Importing a budget into QuickBooks Enterprise

Greetings, @Gloria3.

Good to see you in the Community. I can help you import your budget reports in QuickBooks Desktop.

There are two options to create a new budget without having to enter the data manually. You can either import the last years budget or selecting Create budget from the previous year's actual data option. This lets you copy an existing budget by using the accounts that you already have and modifying the amount.

To start, you may want to print the last year's Profit and Loss Detail report to review last fiscal year's data. After that, please refer to the steps below based on how you want to copy the information entered on last year's budget. 

To upload Intuit Interchange Format (.IIF) files:

1. Click File.
2. Choose Utilities.
3. Select Import.
4. Click IFF Files.

To create one budget per fiscal year based on the previous year's data:

1. From the Company menu, select Planning & Budgeting.
2. Select Set Up Budgets.
3. In the upper right corner, click Create New Budget.
4. Specify the budget year, then choose between Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet.
5. Click Next.
6. Select additional criteria then click Next.
7. Select Create budget from the previous year's actual data.
8. Select Finish.

I've attached some articles below for additional reference: 

• Export or import Intuit Interchange Format (.IIF) files
• Create a budget or forecast in QuickBooks Desktop

That should point you in the right direction today. Drop me a comment below if you have additional questions about budgets or about the process. I'll be happy to help you out. Wishing you and your business success. 

Thank you for your information.

I wanted to find a way to input new budget numbers every year without having to manually input into a very long chart of accounts by month.

After reading and reviewing the info from the links, the best info I could give someone else is -

It's not as hard as it looks or sounds, if you create one entry in QB's that represents what you want. This will become your template for IIF import - Quickbooks will create the template for you.

Or, as I did, in QuickBooks go to File > Utilities > Export > Lists to iif file. I chose 'Budgets' (I already had several years budgets that had been created in 'Company > Planning and Budgeting. It does not let you choose which year you want, so the COA is duplicated for each year it found a budget was created. I sorted on the column labeled 'Start Date', and deleted the previous years I didn't want included.

I then followed the instructions for opening the iif file in Excel. (see my notes below).

Edit the exported file

Open the .IIF file.
Open Microsoft Excel.
From the File menu, select Open.
Choose the location where you saved the .IIF file.
In the file type field, choose All Files.
Select your .IIF file then select Open.
Select Next, then Next and Finish in the Text Import Wizard. The .IIF file is now opened in MS Excel.
Make the necessary edits.
Save the changes you made to the IIF.
From the File menu, select Save. (If you're using Excel 2007, choose the Office button. then Save).
Don't do a Save As or it will become a text file.

Select Yes on the prompt that appears.
Close Excel.
You will be prompted to save the .IIF file again. Select Don't Save.

Thanks but no thanks. Doesn't work. There is no option "Select additional criteria." Just what I would have expected from your company.

Hi there, @Hate the program.

This is not the impression we want you to have when using QuickBooks. I'm here to clear things out for you. 

To have the additional criteria button, make sure to choose Profit and Loss when creating a budget. Also, when you select the class as the category, ensure to enable it in the preferences section. 

Once you already choose Profit and Loss and you're still unable to see the additional criteria option, we can verify and rebuild your data. 

I've added this article that can guide you in running reports in QuickBooks Desktop: Understand reports. This will guide you on how to generate budget reports to display the data of your company.

Let me know if you have other concerns. I'm here to assist you as soon as I can. Keep safe!

Do you guys ever look at your program? There is no additional option after Profit & Loss. On the next page is "No additional criteria"  or "Customer Job." Clicking next let's me "Create Budget fro Scratch" or "Create Budget from last year's actual data." I will say this for the umpteenth time: All I want to do is have my 2020-21 budget be the same as the 2019-20 budget.  Now why is that so hard????? Why can't I just take last year's and change the  date? Too simple for you?? And what is this about "Verify and rebuild your data?" You know I'm running Desktop don't you? Why do you need to anything with my data? What a bunch of crap.

I hate the program. I could start listing all the things I hate about it but I know you don't really care anyway.

Providing the best experience with the product is what we aim for, Hate the program.

When creating a new budget, QuickBooks provides you three options for the criteria (No additional criteria, Customer:Job and Class). Then, choose the Create budget from the previous year's actual data option to automatically enters the monthly totals from last year for each account in this budget.

