Create a budget and a goal

Purpose

Create a budget when you know which funds (and optionally which campus) should share one giving story. Add a goal when you want monthly actuals compared to a plan — for staff, an elder board, or a finance committee.

Do the grouping first. A goal on a messy mix of restricted and operating funds is hard to explain later.

How to

Create a budget (collection of funds)

1. Open Budgets in the left sidebar (/budgets  ).
2. Click the purple + (top right of the Budgets heading). You can also click + Add New Budget on Dashboards > Budgets.
3. Name it for humans (“General”, “Missions”, “Downtown campus operating”), not for the chart of accounts.
4. Apply a fund filter so only the intended funds are included. Leave restricted funds out of operating unless you truly want them in the same donor-status pool.
5. If you are multi-site and need campus-level donor development, apply a campus filter. Donations without a campus will sit unprocessed for that budget until a campus is set in Planning Center.
6. Save. Confirm totals look like the funds you meant — a sanity check against a known month in Planning Center Giving.

Set fiscal year vs calendar year

Confirmed on existing budgets: a Calendar Year tag, and a Settings item under SETTINGS in the budget left rail (plus a gear icon top right).

Create a goal

1. Open the budget (Budgets list, or the budget chip on Dashboards > Budgets).
2. In the budget’s left rail, under SETTINGS, click Goals. From the dashboard compare card you can also click Add Budget Amounts.
3. Add the yearly target and monthly amounts.
4. Open Compare (ANALYSIS > Compare). If no goal is stored, the page shows No budget goal defined. After amounts exist, you should see plan against actuals.