How can we budget monthly business expenses and track the budgeted versus actual expenses?

ADDSADDS Member Posts: 3

How can we budget monthly business expenses and track the budgeted versus actual expenses in wave system?

edited August 18, 2020 in Accounting Technical Support

Comments

  • AllenrAllenr Member Posts: 4
    I would like to find out about this.
  • ConnorMConnorM Member Posts: 1,229 ✭✭✭

    Hey @ADDS and @Allenr! How would these budgets ideally look for you within Wave? I'm wondering if there is some way for us to work out how to track these in our current software build. At present, there is no explicit budgeting feature, but depending on what the needs are, we might be able to figure something out together!

  • ADDSADDS Member Posts: 3

    hey @ConnorM - I can share one example; lets say we want to allocate some %age of funds for each category for a given month and than the actual expense transactions will be categorized. Now with matching category, I should be able to see the delta (difference between budgeted versus actual category spent). For reporting purposes, if we can see the trend of these category planned/actual and will help stay in control of our cash flow and stop spending in certain category if it is over budget e.g. Marketing budget category - Thanks

  • AllenrAllenr Member Posts: 4
    I agree with @Adds.

    Basicially i planned to spend $300.00 on stationary for the month. But, I go and spend actual of $200 so I have got $100 left to spend.

    Budgeting is to me more important than the actual spend, because without a budget you don't know where you are going.
  • BarsinBarsin Member, Moderator Posts: 2,041 ✭✭✭

    Hey there @ADDS @Allenr

    Our current system does not have this as Connor mentioned, however I have seen some users create a separate business in Wave as a workaround to track forecasted budgets etc by simulating transactions. You can then pull up reports in both your businesses. This will require a bit of manual math to see the differences, or a spreadsheet, but it's a decent workaround for some.

    Hope this helps.

  • J1111111111111J1111111111111 Member Posts: 1

    I've been asking Wave about adding the budget feature for years. It's 2020. Is it Wave's intention NEVER to add this feature? We've been using work-arounds for 3 or 4 years... exporting all transactions to Excel then comparing against budget there. It's just getting old. Starting a new project... need to decide whether to jump ship soon.

  • DaleSchmidt79DaleSchmidt79 Member Posts: 2

    If you are not going to build in budgeting, can you find an integration with a company that does so we can still enjoy the features of Wave while still being able to easily budget and compare to actual expendatures.

  • rstokkerstokke Member Posts: 1

    I've just set up a new account for a small homeowners' association. I love how easy it was to set up my accounts and 'customers' who are the association members who will pay dues. However, I hit a brick wall when I searched for a way to enter the expected/budgeted amount for each income and expense account. It will be important for me, as Treasurer for this new LLC, to show the association members how our actual income and expense track against the expected amounts. This will allow us to discuss increases or decreases to association fees next year.

  • ToddDToddD Member Posts: 1

    Budgeting: This seems to be a key metric for day to day, small business accounting. Can anyone at WAVE give us an update on when or if this is being added? (see @Allenr comment above. It's what I need to do as well).

  • FlopbotFlopbot Member Posts: 27

    Please, please do add the ability to set a budget in Wave and then track monthly spending towards it. @Barsin , I would be very happy to offer feedback on this feature as I’m familiar with how they work in both Quicken, Simplifi, and other personal finance programs.

    I’m very new to business accounting, but I can’t imagine how a budget feature would not be critical to any business.

    Does anyone know of a workaround to do this in the program as is?

  • FlopbotFlopbot Member Posts: 27

    And @ConnorM. Sorry, couldn’t edit my original post from my iPad for some reason. The Edit button wasn’t a hyperlink to anything.

  • CrissaCrissa Member Posts: 2

    I'm really interested in trying to figure out a work-around to the lack of budgeting in the program. I am the treasurer for a large scouting troop. I don't need to budget every single category- however, each unit (age group) within the troop has a spending limit. I was thinking that I could create a liability account (credit card?) for each unit with the total amount that they can spend and then pay from that as they spend it. Would that work to track it without affecting my overall account balance? I welcome any thoughts. I am very new to bookkeeping/ accounting and don't want to waste time trying something that's a terrible idea. Thank you!

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