How to Activate a Budget
Activating a budget makes it the live budget for its fiscal year. Only one budget can be Active per fiscal year. You need Manage permission to activate. Activate a Draft budget You can activate a...
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Activating a budget makes it the live budget for its fiscal year. Only one budget can be Active per fiscal year. You need Manage permission to activate.
Activate a Draft budget
You can activate a Draft two ways: from the Budget list tab, or directly from the full-page budget editor.
- In the left sidebar, go to Accounting, then Budgets.
- Click the Budget list tab to see all budgets grouped by fiscal year, and click Activate on the Draft's row - or open the Draft in the editor and click Activate, the primary button in the toolbar at the top of the page.
- A confirmation dialog appears. It lists what will happen when the budget goes live.
- Review the details and click Activate budget.
A budget needs at least one group or account
A budget with no groups and no accounts cannot be activated. If you click Activate on an empty budget, you'll see a message asking you to add at least one group or account first. Add a group (How to create groups) or a single account, enter an amount, and try again.
What changes once a budget is Active
- The budget's status badge changes from Draft to Active.
- It becomes the budget driving the Budget vs Actual view for that fiscal year.
- The row action changes from Continue editing / Activate to Edit -- you can still make changes after activation.
- Reallocations, percentage adjustments, and monthly edits all apply against the Active budget from this point forward.
One Active budget per fiscal year
If a fiscal year already has an Active budget, the Activate button on other Drafts for that year is disabled. To switch to a new budget, archive the current Active one first, then activate your Draft. See How to make a new budget when one is already active for the full walkthrough.