The Budget Report compares your plan to reality: for every category it shows what you budgeted, what’s actually happened, and what’s left. This is also often called a “Budget to Actual” report. You can find the Budget Report via:
- The Budget Report tab at the top of the Reports page
- The Budget Report button on the Budgets editor, which opens the report on the fiscal year you’re editing
Note: If you don’t have the bookkeeper permission, the Budgets link in the menu opens this report instead of the editor.
Choosing the period
The card at the top of the page sets the date range.
- Last month covers the previous calendar month.
- This fiscal year covers your fiscal year to date.
-
Extra buttons labeled with a date range (e.g.
5/1/26 → 5/31/26) appear once you’ve downloaded a PDF, at the same spacing in the next period. - From and To with the Show button set any range you like.
The ‹ and › arrows beside the date summary move a whole period at a time. A range covering one calendar month steps a month, a quarter steps to the next quarter, and so on.
Note: The report will default to the last period you downloaded a PDF for, or last month if you’ve never downloaded one.
The toolbar
- Paid only / All switches the basis to include only paid activity or paid and all pending requests.
- Only overages narrows the table to expenses over budget and income above target, judged on whichever basis you’ve selected.
- Edit (bookkeepers only) opens the budget editor on the fiscal year the report is showing.
- Download offers the three export options described in Saving and sharing.
The Spent column
Depending on which view option you select, the values represent one of two things:
- All counts every paid and pending request. This is useful for planning and forecasting purposes.
- Paid only counts requests that have actually been paid, using the payment date. This is useful for reporting the actual state of the budget.
The expense column heading changes with your choice, so a page on its own always says which one it’s showing.
How activity is dated
In the Paid only view, all contributing activity uses payment date. But the All view has special handling for pending requests.
- A paid request counts in the period it was paid in, under either view.
- A pending request has no payment date, so under All the report reflects what would happen if the request were to be paid today. If the fiscal year has already closed, pending requests count in its final period.
Reading the table
Table headers vary slightly depending on the income vs expense table, date range, and other filters.
| Column | Value |
|---|---|
| Item | The budget category |
| Budgeted | Your plan |
| Period Spent | Activity inside the dates you selected |
| FY Spent | Activity across the whole fiscal year, shown alongside the period column unless your range is exactly the fiscal year |
| Remaining / Over | How much is remaining or over for the item. Income tables read To go / Surplus. |
Saving and sharing
The Download menu offers three files:
- PDF · paid only
- CSV · paid only and CSV · all
Note: The lack of an All PDF download is intentional. Exported PDFs are typically used to share real history that should not change. An All report inherently changes based on when the report is run and what expenses remain in pending status. A CSV version is available for download and analysis if needed.