Create a Budget
Financials > Budgets is where an annual revenue/expense plan is built, one line per account, so actuals can later be compared against the plan. A budget is a Year plus a list of account rows, each pairing an account with a planned Annual Budget Amount.
When would I use this?
- Setting a spending plan for the coming fiscal year before it starts, so the board can approve it.
- Planning both revenue (e.g. expected assessment income) and expenses (e.g. planned landscaping spend) side by side for the year.
- Comparing what was actually collected/spent against the plan partway through the year.
Steps
- Go to Financials > Budgets and click + Create Budget.

- Set the Year (the form pre-fills a suggested year — change it if you need a different one).
- Click + Add Row to add an account line (the form starts with none). Repeat for every account you want to budget.

- In each row's Account box, start typing to search the chart of accounts. Category chips above the results show: All, Revenue, Expenses. Both revenue accounts (for example, Assessment Income, Amenity Fees) and expense accounts (for example, Repairs & Maintenance) can be budgeted on the same budget.

- Enter the Annual Budget Amount for that row.
- Repeat for as many accounts as needed. To remove a row you added by mistake, click the trash icon at the end of that row. Then click Save, or click Cancel to leave without saving.

Good to know
- The Type badge on each row (Revenue or Expense) is not a field you choose — it fills in automatically based on which account you selected. A row shows "Not Selected" for Type only until an account is chosen.
- Total Revenue and Total Expenses at the bottom right update live as you add rows and amounts.
- To compare the plan with actual income and spending, see How Do I View a Budget's Summary?
- There is no manual Name entry on the Create Budget form — a budget is auto-named by the platform based on the year, for example a budget created for 2026 is automatically saved as "2026 Operating Budget," with Frequency "Yearly" and Status "Active."
- Only one budget can exist for each year. If you enter a year that already has a budget, the Year field shows "A budget already exists for this year" and the budget can't be saved. Use Edit on the existing budget instead (see View and Edit Budgets).