How to Create a Budget in QuickBooks?

Businesses often require creating a budget in QuickBooks. Doing so helps them to manage their capital well for running their businesses. Creating a budget in QuickBooks or its versions is something that businesses may require help with. We will recommend you reading the complete post to learn about the methods to do so. You can find several methods in this post for creating a budget in QuickBooks, QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Online Plus, and QuickBooks 2018. Here, you can explore the methods for establishing these tasks as well.

We will walk you through 5 methods to guide you in making a budget in the QuickBooks software. These methods can be applied to QuickBooks, QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Online Plus, and QuickBooks 2018 version.

How to Create a New Budget in QuickBooks?

Should you like to make a new budget in QB, you can launch the Company menu at first. The Planning & Budgeting option will be given in the menu. This option will take you to the Set up Budgets option. As you click on it, the option of Create New Budget will be seen. You can access this option and administer the remaining prompts.

• In “QuickBooks”, go to the “Company” menu.
• Now, opt for “Planning & Budgeting”.

• Choose the option of “Set up Budgets”.
• Click on “Create New Budget”.
• Next, the “Fiscal Year” has to be selected.
• Click on “Profit and Loss”/“Balance Sheet Accounts”.
• Choose to use the financial statements of the last year for making a new budget. You can also make a new budget from scratch.
• Finally, click on “Finish”.

That is all. The new budget will get created now.

What is the Method for Creating a Budget in QuickBooks Desktop?

If you’re a user of QuickBooks Desktop, then you can make use of this method for making a budget in it. To begin, you can enter the Company menu. Then you can pick Planning and Budgeting. This is followed by selecting Set up Budget. You will find an option stating Create New Budget. You can select the option to start making the budget in QuickBooks Desktop.

• In “QuickBooks Desktop”, click on “Company”.
• Choose “Planning and Budgeting”.
• Select the command for “Set up Budget”.
• The dialog box for “Create New Budget” will be available on the display. Set the “Financial Year”.
• Now, a profit and loss budget has to be established. For this, press the radio button for “Profit and Loss”.
• Click on “Next”.
• The amount for the expenditure or expected revenue for a certain month has to be budgeted in this step.
• Then press the radio button for “Customer Job”. Using this option, your budget can be extended for covering every job detail.
• Now, select the radio button for “Class”. This option will help you add classes to the budget. As an alternative, you can also opt for the radio button stating “No Additional Criteria”. This will be based on your preference only.
• To establish a balance sheet budget, click on the radio button mentioning “Balance Sheet”.
• Then press “Finish”.
• Click on “Create Budget from the Scratch”.
• In case you wish to make a budget depending upon the previous year’s data, select “Create a Budget from the Actual Data”.
• Then press “Finish”.

How to Create a Budget in QuickBooks Online?

Certain users asked us “Can you create a budget in QuickBooks Online”. In case you’re also questioning the same, you’ll be happy to know that QBO does allow you to do that. You can find Company Settings in the software’s Settings. Then you will have to pick Advanced as well as Accounting.

The prompts which you have to follow now have been mentioned as follows:

• Visit the “Settings” of QBO.
• Choose “Company Settings”.
• Select “Advanced”.

• In “Accounting”, see to it that the financial year’s beginning month is correct. You can use the “Edit” option to make the changes if it is not accurate.
• Press “Save”.
• Select “Done”.
• Then select the “Reports” option.
• Find the “Profit and Loss Detail Report”.
• The “Report Period’s” dropdown list will be visible. Use this to add the final fiscal year. In case the data of the present fiscal year has to be added, the default setting will have to be enabled.
• Select “Run Report”.
• Visit the “Settings” again.
• Tap on “Budgeting”.
• Select “Add Budgeting”.
• Then provide a name for the budget.
• Using the dropdown list of “Financial Year”, please add the year for your budget”.
• Via the dropdown of “Interval”, mention whether your budget will be “Monthly”/“Quarterly”/“Yearly”.
• As an optional step, you can specify if you would like to auto-enter your data from the present or previous year. Also, you can specify the year and head to the “Pre-fill Data” dropdown option.
• Click on “Subdivide by”.
• Decide if the budget has to be divided via “Location”, “Class” or “Customer”. Also, mention the “Location”, “Class” or “Customer” that has to be added.
• Press “Next”.
• The data of your budget has to be filled in the table in case you are not using the option of “Pre-fill Data”.

