Budgets give your business a clear financial plan. They help you set targets, manage spending, compare actual results with expectations, and spot problems before they become expensive. When you maintain your budgets regularly, you make better decisions because you can see where your income and costs are moving.

A good accounting budget does not need to be complicated or time-consuming. If you think budgets are a good idea but too much work, BOS Professional makes the process simple. You can create a practical budget, adjust it for inflation, review unusual figures, and then compare it with your real results in just a few minutes.

Start a New Budget

To create your budget, navigate to Budgets and click New (button). Set a starting date by selecting one on the calendar or by typing over the existing date. Then add a clear description, such as 'Budget for year ending Feb 2027'.

Next, click the arrow on the Add button, click Add/Update Accounts (Profit or Loss), and confirm the update. This action pulls the relevant Profit or Loss accounts into your budget.

Use Past Results as a Starting Point

Click anywhere in the list of accounts, then press Ctrl A to select all the accounts. At the top, next to Update, select Set Average for and choose the number of years in the next block. For example, you can select 1 year to use the past year's amounts.

Next to Round to, choose whether you want to round the numbers to 1, 10, 100, or 1000. Start with 10 and review the result. If the numbers do not look right, you can always run the process again. Click Update (button) and confirm the update.

Adjust the Budget for Inflation

Once the budget has a starting point, adjust the figures for expected price and cost changes. For example, if you increased your selling prices by 6%, select all the entries in the sales category by holding down Ctrl while clicking them.

Next to Update, select Adjust by and type 6 in the adjacent block, click Update (button), and confirm the update.

If you expect your costs to rise by 5%, select all the costs by clicking the first cost, holding down Shift, and clicking the last cost. Change the percentage from 6 to 5, click Update (button), and confirm the update.

Review and Fine-Tune the Figures

Take a careful look through the figures. If any amount looks odd, you can simply type over it. For example, if a machine broke and caused an unusually high repairs and maintenance cost, replace that amount with a more reasonable figure.

You can also type in amounts where the row displays zeroes. However, if a row shows zeroes, you should investigate why those amounts are not being captured in your accounting records.

Activate and Save the Budget

When you are happy with the figures, change the status to Active and click Save (button) on the top row. That’s it—your budget is set.

If you use branches, you can also set a budget per branch by selecting a branch from the dropdown list.

View Your Budget in Action

Navigate to Accounting > Statement of Profit or Loss. Select a branch if applicable. Next to Set, select Fin Year (Months) from the dropdown list. Use the arrow keys to view a previous or future year if applicable. In the % block on the filter row, select Budget. Further along the row, a field appears where you can select a budget from the dropdown list. Select the applicable budget and click View (budget).

Read the Results

Tip: Click Menu (button) > Hide decimal values. The display will be easier to read.

Your screen should now show the actual amounts in black and the budgeted amounts in blue. In the percentage column changes above zero are shown in green and negative amounts are shown in red. However, this does not mean that green numbers are good and red numbers bad.

To spot problem areas focus on changes that are less than 100 in the revenue section or exceed 100 in the expenses section. The changes are calculated by dividing the actual amount by the budgeted amount and multiplying by 100. For example, a change of 20% in the expenses section means the actual expense was only 20% of the budgeted amount. In contrast, a change of 385% means you spent 385% more than the budgeted amount.

To investigate a large discrepancy, double-click an entry that is not a total to open the ledger. The ledger shows the individual entries, and you should be able to spot issues like unusually large numbers or an incorrect journal entry.

Remember to also look at the totals. If your expenses exceed the budgeted amounts but your sales and gross profit also exceed their budgets it might just indicate that your business is growing and that you should edit your budgets to reflect that growth. You can change a budget as often as you like (change the budget's status to Pending for editing, and then back to Active for viewing).

Clean Up or Export the View

If you only want to display certain months, click a heading and click Remove This Column. If the display feels cluttered, click Menu > Export Grid and save the report in .xlsx format. You can then open it in Excel or Google Sheets where you have more control over the display.

Ready to Take Control?

With BOS Professional, you can build an accounting budget from your existing Profit or Loss accounts, use past results as a base, round the numbers, adjust for inflation, correct unusual figures, and save the budget as active. 

You can then compare budgeted figures with actual results and investigate large discrepancies.

Take a few minutes to create your next budget in BOS Professional. Once it is active, review it regularly against your actual results. Small, steady checks can help you stay in control, plan with confidence, and make better business decisions.