Question

Budget vs Actual report

16 replies
133 views

is it possible to run a budget vs actual report and have a column for the full year budget also?

QuickBooks Online

I am specifically looking to run a budget vs actual with columns for the one month, YTD, and the whole year budget. Help!!

Jen_D

Level 8

Good to see you here, @msiegel,

There are two sets of budget reports in QuickBooks Online, namely, Budget vs. Actuals and Budget Overview. This is the reason why we're currently unable to merge elements on both reports.

If you want the Budget vs. Actuals to have a column for the total annual budget, you will need to pull up those 2 reports and customize them in Excel. To do the export process, use the Export icon so you can start modifying them on the worksheet.

See this:

I'll be adding some related links to help you get your way around the Reports feature in QBO:

Let me know if there are other things I can help you. I'll be right here if you need anything else. Have a lovely day!

M

msiegelAuthor

I know I can do it myself. I was hoping there was a way to do it in QBO since I already have to pull 2 reports for Budget vs Actual, one for the month and one for the YTD, which also can't be done on one report. So, now I have to pull 3 reports and combine them in excel just to get what's needed, for each and every class and for the overall. That's a lot of manual steps for an accounting system that should be able to do it for me.

B

Blkcat2025

I just got a QBO report from the treasurer of my group. The expense variance is wrong. It should be budget minus actual equals variance Instead it is using actual minus budget equals variance. For example 2460-3400=(1040) where the report is showing a positive variance of 1040. Is this a QBO issue. Jean [Last name removed]

S

SheandL

QuickBooks Team

Thanks for reaching out to us, Jean. QuickBooks calculates the variance for the Budget vs. Actual reports using the formula Actual minus Budget. Let me explain this below.

Before we proceed, I want to make sure we have all the details correct. From the example you shared, it looks like there may be a discrepancy in the calculation. Could you please share a screenshot of your report? This will help me better identify the issue and provide more accurate assistance.

Since QuickBooks uses the said formula to calculate the variance, we can concluded that this is a system design and not a technical error. Here's an overview of how variance works in the software:

A positive variance indicates that actual expenses exceeded the budgeted amount.
A negative variance means actual expenses were lower than the budgeted amount.

Based on the example you provided, the variance should be negative, indicating that spending was under budget by $1,040. Since it shows a positive variance, this could be due to customized report settings. That said, I recommend consulting with your treasurer who generated the report to check the report's formatting.

On the other hand, if you’d prefer to calculate variances using the budget minus actual, please know that QuickBooks doesn’t currently provide an option to modify the default formula. However, you can export the report to Excel, where you can personalize the variance calculation to align with your preference.

Please let me know in the comment if you have other questions or concern about this. We’ll be glad to help you.

B

Blkcat2025

Here's a copy of the report. JGW

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