Budgets let you compare your actuals against plan in reports, charts, dashboards and presentations. This overview explains the two ways to add a budget to ScaleXP, how to keep several versions, and where to go when you need to change one.
Setting up budgets for a group? See How to add a budget to a consolidated company.
Budgeting options in ScaleXP
You can upload budgets directly into ScaleXP (recommended) or sync budgets that already exist in your accounting system. You can report against any combination of budgets, including a mix of uploaded and synced budgets, in the same report or in separate ones.
Option 1: Upload a budget to ScaleXP (most flexible)
Uploading lets you budget against any combination of accounts and metrics in ScaleXP — for example profit, cash, MRR, new and lost customers, imported data, and standard or custom metrics such as churn and liquidity ratios.
- Budget against Xero tracking codes and QuickBooks classes
- Budget against customers tab reports such as MRR and lost customers
- Budget against Google Sheets and manual entry metrics
To upload a budget, see How to add a budget or forecast. For metrics and customers tab reports, see How to add and change budgets for MRR, churn, customer count, and other metrics, How to add a customers page report into your budget and How to create a budget for metrics using Google Sheets.
Option 2: Sync budgets from Xero or QuickBooks (financials only)
If your budget already lives in Xero or QuickBooks, ScaleXP can pull it in automatically.
- Go to Load Data > Connections.
- Click the three dots on your accounting system, then Configure.
- In section 4, Budgets and Forecasts, use the dropdown to choose the date from which to include budget data.
Keep multiple budget versions
You can keep as many budget versions as you need — for example an original budget, a revised budget and a series of reforecasts — and compare them side by side in reports. See How to add multiple budgets or forecasts to a report.
To create a forecast or latest view that includes actuals for the year to date, create a new budget and turn on the toggle to include actuals when you download the template. See How to add a budget or forecast.
Change an existing budget
- Change figures or add months — see How to view and edit a budget in ScaleXP
- Add metrics, accounts or customers tab reports — see How to add and change budgets for MRR, churn, customer count, and other metrics
- Replace the whole budget, for example to shorten it or change its dates — see How to view and edit a budget in ScaleXP
- Rename a budget or change the default — see How to rename budgets, forecasts, and budget headings in reports and How do I set the default budget or forecast?