Budgets: Overview
Budgets let staff plan annual operating income and expenses, track actual spending against those plans in real time, and review a forecast of year-end results. Every budget covers a full fiscal year...
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Budgets let staff plan annual operating income and expenses, track actual spending against those plans in real time, and review a forecast of year-end results. Every budget covers a full fiscal year and is broken into a monthly grid per account or group. The forecast and the other prepared figures now live on their own AI Assist tab, alongside Budget vs Actual and Budget list.
Creating a budget or opening an existing one takes you to a full-page budget editor with a single toolbar row for the budget selector, fiscal-year selector, Accrual/Cash toggle, status badge, and the main actions (Activate, Export CSV, Archive, New Budget). The editor is organized as a Revenue section and an Expense section - each listing your custom groups first, then GL account-group headers, then account-subtype headers, with subtotals throughout and a Net total at the bottom.
Where to find it
Go to Accounting in the left navigation sidebar, then select Budgets from the sub-navigation at the top. The page opens on the active budget for the current fiscal year.
Who can use it
Access is controlled per user by your account's primary contact. Three permission levels exist:
- Read Only - view budget performance, charts, and the AI forecast. Cannot create or change anything.
- Manage - everything in Read Only, plus create budgets, edit line items, and use the spreadsheet editor.
- Full Access - everything in Manage, plus archive and delete budgets.
Users with no budgeting permission do not see the Budgets section at all. Contact URBI at hello@myurbi.co if you need access adjusted.
The budget list and statuses
Every budget for your property appears in the Budget list tab, grouped by fiscal year. Each budget has one of three statuses:
- Draft - work in progress. You can keep editing, save progress, or activate it when it is ready.
- Active - the live budget driving the Budget vs Actual view. Exactly one Active budget per fiscal year is allowed.
- Archived - a completed or retired budget kept for reference. Archived budgets move to a collapsible Archived section at the bottom of the Budget list and are read-only, but you can still open one to view it.
In this guide
- How to create a budget
- How to track spending and reallocate funds
- How to read budget performance and variance
- How to create groups
- How to enter amounts: Split or Monthly
- How to use spreadsheet shortcuts
- How to edit or resume a budget
- How to make a new budget when one is already active
- How to activate a budget
- How to adjust amounts by percentage
- How to duplicate, rename, archive, or delete a budget
- Understanding the Budget Hierarchy
- The Full-Page Budget Editor
- Archiving Budgets and the Archived Section
- Why Can't I Activate This Budget?
- Troubleshooting: Saving a Budget
- The AI Assist tab