To use Budget figures as comparative figures on the Income Statement, Trial Balance and User Reports, you need to enter and /or edit the budget figures.

The budget facility is used to enter and edit budget figures in a Set of Books which can be compared with actual figures achieved. Budgets are a guide to what you want to achieve; for instance what income you expect to generate (sales forecasts and income from other sources) and a plan for your expenses you need to incur to achieve that income.

Once all your budget figures are entered, the Budget Performance report or a Trial Balance, Income Statement, etc. could be generated to compare your actual figures with your budgeted figures. This comparison allows you to see exactly how your business is doing and will enable you to make better business decisions - e.g. when to advertise or when to cut back on what costs, etc.

To Enter or Edit Budget Figures:

1. Click on the Edit→Budgets menu option.
   - Keyboard Access: Press the Alt+E+B keys on your keyboard.
   
   The Accounts lookup facility screen listing all your available Accounts, as well as the Budget Accounts screen, is displayed:
   
   
2. Select the account for which you wish to enter or edit budget figures, and press the Enter key on your keyboard. The lookup facility will close and the account number will be displayed in the account field.
3. Enter the budget amounts in the Debit or Credit columns for each of your accounting periods. The annual figure will be updated automatically as you enter the amounts.
   - Should you enter an amount incorrectly, you may click on the Restore button to undo the entered amounts.
   - If you have annual figures you may enter an annual amount in the Annual field as a debit (+ positive) or a credit (- negative) budget amount and press the Enter key on your keyboard. If it is a debit (+ positive) amount the amount will automatically be divided equally between the number of accounting periods in the Debit column. If it is a credit (- negative) amount the amount will automatically be divided equally between the number of accounting periods in the Credit column.
   
   You may wish to edit or over type the amounts for each accounting period, to reflect your seasonal trends, or expected scheduled payments or sales.
4. Click on the OK button to save the changes. The Accounts lookup facility screen will be displayed. You may then select another Account to enter budget figures for that account.
5. Once you have entered all your budget figures you may press the Esc key on your keyboard twice to close the Accounts lookup facility and the Budget Accounts screens.

- An Opening Balance cannot be entered if you have selected an Income / Expense account from the Accounts lookup facility. Income / Expense accounts do not have opening balances for the year (they are all set to 0.00). These are for Balance Sheet accounts (Capital, Assets and Liabilities) for which you may enter the balance carried forward balance from the previous year.

- You may at any time preview your entries for a selected account by clicking on the Preview button. The specific account will be viewed on the Budget Performance Report.

- Main Account has Sub Accounts

1. If you select an account which has sub-accounts the following confirmation screen is displayed:
   
   
2. Click on the OK button and select the correct account or an account with sub-accounts.

The budget preview report may be generated at any time while you are busy (creating or editing) budgets in the Edit→Budgets menu option. When you enter, or edit any figures, you may click on the Preview button to view the budget figures you have entered for the selected account. If you need to generate a Budget Performance report for more than one account you need to generate the report using the Reports→General Ledger→Budget Performance menu option.

- Should batches (journals) be posted to the ledger, or documents updated to the ledger (Invoices, Credit Notes, Purchase and Supplier Returns documents) or Point-of-Sale Invoice Shift have been closed, the actual income or expenses will be listed for this year periods.

The details of the Budget Performance report will display the account code and name as headings, as well as any opening and closing balances for the selected account. The information is displayed in five columns as follows:

1. Accounting Period - This is the accounting periods as set up in the Setup→System Parameters→Reporting Dates menu option.
2. This Year - These figures include the batches (Sales Journal, Purchase Journal, Receipts Journal, Payments Journal, Petty Cash Payments Journal, etc. or any other batch type in which transactions were entered) which have been posted to the ledger. If any documents (Invoices, Credit Notes, Purchases Supplier Returns documents) were updated to the ledger and Point-of-Sale Invoices for which the Shift is closed, these actual transactions would be included.
3. Budget - This is the budget amount, which is entered in the Edit→Budgets menu option.
4. Variance Amount - This is the amount of the difference between the transaction amount in This Year column and the Budget amount in the Budget column.
5. Variance Percentage - The difference between the transaction amount in the This Year column and the Budget amount in the Budget column, is displayed as a percentage.