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Can I save my forecast as a budget?

Use your forecast or scenarios to build your budget in Fathom

Updated this week

This feature is included with Fathom Pro - the plan with access to all of Fathom's features. Companies on Portfolio can be upgraded to Fathom Pro at any time.

Yes, you can save your forecast as a budget

The main forecast or a scenario can be saved as an individual company's full budget or as part of a company's budget. This enables you to use the forecasting tool to create a budget in Fathom.

There are two ways to save your forecast as the company budget in Fathom.

  1. From within forecasting

  2. From within 'Source Data' in the company's Settings

Why can't I save the forecast as the budget?

There are a few situations in which you cannot save your forecast as a budget:

  • You already have a budget imported.

    • If you already have a budget imported from Excel or a source accounting system, then you can still save your forecast as a budget, but you must do so from within the forecasting tool.
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  • You are forecasting for a consolidated group

    • You cannot save a consolidated group's forecast as the group's budget. The budget for the consolidated group will always roll up from the underlying entities in the group.

    • You can save the underlying companies' forecasts as budgets, and these will roll up to be the consolidated group budget.
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  • You have imported divisional budgets for a QuickBooks Online or Xero company.

    • You must remove the divisional budget data before saving the forecast as the budget.
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  • You have imported budgets for multiple financial years for a QuickBooks Online company.

    • You must remove budget data so that you only have one financial year imported before you can save the forecast as the budget.

Will the budget update with changes to the forecast?

No. If you save your forecast or scenario as the company's budget, you are saving a static version. This enables you to continue to make changes to your forecast or scenario without impacting or influencing your budget.

If you want changes you've made in your forecast to be reflected in your budget, then you can re-save your forecast as the budget.

Save as a budget from the forecasting grid

From within forecasting, you can:

  1. Go to the main forecast grid
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  2. Click on the bolded Forecast rolling from date in the upper right corner of the header
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  3. Select Save forecast as budget
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  4. A menu will pop up where you can save the main forecast or a scenario forecast as the budget.
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    💡 Smart Tip: If you've imported an existing budget from your source accounting system or Excel, you can replace only part of your existing budget with your forecast.

📝 Note: The 'Replacement Options' in the screenshot above will only appear if you have imported an existing budget from your source accounting system or Excel. They will not appear if there is no existing imported budget or if the budget is already sourced from the forecast.

Save from the company's Settings

You can also save your forecast as your budget from within 'Source Data' in your company's Settings. To do this:

  1. Go to the Budgets section in Source Data
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  2. Select Add to budget from forecast
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  3. Choose to save the main forecast or a scenario forecast as the budget. You can also choose to replace the existing budget entirely or partially.
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    📝 Note: If you've already imported a budget from Excel or a source accounting system, then you'll need to save your forecast as the budget from within the forecasting tool or delete the existing budget from the company Settings before saving the forecast as the budget.

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