A budget is a financial plan that outlines expected income and expenses over a specific period of time, usually one year. It is a tool that helps individuals, businesses, and organizations to allocate resources efficiently and effectively by estimating the amount of money they expect to receive and the amount they plan to spend.

Budgets can be created for different purposes, such as managing personal finances, planning business operations, or organizing a project. They typically include an estimation of revenues, which may include salaries, sales, investments, or other sources of income, as well as an estimation of expenses, which may include rent, utilities, supplies, equipment, marketing, and other costs.

The main goal of a budget is to ensure that expenses do not exceed revenues and that financial goals are achieved. By tracking actual spending against budgeted amounts, individuals and organizations can adjust their plans and make informed decisions about where to allocate resources.

The budget feature is used to enter and edit budget figures in osFinancials5, which can be compared with actual income and expenses. Budgets are a guide as to what you want to achieve; for instance what income you expect to generate (sales forecasts and income from other sources) and a plan for your expenses you need to incur to achieve that income. Budget figures can be flexible so as to take into account seasonal trends in business. 

The following new features have been added:

  1. Budget figures may be entered, adjusted or processed in the Budgets option on the Reports ribbon. This is in addition to the standard option to process budgets in Setup → Accounts (Setup ribbon).
  2. The Pivot feature is introduced to analyse your Budget figures. 
  3. Budgets may be entered for any of the periods or financial years. 
  4. Budgets may be entered for a specific date - e.g. Expected once off purchases or a specific big sale, etc.
  5. Budgets may be copied from Budget figures from the previous year.
  6. Budgets may be copied from Actual figures from the previous year.
  7. Budgets may be entered for Cost centres (Cost centre 1 and / or Cost centre 2), if activated.
  8. Budgets may be entered for Projects, if activated.

Budget figures will be displayed on the following reports (Reports ribbon):

  1. Ledger analyser 1 /2: 
  1. T-Account viewer - List the Budget figures (for all accounts or specific accounts), as entered or processed in the Budgets (Reports ribbon); and / or on Setup → Accounts (Setup ribbon), in the T-Account viewer. You may print these budget figures and export the budget figures in T-Account viewer to a spreadsheet.
  2. Ledger - Budget vs Actual (3 periods).
  3. Optional (if activated):
    • Cost centres - If Cost centres are activated and Budget figures may be entered, adjusted or processed.
    • Projects - If Projects are activated and Budget figures may be entered, adjusted or processed.