Step 1: Review the fiscal year for your business

Make sure the beginning of your fiscal year is correct in QuickBooks. You can create a budget any time, but it helps if you start at the beginning of the fiscal year.

1. Go to Settings ⚙ and select Account and settings.
2. Select the Advanced tab.
3. In the Accounting section, review the First month of fiscal year field. If it’s incorrect, select Edit ✎.
4. Select the required month from the ▼ dropdown and select Save.

Step 2: Get your budget data

If you already have the data you want to use for your budget, you can skip this step. If not, you can base your budget on data from either the current fiscal year or the previous year. If you plan to use historical data, run a Profit and Loss Detail report to make sure transactions and accounts look correct.

1. Go to Business overview and select Reports (Take me there).
2. Find and select the Profit and Loss Detail report.
3. From the Report Period ▼ dropdown, select a timeframe. For example: 
   • If you want to use data from the previous year, select Last Year.
   • If you want to use data from your current fiscal year, select This Year-to-date.
4. Make sure the beginning and end of the year match your fiscal year. 
5. Select Run report.
6. If you don’t want to reopen the report again, select the print or export icon to print or download a copy of the report.

Use this info as a guide to create your budget.

Step 3: Create a new budget

To create a budget, you can either make a new one or copy an existing one. If this is your first budget, start here and we'll show you how to copy a budget after you’ve added your first budget.

Note: QuickBooks Online creates the budget accounts list directly from your chart of accounts. If you need more accounts in your budget, add them to your chart of accounts before you create the budget.

1. Go to Settings ⚙ and select Budgeting.
2. Select Add budget. 
3. In the Name field, enter a name for the budget.
4. From the Fiscal Year ▼ dropdown, select the fiscal year you’re creating the budget for. 
5. From the Interval ▼ dropdown, select whether you want the budget to display Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly. 
6. Select the actual date year from the Pre-fill data? ▼ dropdown if you’d like QuickBooks to prefill your budget with actual data from your chart of accounts.
   Note: if you use the pre-fill data and you change your mind, you’ll have to start over to delete the data. Select the X to close the budget and start over. 
7. Use the Subdivide by ▼ dropdown to subdivide the budget further. 
8. When you’re ready, select Create Budget. 
9. Enter your budget for each account for each month. Use the report you saved in Step 2 if needed. 
10. When you’re satisfied with your budget, select Save and close.

Copy an existing budget

Instead of starting from scratch, you can create a copy of an existing budget. This jumpstarts your new budget by using last year's data. Here’s how to copy a budget:

1. Select Settings ⚙️ and then Budgeting.
2. Find the budget you want to copy.
3. In the Action column, select the ▼ dropdown, and then select Copy.
4. On the Copy Budget screen, enter the new budget name and fiscal year.
5. Select Create Budget.
6. Update the budget amounts as necessary.
7. Select Save or Save and close.

This saves the copy as a new, separate budget.