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Accounting · Budgets
A budget for every account, held against the ledger.
Plan revenue and expenses account by account over twelve months — for the whole business, or for one department, branch or project. Then read budget against actual month by month, with the variance, the percentage and whether it went your way, from the same postings the income statement uses.
Sales revenue · FY2027 · Nairobi branch
BudgetActualBudget, no actual yet
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Compared through March. Later months show their budget, with no actual and no variance until you move the comparison on.
Two kinds of budget
One plans the books. The other polices spending.
AWRA has had spending budgets for procurement for a long time. A GL budget is a different tool for a different person, and the two sit side by side.
This page
GL budgets
- Plans
- Revenue and expense accounts in the chart of accounts
- Over
- Twelve months from any starting month
- Actuals from
- Posted journal entries — the ledger
- Answers
- Are we on plan this year, line by line?
- For
- The finance lead and the board pack
Procurement
Spending budgets
- Limits
- Spend by category and department
- Over
- A budget period you set
- Actuals from
- Purchase orders and procurement requests as they are raised
- Answers
- Can this request be approved within budget?
- Read more
- Budget controls — warnings at approval, or a block you switch on
Setting one up
Type the year, or type every month.
Give the budget a name and a starting month, then enter an amount against each revenue or expense account you want to plan. Leave the months blank and type an annual figure to spread it evenly; fill in the months for anything seasonal. Accounts you leave empty are simply left out.
Annual figure, spread evenly
Office rent · KES 1,000,000 for the yearJan83,333.33
Feb83,333.33
Mar83,333.33
……
Nov83,333.33
Dec83,333.37
Each month gets the annual figure divided by twelve, rounded down to the cent; the last month takes whatever is left, so the twelve always add up to exactly what you typed.
Month by month
Casual wages · harvest peak in the middle of the yearJan120,000
Mar120,000
Jun380,000
Jul410,000
Sep150,000
Dec90,000
Typing any month takes the line off the even spread. The line’s annual total is the sum of its twelve months, whichever way they were entered.
Whole business One department One branch One project
Scope a budget to a department, a branch, a project, or any combination of the three, and its actuals come only from postings tagged with them — the same tags manual journals and operational postings carry. Leave the scope empty and the budget reads the whole ledger.
Worked example
Budget against actual, through March.
A twelve-month budget for the Nairobi branch starting January 2027. Revenue was budgeted at KES 12,000,000 for the year, spread evenly; rent at KES 1,800,000; fuel and transport at KES 100,000 a month. The report is read through March.
FY2027 · Nairobi branchBudget to date and actual to date, January to March
| Account | Budget to date | Actual to date | Variance | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | |||||
| Sales revenue | 3,000,000.00 | 3,240,000.00 | +240,000.00 | +8.0% | Favourable |
| Expenses | |||||
| Fuel & transport | 300,000.00 | 362,500.00 | +62,500.00 | +20.8% | Unfavourable |
| Rent | 450,000.00 | 450,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.0% | Favourable |
| Net (revenue less expenses) | 2,250,000.00 | 2,427,500.00 | |||
Variance is actual less budget
Positive means more than planned, negative less. The percentage is the variance over the budget to date, and is left blank when nothing was budgeted.
Favourable depends on the side
Revenue is favourable when it meets or beats the budget; an expense is favourable when it comes in at or under it. Revenue lines are listed first, then expenses.
Read through any month
The comparison runs through the current month while the budget is running, or all twelve once it has ended. Choose an earlier month to see where you stood then.
Where actual comes from
The same number the income statement shows.
Actuals are read from posted journal entries, on each account’s normal side — credits less debits for revenue, debits less credits for an expense. That is the same sign rule the income statement uses, so a budget line and the statement agree about what a month’s actual was.
A draft or unapproved manual journal is not an actual. Only what has reached the ledger counts, and a reversal counts as the correction it is. When the month is closed, its actuals stop moving.
What you get
Plans that stay next to the books.
Any twelve months
Start in any month, so a July-to-June financial year is a budget like any other.
As many as you need
One budget for the business and one for each branch or project, each scoped on its own, all in one list with their totals.
Month by month
Every account’s twelve budget months beside its actual months, with totals for revenue, expenses and net.
Re-plan as you go
Edit a budget at any time; the comparison is worked out when you open it, never stored, so it reflects the plan as it stands.
Permissions
Anyone with accounting access can read budgets; creating and editing them needs the permission to manage accounts.
On mobile
The list of budgets and each budget against actual, through any month, in the mobile app. Budgets are set up on the web.
What AWRA OpsHub does today
- Twelve-month budgets from any starting month, with a name and notes.
- Lines per revenue and expense account, as an annual figure spread evenly or as twelve months typed one by one.
- An optional scope of one department, one branch, one project, or a combination.
- Budget against actual month by month and to date, through any month you choose.
- Actuals from posted journal entries on each account’s normal side, the same rule as the income statement.
- Variance, variance percentage and a favourable flag per line, and totals for revenue, expenses and net.
- Read in the mobile app, and created, edited and deleted on the web and through the API.
More we can add to your workspace
- Committed spend in the comparison — purchase orders raised but not yet billed shown as an encumbrance beside the actual.
- Budget versions, such as an original budget and a mid-year reforecast compared side by side.
- Copy last year forward, with an uplift, to start next year’s budget.
- Balance sheet budgets for cash, receivables and capital spend, alongside revenue and expenses.
- A variance alert when a line runs a set percentage over its budget to date.
- Spreadsheet import and export of a budget’s twelve months.
Where we point you to a specialist
- We will not let a GL budget stop a transaction. It measures the books after the fact; holding back a request or an order before it is approved is what the procurement spending budgets are for, and keeping the two jobs apart keeps each one predictable.
- We will not count a draft journal as actual. Only a posting that has reached the ledger is a fact the income statement would also show.
Committed spend and budget versions are the two that most change how a board pack reads, and both build on the twelve-month lines and the ledger comparison the module already keeps. Tell us how you budget today and we will come back with a written spec, a timeline and a price.
Explore next
Around the plan.
GL budgets
Frequently asked questions
Can I compare budget against actual in AWRA?
Yes. A GL budget plans each revenue and expense account over twelve months, and its report shows each month’s budget beside the actual from posted journal entries, with the variance to date, the variance as a percentage and whether it is favourable. You can read it through any month of the year.
How is an annual budget spread over the months?
If you type an annual figure and leave the months blank, each month gets the annual figure divided by twelve, rounded down to the cent, and the last month takes the remainder so the twelve add up exactly. You can type each month instead for anything seasonal.
Can a budget be for one branch or project?
Yes. A budget can be scoped to a department, a branch, a project or a combination, and then reads actuals only from postings tagged with them. A budget with no scope reads the whole ledger.
What is the difference between GL budgets and budget controls?
GL budgets plan the books: revenue and expense accounts over twelve months, compared with posted actuals. Budget controls are procurement spending budgets by category and department, checked against purchase orders and requests as they are raised, with a warning or a block at approval. They work side by side.
Which postings count as actual?
Posted journal entries, on each account’s normal side: credits less debits for revenue, debits less credits for expenses — the same rule as the income statement. Draft and unapproved manual journals are not counted until they post.
Is a variance favourable or unfavourable?
Variance is actual less budget. For a revenue account it is favourable when actual meets or beats the budget; for an expense account it is favourable when actual is at or under the budget.
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