Creating a Simple Budget

The EBMS budget module can calculate a budget using formulas and variables, but there is no need to make a budget unnecessarily complicated. We recommend that you start with a simple budget and then add complexity as needed. This section explains the steps of creating a simple budget.

Complete the following steps to create a simple budget:

1. Select Financials > Budget from the main EBMS menu.

2. Select the appropriate Fiscal Year. Click on the Add Year button (in the image below, this is the button that says Add 2020) to create a new budget year. Budget projections can be created for future periods before the fiscal year is open.

3. The budget list will be blank if the budget module has not been used before. You can skip the next few steps if budget records already appear.
   

4. Click on the Wizards button and select Add By G/L Code option as shown below:

   
   (This step is not necessary if the dialog opens automatically.)

5. Enter the following information into the Add By G/L Codes wizard dialog:

a. Select a Folder from the dropdown. Keep General Ledger selected to include all folders and subfolders. (Maintain General Ledger folder settings so all accounts are included in a category folder.)

b. Enable the Include Subfolders option.

c. Enter the first revenue account into the From general ledger account entry to exclude all the asset and liability accounts.

d. Enter the last account that is included in the budget process into the To entry to establish a range of included accounts.

e. Keep the Filter setting as ?????-??? to create budgets for all the accounts. Review the Change a Range of Budget Accounts section for more details on the Filter option.

f. Set the Total Calculation option to Manual which will allow the user to enter the budget amount for each account manually. Review the Calculating a Budget Using a Formula section for more details on calculating a budget using a formula.

g. Set the Distribution to Equal so that the annual calculation is evenly distributed between the individual months. Review the Variable Distribution for details on creating budgets with variable values.

h. Set the calculation option to Yearly Basis since the budget is entered annually and then distributed monthly. Review the Variable Monthly Distribution section for details on the Monthly Basis option.

g. Click the OK button and the system will create a record for every account within the From and To range and within the Filter option.

Enter the projected income for each income account within the Yearly Total column as shown below. All budget values are entered as whole dollars.

Enable the Lock this year budget to the right of the Fiscal Year setting to keep the budget amounts from being recalculated or to keep users from altering the budget amounts.

Right click on the G/L Account and select Look-up to view the account detail, including actual values from past years.

Review the following Calculating a Budget Using a Formula section for details on calculation the budget amount from other accounts.