Budgeting

Overview

Axiomatic's budgeting module lets you define spending and revenue targets for each account across fiscal periods, then compare those targets against actual ledger results. Budgets are scoped to a single entity and book.

Creating a Budget Version

A budget version is a named container for a set of account-level budget lines. To create one:

1. Navigate to Budgets and click New Budget
2. Enter a name (e.g. "FY2026 Operating Budget")
3. Select the fiscal year and the book the budget applies to
4. Optionally add notes for context
5. Click Create

The new budget starts in Draft status. You can edit budget lines only while the version is in Draft.

Using the Grid Editor

The budget editor displays a spreadsheet-style grid with accounts on the rows and accounting periods on the columns.

• Click any cell to enter a budget amount for that account-period combination
• Changes save automatically when you leave the cell
• Row totals show the sum across all periods for each account
• Column totals show the sum across all accounts for each period
• Grand total is displayed in the bottom-right corner

Dimension Filters

You can filter the grid by dimension values (e.g. a specific department or project). When a dimension filter is applied, budget lines are stored with a dimensionFilter tag so you can set different targets for the same account broken out by department, project, or any custom dimension.

Approving and Archiving

Budget versions follow a three-stage lifecycle:

To approve a draft budget, open it and click Approve. This records the approving user and timestamp. To archive an approved budget, click Archive.

Only draft budgets can be deleted.

Copying Budgets from Prior Years

To seed a new budget from an existing one:

1. Click Copy Budget from the budgets list
2. Select the source budget to copy from
3. Enter a new name and fiscal year
4. Click Create

All budget lines from the source version are duplicated into the new version, which starts in Draft status so you can adjust amounts as needed.

Budget vs. Actual Variance Analysis

The variance page compares your budgeted amounts to actual ledger balances for a given date range.

1. Open a budget and click Variance
2. Set the from and to dates for the actual results
3. Optionally enable Group by dimension to break down results by a dimension

The variance table shows:

Favorable and unfavorable variances are color-coded: for revenue accounts, higher actuals are favorable; for expense accounts, lower actuals are favorable.

Summary cards at the top display Total Budget, Total Actual, and Net Variance.

You can export the variance table to CSV.

API Reference

See the Budgets API Reference for endpoint details.