  6. In the list view, you can remove the individual filters by clicking remove-01.png on each. To disable applied filters temporarily or remove all filters, click filter_icon.png next to the Filters icon and select Disable Filters or Clear All, respectively.

You can also check the detailed video on applying filters in CORE.

Mark Screen as Favorite

You can mark or flag the most-often used and important screens in CORE as your favorites up to a maximum of ten. These favorite screens then display separately on the side menu under the Favorites list. You can manage all your favorite screens in CORE from User Settings.

To mark this screen as your favorite, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Financial Budgets screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    FinancialBudgetsFavorite.png

  2. In the list view, click favorites.png on the top-right.
  3. You can access this screen from the side menu under Favorites.

You can also check the detailed video on marking screens as favorite in CORE.