For more details about creating a budget, check out this article: Create a budget or forecast in QuickBooks Desktop.

However, you can import the last year's budget to have your 2020-21 budget the same as the 2019-20 budget. Just upload Intuit Interchange Format (.IIF) files in QuickBooks. 

Here's how:

1. Click File.
2. Choose Utilities.
3. Select Import.
4. Click IFF Files.

To learn more about importing Intuit Interchange Format (IIF) files, see Export or import Intuit Interchange Format (.IIF) files article.

On the other hand, we use the Verify and Rebuild Data utility when there's a data integrity issues on your company file.

I have a link here where you can find articles about managing your financial reports: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/reports/financial-reports/08?product=QuickBooks%20....

The Community will always have your back if you need anything else in QuickBooks Desktop. Take care always. 

I created a Budget iif file, but when I import into Quickbooks, only July through December of 2020 populates.  The remaining fiscal year from January- June 2021 does not appear .  Any guidance would be greatly appreciated

Thank you for bringing this one to our attention. I've got some steps we can perform to import the Budget data, Carrie Crutcher.

If you're using QuickBooks Desktop 2019, you'll see the number of list and transactions that both failed and was successfully imported. QuickBooks automatically creates a new .IIF file for failed records with the error information.

What we can do is to review and resolve the errors found in the .IIF file for January- June file not imported. Let me show you how: 

1. Go to File on the top menu.
2. Choose Utilities.
3. Select Import.
4. Click IFF Files and tap the File not imported window. 
5. Select Review now.
6. Look for ERROR to see what the problem(s) with the file is.
7. Correct the errors and press Save. If asked if you want to keep the file type, choose Yes.
8. Close the File not imported window. Then, import the new, corrected .IIF file.

For more details about this one, see Improved IIF Import in QuickBooks 2019 and later article. Then, create a budget or forecast on your software.

To learn more about Intuit Interchange Format (IIF) files, check out these articles: 

• IFF Overview: import kit, sample files, and headers
• Export or import IIF files
• Tasks you can do with IIF files

Keep me posted if you have any additional questions or concerns in QuickBooks. Assistance is just one click away. Have a great day ahead. 

Thank you so much for responding.  I am using Quickbooks Accounting Pro.  I am not getting any error, the information is just not populating into QB from January to June, the second half of our Fiscal Year.  

I forgot to mention there was no "file not imported" option 

I'm here to help you, Carrie Crutcher.

Let's ensure the IIF file fields and headers are correctly mapped or used. It's the first step to isolate the issue.

If there are incorrect fields or header placements, you can edit the IIF file. Here's how:

1. Click File, then select Open in Microsoft Excel.
2. Look for the IIF file.
3. Click the File type drop-down arrow, then select All Files.
4. Select the IIF file, then click Open.
5. Click Next, then Next and Finish in the Text Import Wizard window.
6. Make some changes or edit the IIF file.
7. Click File, then select Save.
8. Select Yes, then close Excel.
9. You'll get a message to save the IIF file again. Click Don't Save. 

Once done, import the file again and check if the second half data is already imported.

We're just around to help you. Feel free to get back to this thread if you need more assistance. 

I found this great post that solved my fiscal year 7/1-6/30 issue.  Creating this file is still manually intensive, but well worth the effort to have future years stream lined since all I will need to do is modify the file I have created - thank you C J Day !!!! 

 

CJDay

Level 3

‎August 21, 2020 10:55 AM

 

 

 

 

I figured it out. I still have to use the "Import if for me. I'll fix it later." option, but I now have a budget in QB and will make notes on how to do this next year. When I exported the Budget file, I did notice there were two lines for some of the accounts. Now I know why.

 

1. The amount columns on the BUD line are January to December, not matter what you put in the STARTDATE column. I had to make sure I had the budget in that order and not according to the fiscal year.

2. To do a budget for a year that does not start on Jan 1, you need two lines for each account. Our year runs July-June.

• One line has amounts in the first 6 AMOUNT columns and the start date is 1/1 of the end of the fiscal year. For FY2020-2021, this is 1/1/2021
• The other line has amounts in the last 6 AMOUNT columns and the start date is 1/1 of the beginning of the fiscal year. For FY2020-2021, this is 1/1/2020

I've attached a portion of the file to show what I did.

View solution in original post

 

 

  

Budget Template Split With Notes.pdf