Budgets in ScaleXP allow you to compare financial performance against plan at both the subsidiary level and the consolidated group level. This overview explains the different ways to add budgets.
Where to Add Budgets in ScaleXP
Budgets can be added at both the subsidiary level and the parent (consolidated) level. The correct approach depends on your reporting structure.
| Requirement | Where to upload budgets |
|---|---|
| Each entity manages its own budget | Upload at each subsidiary |
| Group only tracks consolidated plan | Upload at the parent |
| Group needs entity-level reporting | Upload at subsidiaries (recommended) |
| Consolidated + detailed reporting | Upload at subsidiaries (automatically rolls up) |
Important: If you upload a budget only to the parent entity, you cannot run budget vs actuals by subsidiary. For full reporting flexibility, upload budgets at the subsidiary level.
Ways to Add Budgets in ScaleXP
ScaleXP supports multiple ways to add budgets depending on your needs.
1. Import Budgets from Excel (Most Common)
Upload a budget file using the ScaleXP template. See How to add a budget or forecast
Key capabilities:
- Upload budgets at entity level
- Upload consolidated budgets
- Import multiple budget versions
Related Articles
An overview of Budgeting in ScaleXP: How to create and revise your budgets and forecasts
How to view budgets after uploading them
2. Sync Budgets from Accounting Software
Budgets can be pulled directly from your accounting platform if your budget already lives there.
| Platform | Sync Support |
|---|---|
| Xero | Yes |
| QuickBooks | Yes |
| Sage | Use Excel import |
Related Articles
How to add a budget or forecast
3. Enter Budgets Manually
You can also enter budgets directly into ScaleXP. This is useful for small businesses or quick adjustments without re-uploading.
Related Articles
How to track against budget for a manual entry field
4. Multiple Budget Versions (Optional)
You can maintain multiple budget versions such as:
- Original Budget
- Revised Budget
- Reforecast 1, Reforecast 2, etc.
These can be compared side-by-side in reports.
Related Articles
How to add multiple budgets to a report
Consolidated Budgets for Multi-Entity Groups
For customers using consolidation, ScaleXP automatically rolls up budgets from subsidiaries into a consolidated view at the parent entity.
Group budget features include:
- Consolidated group budget
- Entity contribution analysis
- Currency translation support for budgets
- Group-level variance reporting
You may choose to upload a parent-level consolidated budget if needed for board reporting or create budgets from subsidiaries.
Related Articles
How to add a budget to a consolidated company
Reporting with Budgets
Once budgets are uploaded, they are immediately available for reporting and analysis.
You can:
- Build Budget vs Actual reports
- Run consolidated budget variance analysis
- Create budget dashboards
- Use budget insights in presentations and board packs
Related Articles
How to report department or project costs vs budget
Summary
| Capability | Available in ScaleXP |
|---|---|
| Subsidiary budgets | Yes |
| Consolidated budgets | Yes |
| Import from Excel | Yes |
| Sync from Xero and QuickBooks | Yes |
| Tracking category budgets | Yes |
| Multiple budget versions | Yes |
| Budget vs Actual reporting | Yes |
Budgets in ScaleXP can be used across reports, dashboards and group presentations, making financial planning and review clear and consistent across teams.
How to view and upload budgets
To view and manage the budgets held in ScaleXP, go to Load Data (top bar)>Budgets & Forecasts (left sidebar).
Budgets from your accounting system - financials only
- Budgets from your accounting system update automatically if you have this in your settings.
- To revise the settings, go to Load Data (top bar)> Connections (left sidebar)>three dots in accounting system box (next to Sync now)>Configure>Budgets & Forecasts. Change the drop down menu from "Do not import budgets & forecasts" to desired budget starting date. Sync data to see the new forecasts.
Budgets uploaded directly to ScaleXP - metrics as well as financials
- To upload budgets or forecasts directly to ScaleXP, go to Load Data (top bar)>Budgets & Forecasts (left sidebar)>Load New Budget (right side, across from Manually Loaded Budgets & Forecasts). See screenshot below.
- This will walk you through the process to download a template and upload your budgets into ScaleXP, as detailed below:
- Get Started > Select the category or categories to include (tick box at right of category) >deselect anything you don't want to include (tick box at left of category or metric name). Note that there may be more Metrics than are visible on the screen - you can see the total number of "Metrics selected" above the green box; scroll down (bar at right of box) to see them all. See screen shot below.
- Once budget categories are selected, click on Continue (bottom right)
- Select your date range using the drop down menus
- Turn off the toggle "Include actuals data in download file" to create a blank template; leave it turned on to create a template which includes actuals for all historic months selected;
- Download to Excel.
- Open the downloaded file, update the template in Excel (be sure to use number values only, no formulas), and name and save the file in a location of your choice ready for upload.
Select File and Upload. The system will let you know once the file has been uploaded successfully and the Upload button will change to say Continue.
You will see a preview of your uploaded budget. If it looks correct, select Done, otherwise you can Reload File. See this article for common budget upload issues.
Click Continue; you can see that your file name has been added to the top of the list of Manually Loaded Budgets & Forecasts.
To rename this budget, click on the edit (pencil icon) next to the name.
To make this the default budget, click Assign Default (right side of budget bar).
That's it - your new budget has been uploaded into the system! This budget is now linked to all your reports, charts and presentations.
Hint: You will probably need to refresh the page in order to see the new budget in Reports, etc.