Creating a New Budget by Area

  • Updated

The term "Budget" varies depending on the region. For our Asia-Pacific customers, it's often referred to "Budgeted Outgoings." European users will see it labelled as "Service Charge," while those in North America will find it listed as "Operating Expenses." The terminology used in the app adjusts based on your location. For additional clarity on regional vocabulary, please see our Glossary of Regional Terminology.

This guide walks you through the process of creating a new Budget by Area for a property. You'll learn how to specify areas to include in your property's budget, ensuring accurate and effective budgeting for your Tenants.

 

Adding a New Budget by Area

Step 1: Entering Budget Details

To begin, navigate to the required Property and click on the Outgoings tab. Press the New Budget By Area button.

It's time to input some essential details:

  • Title: Create a unique identifier for your budget.
  • Start Date and End Date: These establish the budget's time frame.
  • Notes: (Optional) Include any relevant details, which will appear in reports.
  • Tax Basis: Choose between ‘net’ or ‘gross’. The default setting is 'Net' for commercial properties and 'Gross' for residential ones, but you can edit this according to your property type or on a schedule level in the subsequent step.
  • Income Codes: Input codes for Tenancy Income, Owner Contributions, and Balancing Charges. This classification aids in tracking budget-related invoices and contributions accurately.

Step 2: Selecting Areas to Include

It's now time to choose which areas will be part of the budget:

  1. Search for specific areas or adjust the view to show or hide excluded or non-lettable areas.
  2. Use the include/exclude functions to manage which areas are part of the budget thoroughly.
  3. Each area's details can be individually edited if necessary.

Step 3: Creating Budget Schedules

Every budget requires at least one schedule to group expense codes:

  1. Set your schedule title and determine an allocation basis, opting for either a percentage of the floor area or tenancy percentages.
  2. Adjust the tax basis from the initial setup as required, and allocate percentages for each area. If an area lacks a set size or is vacant, it will show a zero allocation or no tenancy.
  3. Include or exclude areas from the schedule, making sure the total allocation adds up to 100%, with any remainder marked as 'Non-Recoverable'.

Step 4: Assigning Accounts

The final step is account selection for each schedule:

  1. Add expense accounts to the schedule. The expense account won't be available if it is already included in an overlapping budget for that property. 
  2. Input the budgeted costs and refine area allocations per expense account if necessary.
  3. Save your schedule and move on to create another one or finalize the budget creation process.


After completing these steps, your budget will be in a draft state, ready for review and adjustments as needed.

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