--- title: "Manage budget" description: "How to set up and manage account budgets per period in Sapera — including inline editing of sub-period amounts, copying from a previous period, and viewing a budget summary with actual amounts, index, and profit margin %." url: https://support.sapera.io/en/articles/56-manage-budget collection: "Actions (chart of accounts)" updated: 2026-06-11 language: en alternates: [da] --- # Manage budget How to set up and manage account budgets per period in Sapera — including inline editing of sub-period amounts, copying from a previous period, and viewing a budget summary with actual amounts, index, and profit margin %. ## Access In Financial you find the Chart of accounts under the accounting menu. Select a general ledger account in the list — not a grouping account. When a general ledger account is selected, two buttons appear in the toolbar: **Manage budget** opens the dialog for setting up budget amounts for the period. **Budget** opens the summary dialog with an overview of actual amounts, budget amounts, and key figures for the selected period. If you cannot see the buttons, the general ledger account is probably not selected, or you have selected a grouping account. If you cannot see the menu item, you probably do not have permission for it. Contact support. ## Manage budget — setting up the account budget The dialog title shows the account number and account name, e.g. "General ledger account 1000 Manage budget". The dialog has no Save button — amount changes are saved instantly in the grid, cell by cell, as soon as you leave a cell. ### Org. unit and period selection **Org. unit** is a required dropdown field at the top of the dialog. It controls which budget data is shown. When you change the organisational unit, the grid is reloaded automatically. The dialog opens by default with the current period. You can switch period with the context buttons: **Previous period** loads budget data for the previous period. The button is only active when a previous period exists. **Next period** loads budget data for the next period. The button is only active when a subsequent period exists. ### The budget grid The dialog is divided into two columns: The left column is titled **Current period budget entries** and shows the period interval (e.g. "01-01-2024 - 31-12-2024"). This is where you edit the budget amounts. The grid contains one row per sub-period in the current period — the granularity of the sub-periods (months, weeks, or days) depends on the period setup. The right column is titled **Previous period actual amounts** and shows the period interval for the previous period. The column is read-only and cannot be edited. The amounts here are actual (not budget) amounts, and allow you to compare the current budget plan with historical performance. If the text **Data for the previous period is not available** is shown, there is no previous period to display. ### Description of fields in the budget grid **Period:** The name of the sub-period, e.g. "January 2024" or "Week 1". The number of rows corresponds to the number of sub-periods in the period. **Amount:** The budget amount for the sub-period. In the left (current) column the field is editable — zero and negative numbers are allowed. In the right (history) column the field is read-only. ### Fill actions **Copy from previous period** is only active when a previous period exists. The action opens a confirmation dialog with the field **Increase (%)**, which is optional. Enter a percentage increase to raise the amounts, or leave the field blank for a direct copy. Confirming copies the actual amounts from the previous period to the current period's budget grid. **Fill with amount** is always active. The action opens a dialog with the field **Amount**. The entered amount is inserted into all sub-periods in the current period at once. **Close** closes the dialog without any further action — any changes have already been saved continuously. See [How to search in lists](https://support.sapera.io/en/articles/545-sadan-soger-du-i-lister.md) for more on searching and filtering. ## Budget — summary and key figures The dialog title shows the account number and account name, e.g. "General ledger account 1000 Budget". The summary dialog has neither a Save button nor editable fields — everything is read-only. ### Org. unit and Date **Org. unit** is a required dropdown field. Changing the organisational unit reloads the summary automatically. **Date** is a required date field. The date is used to determine which period and sub-period is current. Changing the date reloads the summary automatically. ### Period overview The dialog shows four information fields at the top: **Current period** shows the period name or interval for the period found based on the selected date. **Current sub-period** shows the name of the sub-period within the current period. **Previous period** shows the period name or interval for the previous period. **Previous sub-period** shows the corresponding sub-period in the previous period. ### Description of fields in the summary rows The summary contains one or more rows with key figures. Each field is read-only. **Actual amount:** The amount actually posted for the current sub-period. **Budget:** The budgeted amount for the current sub-period. **Index, %:** The ratio between the actual amount and the budget expressed as a percentage. **Profit margin %:** Profit margin as a percentage. The field is only shown when profit margin is relevant for the account in question. **Previous interval actual amount:** The amount actually posted for the corresponding sub-period in the previous period. ### Error message about period division If the message **The previous period has a different division than the current one. Comparison cannot be made** is shown, it means that the previous period and the current period are divided differently (e.g. months vs. weeks). Comparison at the sub-period level is not possible in this case. **Close** closes the summary dialog. \--- If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact support. * * * **Want to know more?** Read more in these related articles: [ Revenue budget Setting for the revenue budget in Sapera POS, including whether invoiced orders should be counted in the realised revenue. ](https://support.sapera.io/en/articles/13.md)[ Revenue detailed Detailed revenue report per item for a selected date interval, with sales figures, revenue, contribution margin, and profit margin. ](https://support.sapera.io/en/articles/212.md)