Budget Dashboard – Selecting Budget Records to View

Screen ID: 

Screen Title: 

Panel Number:

UGLBGT4-01

Select Budget Data to View

5917

Click here to magnify

Access this screen by selecting Tool #973: View/Analyze CU Budget.  This screen will also appear when you select “View/Analyze” or “Manual Update” on the initial Work with CU Budget screen

SEE ALSO: Budgeting with CU*BASE

When accessing the Budget Dashboard to view your budget or manually update individual budget figures, this initial screen can be used to narrow down the data so you are only reviewing a portion of your budget records at a time.

The primary purpose of the Budget Dashboard is to help you keep track of the progress of your budgeting calculations. Similar to the Variance Dashboard, the Budget Dashboard does include tools that let you filter and summarize the data.  But here these filters are intended primarily to help you focus on specific portions of your budget spreadsheet to verify the numbers.

  • TIP:  For the most part these filters are only needed if your budget is really large and difficult to navigate as a whole, and you want to narrow down the focus.  Because of the ability to drill in to more detailed levels, you can usually get to the specific number or set of numbers you need even without the filters.

Leave the defaults alone and use Enter to show all of your accounts on the dashboard (you can still drill down to specific G/Ls, branches, and even monthly figures later if you wish).  The main Budget Dashboard screen will appear next.

Current Period Summary

Use the summary on the right side of this window to keep an eye on your progress filling in your budget spreadsheet. When your budget is complete you should generally see both Income and Expense items at 100% budgeted. If you have run passes on all of your budget groups and these still show less than 100%, that means there are G/Ls of that type that have not yet been assigned to a group. Remember you can run a calculation pass on individual G/Ls using the G/L accounts to populate option on the Create/Work with CU Budget screen.

# Accounts

The number of G/L accounts of this type in your Chart of Accounts (excluding ones at a suspended status).

% Budgeted

This column shows a “percentage completed” stat that is calculated using all G/Ls in your chart of accounts, except for ones at a suspended status. An account is considered budgeted if at least one budget figure has been recorded for the G/L # (even if for only one branch location or just a single month).

Total Budget Amount

The total of budget figures for all of the G/Ls of this type, for the budget year indicated in the Current period fields on the left side of this window.

 

Filter Descriptions

All filters are “AND” conditions, meaning the records must meet all of the specified conditions to be displayed on the dashboard.

Field Name

Description

G/L type

Choose one of the standard G/L account types (Income, Expense, Asset, or Liability), or choose All to see every G/L (“All” is the default if you don’t choose anything).

The Net option combines both income and expense G/Ls and provides handy sub-totals as well as a net income summary total.  Choosing this is the fastest way to verify the budget figures pertaining to your income statement.

  • NOTE:  If you are manually updating your budget figures, only the Income and Expense G/L types can be selected.

Current period

Enter a starting and ending period for the budget you wish to view.  (The dates here also control the summary displayed on the right edge of this window.)  The default is to view your budget for the coming year.

Comparison period

One of the columns on the dashboard can show actual or budget figures from a year prior to your budget year.  Enter the starting month for the period to which you wish to compare your budget.  (On the dashboard itself you’ll be able to toggle between actual and budget figures in this column.)

The # months in the comparison period must match the number of months in the budget period, so all you need to do is specify the starting period and the system will include the correct number of months.  They do not have to be the same actual months of the year, just the same time period (3 months, or 6 months, or whatever).  So if the current period is January through March, you can compare to November through December of a prior year.

$ Change >=

Use this to view only budget groups or G/L accounts with changes (meaning the budget compared to your chosen comparison period) greater than or equal to the specified dollar amount. Enter a whole dollar amount.

  • Absolute values are compared. If you enter 1,000 here, change amounts of both $1,234 and $1,234- would be shown on the dashboard.

% Change >=

Use this to view only budget groups or G/L accounts with changes (meaning the budget compared to your chosen comparison period) greater than or equal to the specified percentage.  Enter whole percentages (no decimal places).

  • Absolute values are compared. If you enter 10% here, change amounts of both 12% and -12% would be shown on the dashboard.

Budget group

Use this to view only certain Budget Groups on the dashboard.  Use the Select button to choose one or more of your configured groups.

The main advantage of this is if you want the totals on the dashboard to reflect only a particular type of G/L in your budget (such as only your Investment Income G/Ls, for example), which can be handy for a quick ballpark check on how your budget figures are coming out so far.

G/L account

Use this to view only certain G/Ls on the dashboard.  Use the Select button to choose one or more of your configured accounts.

Branch

Use this to view only certain branches on the dashboard.  Use the Select button to choose one or more of your configured branch locations.

Group description contains

This filter is not currently used.

Account description contains

This filter is not currently used.