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Budget Accounts

Budget Accounts are virtual accounts created exclusively for forecasting. They let you model budget data at a finer level of detail than your chart of accounts — without modifying your accounting software.

Why budget accounts exist​

Your GL chart of accounts might have a single "Sales Revenue" account, but for forecasting you might want to model revenue separately by product line, geography, or customer segment. Budget accounts let you:

  • Split a single GL account into multiple forecast lines — one revenue account becomes separate forecast lines for each product
  • Add new forecast lines for items without a GL account yet — e.g. a product you're planning to launch in Q3
  • Map budgets to your reporting structure — budget account values flow through their mapping into the correct reporting line in reports

How budget accounts are created​

It depends on the module:

  • Simple Budget — you create budget accounts explicitly. When adding a row, you define the name yourself. There is no single right approach — it depends on how much detail you want to see inside your budget:
    • High-level: one budget account per reporting line (e.g. a single "Revenue" account mapped to the Revenue reporting line). Simple to set up, sufficient when you don't need to break a line down further.
    • Fine-grained: multiple budget accounts all mapped to the same reporting line (e.g. "Product A", "Product B", "Services" — all mapped to Revenue). Modelled separately inside the module, but consolidated into the same line in reports.
  • Other budget modules — budget accounts are created automatically and are specific to the module. Each module contains a Mapping step where you link the budget accounts created by Monitr to the mappings from your reporting structure.

In all cases, a budget account must have a mapping assigned before its data appears in reports.

Viewing and editing budget accounts​

All budget accounts across all modules are listed in the Budget Accounts tab in Forecasts. Use it to get an overview of your budget account setup and to fix any missing or incorrect mappings.

To view or edit:

  1. Go to Forecasts in the sidebar.
  2. Click the Budget Accounts tab.
  3. Edit the Name or Mapping for any account inline in the table.
  4. Click Save to apply your changes.