Managing a budget
The budget routine is managed using the Budget and Budget line tables.
The Budget table contains the number and name of all defined budgets. The Budget line table is used to store the budgeted amounts per year and period, per general ledger account, and perhaps per organisational unit, customer, supplier and/or employee. In design mode, you can create a join between these tables.
After having created a budget in the Budget table, you can open the Budget line table as an independent window to manage budgets. You can copy all or part of a budget, either to form the basis of new budgets or to process the budget figures further in other applications.
If you want to apply the budget for example to departments or projects, you can join the Budget line table as a sub-window of the relevant Organisational unit 1-Organisational unit 12 table, or to the Associate table for creating budgets relating to customers, suppliers or employees. The budget number and name must already have been stored in the Budget table.
This section describes columns used for accounting in the Budget and Budget line tables. However, these tables are also used for ordering, warehousing and invoicing, and those columns aren't described here.
If you can't find a particular column, it may be hidden from the budgeting windows. You can hide and show columns in design mode using View > Manage columns in the context menu of the table (or Ctrl + U). If your budgets only relate to projects and the general ledger, you may, for example, want to hide the Empl. no., Cust. no. and Sup. no. columns, as well as the Organisational unit columns, from the Budget line table.
Sorting and selecting budgets and budget lines
If you only want to display some of the budget entries that you have entered, you can select on the basis of the values in one or more columns in the Budget line window using View > Filter in the context menu. For example, if you only want to display the budget entries relating to projects, select projects with values other than 0 in the Budget line window.
You can also define how you want to sort the budget entries by using View > Sorting in the context menu of the table. Business NXT doesn't distinguish between lower-case and upper-case letters, and numbers are sorted before letters.
Printing budgets
From within the Budget window joined with the Budget line window, you can print one or more budgets by selecting them and clicking Print table in the context menu of the table.
Entering budgets
When you want to enter a new budget, Business NXT does this at the end of the Budget table. If you finished the budgeting process in the middle of a budget and want to take up where you left off, click on the row with the relevant budget number. This displays the budget lines in the Budget line window, and you can continue entering information.
You can save, change or delete an entire budget or one or more budget lines. The budgeting tables are only used by Business NXT when printing Profit and loss account and balance sheet reports and when you have chosen to use budget figures for comparison.
The Budget line table is sorted in the order in which the vouchers were entered in the table, because a consecutive line number forms part of the primary key. You can right-click in the table and select Insert row above or Insert row after to create a new row where you want it.
If you want to copy the contents of the corresponding field in the previous row, select Editing > Repeat value (/) value from the menu bar or type / in the field (not in the edit line, as Business NXT interprets the / character as part of the field value). If you select Editing > Suggest value (+) value from the menu bar or type + in the field (not on the edit line, as Business NXT interprets the + character as part of the field value), Business NXT suggests a value for the field, for example the next number. If the system does not have a logical value to suggest, the command has the same effect as the Repeat value (/) command.
You can also cut and paste as in any other Windows program. For example, you can copy and entire budget, with all the budget lines, to a new budget number, either to create a more optimistic or pessimistic budget for the year, or to use as a basis for the next year's annual budget. You can also copy an entire budget and paste to a spreadsheet, for example, in order to generate a graph. Similarly, the budget can be created in another (Windows) application and cut/pasted to the budgeting windows. Make sure you are familiar with the width and order of the columns, so that you avoid logical errors in the budget.
Deleting budgets and budget lines
You can delete one or more budgets or budget lines by selecting them and clicking Delete in the context menu.