IN THIS SECTION



Overview


You can view Budgets and Forecasts in Joiin and compare them to Actual values and see Variance and Varance %.  Budgets are automatically imported from Xero or QuickBooks.  You can also create your own Budgets directly in Joiin using manual budget creation.



Joiin Budgets


Joiin Budgets are budgets that have been manually created or imported into Joiin. Joiin budgets can be used for creating consolidated budgets or forecasts. See Creating a Budget section for more information on this.  


External Budgets


External Budgets are budgets that have been automatically imported from your Xero or QuickBooks companies.  These budgets will be refreshed whenever your main company data is refreshed.  


Budgets are imported in 12-monthly chunks.  Each 12 month period will be aligned with the Start Date you have set on your Company config.  By default the Start Date is January but you can change this if your financial year starts in a different month. See our Managing Companies article for more information on how to change.



NOTE: A maximum of 100 budgets will be imported from Xero or QuickBooks.



More information on Xero Budgets.

More information on QuickBooks Budgets.



Viewing Budgets


You can view a list of budgets, either imported from Xero/QuickBooks or created by you, by selecting Budgets from the left menu.


The Budgets page shows all budgets from your source entities (Xero or QuickBooks) along with Joiin budgets you have created. You can search, filter, sort and perform actions on budgets from this page.


Filtering


The top section of the page contains a number of filters which allow you to narrow down the results.



FilterDescription
CompaniesSelect the companies you wish to display budgets for. Selecting a company will filter the results
Search by textEnter text to search for a budget with a name containing that text
SourceThe source of the budget:

  • Imported from Xero
  • Imported from QuickBooks
  • Manually created in Joiin
StatusEnable or Disabled.
CurrencyThe currency of the budget.
Start yearThe year the budget starts in.
CategoryThe Category a budget is for.



Clearing Filters

Click on the Clear Filters button at the top right to reset all filters, columns and sort order to their default settings.



Column Sorting and Ordering


Sorting

You can click on the column heading to sort the results by that criteria. The initial click will sort ascending and an up arrow will be displayed in the column heading, e.g.


Click again to sort descending - the direction of the arrow will change:


Selecting Columns

You can choose which columns to display when viewing results. To do this


  • Click on the cog icon at the top right

  • Click on Select columns to bring up a list of columns.
  • Check/Uncheck the columns you wish to see/hide
  • Click on Apply changes


Changing Column Order

You can change the order in which columns are displayed when viewing results. To do this


  • Click on the cog icon at the top right

  • Click on Change column order to bring up a list of columns.
  • Click and hold the three-bar icon at the left of the column name and drag/drop it into the place required.
  • Click on Apply changes


Resetting to Default

You can reset the columns and sorting to the default values. To do this


  • Click on the cog icon at the top right

  • Click on Reset to default



NOTE: Any changes you make to the filter, columns and sort order will be saved in your browser for the next time you visit the page.


Enabling/Disabling Budgets

You can control which budgets are used when running reports by enabling or disabling them. This can be helpful if you have numerous budgets/forecasts covering different scenarios.


To enable or disable a budget simply click on the toggle to the left of the budget.



Bulk Enable/Disable

You can enable or disable multiple budgets in one go by clicking on the Status column heading and selecting Enable all or Disable all. This will act on only the budgets that are being displayed based on the selected filters - so this is helpful when used in tandem with the filtering capabilities





Other Budget Actions


You can Download a budget by selecting Download from the three-dot menu to the right.


You can edit a budget by clicking on the budget name or selecting Edit from the three-dot menu.


You can remove a budget by selecting Remove from the three-dot menu.



Reporting on Budget vs Actual


You can report on Budget vs Actual when running a report by switching the Budget toggle on - see this section for more information on running reports.  

OptionDescription
No budgetNo budget information will be displayed
Budget vs ActualBudget information will be displayed - you can choose which items to display:

  • Budget value - the budget amount
  • Budget variance - the difference between the budget figure and the actual figure
  • Budget variance % - the percentage difference between budget and actual
Budget onlyOnly the budget values will be displayed. This is a convenient way to see a budget in a particular report format such as P&L.
Actual & BudgetShows Actual figures for past months and Budget figures for current/future months.


Click on Apply changes and the budget information will be displayed.


NOTE: Only data from Active budgets will be displayed.


If you have chosen to show variance columns, those columns highlight the difference between the budget amount and the actual amount. The arrow icons show whether the variance is an increase (up arrow) or decrease (down arrow), and whether it’s favourable (green) or unfavourable (red).




NOTE: You can control how the favourability is displayed by changing the Budget Favourability setting on Custom Reports - for more information see this article.



Hovering over the value with your mouse will bring up more details of the individual budgets/months that the budget information came from.  



NOTE In Compact View budget info is shown in the same column as the Actual.





The budget information used is taken from all the enabled budgets for the relevant period and companies that have been selected for this report run.  If there is more than one budget or the report period spans multiple months then the individual budget amounts for each budget/month will be displayed when you hover over the amount - the individual amounts will be summed up to get the total budget amount displayed on screen.