QuickBooks Online Budget vs Actual: Setup, Reports, Variances and Limits

Everything about Budget vs Actual in QuickBooks Online in one place: how to set it up, how to run and read it, why the numbers sometimes look wrong, how to explain a variance, and where the built-in report runs out.

Budget vs Actual is the report most owners and finance leads want from their books and the one that causes the most questions. This guide follows the order you'll meet the problems in, with a link to the detailed post for each step.

1. What QuickBooks Online gives you

QuickBooks Online lets you create a budget on the Plus and Advanced plans and compare it with actuals in the Budget vs. Actuals report. The budget is built account by account, by month, and the report lines it up with your Profit and Loss for the period you pick. That covers a simple case well: one budget, a single period, budget lines that are the same accounts you book to.

2. Set it up

The setup decisions that matter most are made before you type a number: how the budget is split across months, whether it follows your chart of accounts or your management categories, and whether you need it by class or location.

• How to set up Budget vs Actual without rebuilding your budget, for getting a budget in that follows how you actually run the business.
• Why budget-to-actual mapping matters, for when budget categories and accounts don't line up one-to-one.
• How to set up a budget by class and report on it, for class and location budgets.

3. Run and read the report

Run the report with a Custom date range and confirm the budget column covers the same months as the actual column. For comparisons across periods, see month, YTD and last year in one view. If you want the whole year's budget beside year-to-date actuals, that's a separate question, covered in Budget vs Actuals showing the full-year budget.

4. When the numbers look wrong

Most mismatches have a short list of causes. Check them in order before you rebuild anything:

• The budget column shows a full year: four causes and the fixes.
• The actuals don't match your Profit and Loss: six things to check.
• Spending is parked in holding accounts: clean up Ask My Accountant and Uncategorized Expense, then run the pre-close checks before you close the month.

5. Explain the variances

A report that shows a variance isn't an explanation. Pick the variances worth chasing with the formulas, thresholds and commentary examples, find what's behind them with the transactions behind a variance, and use flux analysis for movement against last month or last year.

6. Know where the built-in report stops

QuickBooks Online budgeting is built around one budget, one period and one set of columns. The common complaints, from account-by-account budgets to no forecast beside the budget, are collected in five budgeting limitations and what to do instead. If you're deciding whether the built-in report is enough, the five-question guide to choosing a reporting tool says plainly when it is.

Watch the walkthroughs

Four short videos on the DrillFi YouTube channel, each paired with a post above:

• Full-year budget showing in Budget vs Actuals (1:20)
• Month, YTD and last year in one view (1:07)
• The transactions behind a variance (1:13)
• Finding duplicate bills and invoices (1:08)

Which post do you need?

Frequently asked questions

How do I run Budget vs Actual in QuickBooks Online?

Open the Reports menu and run Budget vs. Actuals, pick the budget and a date range, then check that the budget column covers only the months you chose. Budgeting is available on Plus and Advanced plans, not every QuickBooks Online plan.

Why doesn't Budget vs Actual match my Profit and Loss?

The budget follows your budget's accounts and the actuals follow the Profit and Loss, so a different date range, accounting basis, an account with no budget line or a changed account structure can each make them disagree. Check those first.

Can QuickBooks Online show month, year to date and last year together?

Not in one standard Budget vs Actuals report. The usual workarounds are running the report more than once or showing months as columns, and a reporting tool built for it can show them together.

How do I explain a budget variance?

Start with the lines with the largest dollar variances, find the transactions behind them, and write one sentence on cause, whether it's timing or permanent, and what happens next.

Is QuickBooks Online's built-in budgeting enough?

For one budget, one period and budget lines that match your chart of accounts, often yes. It gets harder with budget categories that differ from your accounts, budgets by class, or side-by-side periods and last year.

QuickBooks menus, report behavior and plan features change over time, and this guide describes them as of its publish date. Check each step against your version. Intuit and QuickBooks are registered trademarks of Intuit Inc. Used with permission. DrillFi is not affiliated with or endorsed by Intuit.