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: Start a new budget

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.

Step 2: Choose how you want to start

3. URBI asks "How do you want to start this budget?" before the editor opens, and offers three ways in:
   • Start from nothing. Every account starts at $0 and you build the budget line by line.
   • Copy an existing budget. Duplicate any budget on file, draft or archived, and use it as your starting point.
   • Start from last year. Pre-fill every line from last fiscal year, then choose which numbers to base it on.
4. If you chose Start from last year, a second question asks "How should we set the baseline?". Pick either Prior fiscal year actuals, so each line is measured against what was really spent or collected, or Prior ACTIVE budget, so each line is measured against what was planned.
5. This answer fills the Baseline column in the grid, and every percentage you see afterwards is measured against it. Starting from nothing or copying an existing budget leaves the baseline empty, so those budgets show a dash in the Baseline column and new in the percent column instead of a change figure.

Worth getting right the first time: the baseline is set when the budget is created. Choose Prior fiscal year actuals when you want next year's numbers judged against what really happened, and Prior ACTIVE budget when you are explaining a change against what was approved.

Step 3: Name the budget and choose a fiscal year

6. The budget editor opens as its own full page (not a panel over the page), at a URL like /accounting/budgets/[id]/edit.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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 4: Add accounts and groups

10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. Repeat until all your revenue and expense accounts are in the spreadsheet.

Step 5: Enter amounts

14. 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, and the 12 month cells fill in automatically. In Manual mode, type each month individually and the Annual column updates automatically.
15. 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 6). A negative amount is allowed and keeps its minus sign, which is what you want for a credit or contra line.
16. 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 6: Save the budget

17. 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.
18. When it is ready to use, click Activate in the toolbar to make it the active budget for that fiscal year. One category or one account anywhere in the budget is enough to activate; you do not need one in each of Revenue and Expense, and the amounts you entered never block activation.

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