Looking Ahead: The Financial Edge Budget Forecast (and Copy) Tool

Entering budgets for the new fiscal year can be a time consuming and time-sensitive process for an organization, but Budget Management in The Financial Edge can make that job easier by doing some of the work for you. As you have likely seen in our prior blog posts, Budget Management houses a variety of Budget Tools. By using our Copy/Forecast tool, we can reduce the time it takes to enter a budget, decrease the likelihood of any potential manual entry errors and prepare the budget in advance.

What is the Copy/Forecast tool?
By using the Copy/Forecast tool, you can copy an existing budget or copy actual amounts from one fiscal year to another. You may also copy current year actual figures and project actual figures for the remainder of the year which does not currently have activity. Follow the steps below to copy or forecast a budget:
1. In Records, click Budgets.
2. Select Budget, Budget Tools from the menu bar.
3. Select Copy/Forecast budget and click Next.
4. Select the appropriate filters and click Next.
5. In the Select a source scenario frame, select the budget scenario and fiscal year you want to copy. This will be the basis of the forecasted budget.
6. In the Select a destination scenario frame, select the budget scenario and fiscal year to which you want to copy the source budget. This is the budget you are forecasting. 
7. Select the periods you want to copy.
8. Select Budget, Actuals, or Actuals Encumbrance from the copy drop-down list.
9. Select either Amount or Percent to copy, click Next.
10. Verify the information is correct and click Copy/Forecast Now.
11. Click OK once completed.
 
Be sure to watch the brief video below to see the entire process of copying a budget:


Below is an in depth example of how the forecasting portion of the tool uses current actuals to project future budget amounts: