Set the year’s budget

Put in what the society expects to take in and spend

Line by line: the grants expected, the sales hoped for, the costs the year carries — rent, insurance, the work already promised. A budget in this app is a version of a board decision, not a spreadsheet that drifts. Draft it whole before it goes to the board.

Money kept in the three kinds stays apart here too: what is promised, what is expected, what is only being considered. A budget built on considering-money reads richer than the society is.

(Done on the Budgets page.)

Check the budget against the cash picture

The cash view lays the year out month by month: what the society expects to receive, what it expects to pay, and the lowest the balance dips. Hold the draft against it.

A budget can balance for the year and still run the account dry in March. The dip is the thing to see before the board does.

(Done on the Cash view page.)

The board agrees the budget at a meeting

The budget is the board’s decision, made the board’s way: discussed, moved, carried and written into the minutes. The app takes no part in the meeting. Note the date, who approved it and where the minute stands — the next step asks for all three.

(Done on the by hand page.)

Record the adoption in the books

Enter the meeting date, the approving directors and the minute reference. From this act the budget version stands as adopted. An adopted budget’s lines cannot be edited.

A change later in the year is a new version, adopted the same way. So the numbers the board approved stay the numbers on record.

(Done on the Budgets page.)

Watch the year against the budget

Through the year this page reads the actual money against the adopted lines: ahead, behind and where. The accountant’s pack carries the same comparison at year end.

(Done on the Budgets page.)