Contents

Introduction

A Budget is a plan of estimated income and expense (money made and m money spent) within a specific period of time (e.g.: month or year).

Before creating a Budget, please make sure you have gone through your Accounting Setup and have all relevant Categories configured.

In ChMeetings you can create budgets by going to Accounting > Budgets.

Add a Budget

Click Add Budget to start creating your budget.

Below is what your empty budget looks like. You must name your budget, select a year, then add Income and Expense items.

To create your budget:

Enter a name.
Select the period that you are budgeting for.
Select Income and Expense Categories. Both for Income and Expenses, you can budget by Category and Subcategory, which must have been previously created to be displayed here. Please see Manage Categories for details. If you select a Subcategory, then its parent Category will also be added to your budget. At the moment you can’t remove any Categories or Subcategories you add.

Validate all your budget items, then click Save when you are ready.

Once your Budget is saved, you will see it fully displayed within your Accounting > Budgets section.

You can add more Budgets by clicking the Add Budget button.

Edit Budgets

Any Budget can be edited using the Edit Budget button. This lets you adjust all items, and then save the changes.

Download Budgets

You can download budgets as Excel or .pdf files using the Download button on your Budgets page.

Copy Budgets

By copying a budget you can create a new, identical budget to which you just add a new title and make any required changes. This saves you time because you don’t have to do it from scratch.

Just click Copy on your Budgets screen to proceed. Configure your budget and save it. You’ll see it as a new budget, in your Budgets dropdown.

Delete Budgets

You can delete a budget using the Delete (🗑) button next to it.

Please proceed with caution as deleted budgets cannot be restored.

Budget Columns Explained

Once saved, your Budgets (both income and expense) will display the following columns:

Category: Shows the Category to which the Budget is allocated.
Target: This is the Target Amount you are planning to earn or spend within a specific Category.
Budgeted: This column displays exclusively in the current year’s budgets and represents the portion of the target amount from the beginning of the year until the end of the current month.
Current: This column displays the current income or expense amount within the budget category, from the beginning of the year until the present. It can be different from the Target amount, thus showing whether you are below or over budget.
Difference: This column shows you the difference between the Budgeted amount and the Current Amount. You are below budget if this amount is positive and over budget if it is negative.

Budget Reports

The Budget Reports allow you to gain insight into your finances by conducting several types of analyses. Let’s explore them all below.

Simple Budget

This is a high-level overview showing the planned (budgeted) income and expenses across major categories and subcategories. This report helps provide a quick snapshot of your church’s financial planning without diving into actual transactions or variances.

Within this report, you can hide subcategories and choose the budget you’d like to view. If subcategories are visible, you can also expand or collapse major categories as you see fit.

Budget vs Actual

This report compares the budgeted amounts to the actual income and expenses over a selected period. It highlights the differences (variance) to help identify over- or under-spending in specific categories.

Within this report, you can hide subcategories, choose the budget you’d like to view, and filter it by date range. If subcategories are visible, you can also expand or collapse major categories as you see fit.

Monthly Budget Analysis

This report is a detailed breakdown of budget performance on a month-by-month basis. It shows how each category is performing relative to the monthly budget, helping you track trends and ensure spending stays on target throughout the year.

Data is displayed as a table and chart. You can hide subcategories and choose the budget you’d like to view. If subcategories are visible, you can also expand or collapse major categories as you see fit.

Budget Comparison

This report compares two budgets such as current budget vs previous budget to evaluate changes in financial planning and priorities over time.

Within this report, you can hide subcategories and choose the budgets you’d like to compare. If subcategories are visible, you can also expand or collapse major categories as you see fit.

Download Budget Reports

All Budget Reports allow downloads to PDF or Excel. Just click the Download button at the top right and choose your desired format.

The Monthly Budget Analysis chart is also exportable to PDF.