We have centralized budget prepared division wise (D) on monthly (M) basis which adds further for quarterly (Q) and yearly (Y) totals too.
Manager has the efficient tool of Budget v Actuals (BvA), while creating BvA reports considering said dynamics (D, M, Q & Y) it seems very complex, difficult and even too lengthy to enter each line items.
Beside, it is also requested to add variance and % of sub-total and total in BvA reports.
Please suggest, if there is another efficient way like Batch Create etc to quickly process and update budget numbers to these many extend in Manager.
I think the best way to solve this would be to add ability to make P&L copy to budget. That way you could use real figures as a starting point instead of manually entering them from scratch.
I agree, budget is a forecast and for many non-profits a provision for each account that hey need to try to operate must be made. The budget is usually distributed over all accounts including capital budget for fixed assets at the start of the accounting year and monitored monthly to guard (burning rate) for under and over-spending. Under-spending results in less overhead charges which damages the operations of the non profit organization. Over-spending risks not achieving the planned results as this often signals unforeseen additional expenses. So, yes budgetting should improved a lot but is not based on actual spending but on expected income and expected spending. For most that run budgets they expect to grow their organizations or at least their deliverables / outputs and thus budgets should not be based on a P&L copy to budget as it is always guess work based on for example project proposals for which donor organizations provide grants.
you enable an input screen like starting balances. The actual one is too cumbersome
you enable batch create and update for this functionality.
This is what it keeps me away from using internal budgeting of Manager: too long and bulky to keep it update and use it in the actual status.
Than, again, a real budgeting tool should include P&L but also BS and, now that we have also the Cash Flow functionality, the report should show also the variance of the CF, not only of BS and CF.
This is very important for non profit organization who are managing grant contract , tracking the burn rate for the budget lines is also very important for the decision makers