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A
arkvalleyinfo
January 21, 2019
Question

Why do the figures in the Budget vs. report show as a negative when you drill down on the totals? Is this supposed to be this way?

  • January 21, 2019
  • 1 reply
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Original commenter did not share additional details

1 reply

M
MirriamM
January 21, 2019

It's good to see you here with us, pbailey,

 

Let me help share information on how Budget vs. Actual report works in QuickBooks Online.

 

The Budget vs. Actual report is your reality check for how close you are to your goals. Sometimes actual is over the budgeted amount, and sometimes it is under.

 

If actual revenues are less than the budgeted revenues, the variance (or difference) will be shown as a negative amount. The reason is that having less revenues than planned is not good.

 

On the other hand, if actual expenses are less than the budgeted amount of expenses, the variance will be shown as a positive amount. The reason is that fewer actual expenses than budgeted is favorable (or good, positive).

 

If there's anything else you need help with, please feel free to reach back out. I'd be happy to further assist.

K
Karrteam
January 21, 2020

Miriam,

 

I read your response to Pbailey and that made sense to me.  When I run my P&L with budget comparison, if my spending is less than what is budgeted in the "$ over budget" column, the amount shows up as a negative.  That looks to me like it's bad and I'm over.  In reality, I've spent less than I've budgeted which is good.

 

It seems to me, what is showing up in my report is opposite of what you said.  Can I fix that somehow?  

IamjuViel
IamjuViel
January 21, 2020

Let me share additional information, @Karrteam.

 

The data on the Actual column depends on the data you entered in QuickBooks. Also, the comparison of data depends on the filter that you set when running the Budget vs. Actual report.

 

Ideally, the calculation would be Actual - Budget.  If you choose to compare your Actual transactions vs the Budget and you want to show the remaining amount, here's how it will look like:

  • If your budget is higher than the actual income, the Remaining column will display a positive amount. However, if the Actual Income is higher than the Budget, it will display a negative amount.

On the other hand, if you choose to compare and display the over budget, it will look like this:

  • If the budget is higher than the actual income, the Over budget column will display a negative amount. However, if the Actual Income is higher than the Budget, it will display a positive amount.

Leave your comments below if you have other questions managing your income and expense transactions. I'm always here to help.

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