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.

In this page you’ll learn to:

Create a Budget

Go to Admin > Budgets.
Click Create Budget.

Enter the following details:

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:

Click Create this budget for a specific tag.
Select the tag name and choose an option.

Next, you can create budgets for your expenses. To record them, you can:

Enter them manually
Pre-fill based on previous years’ actuals
Auto-fill 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.

Click Pre-fill from Previous Years’ Actuals.
Select a previous year.
Click Pre-fill.
Click Save.

Auto-fill 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 auto-fill 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

Auto-Fill 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 auto-filled with the initial amount you entered.

Auto-Fill 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.

Auto-Fill by Adjusting the Amount for Each Period

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: Let’s 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.

Auto-Fill 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 auto-filled 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.

Auto-Fill by Adjusting the Percentage for Each Period

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: Let’s 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 on an expense category and click Auto-fill next to the expense category.

Enter the Intial Amount.
Choose a criteria for the auto-fill. You’ll be able to preview the budget you’ve auto-filled based on the criteria you’ve chosen.
Click Apply.

Note:

You will not be able to auto-fill 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:

Go to Admin > Budgets.
Hover over the budget you’ve created and click View Budget vs Actuals.

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.

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.