QuickBooks 2005: The Missing Manual

Running Budget Reports

A budget gives you a target to aim for. The Set Up Budgets dialog box lets you type values for income and expense accounts, but it doesn't show you whether your budget results in a net profit or loss. For that, you need a budget report. And to see how you're doing compared to your budget, you need a budget report that shows budget and actual numbers side by side. QuickBooks provides four types of budget reports, one to review budgets you've created and the other three to compare your performance to your plan. This section describes the types of budget reports, what they're useful for, and how to create and format them.

Tip

To learn about all the options for customizing any kind of report, see Chapter 19.

The Budget Overview Report

Because the Set Up Budgets dialog box shows your accounts and the values you enter for each month, you can't see whether your budget actually works. The Budget Overview Report shows budget numbers for each account and month, but it also subtotals values if you use top-level accounts and subaccounts in your Chart of Accounts, as shown in Figure 18-6.

Note

The Budget Overview Report includes accounts that have budget values and doesn't display accounts for which you didn't specify budget values.

Figure 18-6. Although you build budgets month by month, many businesses, particularly those with shareholders, focus on quarterly performance. To view ...