Using Budgets in NetSuite

Budgets in NetSuite will be specific to a fiscal year and permits the entry of an amount per account for each accounting period in the year.

Budgets can provide information for reporting such as NetSuite’s Budget vs. Actual report.

You can save estimates of income and expense as budgets for financial planning purposes.

The user can also create Budgets for specific customers, items, departments, classes, locations or any combination of these criteria. To filter the accounts that are listed for budgets the user can choose an Account Type. The account types include the following:

• All: All accounts included in Income Statement, Statistical Accounts, and Balance Sheet reports
• Existing: Only accounts that have existing budgets created for them
• Expense: Any accounts in the expense section of the Income Statement report
• Balance Sheet: Any accounts in the Balance Sheet reports, assets, liabilities, and equities
• Income: Any accounts in the income sections of Income Statement reports
• Income and Expense: Any accounts included in both the income and expense section of the Income Statement

Budgets can be manually entered, copied from a previous budget or users can use the CSV import assistant to import budgets from external systems. When using the CSV Import Assistant tool, the user has the option to upload multiple budgets at a time for different years and criteria.

Getting Started

To manually create Budgets in NetSuite, navigate to Transactions > Financial > Set Up Budgets and to view existing Budgets in NetSuite navigate to Transactions > Financial > Set Up Budgets > List.

Copy Budgets

Budgets can also be copied from a previous year and applied to a new period. To do so the user will navigate to Transactions > Financial > Copy Budgets.

On the Copy Budgets Screen the user will select the From Year and Budget Category along with the To Year and Budget Category.

Once complete click ‘Save’.

Upload Budget using the CSV Import Assistant Tool

Step 1: Download the Budget Template File

To access the Budget Import Template in NetSuite, navigate to Transactions > Financial > Set Up Budgets > Import.

On the Import Assistant Screen click the link ‘Budget Template File’ and download excel to computer.

In the Template enter the following information:

1. Year
2. Category
3. Account
4. Subsidiary
5. Amount for Each period

The user also has the option to define an item, customer, department, class, or location.

Step 2: Upload Budget Via CSV

Once budget template is complete and filled out, in NetSuite navigate to Transactions > Financial > Set Up Budgets > Import.

On the Scan and Upload CSV File: Budgets Page select your file.

Click Next then on the View Mapping / Start Import: Budgets screen map the template fields on the left-hand side to the NetSuite fields on the right-hand side.

Validate that the following is mapped below:

Click ‘Run’.

On the Status Page click Refresh until the status is ‘Complete’.

Click the CSV Response to view any errors for Budgets that haven’t been imported.

Helpful Tips and Notes

When importing Budgets via CSV the accounts can be brought in using the names, internal IDs, or External IDs, but cannot include accounts numbers, even if the Use Account Numbers preference is enabled.

If the User does not map a Budget Category during import, then the value will default to the first Budget Category in the list.

Note that if Budget data is not displayed in reports, then the Report by Period preference might be set to Never. If the Budget data in the user’s report display all zeros in the Budget Columns then the user should set the Report by Period preference to All Reports or to Financials Only under the Analytics subtab in Set Preferences.

Overview and Reporting

NetSuite provides the user with native Budget Reports such as Budget vs. Actual and the Budget Income Statement. These reports enable the user to analyze budgeted and actual project or customer financials to determine how closely their cost and billings compare to those they originally budgeted. To access these reports, navigate to Reports > Banking/Budgeting > Budget vs. Actual or Budget Income Statement. On these Reports the user can filter by period, dates, budget category, or subsidiary.

Sophia Minkoff