Hi Desta Balducci ,

Thanks for reaching out. It sounds like you're on the right track by heading to the maintenance tab, but you might be looking for a bit more detailed guidance on how to enable and set up your budgets effectively.

Here are some steps to help you through the process:

1. Enable Budgets for Departments and Accounts:

   • Navigate to Setup, then Settings, and select General (Accounts), followed by Budget.
   • Ensure you check the box for "Budget revenue and expense accounts".
   • Choose your desired Budget period frequency from the dropdown list provided.
   • Confirm your changes by clicking OK.

   This initial step is crucial for setting the foundation for your budgeting within Sage. For a more detailed guide on this process, please see our article on how to enable budgets.

2. Allocating Budget to Departments:

   • Begin by accessing the Chart of Accounts.
   • Double-click on any revenue or expense account to bring up the Chart of Accounts Records.
   • Head over to the Budget tab and ensure "Budget this Account" is selected.
   • Input the total budgeted amount and use the "Allocate to Period" button for even distribution across the selected timeframe. For departments, the "Allocate Dept." button will distribute the budget accordingly.
   • Save your changes and repeat for all accounts as necessary.

If you're considering updating or importing account budgets for a different fiscal year, remember that budgets must be enabled in your file, and you must start a new year to update the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

For Importing or Updating Account Budgets:

• Make sure your accounts are designated for budgeting.
• Prepare or modify a CSV file with the budget details, ensuring it begins with a version number, country code, and "Account Budgets".
• Proceed to import these budgets into Sage 50 via the Import Records option under the File menu.

For comprehensive instructions on importing or updating account budgets, refer to our detailed guide here.

These steps should guide you through creating a draft budget for the next year. If you need further assistance or have any questions, don't hesitate to ask for more detailed support or consider reaching out to a qualified Sage business partner or customer support analyst for personalized help.

Hope this helps!

Warm Regards,
Erzsi

Erzsi has provided some great information, however, most of it applies to Premium or Quantum versions of Sage 50. In Sage 50 Pro budgeting is very basic and I am not aware of a place to create a Draft Budget within the program. To start to prepare a budget for the next period I always open either the Trial Balance or an Income Statement in Excel and create my budget there. Once the numbers have been crunched and you are satisfied with the Excel results, you will then load the numbers into Sage 50 account by account. You enter the annualized amount and then spread the amount over the months or quarters as required. Yes, it can be tedious but the results provides great information when shared on the Comparative Income Statement.

Thank you Alwyn, this is exactly the information I was looking for