Note: QBO accepts decimals and will not round off the values entered by you.

• In case your accounts/sub-accounts cannot be viewed, click on the “Settings” available above the column of “Total”. Then ensure that the option of “Hide Blank Rows” has been selected.
• Press “Save”. Or you can click on “Save and Close”.

How to Create a Budget in QuickBooks Online Plus?

Creating a budget in QuickBooks Online Plus can take a while. However, we promise that you’ll not have to follow any complicated steps for creating it. You can open the software and go to Budgeting. You can tap on Add Budget. After that you can name the budget and set its financial year. Now, let us study the steps which you are required to do after this.

• Ensure that you are signed in to QBO Plus.
• Click on “Settings”.
• “Account and Settings” has to be chosen.
• Go to “Advanced”.
• Click on “First Month of the Financial Year”.
• Press to make changes to the date.
• Then go to “Reports”.
• Choose “Profit and Loss Detail Report”.
• Via the dropdown of “Report Period”, opt for the “Last Financial Year”/“Last Year”.
• Click on “This Year-to-Date” if you want the data from the existing financial year.
• Press “Settings”.

Note: In case the creation of a new budget is not required, the old one can be edited, deleted, or copied.

• Choose “Budgeting”.
• Press “Add Budget”.
• In “Name” enter a suitable name for the budget.
• Click on the dropdown of “Financial Year” and enter it.
• Click on “Interval”. Then fill in the “Monthly”, “Quarterly”, or “Yearly” budget.
• Select “Pre-fill Data”. Enter the data from the budget as an optional step.
• Choose “Subdivide by”.
• Now, your budget has to be organized via “Class”, “Customer”, or “Location” as an optional step.
• Press “Next”.
• In the table, fill in the data of the budget.
• Click on the “Settings” given about the column of “Total”.
• Choose the checkbox of “Hide Blank Rows”.
• Press “Save and close” or “Save”.

Note: In QuickBooks Online Plus, decimals are accepted.

How to Create a Budget in QuickBooks 2018?

This method will help you learn how to create a budget in QuickBooks 2018. To initiate this method, you can click on Company and opt for Planning and Budgeting. The Set up Budgets option will be displayed on your screen. Selecting this option will launch the dialog box for Create New Budget. The options given in this dialog box will help you in completing this method.

1. Select “Company” in “QuickBooks 2018”.
2. Opt for “Planning and Budgeting”.
3. Click on “Set up Budgets”.
4. Now, you will see the dialog box for “Create New Budget”. Enter the period of the fiscal year.

Note: In case a budget has already been set up by you, you will see the window of “Set up Budgets”. In it, you can select “Create New Budget”.

• Click on the radio button for “Profit and Loss”.
• Tap on “Next”.
• Choose the radio button for “Balance Sheet”.
• Press “Finish”.
• Add any additional criteria for profit and loss in “Additional Profit and Loss Criteria”.
• Tap on “Next”.
• In the dialog box for “Create New Budget”, decide how you wish to make the budget.
• Then press the “Finish” button.

When all of these steps have been correctly followed, the budget will be prepared in QuickBooks 2018.

Concluding Thoughts

This post provided you with multiple methods to make a budget in QuickBooks and its versions like QBO and QB 2018. Our team made its best efforts to author every step in the simplest language possible. We really hope you found every method worth reading.

Should you like to read something as interesting as this post, then do take a look at our fixes for resolving the QuickBooks error code 15106. They are really helpful!