Budgeting and Reporting on Balance Sheet Accounts

Martus primarily focuses on income and expense accounts. However, it is possible to budget for and report on actuals related to balance sheet accounts (such as capital expenses or mortgage payments) within Martus. See the appropriate section below for details about how this can be done. Note the particular requirements and limitations of your specific accounting system integration. 

Changing the Account Type

For Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, and Financial Edge NXT Integrations - All asset and liability accounts are synced into Martus automatically, but the sync sets them to Inactive within Martus because they are not typically used.  

To budget for an asset or liability account within Martus, use Setup > Accounts to change the status of the account to Active and lock the status so that it is not switched back to Inactive by the next sync.  

Additionally, change the type of the account to 'Expense' or 'Other Expense' (for liability accounts) or to 'Income' or 'Other Income' (for asset accounts) and lock the account type. 

That will ensure the account is available for budgeting and displayed on the Financial Reports. 

You may also wish to set the account to Restricted and/or Excluded in order to limit user access.  

For File-Based Integrations 

To budget for an asset or liability account within Martus, use Setup > Accounts to change the type of the account to 'Expense' or 'Other Expense' (for liability accounts) or to 'Income' or 'Other Income' (for asset accounts). 

That will ensure the account is available for budgeting and displayed on the Financial Reports.

You may wish to set the account to Restricted and/or Excluded in order to limit user access. 

Using Contra Accounts

This is an alternative method of budgeting for and reporting on balance sheet accounts. 

This contra account method can be used for any accounting system integration with Martus. 

Follow the procedures below:

Budgeting Asset Accounts 

To facilitate this you can set up one or more Capital Purchase expense accounts to book asset purchases and corresponding Contra account(s).  When a capital purchase is made, the entry would need to include a debit to the Capital Purchase Expense account and a credit to the Contra expense account (in addition to crediting cash and debiting the asset account).

Budgeting Liability Accounts 

To facilitate budgeting things like Mortgage Principal payments, you can employ the same Contra account method to facilitate this. 

Excluded Accounts

Additionally, to produce GAAP & Cash-based Income Statements, you can apply the “Exclude” flag to the Contra accounts. The default view for income statements will be more cash-based while choosing the “Include Excluded Data” feature includes the Contra account(s) for a more GAAP compliant report. 

To do this, use Setup > Accounts  and flag set the Contra accounts so that they are “Excluded”.