Budgets & budget vs actual
Annual budgets by account with monthly spread, compared line-by-line against posted actuals — variances visible the day they happen.
Budgets made in January live in a spreadsheet nobody opens in June. By the time overspend is noticed, it is already in the bank statement.
Zaffre Axon stores budgets against the same accounts the ledger posts to, so budget-vs-actual is a live report, not an annual autopsy.
Budgets are defined per ledger account for a year, phased across twelve months. Because they attach to real accounts rather than free-text categories, actuals need no mapping exercise — every posted entry already knows which budget line it belongs to.
The budget-vs-actual report compares each account’s budgeted and actual figures for the chosen window, with variances in absolute and percentage terms. Overspending shows up in the month it happens, while there is still time to react.
Together with the finance dashboard’s spending views, budgeting closes the loop from plan to ledger: the same chart of accounts carries the plan, the postings and the variance — one structure, three views.
How it works
- 1
Create the budget
Pick the year, choose the accounts, and enter annual amounts phased monthly.
- 2
Post normally
Actuals come from the ledger automatically — payroll, purchases, expenses, invoicing.
- 3
Review variances
Open budget-vs-actual for any window and see line-level differences immediately.
- 4
Adjust in-year
Update budget lines when plans change; history stays comparable.
Frequently asked questions
- Can budgets be set at account level?
- Yes — budgets attach to ledger accounts with a twelve-month phasing, so variance reporting requires no mapping between systems.
- How current is the budget-vs-actual report?
- It reads posted entries at request time. A purchase posted this morning is in this afternoon’s variance.
- Can we budget only some accounts?
- Yes. Budget the accounts you plan to control; unbudgeted accounts simply do not appear in the variance report.
- Does it handle multiple years?
- Budgets are per year, and you can maintain several years side by side for planning and comparison.