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User Guide Chapter 6

6. Budgets

The Budgets module lets you build annual, quarterly, and rolling budgets, compare them to actuals, and model scenarios. Open it from Modules → Budgets.

  • List URL: /a/<team-slug>/qbo/budget/
  • Requires the Budget module. Available to 👁️ Members (view) and 👤 Admins (create/edit).

6.1 Creating a budget 👤 Admin

  1. Go to Budgets and click Create.
  2. Name the budget and choose its type (annual, quarterly, or rolling).
  3. Save to open the budget detail page, where you'll fill in line items.

Start from last year's actuals

The fastest way to build a realistic budget is to import prior-year results:

  • Use Copy prior year (/qbo/budget/<id>/copy-prior-year/) to bring in last year's P&L actuals from QuickBooks as your starting line items.

  • OML correctly handles QuickBooks' report structure — including parent accounts that have both their own transactions and sub-accounts — so totals tie out. Income stays positive, refunds stay negative, and COGS is separated from operating expenses.

  • From there, adjust each line up or down to set your plan.

Import from Excel

Prefer to build in a spreadsheet?

  • Download the Excel template (/qbo/budget/excel-template/).
  • Fill it in, then upload it (/qbo/budget/excel-upload/) to create the budget.

6.2 Editing budget line items 👤 Admin

On the budget detail page you can:

  • Edit the budget header (/qbo/budget/<id>/edit/).
  • Update individual line items inline.

  • Apply an across-the-board adjustment (e.g., +5% to all revenue) via Apply adjustment (/qbo/budget/<id>/apply-adjustment/).

  • Rebuild or clean up duplicates if an import needs a reset.

  • Set the budget's status (e.g., draft vs. final).

6.3 Variance analysis

Compare your plan to reality:

  • Variance view (/qbo/budget/<id>/variance/) shows budget vs. actual per line, with the dollar and percentage differences color-coded.

  • You can also see budget against actuals on the P&L vs Budget report (see Reports).

6.4 Scenario planning

Model best / likely / worst cases:

  • Scenarios (/qbo/budget/<id>/scenarios/) let you create alternate versions of the budget so you can plan for a range of outcomes.

  • Review the methodology notes (/qbo/budget/<id>/methodology/) to document the assumptions behind a budget.

6.5 Exporting

  • Export to Excel (/qbo/budget/<id>/export/excel/) to continue working in a spreadsheet.
  • Export to PDF (/qbo/budget/<id>/export/pdf/) for a shareable, themed document.