Finance → Accounting → Budgets → /budgets
A budget is your plan for a period, expressed in the same accounts the ledger posts to. Once it exists, every actual figure has something to be measured against — which is the difference between reporting what happened and managing what happens.
Structure
A budget is defined per period and per account, within a branch. Because it uses the same chart of accounts as the ledger, variance reporting needs no mapping layer: budget and actual are already on the same axis.
Creating a budget
Choose the period and branch
Budgets are branch-scoped, like everything financial.
Enter income lines
Base rental income on the lease book and its escalation projections, not on last year plus a percentage. Adjust for expected vacancy rather than budgeting for full occupancy.
Enter cost lines
Use the accounts you actually post expenses to. A budget line with no matching expense account can never be compared to anything.
Save
The budget becomes available to the budget report.
Budget report
/reports/budget-report compares budget against actual for the period, by account, with the
variance. Use it to answer:
- Which cost lines are over, and by how much?
- Is income tracking the plan, or is the gap vacancy rather than pricing?
- Is a variance timing (an invoice not yet posted) or real?
See Reports.
Reading variances well
| Pattern | Usual explanation |
|---|---|
| Income under budget, occupancy on plan | Under-billing — leases without recurring charges, or escalations not applied. |
| Income under budget, occupancy below plan | A letting problem, not a billing problem. |
| Costs over budget in one account | Either a genuine overrun or miscoded expenses landing in the wrong account. |
| Everything under budget in the first days of a period | Timing. Compare like periods, not partial ones. |
Budgeting practice
- Budget at the level you manage. Per branch and per account is usually right; per unit is unmaintainable.
- Reforecast rather than rewrite. Keep the original budget for accountability and record a forecast alongside it.
- Use the register and schedules. Planned maintenance from the asset register and known escalations are the most reliable inputs you have.
- Review monthly, not annually. A variance found in month eleven is history; found in month two it is a decision.