Accounting
Budget vs actual
Compare budgeted amounts against actual values and detect deviations by account, period and cost center.
The Budget vs actual report cross-references an active budget against the movements actually posted in the general ledger. It serves to identify absolute and percentage deviations, mark favorable or unfavorable variances, and export the reading to CSV or PDF.
Reading time: ~5 min
When to use this
- You need the monthly or quarterly close with variance analysis by account.
- The manager asks for an explanation of why an expense spiked against the plan.
- You want to validate that the Revenue and Expense accounts are within the approved range.
- You are looking for a signable PDF or a CSV to take into Excel and build a dashboard.
Before you start
- You have the Accounting module active and a seeded Chart of Accounts.
- There is at least one budget in Active or Draft status with loaded lines. Create it from Accounting → Budgets → New budget.
- There are already Posted entries (not drafts) in the date range you are going to compare - only posted entries contribute to the Actual column.
- Your role includes read permission over budgets and accounting reports.
Step by step
- Go to Accounting → Budget vs actual (also accessible from any budget detail with the View Budget vs actual button).
- In the Budget filter, select the budget you want to compare. You will only see the tenant's budgets; the report requires you to select one to run.
- Define the range with the From and To filters. By default the report uses the budget's fiscal year, but you can narrow it to a specific month or quarter.
- If your budget is linked to a cost center, the report automatically filters the movements to the entry lines that have that center assigned. For whole-company budgets, all traffic is considered.
- Click Generate report. The table shows one row per Revenue or Expense account that appears in the budget, with the columns Account, Type, Budgeted, Actual, Variance, Var. % and Favorable.
- Review the TOTALS row at the foot. If the budget mixes Revenue and Expense accounts, the Favorable column shows a note indicating that combined favorability does not apply to the total.
- To take it with you, use Download → Download CSV (raw sheet) or Download PDF (presentable version with the tenant header).
How variance is calculated
- Variance = Actual − Budgeted, in pesos.
- Var. % = Variance / Budgeted, expressed as a percentage. If the budgeted amount is 0, the column shows a hyphen to avoid division by zero.
- Favorable / Unfavorable depends on the account type:
- Revenue: actual greater than budget = Favorable.
- Expenses: actual less than budget = Favorable.
- The Actual calculation starts from the net sum (debits − credits according to the account's normal balance) of the entry lines in POSTED status within the range.
Expected result
- A table with all budgeted accounts, their actual value and their deviation.
- Visual indicator of rows with an unfavorable variance greater than 10%, ready to investigate.
- A downloadable CSV or PDF with the generation date and the applied range.
Common errors
| Error | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The report comes out empty | You did not select a budget or the range does not include posted entries | Check the Budget filter and widen the From / To range |
| All rows show Actual = 0 | The period's entries are still in Draft | Post the entries from Accounting → Journal entries |
| Var. % appears as " - " | The budgeted amount is 0 | Edit the budget and load the planned value for that account |
| It does not match your Excel | The budget is filtered to a cost center and the entries do not carry that center | Confirm that the entry lines have the correct cost center assigned |