Language:


Budget Keys

This page describes the Budget Keys setting in the Nominal Ledger.

---

The Budget Key is a tool that you can use when entering and calculating Budgets. Budget Keys allow you to apply a formula to a yearly budget total in order to divide it into monthly, quarterly or other periodic figures.

For example, it may be that the overall budget for a particular Account should be distributed equally to each month, with the exception that the budgets for June, July and August should be half the value of those of the other months. To calculate such a budget, use a Budget Key in which you have assigned a value of 1 to each of the three summer months and 2 to the other months. The sum will be 21, which corresponds to the annual balance.

If the sum of the periodic values in a Budget Key is 100, that Budget Key will in effect assign a certain percentage of the annual figure to each period (e.g. to each month or quarter). You can use percentage values in a Budget Key, but it isn't necessary that you do so.

You should configure your Budget Key records to co-ordinate with your budgeting methods. For example, if you start with annual budget figures that you break down into quarterly figures, you should list four rows in your Budget Keys, one for each quarter. If you work to monthly figures, each Budget Key should have twelve rows, and so on.

Please refer to the description of the Budget register to see how you can use Budget Keys to help calculate budgets.

If you need to print a list of the Budget Keys that you have entered in the Budget Keys setting, produce a System Documentation report (from the System module) with the Budget Keys option selected.

To open the Budget Keys setting, first ensure you are in the Nominal Ledger. Then, if you are using Windows or macOS, click the [Settings] button in the Navigation Centre or use the Ctrl-S/⌘-S keyboard shortcuts and then double-click 'Budget Keys' in the 'Settings' list. If you are using iOS or Android, select 'Settings' from the Tools menu (with 'wrench' icon) and tap 'Budget Keys' in the 'Settings' list. The 'Budget Keys: Browse' window will open, listing any Budget Keys that you have already entered.

Then, open the 'Budget Key: New' window by selecting 'New' from the Create menu (Windows/macOS) or the + menu (iOS/Android). After entering the Budget Key, save it using the [Save] button (Windows/macOS) or by tapping √ (iOS/Android) and close the window by clicking the close box or by tapping <. Then, close the browse window using the close box or < again.

Code
This is a code that identifies the Budget Key, when used for budgeting. You can only use uppercase letters and numbers.

Comment
Give the Budget Key a descriptive name, to be shown in the 'Budget Keys: Browse' and 'Paste Special' windows. Ideally, the Comment should include a reference to the number of periods (i.e. the number of rows used in the grid, usually 12 for monthly periods or four for quarterly periods). This will help you when entering Budget records because the numbers of periods in a Budget record and in the Budget Key that it uses should be the same.

Sum
This figure will be updated automatically as you add the monthly, quarterly or other periodic key values to the Value grid

If you will enter percentages in the Value grid, the Sum should be 100 when the Budget Key is complete.

Value
Enter the monthly, quarterly or other periodic key values.

You can enter percentages here, but you do not need to do so. When you use the Budget Key in a Budget record, each of these key values will be applied in turn to the Budget's Base Value on a ratio basis to produce a monthly, quarterly or other periodic Budget value. For example, if the Base Value in a Budget is 6000.00 and you apply the Budget Key illustrated above to this Budget, the first monthly Budget value will be calculated to be 6000 * 10/252, the second monthly Budget value will be calculated to be 6000 * 12/252, and so on.
---

Settings in the Nominal Ledger:

Go back to: