Setting up an Advanced Budget

How do I setup a budget in Cashbook Platinum?

The budgeting process in Cashbook Platinum is based on the completion of various sections that build on each other to produce a complete budget for a farming enterprise.

These sections are:

• Enterprises - an enterprise is a component of a farm business. For example, a farm may include a cattle enterprise and a sheep enterprise. This section is used to set up trading and gross margin details for required enterprises.
  • Crop Enterprises with Trading Account. (Trading details including production, sales & stock on hand and Direct Costs.)
  • Livestock Enterprises with Trading Account. (Trading details including natural increase, purchases, sales, losses & stock on hand and Direct Costs.)
  • Other Enterprise with no trading account (eg. where there is no breeding or stock on hand activity). (Income & Direct Costs.)
• Farm Income and Overheads - sundry farm income and expenses that are not part of any enterprise.
• Capital - capital receipts & expenditure such as loans received and paid, plant sales and purchases, etc.
• Proprietor Funds - receipts and payments relating to proprietorship such as advances from peronal funds, owners drawing and personal superannuation contributions.
• Off Farm Income and Expenses - income and expenses relating to off-farm investments and non-farming activities.
• GST -
  • GST Paid (amounts applicable to all expenditure amounts in the budget),
  • GST Received (amounts applicatble to all income amounts in the budget),
  • Note: Where budget is prepared 'GST Inclusive', GST Paid and Received will be blank, as the GST amounts will be embedded in the expenditure and income amounts.
  • Note: All amounts in this section are calculated automatically by the systems base on amounts entered in a particular month against expense/payment type account in other sections of the budget.
  • GST Net BAS (this is the 'balancing' account and represents the net BAS amount payable/receivable for the month or quarter (depends on BAS frequency set in the GST setup area)).
  • Note: this line is calculated automatically by taking the GST Paid from the GST Received for the relevant BAS period.
• Bank Accounts - used to setup the relevant details relating to bank accounts. This includes provision for automatic calculation of debit and credit interest on an operating account.
• Net Worth - shows the monthly budgeted net worth position over the budget period. It is laid out in 3 parts: Assets, Banks/Funding Lines and Liabilities.

BEFORE STARTING:

1. Make sure that the Chart of Accounts has been correctly set up with all required income, expense, asset & liability accounts.
2. Ensure that any required non-cash accounts (such as depreciation expense) are set up in the chart with the "non-cashbook" account checkbox ticked.
3. Check that the "Balance Sheet Link" has been set for any relevant Other Income and Other Expense type accounts (eg. purchase & sale of assets). (Note that other Income/Expense accounts that are not linked to a balance sheet account, will appear in cashflow and profit and loss figures. Accounts that are linked will appear in cashflow and net worth but not Profit and Loss.)
4. Check that all required enterprises have been set up with all necessary information and required options selected.
5. Add all required products/items to the register (under the Registers > Product & Items menu Option) and check pricing information. 

Basic procedure for setting up a budget in Cashbook Platinum:

• Click on the Budgets icon on the main toolbar.

• Click on the File > New menu option.

• Enter a name for the new budget.
• Select to either use enterprises (All or selected) or a Non-enterprise Budget.
• Click on the OK button.

• You will be prompted by the following confirmation message:

• Click on Yes button if you want to automatically add all accounts and banks to their relevant sections.
• Click on No button if you want to select your own accounts and banks for each relevant section.

• You will be prompted to enter opening values for enterprises in this new budget (note that the default values will be taken from the enterprise setup area and can be changed or revised later as required.)
• Click on the OK button.

• Automatic setup is complete.
• The date range for your budget setup will always default to the next financial year.
• If you need to change the dates of your budget:
  • Click on the budget name.
  • Click on the up or down arrow to change budget to the dates you require. eg 07/2015 to 06/2016.
  • Click on the Apply button.

• Click Yes to confirmation message 'Making the budget start earlier can cause issues with opening balances. Are you sure you want to proceed?' (IF THIS MESSAGE DOES APPLY TO YOU, YOU MAY NEED TO CHANGE YOUR OPENING BALANCES.)
• Click Yes to confirmation message 'WARNING: Changing the date range requires saving the budget and reloading it. Any data outside the new date range will be lost. Proceed?'
• Click OK to warning message.

• Wherever you have budget sections that contain Income and Expenses, all income and expense accounts may have been automatically added (depending on your selection at the time). Therefore, you may have to go through and delete all accounts not related to that section.

Example: <Farm Inc/O'heads> <Income>

• Click on the Delete Account button.
• Click on all accounts that do not belong in this income account. (e.g. Farm income accounts are sundry farm income that are not related to an enterprise.)
• Hold down the Ctrl key and click on each account you wish to delete.
• Click on the OK button.

• Repeat this in each section where this occurs.

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