Can I set up a budget that reflects a fiscal year that does not coincide with calendar year dates?

Hello, Danimal. Setting up a fiscal year budget that doesn't coincide with calendar dates isn't currently an option in QuickBooks Online (QBO). I'll share more details about this so you can gain better control over your finances and make decisions to achieve your goals.

In QBO, you can only create budgets for the upcoming year, month, or quarter. However, when you generate the Budget vs. Actuals report, you can customize the date range (for example, October 2023 to April 2024) to compare your actual income and expenses with your budget.

For more details about using budgets to help plan your finances, please see this article: Create budgets in QuickBooks Online.

Also, you can set budget targets for each class, enabling you to plan for every segment of your business. To learn more about this process, check out this article: Set budget targets for each class in QuickBooks Online.

Please let me know if there's anything that I can help you with in creating budgets and managing your financial data in QBO. You can drop your reply below, and I'll get back to assist you.

I don't believe this is correct. If you print budget vs actuals report with dates that span a calendar year, the report does not look at both budgets, for example both 2023 and 2024.

Hey Danimal,

Thanks for reaching back out! Is it possible for you to share a screenshot of that report? Please block out any sensitive information, as this is a public forum. Hit that reply button below and select the camera icon to upload it. 

I look forward to assisting you further. Bye for now! 

As you can see, you're forced to choose a budget (like 2023 or 2024). In this example I chose 2024 and the report leaves blank the budget figures for 2023.

Hi there, Danimal. Let me help you adjust your preferred month and year on your budget. 

In QuickBooks Online, you can create budgets based on your accounting data. Since you want to see your budgets from a specific month and year, you can adjust your fiscal year in your company settings. 

Here's how:

1. Go to the Gear icon.
2. Under Your Company column, click Account and settings.
3. On the left side of your screen, look for Advanced. 
4. In the Accounting row, click the pencil icon located on the right side. 
5. Choose your preferred First month of fiscal year by clicking the dropdown button. 
6. Select your First month income tax year by clicking the dropdown button. 
7. Press Save. 

To know more about budgets, you can visit this article:  Create budgets in QuickBooks Online. 

Feel free to reach out whenever you have further concerns. Have a great day ahead! 

Okay yes, that shows me how to change my fiscal year to something other than the calendar year-end date, but my real question is whether I can get the Budget vs. Actual report to pull data from two different budgets when I print it for a date range that spans two periods.

Thanks for following up on this thread, Danimal.

I'd be glad to provide some additional info about the Budget vs. Actual report in your QuickBooks Online account.

While there are many options for report customization, there isn't currently a way to compare two different budgets in this report. I can see how having this ability would be beneficial. I recommend submitting feedback to the Product Development Team for review. This can be done directly through your account but clicking the Gear icon in the top right corner, then choose Feedback. 

Once you've submitted your feedback, keep an eye out on the Firm of the Future site for product updates and feature releases. Many of these come directly from great user suggestions like yours.

In the meantime, some users have printed the two separate reports and/or exported them to Excel to view them side-by-side as a workaround. The following article explains how to export your reports to Excel from QuickBooks Online.

Please don't hesitate to reach back out in the comments below if you have any other questions. I'll be here to help in any way that I can.