How to Create a Budget

This article walks through creating a brand-new budget from scratch. You need Manage or Full Access permission to complete these steps.

Step 1: Open the budget editor

1. In the left sidebar, select Accounting, then click Budgets in the sub-navigation.
2. Click New budget. This button is one of the actions in the single toolbar row at the top of the Budgets page.
3. The budget editor opens as its own full page (not a panel over the page), at a URL like /accounting/budgets/[id]/edit.

Step 2: Name the budget and choose a fiscal year

4. Enter a Budget name in the header field (for example, "Operating 2027"). The name appears in the budget list and all reports, and can be changed later.
5. Select a Fiscal year from the fiscal-year selector in the toolbar. The available years come from the fiscal year start month configured in your Accounting Settings. Note: the first month of your budget may not be January - it depends on your property's fiscal year setup.
6. The status badge in the toolbar shows Draft automatically. You will activate it when it is ready.

Important: The fiscal year locks the moment you first save the budget. You cannot change it afterward.

Step 3: Add accounts and groups

7. The editor is organized as two sections, Revenue and Expense. Within each section, the order is: your custom groups first, then GL account-group headers, then account-subtype headers - each with its own subtotal.
8. In the editor toolbar, click Add group to create a named group of related accounts (for example, "Utilities" containing Electric, Gas, and Water). Custom groups appear at the top of their section. See How to create groups for details.
9. Click Add single account to add a standalone GL account that keeps its own budget amount. The account picker only offers Revenue and Expense accounts - other account types are not budgetable.
10. Repeat until all your revenue and expense accounts are in the spreadsheet.

Step 4: Enter amounts

11. For each row in the grid, choose an entry mode: Split or Manual. In Split mode, type the annual total in the field right next to the Split/Monthly toggle - the 12 month cells fill in automatically, and the Annual column at the far right becomes a read-only display of the total. In Manual mode, type each month individually and the Annual column updates automatically.
12. Click a cell and type an amount. The grid updates as you move between cells, but nothing is saved to the server until you save your progress (Step 5).
13. The Net row at the bottom of the grid shows revenue minus expenses. It appears green when positive or zero, red when negative.

See How to enter amounts: Split or Monthly and How to use spreadsheet shortcuts for faster entry.

Step 5: Save the budget

14. When you are done (or want to save your progress), click Save as draft (or Save changes if you're editing an existing budget) to keep it as a work in progress. If you try to leave the editor with unsaved changes, a prompt asks you to save or discard them first.
15. When it is ready to use, click Activate in the toolbar to make it the active budget for that fiscal year. An empty budget - one with no groups and no accounts - cannot be activated; add at least one first.

See How to activate a budget for what happens during activation, including what to do if a budget for that year already exists.