Budget Management

Overview

TimelyChurch's budgeting feature lets you create financial budgets, set planned amounts for each income and expense category, and track actual performance against your plan throughout the year. The system calculates variances in real time so you can see at a glance whether you are on track.

Plan & where to find it: Budgets is a Pro feature ($129/mo founding while the first 25 founding slots last, then $149/mo list price). Open it from Finances > Budgets in the sidebar -- that works in either accounting view. In Full Accounting, Budgets is also listed in the Setup ▾ menu of the accounting tab bar; the Simple Checkbook More ▾ menu does not list it.

Who Can Manage Budgets

Budgets have their own permission, separate from Accounting. In Administration → Roles & Permissions, the Budgets row (under Finances) decides what a role can do:

Someone who can't close a budget sees "Closing a budget needs Manage access in Accounting. Ask your church administrator if you need it."

Budget Types

You can create three types of budgets:

• Annual -- Covers a full fiscal year (the most common choice for churches).
• Quarterly -- Covers a three-month period.
• Monthly -- Covers a single month.

Budget Lifecycle

Every budget goes through three stages:

Creating a New Budget

The Create Budget page offers three quick-start methods at the top, plus a manual form below them. Pick whichever method best fits the budget you are building.

Method 1: From Template

In the Quick Start: Create from Template card, pick a pre-built template (sized for your church) and click it. TimelyChurch creates a draft budget with the template's standard income and expense line items already filled in. Best for first-time budgets when you do not have prior-year data to draw on.

Method 2: From Actuals (Pre-fill from Last Year)

In the Pre-fill from Last Year's Actuals card, choose the budget year and click Pre-fill from Actuals. TimelyChurch reads your prior-year income and expense transactions, totals them by category, and creates a draft budget where each line item's planned amount equals what you actually spent or earned in that category last year. Adjust from there. Best for churches that have at least one full year of accounting history.

Method 3: Copy From Previous Budget

In the manual form, the Copy from Previous Budget dropdown lets you carry forward every line item (with the same planned amounts) from a prior budget. Best when last year's budget is a good starting point and you only want to tweak a few figures.

Manual Creation

If you prefer to start from scratch:

1. Go to Finances > Budgets (or Setup ▾ > Budgets in the accounting tab bar).
2. Click New Budget (Create First Budget if you have none yet). The Create Budget page opens.
3. Fill in the manual form (below the quick-start cards):
   • Budget Name -- A descriptive name (e.g., "2026 Annual Budget" or "Q1 2026 Operating Budget").
   • Budget Type -- Annual, Quarterly, or Monthly.
   • Fiscal Year -- The year this budget applies to.
   • Start Date -- When the budget period begins.
   • End Date -- When the budget period ends.
   • Copy from Previous Budget -- Optional dropdown to copy line items from an existing budget (or Start Fresh (No Copy)).
   • Notes -- Optional notes about the budget (assumptions, board approval date, etc.).
4. Click Create Budget.

You will be redirected to the budget detail page where you can add line items.

Adding Budget Items (Line Items)

Each budget item links a category to a planned dollar amount for the budget period.

1. On the budget detail page, click Add Item.
2. Select a Category (income or expense).
3. Optionally select a Fund to track the budget at the fund level.
4. Enter the Planned Amount for the full budget period.
5. Add optional Notes explaining the figure.
6. Click Add Item.

Repeat for each income and expense line you want to track.

Tip: The system prevents duplicate entries. You cannot add two budget items for the same category and fund combination within the same budget.

Understanding Variance

Variance is the difference between what you planned (budgeted) and what actually happened (actual transactions). TimelyChurch calculates variance automatically by comparing your budget amounts to real transaction data.

Income Variance

For income categories, the system compares planned income to actual income received during the budget period.

• Over target (positive variance) -- You received more income than budgeted. This is generally favorable.
• Under target (negative variance) -- You received less income than budgeted. This may need attention.

Expense Variance

For expense categories, the system compares planned spending to actual spending.

• Under budget (positive variance) -- You spent less than budgeted. This is generally favorable.
• Over budget (negative variance) -- You spent more than budgeted. This needs attention.

Overall Variance

The overall variance looks at the net result: net actual (income minus expenses) compared to net planned (planned income minus planned expenses).

• Favorable -- The church's net financial position is better than planned.
• Unfavorable -- The church's net financial position is worse than planned.

Reading the Variance Indicators

On the budget detail page, each line item shows:

• Planned -- The budgeted amount.
• Actual -- The sum of matching transactions within the budget period (matched by category and optionally by fund).
• Variance -- The dollar difference, with a percentage.
• Progress -- A percentage showing how much of the planned amount has been realized.
• Status -- A color-coded indicator:
  • Green for favorable variance (income above target, expenses below budget).
  • Red for unfavorable variance (income below target, expenses over budget).

Activating a Budget

When your budget is ready:

1. Open Finances > Budgets.
2. Find the draft budget in the list and open the actions menu (the three-dot icon at the right of the row).
3. Click Activate.
4. The status changes from Draft to Active.

