---
key: create-a-budget
title: Create a budget and compare it to actuals
audience: staff
section: bookkeeping
routes: ["/bookkeeping/budgets", "/bookkeeping/budgets/new"]
permissions: ["bookkeeping.budgets.read"]
features: ["bookkeeping"]
since: 0.0.1
updated: 0.0.1
status: published
summary: "Set a target for each income and expense account over a period, then open the budget to see actual spending, the variance and the percent used."
keywords: [budget, targets, spending plan, budget vs actual, variance, forecast, overspend, annual plan]
related: [run-a-financial-report, add-a-ledger-account, categorize-bank-transactions]
---

In the sidebar, open **Bookkeeping**, then **Accounting**, then **Budgets**. The page address is `/bookkeeping/budgets`. A new budget opens at `/bookkeeping/budgets/new`.

## Before you start

- Run last year's **Profit & Loss** first so you have real numbers to plan from; see [[run-a-financial-report]].
- Your role needs permission to create budgets. Editing, archiving and restoring each need their own permission.

## Steps

1. Press **New budget**. The **New budget** window opens with one line.
2. Type a **Name**, for example 2026 Plan.
3. Set **Period start** and **Period end**, usually your fiscal year.
4. On each line, pick the income or expense **Account** and type the target amount for the whole period as a positive number, for both income and expenses. Press **+ line** to add another account and **Remove** to drop one. If you pick the same account twice, the last amount wins.
5. Press **Create budget**. Nova shows **Budget created.** and the budget appears in the list with the status active.

## What you see

- The list shows each budget's **Name**, **Period** and **Status**.
- Click a row, or choose **Budget vs actual** from its actions menu, to open the comparison. For each account it shows **Budget**, **Actual** posted so far in the period, the **Variance** and **% of budget** used. Variance is positive and green when you are doing better than plan (under budget on an expense, over plan on income) and red when worse.
- The **Total** row adds income and expense targets together, so its variance is not a profit figure; read the account rows instead.
- Actuals come from everything posted to those accounts in the period, counted when invoiced or billed: categorized bank lines, expenses, invoices and journal entries.

## If something looks different

- **New budget** is missing: your role cannot create budgets.
- **Create budget** stays greyed out: the name, a start date, an end date, or at least one line with an account and an amount is missing.
- Targets need changing: choose **Edit** from the actions menu, adjust the amounts and press **Save changes**. Nova shows **Budget updated.** Only an active budget can be edited. The **Account** boxes in the **Edit budget** window look empty, but each line keeps its account unless you pick a new one.
- The year is over: choose **Archive**. You can add a reason, then press **Archive budget**. The budget and its comparison stay available for reference. Choose **Restore** to bring it back to the active list; that happens straight away.
- **Filters** narrows the list by **Status** to **Active** or **Archived**.

[[route:/bookkeeping/budgets/new|New budget]]