Page Comparison

1. Enter a name for the budget. For example, Budget 2024. 

2. Select the database on which to base the budget. The options correspond to the databases configured for your organization's Phocas site. You might have a financial database and non-financial options, such as a Sales or Purchasing database. Select the Profit and Loss (P&L) statement This setting determines where the budget data and structure comes from. A default database is selected for you but you might have other financial databases to choose from.

3. Select the template to apply to the budget. This setting determines the layout of the budget. The options available depend A default template is selected for you but you might have other options to choose from, depending on the types of Profit and Loss statements your organization has created in the Financial Statements module. If your organization only uses one Profit and Loss template, it will be applied by default.

4. Change the budget owner, if required. By default, you are the budget owner, as you are creating the budget. Typically, you would leave this as is but you can select another user if you want to delegate the workflow management to them. Learn more about the types of users in Budgets and Forecasts.

5. Add other budget administrators, if required. By default, you are a budget administrator, as you are creating the budget. You can add other users as administrators to help you manage the workflow. Ensure the selected administrators have full access to the database on which the budget is based.

6. Set the budget hierarchy. This setting determines how many levels of data are in the budget and how those levels are ordered. In other words, the hierarchy determines how the various dimensions in the database are grouped in the budget.

   • In a financial budget, the first level (dimension) is always the Profit and Loss category, such as Income or Revenue. The last level is always the General Ledger account code and this is where the workflow sits. You cannot change these two levels but you can select up to four additional levels to sit between them.

   • You can apply a filter to a level, to create the budget for a specific dimension. See Create and publish filtered workbooks for more information on this method of budgeting.

   • Depending on how many levels you add here, you might be able to add more levels when your budget workbook is created. The maximum number of levels any budget can have is six.

7. (Optional) Add a budget filter. This setting allows you to filter the whole budget for a specific entity. For example, suppose your organization operates in three countries but you only want to create a budget for one of them, the UK. You can add a filter for the Country dimension and select the UK entity. See Filter the budget for more information.

8. Click Next.                                   

9. Click Next.

   Image Added

1. Select the period type for the budget: Year, Month or Custom.  You only have the custom option if these custom periods exist in your Financial Statements, for example, quarterly.Select the date range for the budget (such as Quarterly). The available options depend on the period types in your Phocas site. Learn about how periods work in Phocas.

2. Select the start and end dates for the budget period. For example, from April 2023 to March 2024. You can create a budget up to -3 years from the current date.

3. Select how you want to populate the baseline data structure for the budget initially:

   • Stream - Populate Fills the budget with values from an existing stream of data in the database, as a starting point that you can later adjust. For example, you could use your current year's actuals from your financial database or the previous year’s budget values.

   • Zeros - Populate Fills the budget with zeros ($0.00), so you can start with a clean slate.

4. (Stream values only) Adjust Change the default Stream settings, as required:

   • Baseline (stream ) - A default stream is selected for you but you can select another stream from whatever is available in the database.Measure - A default measure is selected for you but you can select another measure from whatever is available 1) - The available options correspond to the streams that have been added to the database. You might prefer to select a different stream if its structure better matches the new budget you want to create.

   • Measure - The available options correspond to the measures in the database, such as Local Value or Reporting Value.

   • Offset (applicable to stream values only) - If you're budgeting by year, the offset defaults to -1 and if you’re budgeting by month, the offset defaults to -12 . You but you can change this offset as required. For example

     , if you are

     :

     • If you're creating a budget for the period of April 2022 to March 2023, the actuals will be for the 12 months commencing April 2021 (the budget for April 2022 will include April 2021 data). If, for example, you want to build a budget based on an existing budget stream, you could select an offset of 0.

     • If you’re partway through the year and therefore, your actuals don’t yet include the entire year’s data, you’ll see a warning note telling you the actuals are slightly out of range. Any months not yet completed will populate with zeros in the workbook. For example, if you are currently in November 2020, the December 2021 budget will populate as zeros because December 2020 currently has no activity. You do not need to take any action here. When you get to the workbook, you can enter data manually in the zeros cells, copy forward data from the other months as a starting point, or use a comparison row to reference another stream.

5. Click Save and Finish. 

6. Explore your new budget workbook. If required, make changes to your budget workbook setup before you edit any of the budget values.

7. Proceed to assign the budget rows to various people in your organization using the workflow.

The hierarchy settings determine how many levels of data are in the budget and how those levels are ordered. In other words, the hierarchy determines how the various dimensions in the database are grouped in the budget. The highest level (dimension) is always the Profit and Loss Category, which includes items such as Revenue and Expenses. The lowest level, where the workflow sits, is always the General Ledger account. You can leave the default hierarchy as it is, or add levels and apply filters, as required.

You have the option to filter the levels in the budget or apply a filter to the whole hierarchy. So rather than have one large budget, you could create multiple, smaller budgets instead, then publish each one to the same stream.

1. (Optional) Add a level: Click Add level and select the dimension you want to add as another level in the budget hierarchy. You can add up to four additional levels to sit between the highest and lowest levels. The maximum number of levels any budget can have is six. If you do not add levels now, you can add more levels later.

2. (Optional) Apply a level filter: Click the Filter dimensions button next to the level and select the entities you want to include, then click out of the entity list to apply your selection.

   Image Added

3. (Optional) Apply a budget filter: Select the Filter… checkbox > select the dimension that you want to filter (you can't select one that’s been added as a level) > select the entity you want to use as the filter > click out of the window to apply your selection.

   Image Added

4. Click Save and finish.           

1. Enter a name for the budget. For example, Budget 2024. 

2. Select the database on which to base the budget.

1. Select the period type for the budget: Year, Month or Custom

The hierarchy settings determine how many levels of data are in the budget and how those levels are ordered. In other words, the hierarchy determines how the various dimensions in the database are grouped in the budget.

You have the option to filter the levels in the budget or apply a filter to the whole hierarchy. So rather than have one large budget, you could create multiple, smaller budgets instead, then publish each one to the same stream.

1. Select a dimension, such as Region, Branch or Sale Rep, to use as Level 1 (the highest level in your hierarchy).

2. (Optional) Add a level: Click Add level and select the dimension you want to add as another level in the budget hierarchy. You can add up to five additional levels to sit under the highest level. The maximum number of levels any budget can have is six. The last level determines where the workflow sits. If you do not add levels now, you can add more levels later.

3. (Optional) Apply a level filter: Click the Filter dimensions button next to the level and select the entities you want to include, then click out of the entity list to apply your selection.

   Image Added

4. (Optional) Exclude ### suspense items in the budget. By default, this setting is selected, which means unclassified items are included in the workbook. If you do not want to include them, clear the checkbox.

5. (Optional) Apply a budget filter: Select the Filter… checkbox > select the dimension that you want to filter (you can't select one that’s been added as a level) > select the entity you want to use as the filter > click out of the window to apply your selection.

   Image Added

6. (Optional) Include additional measures for driver-based budgeting

1. Add rows to define the additional measures. There are several options available and this setup can be a complex task, so read the Include additional measures in the workbook page for

After you create a budget workbook, it opens on the Main worksheet tab. The layout and contents of the budget are determined by your setup. In the case of a financial budget, the budget is displayed in the Profit and Loss template that you selected, as illustrated in the image below, where the colors match the setup settings with the corresponding workbook elements.

Image Added