How to Reallocate Budget Funds

Reallocation lets you move surplus budget from one group or account to another during the year, without changing the amounts you originally entered. Your entered amounts stay the same; reallocation changes the effective (available) budget for each group or account.

You need Manage permission to reallocate, and the budget must be Active. To read performance and variance instead, see How to read budget performance and variance.

The move always applies to the current month. Whichever period you have on screen (YTD, Full year, or a past month), the transfer is made against the fiscal month you are in today. Switching the table to an earlier month does not move the money into that month.

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Move surplus to another group or account

1. In the left sidebar, go to Accounting, then Budget.
2. Find the group or account you want to move surplus from -- it must have surplus remaining (actual spend below its budget). An ordinary account row works here, not only a category.
3. Open that row's detail panel. You can click the row directly on the Budget vs Actual table, or click View full budget and then the chevron at the right of the row. Either way, the same panel opens.
4. In the detail panel header, click Reallocate surplus.

5. The Reallocate Budget drawer opens. Source is filled in from the row you opened and cannot be changed here. Underneath it, the drawer shows Available surplus this period.

   That figure is deliberately the surplus for the single period the move applies to, not the year. A row can look comfortably under budget across the full year while the period you are moving from has little or nothing spare, so this is the number the transfer is actually checked against.

   Two other things can appear in its place, and they mean different things:

   • "This period has no surplus to move." The figure is known and it is zero. There is nothing to move out of this row for this period.
   • "This period's surplus is unavailable. The figures may still be loading." The figure is not known yet. Wait for the performance figures to finish loading and reopen the drawer.

6. Choose the Target. You can pick a custom category, a single-account budget line, or an account that has no budget at all. Accounts that sit inside a multi-account group cannot be targeted directly; move the surplus to the group instead.

7. Enter the Amount to move. You cannot enter more than the surplus available for that period. Use full surplus (this period) fills in that exact figure for you, and is unavailable while the surplus is zero or still unknown.

8. Type a Reason. This one is required, not optional, and it is stored with the transfer so the record explains itself later.

9. Review the Preview, which shows the source's surplus before and after and the target's budget before and after.

10. Click Confirm Reallocation.

If the transfer is taking a while

If the work is still running after about thirty seconds, the drawer stays open and shows "The reallocation is still in progress. Check the budget again shortly." It does not claim the move succeeded. Wait a moment and reopen the budget to confirm the new figures.

Pressing Confirm Reallocation again on the same transfer will not move the money twice. If you change the target, the amount, or the reason and then submit again, that counts as a new transfer, so check the allocation history before resubmitting a changed one.

If the period is closed

Reallocation is refused when the fiscal period covering the current month is closed or locked, and when the budget is not Active. Reopen the period, or activate the budget, and try again.

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Move surplus to an account with no budget

If the spending does not fit any account that has a budget line, you can still choose that account as the target. URBI routes the money through a Miscellaneous group, creating it if the property does not have one yet.

1. Choose the unbudgeted account as the Target. The drawer warns you that confirming will route it via the Miscellaneous group, and the button changes to Continue....
2. A confirmation appears, headed "Move <account> into Miscellaneous?". It names the receiving account on a Target account row, and tells you the Miscellaneous group will be created if it is not already there.
3. Click Confirm: route via Miscellaneous.

Worth knowing: the message you get afterwards is just "Budget reallocated". It does not repeat where the money went, so read the confirmation before you accept it if you want that on screen.

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Find a transfer again, and reverse it

Transfers are listed under This row's allocation history, inside the row's detail panel. It is not at the bottom of the Full Budget drawer.

The list covers the fiscal month you are looking at, not the whole year, so a transfer made in an earlier month appears when you view that month.

1. Open the row's detail panel (step 2 above) and scroll to This row's allocation history.
2. Find the entry you want to undo and click Reverse.
3. The confirmation, "Reverse this reallocation?", tells you how much goes back to which row and confirms that the original transfer stays in the history, marked Reversed.
4. Click Reverse.

There is no time limit on reversing: any transfer that has not already been reversed can be reversed, and an entry that has been shows a Reversed badge instead of the button. Reversing needs Manage permission, the same as making the transfer.

Note: Reversing a reallocation does not delete the history. Both the original and the reversal remain visible for your records.

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What gets recorded

Applying a reallocation and reversing one are both written to accounting history, against the person who did it, along with the amount and the rows involved. The reason you typed is stored with the transfer.

Related articles

• How to read budget performance and variance
• How to activate a budget
• The Full-Page Budget Editor