Budgets and Financial Reports

Budgets let your group plan the money for a section, a category, or one or more events, then track the real figures against that plan automatically. As leaders submit expense claims and your treasurer records transactions, every budget updates itself — no spreadsheet required.

Each budget line points one of two ways:

An income target is how you budget for subs, hall hire or fundraising. The two never share a total, and a summary at the top of the tab reports the net position — what your group plans to raise, less what it plans to spend.

Where to find budgets#

Open Finance in the sidebar and switch to the Budgets tab. Every budget your group has set up appears here, with a progress bar showing how much of each budget has been used.

Creating a budget#

You need treasurer access to create and edit budgets.

1. Open the Finance Actions dropdown (top right of the Accounting page).
2. Select Add Budget.
3. Fill in the details:

Choosing between a spending limit and an income target#

Both types accept income and expense transactions — the direction only decides which way each transaction moves the figure. That is what makes refunds and sponsorship come out right:

• Income against a spending limit reduces the spend. Sponsorship towards a camp is already handled this way, so you do not need a separate income target for it.
• An expense against an income target reduces the amount raised. A refund of fundraising money comes off the total.

So create an income target for money you are not offsetting against a particular cost — subs, hall hire, the summer fair. When you attribute a transaction, the budget list groups the two directions so you can see at a glance which way a line points; the opposite direction sits below its own heading and stays selectable.

Events and sections don't combine#

When you select one or more events, the section list hides — the budget is scoped to those events. If you want a section budget instead, leave the events list empty and pick sections.

How budgets appear on your events#

Once a budget is linked to an event, it shows up on that event's Finance tab. Leaders planning a camp can see at a glance how much budget is available, how much has been spent, and what's left — without needing to open the Accounting page separately.

If an event has several budgets linked to it, each shows its own progress bar and the page totals them at the top.

Tracking spend across multiple events#

When a budget covers more than one event, the Transactions panel for that budget includes a Spend by event breakdown. This shows how much of the total spend relates to each event — helpful for a summer programme where you want to see how costs split between the planning day and the main camp.

To open this, click any budget row in the Budgets table, then switch to the Transactions tab.

Reading the budgets table#

Each row in the Budgets table shows:

The two sets of statuses#

A spending limit and an income target never share a status word, because the same percentage means opposite things. Being at 110% of a camp budget is a problem; being at 110% of a fundraising target is a good year.

An income target never reads as over budget, and never raises the 80% or 100% overspend alerts.

Reading the totals#

Above the table, the totals are reported in three parts:

• Spending limits — budgeted, spent and remaining across every spending line.
• Income targets — target and raised across every income line.
• Net position — the one figure that combines the two: planned income less planned expense, giving a planned surplus or deficit, beside the same figure for actuals.

The totals cover the whole accounting period, not just the page you are looking at.

Alerts#

A spending limit warns you as it fills up: once at 80%, and again at 100%.

An income target cannot use those warnings — the problem with a target is money that has not arrived, and nothing happens when nothing happens. So it gets its own alert instead. Scoutworks checks each income target once a day and tells your group admins and treasurers when the time left has pulled well ahead of the money raised, in the closing stretch of the period. A target that is simply early in its year stays quiet.

Each alert is raised once per budget, so you are told, not nagged.

Financial reports#

All reports require treasurer access. Open Finance Actions to access:

What's next#

• Accounting and Bookkeeping — record transactions and reconcile your bank statements.
• Event Finances and Payments — manage costs and payments for a specific event.
• Submitting and Approving Expense Claims — how leaders claim expenses and treasurers approve them.