NOTE: This feature is only available in Sage Accounting Plus.  

You can match your profit and loss against your budget. This lets you see how your actual financial outcomes compare to what you had budgeted for the same period.

By comparing what you actually spend or earn to your budgeted plans, you can identify which areas of your business are performing better or worse than expected. Knowing these differences is crucial for making informed decisions about future budget planning and business strategies.

Run the report

1. Go to Reporting, then More.
2. Go to the section Financial budget reports.
3. Select Profit and loss - actual vs budget.
4. Choose one of the default views, or customise your view.

Report views

This report has two set report views:

• Actual Comparison
  Compare your current month and year to date actuals to your budget.
• Actual Budget Prior
  View current month and year to date totals for your actuals, budget and prior year.

Select the report view using the dropdown on the top right.

You can also customise your own report views by adding filters, format rows and and columns. See more below. 

Change date range

1. Select Change date range.
   
2. Select the date range you want to view.
   You can choose from This Month, Last Month, This Quarter, Last Quarter, This Year, Last Year and This year to date.
3. Select Run report.

Show accounts

By default, the system sets shows your ledger accounts and show accounts is set to ON.

To change it, you can select the toggle.

What are the differences between summary view on, and off?

• Show accounts ON - This shows every ledger account for which you have entered a budget figure in any of the months
   NOTE: Any ledger accounts with a zero figure for every month, won't appear.

•  

  Show accounts Off - This displays the totals by ledger category instead of showing every ledger account

Customise

You can change options for the columns and rows to customise what you see on the report.

Columns - Add or edit the report columns.

• Show balances over a single period or as cumulative over a period
• Whether or not to include columns with Year-to-date (YTD) closing balances
• Order the columns newest to oldest

Rows - Group or sort the report rows.

• Exclude zero values and/or inactive accounts
• Show by account
• Include the nominal codes and whether to show these at the front or the end of the name

To customise the report:

1. Select Customise.
   
2. Select Period, Columns or Rows.
    TIP: If you don't see these options, select Back to Customise report.
3. Choose the options you want in each area and select Run report when you're finished.
4. Select Reset to defaults to start again.  

Save the current view

You can save your current view to use again.

1. Select Save as.
   
2. Enter a title.
3. You can enter an optional description to explain what the view shows.
4. Select Save. 
5. You can now select it from the Report Views dropdown.

Export

You can export the report in either CSV, PDF or Excel format. 

 NOTE: If you want to export the report to update your budget figures, follow the steps here > 

1. Go to More actions.
   
   
2. Select Export and choose the format you want. 
3. Depending on your browser, your device will either download the report automatically or prompt you to choose a save location.