Working with tracked budgets

You can import additional budgets created within either Xero or QuickBooks Online using our new budget options. This means that you can now report on budgets by Xero tracking categories, or QuickBooks classes, as well as on the overall budget for the organisation.

Note: This option is only available when working with Xero or QuickBooks Online data, and is not available in Spotlight Forecasting.

To import additional budgets

  1. Open the Import tab, and click the Xero or QuickBooks data source.
  2. If required, or if you haven’t already imported the required actuals data, select the Actuals check box and enter the date range needed, then select the Include Tracking Actuals check box.
  3. Select the Budget check box and enter the date range needed.
  4. Select the Include Tracking Budgets check box.

    Note: You do not need to select specific tracking categories to import. You will be able to choose which tracking categories you want to see on your report later.
Import New2
  1. Click Import.

To assign budgets to tracking categories or classes

  1. Open the Customise Data tab, and ensure that the Tracking Settings panel is visible on the right-hand side. If this isn’t visible, to open it click the Show Tracking Settings button.

Tracked Budgets Show Tracking copy

  1. Select the individual tracking categories or classes for which you want to assign budgets. Alternatively, if you want to assign budgets to all tracking categories or classes, click the check box alongside the tracking category or class name.
  2. For each tracking category or class, choose the budget you want to assign from the drop-down list.
  3. If you prefer, once you’ve finished assigning the budgets, you can close the tracking settings panel. To do this, click Hide Tracking Settings.


Once you’ve assigned your budgets to the relevant tracking categories, you can begin to use them on your reports. For information about this, please refer to our Help Centre article on how to select and filter based on imported tracking data.

Do you have a question about tracked budgets? Take a look at our common questions article.

Still need help?
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