Argenta allows you to build a budget within the system. Budgets are an estimation of your revenues and expenses to help you determine a financial plan for a defined period of time. Some organizations build budgets annually to show them an overview of the revenues and expenses they plan on each year.
To build a budget in Argenta, simply select General Financials > Budgets from the left-hand side main menu.
This will open the complete listing of all your created budgets. From here, select the "Add New" button from the top right hand side.
This will open the Add A New Budget screen.
From here there are some important fields that should be considered. Here is a breakdown of each field:
- Budget Name. Type in a name for your new budget. This is a required field.
- Fiscal Year. Select a fiscal year from the drop-down box or add a new one by selecting "Add New."
- Budget Type. Select a budget type from the drop-down box or add a new one by selecting "Add New." The type of budget will unlock the Associated Campaign, Associated Event, Associated Program, or Associated Project fields below.
- Budget Category. Select a budget category from the drop-down box or add a new one by selecting "Add New."
- Department/Chapter. Select a department/chapter from the drop-down box or add a new one by selecting "Add New."
- District and Precinct. Select a district and precinct if applicable, from the drop-down box or add a new one by selecting "Add New."
- Associated Campaign, Event, Program, and Project. Select an associated campaign, associated event, associated program, or associated project, when related. These fields are controlled by the budget type above. Fill in the related campaign, event, program or project by selecting the corresponding "Lookup" button. This will open a screen where you will search for the campaign, event, program or project. You can search by the full name or a partial. To select the name use the pink check mark
to select the name. This will make the selection and close the lookup screen.
Once all fields have been filled out, click the "Add This Budget" button to add the budget. This will close the screen and return you to the full listing of your
Budgets. You are not done yet, from here locate the budget you just created and click the open icon
.
This will open the Budget Details screen:
This will show al the information you entered at the creation of the budget process.
Next, you will see the Budget Items:
This is where you will build your actual budget. Argenta's budget system will bring in all your expense and liability accounts for you to work with. From here, you will fill in the appropriate box for each month. This is what your projected monthly expense and/or liability will be. That is, what do you think you will spend each month on each of the listed expenses and liabilities. Simply fill in the blanks of the months and expenses/liabilities that you are budgeting for.
If you have an expense that does not change, let's say for example your utilities are always $500 a month, you can use the "Push Values" icon to push that value to all columns in the row. Simply type in $500 for the January figure then click the "Push Value" button and the January value will be entered in all columns for utilities.
will give you:
Once you are done filling in all the totals you can think of, click the "Save & Update Budget Items" to update your form. This will show the fiscal year totals you have created. This will also bring in your previous fiscal year totals for you to compare.
If you need to add an account to the Budget, simply click the "Add An Account" button to search for the account you wish to add.
If you would like to export your budget to Excel, you may select the "Export Budget Items" to export the budget to Excel.
If you would like to print your budget, please click the "Print Budget Items" to print the budget.
In addition to the budget items you can add any related files or notes to this budget.
Once all details of your budget have been entered, click the "Save Detail Changes & Exit" button to save the budget and return you to the full listing of budgets.