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Bringing in a budget from Xero

When you make the initial connection between Fathom and Xero, Fathom automatically pulls in budget data from the 'Overall Budget' you created in the Xero Budget Manager.

If you do not have any budget data in the 'Overall Budget', no budget data will be imported during the initial connection.

If you want to replace the budget that was automatically imported or if you did not have a budget automatically imported during the initial connection, then you can add a budget from Xero or Excel or save your forecast as your budget.

Tracking category budgets

If you have imported tracking categories into Fathom, you can import a budget for each tracking category. The tracking categories must be imported before you can import the tracking category budget data.

Adding a budget from Xero

You can import a budget from Xero at any time. To do this:

Go to 'Step 1 - Update data' of the company's Settings.
Under the heading for 'Budget', select the option to 'Add a Budget'
Choose to import a budget from Xero
1. If you have imported tracking categories for the company, you can follow the remaining instructions under the 'Importing tracking category budgets' heading.
Choose the budget you wish to import from the dropdown menu
Select 'Confirm'

Continue setting up your company in Fathom

Importing tracking category budgets

After selecting Xero, you can import a single overall budget for the company or import multiple budgets to bring in tracking category data.

📝Note: Tracking categories must be imported before the tracking category budgets can be imported.
If you choose to import a single budget, then you can choose the budget you wish to import from the dropdown menu and select 'Confirm'
If you choose to import multiple budgets, you will see a list of the imported tracking categories. You can select one budget per tracking category. You can change the chosen budget for a tracking category by clicking on the budget name.

📝 Note: A budget must be filtered to a tracking category in Xero to be available as an option in Fathom. For example, if you have created a budget for the North region in Xero, it must be filtered to that region in Xero for you to select it as a budget for the North region in Fathom.
Select 'Confirm'
Choose an overall company budget from the dropdown menu for the company's budget totals. Or you can have Fathom calculate the company's total budget by summing the tracking category budgets.

💡Pro Tip: You can change how the overall budget is calculated (using a budget from Xero or summing the tracking category budgets) at any time.
If you choose to sum the tracking category budgets, you also have the option to select an additional 'Unclassified' budget to import budget data not assigned to a specific tracking category.
Select 'Confirm'

Using an overall company budget

In Xero, the tracking category budgets do not communicate with overall company budgets; therefore, the tracking category budgets do not inherently roll up to equal the overall budget.

When you select an overall company budget for the budget totals, Fathom will calculate the difference between the overall budget and the sum of the tracking category budgets. This difference will appear as unclassified budget data in Fathom so that the total budget matches the sum of the underlying budgets.

Unclassified Budget Values = Company Total Budget - Sum of Tracking Category Budgets

Summing the tracking category budgets

When you select to calculate the company's total budget from the sum of the tracking category budgets, you may have budget data in Xero that is not assigned to a tracking category budget. Fathom enables you to import an additional budget to bring in unassigned or unclassified data. The company's total budget will be calculated as the sum of the tracking category budgets, including the unclassified budget.

Unclassified Budget Values = Imported Unclassified Budget

Importing an additional unclassified budget is optional. You may sum up the tracking category budgets without importing an unclassified budget.

📝Note: You may import up to two types of tracking categories into Fathom. You will choose one type to calculate the total budget. For example, if you've imported Regions and Products as two types of tracking categories, you can choose to calculate the total budget as the sum of the Regions or as the sum of the Products.

Adding a budget from other sources

Excel

If you want to import a budget from outside of Xero, you can import a budget into Fathom via Excel.

Please have a look at our 'Importing a budget from Excel' article for more detail.

📝Note: Tracking category budget data cannot be imported via Excel unless the tracking categories have been imported into Fathom as standalone entities.

Saving the forecast as the budget

You can save the forecast you create in Fathom as your company's budget. You can completely replace your current budget with the company's forecast or only partially replace your current budget.

Please look at our 'Saving your forecast as your company's budget' article for more detail.

📝Note: It is not possible to save the forecast as the budget for the company if budget data for tracking categories have been imported. You must remove the tracking category budgets before you can save the forecast as the budget for the company.

Managing & updating your Xero budget

Updating the budget from Xero

You can update your budget data in Fathom at any time. To update the budget from Xero:

Go to 'Step 1 - Update data' in the company's Settings.
Under the heading for 'Budget', select the option to 'Update Budget from Xero'

Changing the budget or how it is calculated

If you want to change the imported Xero budget:

In the company's Settings, go to 'Step 1 - Update data'
Under the heading for 'Budgets', you'll see the budget 'Source' listed
Select the 'edit' option next to 'Source'
Select the budget you wish to import from the dropdown menu
If you have tracking category budgets imported, you can also change how the company's total budget is calculated using the dropdown menu. You can select an overall company budget to use as the total or choose the option to sum the tracking category budgets.

To change the tracking category budgets you've imported,

In the company's Settings, go to 'Step 1 - Update data'
Under the heading for 'Budgets', you'll see 'Tracking' listed
Select the 'edit' option next to 'Tracking'
Select the budget you wish to import for each tracking category by clicking on the budget name
Select 'Confirm'

Removing the budget

❗ Notice: Removing your imported budget will remove all budget periods. Budget values from previous reports will be removed, and target values linked to the budget will be reset.

To remove your imported Xero budget:

Go to 'Step 1 - Update data' of the company's Settings.
In the 'Budgets' section, select the option to 'remove budget'

Next Steps

Congratulations on importing your budget into Fathom! Continue the 'Getting Started Workflow' and finish setting up your company for analysis, reporting, and forecasting by choosing from the options below:

What you want to do:	Next step in the process:
Ready to set up your company profile and import your company logo into Fathom?	Set up your Company Profile
Happy with your company profile and want to check and customise your Chart of Accounts?	Customise your Chart of Accounts
Happy with your Chart of Accounts and ready to set up KPIs to track your company's performance?	Set up KPIs

Additional knowledge & common questions: