Martus Basics for New Users

Using Martus for your reporting and budgeting needs can be easy if you know where to start and what you are looking for. Use this introductory guide to begin your Martus journey.

Terminology

Account: Accounts are also referred to as general ledger accounts or a chart of accounts. These are the various lines that your organization is utilizing to track different types of spending and income across all parts of your organization. Accounts become lines within reports and on your budget worksheet within Martus. Examples are Software Expenses, Office Supplies, or Travel Expenses such as mileage. 

Dimensions: Dimensions offer various ways to track financial and operational data in an organization. You can think of them as "tags" to classify the data.. Examples of typical dimensions are Location, Department, Class, Project, and Fund.  Every organization will have one or more dimensions set up in Martus.  Each budget item and actual transaction is tagged by one or more dimension values to indicate the location, department, etc. to which it is related. You will see these dimensions and dimension values throughout Martus on your budget worksheets and your financial reports. You will likely only have access to see specific dimension values within your organization based on how your Martus Administrator has set up your account. For example, you might only be able to see your department.

Budget: Your organization may have multiple budgets per year, such as the initial budget, the board-approved budget, and a mid-year forecast.  Within Martus, each budget is a collection of worksheets for the various combinations of dimensions in your organization for a specific fiscal year.  Every budget has at least one and usually many, worksheets.

Worksheets: This is where the work is done to budget within Martus. A worksheet is for a specific combination of dimensions such as a specific department at a particular location, and it tracks all of the the projected income and expenses for the budget period as account lines. Individual managers and directors will have the ability to update one or more worksheets and submit them for approval. For example, the Operations department may manage two worksheets, one for the Waterstone and one for the Smithstone Locations in order to budget for electricity, gas, security, etc.  

Martus Reporting

For reporting you will go to "Dashboard > Financials." Here you can answer questions like:

• How much money did my department spend last month on office supplies?
• Do I have enough money left in my office supplies budget for 10 more cases of paper? 
• Are the expenses for my recent purchases showing up yet? 

Two of the reports available for reporting within Martus are the Income Statement and the Year to Date Budget Comparison reports.  Review the videos below: once you have learned how to navigate one Martus report, the same principles can be applied to other Martus reports.

Understanding the Income Statement Report

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Understanding the Year-to-Date Budget Comparison

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Budgeting in Martus

A well-crafted budget will allow you to spend wisely and make your money go further.  As a budgeting user, you need to know how to use the Budget Worksheet feature within Martus to enter and update the details of your budget. This is where you will enter your budget information per account line.  

Depending on how your organization is budgeting, you may be required to submit your worksheet to be approved by designated people in your organization. At any point during the process, you may want to utilize the Planner Summary Reports to review your budget. 

For more information on Budgeting - Click here to view the Budget Basics Learning Path