The Budget Import/Export utility is a useful tool for quickly entering your budget. This tool will allow you to export a spreadsheet of all your Income, Expense and Dedicated accounts for the purposes of entering your budget on the spreadsheet, and then, you can use that same spreadsheet to import your budget back in to Shepherd's Staff. You can even use this tool to plan ahead, and create the budget for your upcoming fiscal year.
Export:
- To access the Budget Import & Export screen, click on the "Plan/Analyze" tab, and then click on "Budget Import / Export".
- Make sure the "Export" button is selected in the "Import/Export" section by clicking on it.
- Choose the Fiscal year you're wanting to export your budget for in the "Fiscal year" field.
- If you want to include inactive accounts in your export, make sure the "Include inactive accounts" box is checked.
- In the "Prefill budget columns with:" field, select what information you want filled in on your exported spreadsheet. Options include:
- Current fiscal year's budget - This option will automatically fill in the budget from the year selected in the "Fiscal year' field.
- Equal monthly amounts - This option will make a "Monthly amount" field appear. The amount you fill in on this field will be applied to each month on each account on your exported spreadsheet
- Equal yearly amounts - This option will make a "Yearly amount" field appear. The amount you fill into this field will be filled in for the yearly amount for each account on your exported spreadsheet
- Multiply prior year's actuals by % - This will look at the year before the year you selected in the "Fiscal year" field, and apply its actuals for each account, multiplied by the percentage you entered in the "%" field.
- Multiply prior year's budget by % - This will look at the year before the year you selected in the "Fiscal year" field, and apply its budget for each account, multiplied by the percentage you entered in the "%" field.
- You can select the book/fund you're exporting the budget for in the "Book" field.
- The "Account" field will let you choose what account types you'll be exporting to your spreadsheet.
- If you want to only export accounts for a specific Responsibility or Church Body code, you can check off only the codes you want in the Responsibility or Church Body code boxes.
- Click the "Export" button to export your spreadsheet to your spreadsheet program.
Import:
After you have exported your budget spreadsheet, you'll enter the monthly amounts for each account, and then save your exported file as a .xls (not .xlsx). Then, you can import this file back into Shepherd's Staff to bring in your budgets, using the following steps:
- To access the Budget Import & Export screen, click on the "Plan/Analyze" tab, and then click on "Budget Import / Export".
- Make sure the "Import" button is selected in the "Import/Export" section by clicking on it.
- If you want to override any non-zero budget figures that have already entered in Shepherd's Staff, check the "Override existing budget amounts box".
- Select the Fiscal year you're importing budgets for in the "Fiscal year" field.
- Select which book you are importing budgets for in the "Book" field.
- Click the "Import" button. A file explorer window will appear, and you will then find and select your spreadsheet file you're importing.