A budget is a set of amounts that is expected to be spent or earned during a given time period. Most organizations compile budgets annually to plan for expenses and revenues.

You enable the use of the Budgeting module using the Budget Enabled field in System Maintain (36.24.3.1).

Use the Budget Create activity to define budgets for a single entity or for a group of entities that use the same shared sets. The entities can be in the same or different domains.

Budgets are composed of a structure of budget topics, each identified by a topic description and linked to a single or group of accounts, sub-accounts, cost centers, projects, or SAFs. You also define the hierarchy of topics for which budget and actuals data is accumulated, and the position of subtotals and COA components in the hierarchy.

To streamline setup, you can define budget groups that reference the COA components used for a budget topic. You can then link a group to a budget topic, rather than having to link each COA component individually. See Budget Groups.

Budget periods are intervals of time into which the budget life span is divided for costs and reporting purposes, and are separate from tax or GL periods. Costs and revenues are recognized in the budget period in which they are posted to the general ledger.

Budgets also include report periods that are linked to budget versions, and are used by the budget reports. See Budget Report Periods and Versions Tab.

When you have created the budget periods, levels, structure, and topics, you must link each topic to a chart of accounts component or range. A Budget daemon polls for transactions that use accounts and other COA components defined in the budget structure. When a transaction is posted for an account in the budget structure, the Budget daemon uses the COA links to update the actuals of each budget topic affected.

If you have set warning or error checking for budget overruns, the Budget daemon checks the actuals entered for the budget accounts and displays an error or warning message if a transaction overruns the budget. For more information on daemons, see QAD System Administration User Guide.

You can also enter forecast values to compare to the budget amounts and actuals. The forecast values are used for reporting only. In addition, you can also enter budget and forecast values for quantities, such as kilowatt hours, pounds, or machine hours.

Two reports, Budget Detail and Budget Overview, let you compare actual postings with the budget amounts to follow the progression of spending and earnings. See Budget Reports.