As you’ve no doubt
noticed in business and in life, the activities that cost money almost always
seem to outnumber those that bring money in. Most companies want to make money
and most nonprofits want to do the most with the funds they have, so budgeting
and planning are essential business activities.
Like any kind of plan,
a budget is an estimate of what’s going to happen. Your actual results will
never exactly match the numbers you estimate in your budget. (If they do, someone’s playing games with your books.) But comparing your actual performance to your budget can tell you that it’s time to crack the whip on the sales team, rein in your spending, or both.
never exactly match the numbers you estimate in your budget. (If they do, someone’s playing games with your books.) But comparing your actual performance to your budget can tell you that it’s time to crack the whip on the sales team, rein in your spending, or both.
Budgeting in QuickBooks
is both simple and simplistic. The program handles basic budgets and provides
some shortcuts for entering numbers. However, you can’t see whether your budget
is working as you build it, and playing what-if games with budgets requires
some fancy footwork.
The easiest way to
handle budgets is to craft them with a spreadsheet program like Excel. You can
use all of Excel’s commands to massage the numbers and then import your
budgetary masterpiece into QuickBooks so you can compare your actual performance
with the budget. This chapter explains your budgeting options, teaches you how
to import budgets from other programs, and provides an overview of QuickBooks’
budget reports.
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