Creating a Budget Based on 12-Month Trailing Actuals

There are many ways to start a new budget cycle. To see them all, click here. This article walks through the specific steps to create a budget for the next fiscal year based on the current year and the previous year's actuals. For example, assuming a calendar fiscal year start, if it is currently September and you have closed August, this method will use January - August actuals of the current year and September - December actuals of the prior year.

Step by Step:

1. Go to Planner > Planner Setup.
2. If needed, navigate to the current fiscal year.
3. Click Create Budget.
4. Choose Based on Prior Year's Actuals and Budget. (NOTE: This will load all of the prior year actuals.)
5. Choose any budget to copy.
6. Give the new budget a title such as "Last Year's Actuals".
7. Click Create Budget.
8. Go to Dashboard > Updater and wait for the task to complete.
9. Go to Planner > Planner Setup.
10. If needed, navigate to the next fiscal year.
11. Click Create Budget.
12. Choose Based on Prior Year's Actuals and Budget. (NOTE: This will load all of the prior year actuals, but won't touch the prior-prior year actuals in later months, loaded in step 4.)
13. Choose the budget created in the steps above.
14. Give the new budget a title such as "Working Budget".
15. Click Create Budget.
16. Go to Dashboard > Updater and wait for the task to complete.
17. Go to Planner > Planner Setup.
18. Select the budget just created.
19. Click Set as Planner.