Budget groups

Like Budget Headings, Budget Groups can be used to organise the Budget Accounts. They can help you find and sort your budget accounts, and let you group related accounts for calculations and automated reports. Budget groups are typically used for top-level grouping to generate total income, expenditure and balances. Because they are independent of budget headings, you can use them to associate budget accounts from different budget headings.

For example, a school's SEN costs may be recorded in accounts under different budget headings such as Teaching Staff, Non-Teaching Staff and Department Costs. To monitor the overall SEN costs, you can create a Budget Group for SEN.

From the Records menu you can access the Budget records area; on the Budget groups tab you can:

• Find and view budget groups
• Create a budget group
• Edit a budget group
• Delete a budget group

To find and view budget groups

1. From the Records menu choose Budget records and click the Budget groups tab.
   The  available Budget Groups are listed in the left pane.
   
2. To find the budget group you want, scroll through the list, or enter all or part of its Code or Description in the Quick search box and click Search.
   If you enter at least two characters, Arbor Finance will auto search after a second or two.
   For a more precise search, including by Code type, you can also use the Advanced option.
3. Click on the budget group to select it.
   Information for this budget group is displayed in the right pane.

To create a budget group

1. On the Budget groups tab of the Budget records window, click Add.
2. Enter a suitable Group Code. This must be unique.
3. Choose the appropriate Code Type (Income or Expenditure) from the drop-down list.
4. Enter a Description for this budget group.
5. Click Save (or Cancel).

To edit a budget group

1. On the Budget groups tab of the Budget records window, from the Budget Groups list select the one you want and click Edit.
   Editable fields are shown in green type.
2. Make any changes you require to the Group Code, Code Type and Description fields.
3. Clive Save (or Cancel).

To delete a budget group

1. On the Budget groups tab of the Budget records window, from the Budget Groups list select the one to delete.
2. Click Delete and then Yes to confirm.