GL Budgets
Purpose
This document outlines how to utilize the GL Budgets within COSTAR to upload a budget to each General Ledger within your Chart of Accounts for the specified fiscal years.
Budgets
The "Budgets" Program provides you with the ability to enter your Budget Figures into the G/L,
using Microsoft's Excel Spreadsheet Program.
To enter your Budget Figures, click on Financials from the Main Menu, click on G/L Maintenance
and then the "Budgets" Tab.
Note: Users on multi-server terminal server setups or other such large server environments may
not always have permission to save files to secure folder locations. Users may export the figures but
once you modify the file, you cannot resave it in the same folder because of these user
permissions. Therefore, a path may be designated, which is accessible (visible for all users) in
Settings, Settings, Path Tab, BudgetExportPath. The designated path is used for both Import and
Export functions.
To the right of the "Export GL's into Excel Spreadsheet" button, locate the "from fiscal year that
begins in:". Click on the pull-down arrow and pick the year from the list, which identifies the G/L
Budget figures you would like exported. If you have no Budget figures, then the spreadsheet will
be blank.
Note: The date selection provides functionality such as the ability to import the Previous Year's
"Budget" figures, make modifications and import it back into the Current Year's Budget.
Click on the "Export GL's into Excel Spreadsheet" button.
An Excel Spreadsheet appears, on screen. The spreadsheet has your GL Account Numbers,
Descriptions and 12 empty columns for entry of "new" Monthly Budget Figures or contains figures
from a previous Budget selected for modification. Column "C" is intended to be the Budget Figure
for "Fiscal Month 1".
Note: If you previously created a spreadsheet the following message will appear, "Excel file
already exists at C: \ Program Files \ Costar \ Client \ Budgets.xls". Overwrite? You may overwrite
the existing file or say "No" and go investigate the existing spreadsheet.
You may work on the Spreadsheet immediately or over a period.
When you exit/save the Excel Spreadsheet, a window will appear and provide you with the
location of the file.
Note: You may also use the Excel's "copy/cut and paste" commands to move Budget figures
from another spreadsheet file to the Costar Budget Spreadsheet.
Sample Spreadsheet entries above, have been made into Account 12000 to show visually how the
spreadsheet entry looks in the GL display, the next picture below.
WARNING: Do not change the File Name "Budget.xls". The "Import" function looks for this
specific file name.
WARNING: Do not change the GL structure while you are working on a Budget Spreadsheet. This
may cause problems when you Import the Budget information back into COSTAR. Make changes
to the GL Structure in the GL Maintenance Program and re-export the GL's to the spreadsheet.
When your Budgets Entry is complete, return to the Budgets Tab and to the right of the
"Import Budgets" button, locate the "into fiscal year that begins in:" Click on the pull-down arrow
and pick the year, from the list, which identifies the year you would like the Budget figures
imported into.
A "Finished Updating (GL Summaries)" message will appear when the Import procedure is
completed.
To verify the results, click on the GL Maintenance Tab and at the Account #, enter in a GL Number
for which you entered Budget Figures. View your Budget Figures in either the Current Year or
Previous Year Budget columns.
The Current year Budget figures match up with the GL 12000 figures in the previous spread sheet
example.
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