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Create budgets in QuickBooks Online

by Intuit•9• Updated 2 days ago

Many businesses use budgets to plan their finances effectively. QuickBooks Online allows you to create profit and loss budgets for the coming year, month, or quarter. By comparing your actual income and expenses against your budget, you gain a clear overview of your business performance.

Note: You can create a budget at any time, but it’s best to start at the beginning of the financial year.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure that you meet these requirements:

Sign in with an account that has budget access, such as an admin or standard all access user.
Verify that every account you want to include in your budget is listed in your chart of accounts.
Confirm your financial year start date is correct in the Advanced tab of your Account and settings. Take me there.

Create a new budget

Follow these steps to build a budget directly in QuickBooks Online:

Go to Reports , select Financial planning, then select Budgets (Take me there).
Select Create budget.
Note: If you are adding for the first time, select Create a budget.
Select budget type as Profit and loss.
Note: Profit and loss is set as the default option.
From the Period ▼ dropdown, select the financial year you're creating the budget for.
For a profit and loss budget, select format Consolidated or Subdivided.
Note: For subdivided budgets, select what you want to subdivide by, from Subdivide by, and Subdivide for ▼ dropdowns.
(Optional), From the Pre-fill data ▼ dropdown, select a reference data value you want to prefill your budget with.
Select Next.
Enter your budget for each account for each month.
Select Save and close.

Import a profit and loss budget

If you track financial plans externally, you can use AI-powered tools to import your project budget into QuickBooks. This process helps address mismatches or duplicates during mapping. Note that only profit and loss budgets can be imported.

Prepare your file for import

Use an Excel spreadsheet of 10MB or less.
Select Import budget.
Select your period, format, and pre-fill data to download the P&L budget_template.xlsx file.
Open the template in Excel or Google Sheets and enter your budget for each account.
Important: Do not add new columns or rows for additional accounts.
Save the file with a unique name.

Complete the import

Go to Reports , select Financial planning, then select Budgets (Take me there).
Select Import budget.
From the Select time period ▼ dropdown, select the financial year.
Select the budget format Consolidated or Subdivided.
Note: If subdivided budgets, select the criteria like Location or Class from Subdivide by, and Subdivide for ▼ dropdowns.
Select Next.
Upload your formatted Excel file and select Next.
Select View budget once the process finishes.

Review and edit a budget

After you create or import your budget, review it to make sure it's accurate.

Go to Reports , select Financial planning, then select Budgets (Take me there).
Select the budget you want to review or edit.
Select the edit icon ✎ and enter a name for your budget.
To use historical data, turn on Compare reference data switch and select your reference points.
To pre-fill data, tick the box for each account, then select Copy reference data from the Batch actions ▼ dropdown.
Enter or adjust budget amounts for each account, switching between Yearly, Quarterly, or Monthly views as needed.
Select Save or Save and close.

Next steps

Once you’ve created a budget, you can copy it, run a report with it, edit it, or delete it.

Manage existing budgets

Go to Reports , select Financial planning, then select Budgets (Take me there).
Once your budget is active, you can perform the following actions:
- Copy a budget: Find the budget, select the dropdown ▼ from the Actions column, and select Duplicate. From the Period ▼ dropdown, select the financial year and select Duplicate.
- Run a budget report: From the Actions column, select Run Budget Overview report or Run Budgets vs. Actuals report.
  Note: If you aren't able to see, select the dropdown ▼ from the Actions column then select Run Budget Overview report or Run Budgets vs. Actuals report.
- Edit a budget: Select the budget, make your changes, and select Save or Save and close.
- Delete a budget: Tick the box next to the budget, select the dropdown ▼ from the Actions column, and select Delete. Select Yes to confirm.
  Note: Deleted budgets cannot be recovered.