Note: A budget must have at least one line item before it can be activated. The Activate, Close Budget, Copy to Next Year, and Delete actions all live in the row actions menu on the Budgets list -- not on the budget detail page itself.

Once active, the budget's variance calculations begin comparing planned amounts to actual transactions in real time.

Closing a Budget

At the end of a budget period:

1. Open Finances > Budgets.
2. Open the actions menu (three-dot icon) for the active budget.
3. Click Close Budget.
4. The status changes to Closed.

Closed budgets cannot be modified but remain available for historical review and reporting.

Copying a Budget to the Next Year

To save time when creating a new annual budget:

1. Open Finances > Budgets.
2. Open the actions menu (three-dot icon) for the budget you want to roll forward and click Copy to Next Year.
3. A new draft budget is created with:
   • The fiscal year incremented by one.
   • The start and end dates moved forward by one year.
   • All line items copied with the same planned amounts.
4. You are taken to the new budget's detail page. Review it, adjust amounts as needed, and activate it (from the Budgets list) when ready.

Deleting a Budget

Only draft budgets can be deleted. Active and closed budgets are preserved for accountability and historical records.

1. Open Finances > Budgets.
2. Open the actions menu (three-dot icon) for the draft budget and click Delete.
3. Confirm the deletion.

90% Spending Alert

To help you catch overspending before it becomes a problem, TimelyChurch scans a budget's expense line items each time you open its detail page. Any expense line where actual spending has reached 90% or more of the planned amount triggers a yellow Spending Alert banner at the top of the budget detail page, listing the affected categories. This is purely a notification -- nothing is locked or blocked -- but it gives the treasurer a chance to flag the issue before the line goes over budget.

Budget Reports

The budget detail page has three reporting buttons in addition to the on-page variance summary: Download Board Report (PDF), Variance Report, and Monthly Breakdown. All three work for any budget and need only the View permission on Budgets.

Variance Report

Use this when you want a quick top-to-bottom check of how the budget is tracking right now. Click Variance Report on the budget detail page.

What it shows:

• Summary blocks for Income, Expenses, and Net Position (planned net vs. actual net).
• A Line Item Variance Detail table with, for each budget line: Category, Fund, Planned, Actual (the sum of all matching transactions in the budget period), Variance ($), Variance (%), and a Status (for example Under Budget, Over Budget, Over Target, or Under Target, shown as favorable or unfavorable).
• Items are grouped into income and expense with totals for each.
• A Print Report button and the date the report was generated.

Year-to-date pace (annual budgets only): The budget detail page also shows a YTD Expected figure for income, expenses, and net. It spreads the budget's planned total evenly over 12 months and counts the months elapsed since the budget's start date, so you can see whether actuals are Ahead or Behind (income) or Under or Over (expenses) the straight-line pace. If today falls outside the budget period, no year-to-date figure is shown.

How to read it:

• All lines green: healthy. Skip to the summary numbers.
• One or two expense lines at 90%+ progress: investigate before they cross 100%. The variance shows how much room is left in dollars.
• Income running well below the year-to-date pace: giving is soft. Don't wait for year-end -- have the conversation now.
• Income and expense both favorable: under budget on both sides, often a good thing, but check whether ministry plans were paused.

Monthly Breakdown

Use this when you need to see timing, not just totals. Click Monthly Breakdown on the budget detail page.

What it shows: a grid with one row per budget item (by Category) and one column per month in the budget period.

• Each cell shows that month's planned amount and actual amount. Planned per month is the item's total planned amount divided evenly across the months in the budget period.
• Actual per month is the sum of transactions in the matching category (and fund, if the line has one) dated in that month.
• Cells are color-coded: green for Under budget (expenses) / Over target (income), red for Over budget (expenses), gray when there is no activity.
• Show: at the top switches between Both (default), Income Only, and Expenses Only.
• A Totals row at the bottom and a Total column at the right give the monthly and whole-period totals.

How to read it:

• An expense category that runs hot in early months: if actuals have already exceeded the straight-line plan in the first three months, expect later overruns unless spending changes.
• Lumpy expenses (insurance, conferences, equipment): these look "over" in their actual month and "under" the rest of the year. That's expected -- focus on the total for those lines.
• Use the filter: switch to Expenses Only before a finance committee meeting -- expense overruns are typically what the meeting is about.

Tip: Monthly Breakdown is the best report for cash-flow planning. The variance report tells you whether you're over or under; the monthly grid tells you when to brace.

Board Report PDF

Use this when you need to print or email a clean, board-ready summary. Click Download Board Report (PDF) on the budget detail page -- the PDF downloads immediately, with no on-screen preview.

What it includes: a Budget vs Actual Report with a Financial Summary (total income, total expenses, net position), income and expense tables with Category, Planned, Actual, and Variance, your church's name, and the time the PDF was generated.

The Board Report is a point-in-time snapshot. If you generate it again next week, the numbers may differ as new transactions land -- so archive the actual PDF you presented with your board minutes instead of re-running it later.

Tip: Share the variance report with your finance committee, and bring the Board Report PDF to the board meeting itself. Archive it monthly alongside the Treasurer's Report.

Related Articles

• Financial Reports
• Recording Transactions
• Recording a Refund on an Expense