The budget worksheet has several built-in options for distributing a total value over the budget period, which can save you a lot of time when it comes to entering budget values. You can apply a spread to individual or multiple account rows, or to a group of rows via the total row.
You select the spread option and the system spreads the total value across the row using a formula. You have the option to spread a specific amount evenly or in the same proportion as selected comparison data. You can also insert values from a comparison stream for the budget, changed by a specified percentage. For example, you might want to take last year’s actual values and uplift the values by 5% or take last year’s budget and reduce the values by 10%.
To access the Spread options window, use one of these methods:
Enter a value in a total cell (the Spread window automatically displays).
Hover over the right side of a total cell and click the Spread button
that displays.Right-click a total cell and select Spread.
Spread
a specific amount, evenlythe total evenly
This spread option divides the total amount by the number of units in the time period and spreads it evenly across the cells in the row.
Enter the amount, select the Evenly option and click Apply. The formula divides the total by 12 (as this budget is for
For example, suppose you want to budget 84,000 for the Marketing Expense across a 12-month period) and spreads the total evenly across each month.
Spread a specific amount, based on a comparison stream’s phasing, giving the same amount to each month. The 84,000 is divided by 12, so each month in the period gets 7,000.
Spread the total based on a comparison stream
This spread option references a selected comparison stream's values, such as the Actuals or Sales, and spreads the total amount across the budget period in the same proportion as the selected comparison data.
Enter the amount, select the Based on Actuals[stream] option and click Apply. The formula references the .
Continuing with the example above, suppose you expect the Marketing Expense to follow the pattern of last year, due to the seasonality of your business activities. If you base the 84,000 on Actuals, each month in this year’s budget gets a proportion of the 100,000 based on the corresponding month last year.
Insert and spread a total based on a comparison stream
This spread option references a selected comparison stream's values, such as the Actuals or Sales, then inserts the total and spreads the total it according to the reference stream’s phasing.
Select the second option on the Spread window (this might say Actuals, Sales or whatever the default data stream is called). Select the stream you want to use, then enter the percentage you want to multiply the values by, then click Apply.
Continuing with the example above, suppose you expect the Marketing Expense to be proportionality higher this year compared to last year, due to rising costs. If you select last year’s Actuals and enter 10% as your expected increase, last year’s budget values multiplied by 10% are spread across this year’s budget period.
