Budget lives in the booked ledger — not in a spreadsheet on someone’s drive. You put numbers on the company’s own accounting year, map lines to accounts, and see actuals beside them.
Budget is an add-on. We turn it on for the account. It requires e-conomic or Dinero.
Before you start
e-conomic or Dinero is connected
You have View budgets (and Create / Edit if you will enter figures)
Budget appears under Accounting in the sidebar
If you don’t see Budget under Accounting, message us in chat — we’ll turn the module on.
Plan: Budget is not part of the standard plan. Billy is not supported here: years and actuals come only from e-conomic or Dinero.
Steps
1. Open Budget
Go to Accounting → Budget. The list shows one budget per accounting year, with status (draft, active, locked, archived).
2. Create a budget
Choose Create budget.
Pick the accounting year. Years come from your accounting system, so an offset year lands on the right dates. Closed years can still be budgeted.
Name the budget.
Choose how to start:
Empty budget — you build the lines in the sheet
Draft from last year — booked figures from an earlier year plus a growth rate (you can set different rates for revenue and cost)
Upload Excel — download a template that matches the year’s periods, then import lines and amounts
3. Build the lines
Open the budget. Each line is a row you follow up on. The accounts it covers sit under the name. Map accounts to the line and type amounts in the cells — they save as you go.
A line can cover several accounts. The same account may sit on more than one line.
Groups are visual only: enter amounts on a line under the group, not on the group itself.
4. Follow actuals
Actual and Variance sit beside the budget. Figures normally refresh every hour from the latest sync.
Use Update now to fetch straight from e-conomic or Dinero.
5. Scenarios
In the budget Settings you can create named scenarios. Exactly one is baseline — that is what booked figures are measured against.
6. Alerts when the month slips
In budget Settings, turn on Alert on variance and set a limit (1–100%, e.g. 10).
When the month has ended and a line is further from baseline than the limit, one email goes to the owner and administrators. No slip = no mail. Alerts are off until you turn them on.
7. Lock the year when it is done
Activate — this is the budget you follow (only one active per accounting year)
Lock — lines, mapping and scenarios freeze. Actuals still update. Only the owner can reopen
Archive — the budget leaves day-to-day work; the figures stay
Check that it worked
Budget shows under Accounting
The year matches e-conomic or Dinero
Lines have accounts, and cells save
The Actual column has figures (or Update now has run)
(Optional) Variance alerts are on if you want the mail
Common issues
Symptom | Cause | Fix |
No Budget in the menu | Module is off | Message us to turn it on |
“Budget requires e-conomic or Dinero” | Billy, or no integration | Connect e-conomic or Dinero |
No accounting years | The year does not exist in the ledger | Create it there, then retry |
Actuals stall | Stale sync, or live fetch failed | Update now; check the accounting connection |
No variance email | Alerts are off (default) | Turn on Alert on variance in budget settings |
Included / not included
Included | Not included |
Budget on the company’s own year (including offset) | Billy as source data |
Actuals from the books | A group statement with intercompany eliminated |
Scenarios and Excel import | A custom recipient list — mail goes to owner and admin |
On a group account, budget vs actual per company shows on the overview if that company has an active or locked budget. See See how the group is doing.
Next steps
Didn’t find an answer? Message us via in-app chat, or use Contact. We reply on business days.