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Importing a budget from Excel

You can choose to import a budget from your source accounting system (Xero, QuickBooks Online, or MYOB AccountRight Live).

Alternatively, you can import your budget data from Excel (.xlsx or .csv) anytime. This is useful if you import your financial data from QuickBooks Desktop, MYOB AccountRight, Sage Business Cloud Accounting, Sage 50 Accounts, or Excel. If you use other tools to create your budget, you can also import it into Fathom via Excel.

Adding a budget to your company via Excel

You can import an Excel budget for your company by selecting ‘Settings’ for the company on the ‘My Companies’ page.

In ‘Step 1 - Update Data’ of the company’s Settings, scroll down to the ‘Budgets’ section.
Select the ‘+Add a budget’ option. If you already have a budget imported into Fathom from your source accounting system or your Fathom forecast, then you’ll need to remove that budget before being able to select the ‘+Add a budget’ option.
Choose ‘Excel’
In the following screen, you’ll see our import guidelines for importing from Excel. We recommend downloading our detailed Import Guidelines, which provide step-by-step instructions on creating your Excel file.
Select the option to 'download an import template’. You can open this in Excel and enable editing to enter your accounts and values.

💡Pro Tip: Classifications (Column A) are 3 or 4-letter codes that allow Fathom to determine the type of account. View this article for more information on Account Classifications.
Once you’ve created your budget import file in Excel, return to Fathom.

❗ Notice: You'll need to ensure that the budget is contained in the first worksheet of the spreadsheet for the import to be successful.
Select the option to ‘Choose a file to upload.’
Then, select your budget import file.

The budget should now be added to your company from Excel.

💡Pro Tip: You can also save the forecast you create in Fathom as your company’s budget. View the following article for more detail on saving your forecast as your company’s budget.

Continue setting up your company in Fathom

Updating or replacing your Excel budget

You’ll need to re-import the Excel file to update an Excel budget in Fathom. To do this:

Go to ‘Step 1 - Update Data’ of the company’s Settings
In the ‘Budgets’ section, select ‘Update from Excel.’
You can download a blank import template, download an import template that includes the existing budget data, or add data to your existing Excel import file.

💡Pro Tip: To add financial data for a recently completed period, you can only include the new period of data to add to the existing financial range. However, many of our customers prefer to build upon a single Excel file that contains all periods. This can be easier to manage and allows you to easily make prior period adjustments if required.
Once you’ve created or updated your Excel budget file, select the ‘Choose a file to upload’ option.
Select your Excel file with the updated 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