Budget
Gäld's budget module lets you plan income and expenses for a fiscal year, then compare actuals against your plan in a P&L view with variance columns — so you always know how you are tracking against your targets.
Creating a budget
- Go to Budget → New Budget
- Enter a name (e.g. "2025 Annual Budget") and fiscal year
- Click Create
The budget opens in edit mode with your chart of accounts loaded on the left. Revenue, cost, and expense accounts appear as rows; months appear as columns.
Entering budget figures
For each account row, enter your planned amount for each month:
- Click any cell to enter an amount
- Use Tab to move to the next cell
- Use Fill across to copy a monthly amount across all 12 months (useful for fixed costs)
- Leave a cell blank or zero for accounts with no planned activity
The rightmost column shows the full-year budget total for each account. The bottom rows show totals by account class and the budgeted net result.
Comparing budget vs actual
Once you have entered budget figures, the P&L report gains two additional columns:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Actual | Posted ledger amounts for the selected period |
| Budget | Your planned amounts for the same period |
| Variance (CHF) | Actual − Budget |
| Variance (%) | (Actual − Budget) ÷ Budget × 100 |
To see the budget comparison view:
- Go to Reports → Profit & Loss
- Select a date range
- Toggle Show Budget on
Favourable variances (more revenue or less cost than planned) are shown in green. Unfavourable variances are shown in red.
Monthly vs year-to-date view
Use the Period toggle to switch between:
- Monthly — compares a single month's actuals to that month's budget
- Year-to-date — compares cumulative actuals to cumulative budget from the start of the fiscal year
Multiple budgets
You can create multiple budgets per fiscal year (e.g. a base case and an optimistic scenario). Only one budget is active as the comparison budget for the P&L report at a time. To change the active budget:
- Go to Budget
- Click the budget you want to activate
- Click Set as Active
Editing a budget
Budgets can be edited at any time during the year. Changes are reflected immediately in the P&L comparison.
Budgets are planning figures only. They do not create any journal entries or affect your actual accounting data.
Exporting the budget
From the budget detail page, click Export CSV to download the full budget grid as a spreadsheet. This is useful for sharing with a board or fiduciary.
Frequently asked questions
Can I copy last year's actuals as a starting budget? Yes. When creating a new budget, click Copy from actuals and select the previous fiscal year. Gäld pre-fills each account with the prior-year posted amount, which you can then adjust.
Can I set a budget at the department or project level? Not currently. Budgeting is at the organisation level using the chart of accounts.
What happens if my chart of accounts changes during the year? New accounts added after the budget is created appear in the comparison with no budget amount (shown as 100% unfavourable variance). You can edit the budget to add them.