
Budgets
As a business, you will set budgets for the spending of your organization, so that you can have control on your business expenditures. However, the spending pattern of your business (known as actuals) is likely to be different from the budget you had set initially. So, it is important for you to know how your actuals vary from your budget to optimize your future budgets.
Budgeting in Zoho Expense allows you to know how your business is spending. You can create budgets for the expense categories on a monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or annual basis. Compare your budget with the actual spending of your business using insightful reports and make informed financial decisions.
Create a Budget
Field | Description |
---|---|
Name | Enter a name to identify your budget. |
Fiscal Year | Select the financial year for which you would like to create a budget. |
Budget Period | Select a time period for your budget. The budget period can either be monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly. |
You can also associate tags to your budgets. When you associate a tag to a budget, only the expenses associated to that tag will be included for calculating the Actuals. For example, when you associate a location tag to a budget, you can set location based budgets and compare the actuals versus the budget for the expenses incurred in that location. To do this:
Next, you can create budgets for your expenses. To record them, you can:
- Enter them manually
- Pre-fill based on previous years’ actuals
- Autofill accounts
Enter Them Manually
If you would like to enter the budget manually, you can enter the amounts in the fields, next to the respective expense categories.

Pre-fill based on Previous Years’ Actuals
If you would like to create a budget based on one of your previous year’s business expenditures, you can do just that in Zoho Expense.
Autofill Accounts
Instead of entering the amount for each expense category and period individually, you can just enter the amount for the first period for an expense category and choose to autofill values for the subsequent periods (monthly, quarterly, or half-yearly). The amounts in the subsequent periods will be auto-filled based on the first period amount and the following criteria:
- Apply fixed amount for each period
- Adjust by amount for each period
- Adjust by percentage for each period
Autofill by Applying Fixed Amount for Each Period
If your business is projected to incur the same expense amount for each period in your budget, you can select this option. You will have to enter a fixed amount for the initial period. The subsequent periods will be autofilled with the initial amount you entered.

Autofill by Adjusting the Amount for Each Period
If your business is projected to incur expenses based on adjustments to amounts, you can select this option. You’ll be able to enter the adjustment amount and it will be added to the:
- First period’s amount
- Each period’s existing amount
Add the adjustment amount to the first period’s amount
You can enter an amount for the first period and the adjustment amount will be added to it for the subsequent periods.
Example: If you have set the first period’s amount as 1000 and the adjustment amount for each period as 100, then 1000 will be amount for the first period, 1100 for the second, 1200 for the third and so on.

Pro-tip: You can add the negative symbol (-) if you want the amounts in the subsequent periods to depreciate.
Add the adjustment amount for each period’s existing amount
You can select this option if you’ve already entered your budget for each period and want to update them with an adjustment amount.
Scenario: Letโs say, you want to create a budget such that you want to add 100 to the expense categories of the previous years’ budgets. Let’s assume the previous years’ budgets for the first three periods are 1000, 2000, and 1500. When you enter your adjustment amount as 100, the amounts for the newly created budget for the first three periods will be 1100, 2100 and 1600 respectively.
Pro-tip: You can add a negative symbol (-) if you want the amounts in the subsequent periods to depreciate.
Autofill by Adjusting the Percentage for Each Period
If your business is projected to incur expenses based on a percentage, you can select this option. You’ll be able to add the percentage of amount to the:
- First period’s amount
- Each period’s existing amount
Add the adjustment percentage to the first period’s amount
You can enter an amount for the first period and the subsequent periods will be autofilled based on the percentage of adjustment.
Scenario: If you have set the first period’s amount as 1000 and the adjustment for each period is 10%, then 1000 will be amount for the first period, 1100 for the second, 1210 for the third and so on.
Pro-tip: You can add negative (-) symbol if you want the amounts in the subsequent periods to depreciate.
Add the adjustment amount for each period’s existing amount
You can select this option if you’ve already entered your budget and you wish to update them with a percentage of adjustment.
Scenario: Letโs say, you want to create a budget such that you expect a 10% increase to the expenses of the previous year’s budget. Let’s assume the previous year’s budget for the first three periods as 1000, 2000, and 1500 respectively. When you enter the percentage of adjustment as 10%, the amounts for the newly created budget for the first three periods will be 1100, 2200 and 1650 and so on.
Pro-tip: You can add a negative symbol(-) if you want the amounts in the subsequent periods to depreciate.
- Hover over an expense category and click Autofill next to the expense category.
- Enter the Initial Amount.
- Choose a criteria for the autofill. You’ll be able to preview the budget you’ve autofilled based on the criteria you’ve chosen.
- Click Apply.
Note:
- You will not be able to autofill expense categories if you have chosen a yearly budget.
- You can create only one budget for a fiscal year.
Compare Budgets vs Actuals (Budget Summary)
Once you have created a budget, you can know how your business is actually performing against your budget. You will be able to compare your budget vs actuals using a comprehensive report including the over budget of your expense categories.
To compare them:
You will also be able to:
Export Budget vs Actuals Report
You can export your organization’s budget summary in PDF, XLS, or XLSX format.
Pro-tip: If you use Zoho Sheets, you can generate the budget vs actuals report and export that report to Zoho Sheets with just a click.
To export:
- Go to Admin > Budgets.
- Select the budget.
- Click View Budget vs Actuals.
- Click Export As in the top right corner and choose your preferred format.
Customize Budget vs Actuals Report
You can run your budget summary report based on the name of the budget and the expense category type (All Categories, Active Categories, Budget Categories, Budget, or Active Categories). To customize your budget vs actuals report:
- Go to Admin > Budgets.
- Select the budget.
- Click View Budget Vs Actuals.
- Click Customize Report in the top left corner.
- Select the budget, filter, unapproved expenses filter and the budget period.
- Click Run Report.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Filter | Run your report based on the expense category type. You can select all categories, active categories, budget categories, and budget or active categories. |
Unapproved Expenses filter | Select whether you want to include or exclude the unapproved expenses when you run the report. |
Budget Period | Run your report based on monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly budget periods. |
The expense category types have been mentioned below:
Filter | Description |
---|---|
Active Categories | This option will filter only the expense categories for which you’ve incurred expenses during the budget period. |
Budget Categories | This option will filter only the expense categories for which you’ve specified a budget amount while creating a budget. |
Active or Budget Categories | This option will filter both active and budget expense categories. |
All Categories | This option will filter every expense category that has been created in Zoho Expense. |

Insight: If you had set a certain budget period say, quarterly while creating your budget, you can run your reports based on other budget periods (monthly, half-yearly, or yearly) as well.
Print Budget vs Actuals Report
To print a copy of your budget vs actuals report:
- Go to Admin > Budgets.
- Select the budget.
- Click View Budget Vs Actuals.
- Click the Print icon in the top right corner.
- Click Print.
More Actions
You can also perform certain actions for your budgets. You will be able to:
Edit Budget
If you have any changes that are to be made to your budgets, you can edit them any time. To edit a budget:
- Go to Admin > Budgets.
- Hover over the budget you’ve created.
- Click Edit.
- Edit the required details in your budget.
- Click Save.
Clone Budget
If you want to replicate a budget you had made earlier, you can just clone them. To clone a budget:
Download Budget
You can download the budgets to your system as a PDF. To download your budget:
- Go to Admin > Budgets.
- Click the budget you would like to download.
- Click the More icon in the top right corner and select PDF to download.
Print Budget
To print a copy of your budget:
- Go to Admin > Budgets.
- Click the budget you would like to print.
- Click the More icon in the top right corner and select Print.
Delete Budget
If you donโt want to use a budget, you can delete them permanently. To delete a budget: