You can set up an annual property budget for each property with an amount per month for each income and expense account. (There is also an option to include Balance Sheet accounts.
When the budget is in place, you can use the Budget Comparison Report to compare budgeted amounts to actual amounts.
To set up a budget
Go to Accounting > Budget Worksheet.
Complete the filter. At a minimum, you need to select a Property and a Start Month. (The budget spans 12 months.)
By default, the budget includes all accounts. To limit it to income and expense accounts, select the Income Statement option. If you want to work with a limited number of accounts, select an account range.
Cash Accounting is selected by default. You can change it to Accrual Accounting, if needed. When you run the budget comparison report, be sure to select the accounting option that you used when you set up the budget.
Click Display. The budget worksheet appears in the lower half of the screen.
Note: The screenshot does not show the full screen; it includes columns for the whole year.
Different Ways to Complete the Budget Worksheet
Per Account
You can enter an amount for each month, or you can enter an amount for the year in the Row Total field, and then click the Distribute button. The amount is divided equally among the 12 months. You can then adjust for seasonal differences by editing the fields for individual months.
Copy From Feature
After you click Display, the button row includes a Copy From button. (This is a logical place to start if you have an existing budget or actual data from a prior year.)
The button opens a screen where you pick a source.
Complete the screen.
Source: Actuals (actual data from the G/L) or Budget (a previous budget).
Start Month: The month/year combination for the beginning of the data you will bring in.
X Factor: You can multiply the figures you are bringing in. For example, if you want to increase the amounts by 5%, enter 1.05. Note: When Breeze calculates new amounts with this function, it rounds down to the nearest whole dollar. For example, if the calculated result was 10.78, the new budget amount would be 10.00.
Income Only? You can limit the data to income accounts (and exclude expenses).
When you click Submit, Breeze copies the amounts from the source into the budget worksheet.
Importing Budget Data
You can download a template for budget data, complete it, and import the data to Breeze. Go to Admin > Import Data. Select Budget and follow the directions on the screen.
Troubleshooting
In order to save a budget, all required fields must be populated. If you are trying to save but nothing is happening, scroll through and make sure you haven't missed anything.