Can I set up my budgets and categories for my next financial year in advance?

If you are within 6 months of the end of your current financial year, then you can create your new financial year in ExpensePlus.

Doing this will enable you to make any changes to the categories (or category connectors) that you wish to in advance. For example, create new categories, delete categories no longer needed, or reflect a change in budget amount for a category in the new financial year. Doing this won't affect your current year's categories, category structure, or budget amounts.

To set up your new financial year, select the 'Set Up Next Year' button in either the Category Settings screen (or category connector settings screen).

Usually, your category structure in your next financial year will be similar to your current financial year. So, when you click the 'Set Up Next Year' button, ExpensePlus automatically duplicates your categories, (category connectors), and budget amounts for you - then you can simply make any changes that you wish to.

Note: once the new year is set up, you need to make any changes to your categories and category structure manually to both the current year and the next year. While categories are linked across years, you need to make any changes separately.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if I don't set up the next year in advance?

If you don't set up your categories for your new financial year before year-end, ExpensePlus will do this for you automatically overnight on the last day of your financial year.

How are categories linked across financial years?

The categories in ExpensePlus are cleverly linked, so any transactions that end up moving across the year-end according to their payment date, end up falling into the new financial year and get automatically assigned to the correct category.

Do all categories for all funds get copied into the new financial year, or just categories for the fund I am viewing at the time of clicking the button?

All categories for all funds get replicated (along with all category connectors too if you are using these).

Do the current year's budget amounts get copied into the new year?

Yes! You can edit any budgets that have changed without affecting the budget amounts set for the existing financial year.

Does this mean I can create my next year's budget within ExpensePlus?

Many organisations create their budget for the next financial year within ExpensePlus. If you want to do this too, we recommend that you create your new financial year in ExpensePlus when you are ready to do this so that you can directly add/edit/delete categories and budget amounts within ExpensePlus instead of on a spreadsheet.

Can I still edit categories in previous financial years?

Yes! Categories are edited per financial year - you simply need to select the 'financial year' dropdown at the top of the screen.

Are there any disadvantages to creating my next financial year in ExpensePlus now?

If you expect to make major changes in your current financial year that you wish to also appear in your future financial year, then it's best to do these first. It will save you from having to make changes to categories and budgets twice as once you have clicked the button to set up your new financial year, you need to make changes to your current and your new financial year's categories separately.

Learn more here about: How do I reorganise my category structure?

Is there an option to copy over the current year projections to create the new year's budget amounts?

No, this currently isn't an option. Most organisations take time to review their Income & Expenditure Summary (by Fund) report for the current year to help them set the budgets for the next financial year. We recommend you set the new year's budget amounts based on a combination of the following:

The previous year's budget (most future budgets tend to be built from existing years' budgets).
The projected over and underspends (these indicate where you might want to consider increasing or decreasing the budget or putting measures in place to ensure you don't under/overspend next year).
The vision and objectives of the organisation. It's always worth going back to your vision to consider how you can better set your budget to enable you to achieve your vision, which may mean reducing or increasing budgets for some areas regardless of (1) and (2) above).

Can I re-run the setup of next year more than once?

No. However, once it's been run, you can make changes to the categories that have been copied. The only disadvantage of running the setup of the new financial year too early is that if you have run it and you decide you want to create a new category in the existing financial year, then you will need to add this to the next financial year separately.