Budgets
A budget is what you intend to earn and spend. SBB puts your intention next to what actually happened, so drift is visible early.
Building one
Add budget line creates an expected amount for a category over a period. Build it per income and expense category — the same categories your transactions use, so comparison is automatic.
Start from last year's actuals rather than a blank page. Your reports already hold the pattern; adjust it for what you know is changing.
Budget vs actual
Each line shows four figures:
| Meaning | |
|---|---|
| Income Budget | What you expected to earn |
| Income Actual | What you earned |
| Expense Budget | What you planned to spend |
| Expense Actual | What you spent |
The gap is the useful part. A category consistently 20% over is not bad luck — it is a budget built on a wrong assumption, and the number to fix is the plan, not the month.
Making it useful
Budget the categories that move. Rent does not need a budget; it is fixed and you already know it. Stock purchases, transport, casual labour, repairs — those are where money leaks.
Budget for a period you can actually see. Quarterly beats annually for most small businesses: close enough to act on, long enough to smooth out a bad week.
Review monthly, at close. A budget you set in January and read in December is a document, not a tool.
Be honest rather than aspirational. A budget everyone knows is fantasy gets ignored, and then the real overspend hides inside the fake one.
Budget vs forecast
Budget — the plan. Set deliberately, changed rarely, measured against.
Forecast — the projection. Updates itself from real commitments, tells you about cash.
Use the budget to decide whether you are running the business you meant to. Use the forecast to decide whether you can pay for it this month.