1. What This Report Is
The Yearly Budget Details — Month Wise report takes the budget you approved for the financial year and lays it out across the twelve months of that year, side by side with what has actually been spent.
Every line of every yearly budget document appears as one row. Reading across that row, you see the full twelve-month story of a single account: how much money was set aside for each month, how much of it has been committed, and how much has actually hit the books.
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In one sentence It shows, for each budgeted account, the plan and the reality for every month of the financial year — in a single row. |
The questions it answers
• Did we distribute the whole yearly budget into monthly allocations, or is some of it still unallocated?
• Which months are running ahead of their allocation, and by how much?
• Where has spending been committed but not yet recorded in the accounts?
• How much budget is left for the rest of the year on any given account?
• Which projects, cost centers, locations or regions are the pressure points?
Who uses it
|
Role |
What they use it for |
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Budget Controller |
Monitoring monthly burn against monthly allocation, and catching overruns early. |
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Finance / Accounts |
Reconciling what was committed against what was actually posted to the accounts. |
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Project Manager |
Checking the remaining budget on their project before raising new commitments. |
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Management / Review |
Year-to-date position by region, project category or cost center category. |
2. Terms Used in the Report
These five terms carry the whole report. Understanding the difference between the last three is the key to reading it correctly.
|
Term |
What it means |
|
Yearly Budget |
The approved budget document for the financial year. Each document is raised against one combination of Project, Cost Center and Location. |
|
Budget Line |
One account (Chart of Account) inside that budget document, carrying its approved amount. Each budget line becomes one row in the report. |
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Revision |
A later approved change to a budget — either to the yearly amount or to a monthly allocation. Revisions are always added on top of the original figure. |
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Taken (Allocation) |
THE PLAN. The part of the yearly budget that has been phased into a specific month. This is the monthly budget. |
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Consumption |
THE COMMITMENT. Budget that has been drawn down against an account in a month — money that is spoken for, whether or not it has been paid or posted yet. |
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Execution |
THE ACTUAL. The amount actually recorded in the accounts for that month. This is the accounting reality. |
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Why there are three numbers and not one Money moves through three stages: first it is allocated to a month (Taken), then it is committed against a requisition or order (Consumption), and finally it is recorded in the accounts (Execution). The report shows all three so you can see exactly where a gap has opened up — an unspent allocation, an unfulfilled commitment, or an overrun. |
How budget lines are matched to actual spending
The report links planned budget to actual spending using four things together:
• Project
• Cost Center
• Location
• Chart of Account
Consumption and execution are counted against a budget line only when all four match, and only when they fall inside the selected financial year. Project, Cost Center and Location come from the budget document header; the account comes from the individual budget line.
3. How the Report Is Laid Out
One row = one budget line — that is, one account within one yearly budget document. The columns fall into three groups, reading left to right.
Group 1 — Who and what (identification)
Columns that tell you which budget line you are looking at:
|
Column group |
Contains |
|
Financial Year |
Year name, start date and end date. |
|
Document |
Budget document number and document date. |
|
Project |
Project name, serial number and project category. |
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Cost Center |
Cost center name, serial number and cost center category. |
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Location & Geography |
Location name, plus the Region and Sub-Region it belongs to. |
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Account |
Chart of Account name, serial number and account type. |
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Status |
Approval status of the budget document (for example Draft or Approved). |
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Note on Region and Sub-Region These are not entered on the budget document. The system works them out automatically from the Project, Cost Center and Location on the document, so the report can be grouped geographically without anyone keying the region in. |
Group 2 — The year totals
Four figures summarising the whole financial year for that budget line:
|
Total |
Meaning |
|
Total Budget Amount |
The approved yearly budget for this account — the original amount plus every approved revision to date. |
|
Taken In Months |
How much of that yearly budget has been distributed into monthly allocations, including monthly revisions. |
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Total Consumption |
Everything committed against this account across the whole year. |
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Total Execution |
Everything actually recorded in the accounts for this account across the whole year. |
The gap between Total Budget Amount and Taken In Months is budget that has been approved for the year but not yet assigned to any month. In a fully planned year this gap should be zero.
