IN THIS SECTION
Overview
As well as viewing Budgets from Xero/QuickBooks/Sage you can also create Budgets or Forecasts manually within Joiin by either entering data directly or importing a data file. This is useful to:
Create a Consolidated Budget across all Companies
Created a single, consolidated budget across all entities by importing a single budget.
Create a Budget for a Manual Company
Along with actual data you added or imported for a manual company you can also import Budget data for that entity.
Have Budgets broken down by Category Option
Get finer granularity of budgeting by creating separate budgets for each Category option (e.g. Regions).
Manual Budget data will be displayed in the report results when the Budgets toggle is selected - see Budgets section - and when the budget is marked as Active - see below.
You can create as many budgets as you want and can mark them as Active or Inactive to control which ones appear in the report output.
Adding a Budget Manually
To create a new budget manually simply click on the Budgets link on the menu then click on the Add Joiin Budget button. This will take you to the manual budget add page.
Enter budget details
First enter the following details of your budget:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Budget Name | The name of your budget |
| Currency | The home currency of your budget |
| Start/End Date | The dates your budget is for. This will default to the current calendar year. |
| Company | OPTIONAL - The company the Budget is associated to. This can be any company from your list of companies, including any companies you have added manually. If this is set, the budget values will only be shown in report results when the specified company is being reported on. If this is not set, the budget will not be available when running the report with Compare By Company selected. |
| Category Option | OPTIONAL - The Category Option the budget is associated to. The budget values will only be shown in report results against the selected Category Option when in By Category view. NOTE when not reporting by Category the budget values for all category options will be combined so it corresponds to the Actual data. |
Adding Data
Once you've entered the budget details you have two options for adding data:
- Entering data manually
- Importing a data file
You can use a combination of these options - for example, initially loading a data file and then amending/adding to this data manually.
NOTE: Once you have added a budget manually you can come back later and edit the data whenever required. On the Budgets page, simply click on the Edit button to the right of the budget you wish to edit.
Entering Data manually
To enter data manually start by clicking the Add Account button.
This will bring up a form to select the accounts you wish to enter budget data for. This will show all the accounts from all your connected companies - if you have selected a specific company for your Budget only the accounts from that company will be displayed. You can search for accounts by typing the name/code/type in the search box.
Select the accounts you wish to include and the click the Add accounts button. New rows will be created in the data grid with cells for you to enter the account budget figures.
You can add additional accounts by clicking on the Add Account button again.
Importing a data file
You can add data to a budget by importing a data file. This is a simple case of either dragging the file from your computer into the Upload File box or by clicking on the Upload File link to choose a file from your computer.
Once you've uploaded a file the data will appear in the data grid below, where you can edit as required. Follow these additional steps to prepare the file for loading.
Step 1 - Prepare the import file
The import file must be in CSV (Comma Separated Values) format and contain budget values for each month. Each row represents an Account from the Chart of Accounts.
You can download a template for use when importing by clicking on the three dot menu at the top right and selecting Download data template - you can also select the start date and companies the template will be generated for.
| Column Heading | Name | Description |
| Type | Account Type | The account type. Determines how the account is categorised when reports are run. Must match a known type. See Account Mappings for more information. |
Name | Account Name | The account name. Depending on the Consolidation Type selected in your Reporting Configuration Joiin will use this name to consolidate across multiple companies. |
| Code | Account Code (OPTIONAL) | The account code. Optional. Depending on the Consolidation Type selected in your Reporting Configuration Joiin will use this code to consolidate across multiple companies. |
| MMM-YY | The account value | The budget value for the account for the specified month. Column heading must be a date in a recognised date format, e.g. MMM-YY. |
| repeat for additional months.. |
If you are importing a Budget for a particular company and you already have a budget in Xero or QuickBooks it may be useful to first download an existing budget in CSV format from the Budgets page.
Step 2 - Load the File
When your file is ready you can load it into Joiin by either dragging it into the Upload File box on screen, or by clicking on the Upload File link. This will open up a file selector so you can choose the file from your computer you wish to import. Once selected click Open and the file will be validated and uploaded.
If there are issues with the file the list of errors will be displayed. Correct the errors in the file and then upload it again. Please see a list of the common errors at the bottom of this page.
If the file is good no errors will be reported and the data will be loaded.
Additional Notes on Importing
- Rows with all zero values will be ignored and that Account will not be included in the budget - you must have at least one non-zero row.
- You must include all sequential months data - you must not have gaps in months data.
- If you import budgets for future dates, to see those figures you will need to change your Company Config and set an End Date in the future - this will allow you to run reports for future dates - see Managing Companies for more info.
Finishing up
Once you've added and edited your data to your satisfaction, click on the Add Budget button to finish. The budget will then be added and will be available when you run reports.
Updating Budgets
You can update a manual budget at any time:
- Select Budgets from the left-menu
- Click on the name of the budget you wish to edit update or select Edit from the three-dot menu.
Updating Budget Details
You can update the details of the budget such as the name, currency, start and end dates by either:
- hovering over the budget name and clicking the pencil icon that appears
- clicking on the three-dot menu at the top right and selecting Edit.
The details will appear in a popup where you can modify them as required. Once modified, click on OK. Once you've made all the changes be sure to then click on the Update Budget button at the bottom right.
Updating Budget Data
You can update the budget data by adding/updating/deleting rows manually or import another data file which will overwrite any existing rows. Once you've made all the changes be sure to then click on the Update Budget button at the bottom right.
Downloading a Budget
You can download a budget by selecting Download from the three-dot menu at the top right.