Budgets

Who can use this: Owner, Manager, Accountant. URL / Route: /finance/budgets (finance.budgets.index). Plan / feature gate: feature:tracker.budgeting (premium). Permissions: budgets.view, budgets.create, budgets.edit, budgets.delete.

Purpose

A Budget sets expected amounts per account for a period — a month, a quarter, or a year. Once a budget is in place, Solabooks compares it against the actual posted figures so you can see where you are over- or under-spending.

Step by step

Create a budget

Permission: budgets.create.

Open Budgets ▸ New budget.
Name the budget and pick its fiscal year and period granularity (monthly / quarterly).
For each income and expense account, enter the budgeted amount per period. You can spread an annual figure evenly or enter each period by hand.
Save.

Budget control

The Budget Control screen shows live budget-vs-actual for the current period, highlighting accounts that have breached their budget.

Budget reports

Report	Shows
Budget vs Actuals	Budgeted, actual, and variance per account
Budget Variance by Account	Variance grouped by ledger account
Budget Variance by Period	Variance trended across periods
Budget Summary Report	Roll-up of budget performance
Project Budget Control Report	Budget vs actual for project budgets

Behaviour and rules

Budgets never post. They are a planning overlay; only real transactions hit the GL.
Actuals are posted figures. Drafts are excluded from variance calculations.
Per fiscal year. A budget belongs to one fiscal year.