Group 3 — The twelve months
Each month of the financial year, from July through to June, gets three columns:
|
Column |
Example |
Shows |
|
Month |
July |
The allocation — budget assigned to that month, including monthly revisions. |
|
Month_Consumed |
July_Consumed |
The commitment — budget drawn down against this account in that month. |
|
Month_Execution |
July_Execution |
The actual — the net amount recorded in the accounts in that month. |
That makes thirty-six month columns in total, running in financial year order: July, August, September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June.
Rows are presented in budget document order — by document date, then document number.
4. Narrowing the Report Down
The financial year must always be chosen. Everything else is optional — leave a filter blank and the report simply does not restrict on it.
|
Filter |
Effect |
|
Financial Year |
Required. Sets the twelve months shown and the period actual spending is counted from. |
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Project |
Only budget lines for the chosen project. |
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Project Category |
Only projects belonging to the chosen category. |
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Cost Center |
Only budget lines for the chosen cost center. |
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Cost Center Category |
Only cost centers belonging to the chosen category. |
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Location |
Only budget lines for the chosen location. |
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Region / Sub-Region |
Only budget lines whose derived geography matches. |
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Chart of Account |
Only the chosen account. |
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Account Type |
Only accounts of the chosen type. |
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Status |
Only budget documents at the chosen approval status. |
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Document Number |
A single budget document. |
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Filters apply to the actual spending too When you filter by Project, Cost Center, Location or Chart of Account, the consumption and execution figures are narrowed in the same way. The monthly numbers you see always belong to the same slice of the business as the budget lines shown. |
5. Reading the Report — A Worked Example
Take one row of the report. It represents the Fuel & Lubricants account on the Northern Highway project, Civil Works cost center, Lahore location, for the financial year 2025–26.
The year totals on that row
|
Total |
Amount |
What it tells you |
|
Total Budget Amount |
12,000,000 |
Approved for the year, after revisions. |
|
Taken In Months |
11,000,000 |
1,000,000 is still unallocated to any month. |
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Total Consumption |
6,400,000 |
Committed so far. |
|
Total Execution |
5,900,000 |
Actually posted so far. 500,000 committed but not yet in the books. |
The first six months of that same row
|
Month |
Allocated |
Consumed |
Executed |
Position |
|
July |
1,000,000 |
950,000 |
950,000 |
On track |
|
August |
1,000,000 |
1,250,000 |
1,180,000 |
Over by 250,000 |
|
September |
1,000,000 |
600,000 |
600,000 |
Underspent |
|
October |
1,000,000 |
1,100,000 |
900,000 |
Over-committed |
|
November |
1,000,000 |
1,000,000 |
1,000,000 |
On track |
|
December |
1,000,000 |
1,500,000 |
1,270,000 |
Over by 500,000 |
What a reviewer takes from this
1. August, October and December committed more than their monthly allocation. Either the phasing was wrong or spending is running ahead of plan — both need explaining.
2. In October and December, commitments are noticeably higher than what was posted. That is spend that is coming, but has not landed in the accounts yet, so the true position is worse than the accounting figures suggest.
3. September was underspent, which partly offsets the overruns — but only if that money can be re-phased to later months.
4. 1,000,000 of the yearly budget has never been assigned to a month. It is available on paper, and it is the first place to look when re-phasing.
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The three numbers to compare Allocated vs Consumed tells you whether the plan is holding. Consumed vs Executed tells you how much committed spend is still to appear in the accounts. Total Budget vs Taken In Months tells you whether the year has been fully planned. |
Useful comparisons
|
Comparison |
What it reveals |
|
Total Budget − Taken In Months |
Budget approved for the year but not yet phased into any month. |
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Total Budget − Total Execution |
Spending capacity still remaining for the rest of the year. |
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Total Consumption − Total Execution |
Committed spend still waiting to be recorded in the accounts. |
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Month_Execution − Month |
How far a month overran its allocation. |
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Month_Consumed ÷ Month |
The burn rate against that month's allocation. |
6. Business Rules Built Into the Report
These rules explain why the numbers behave the way they do.
All twelve months always appear
A month is shown even if nobody prepared a monthly budget for it. If money was consumed or posted in a month with no allocation, it still shows up — it is not hidden. A month with no activity at all shows zero rather than a blank.
Revisions are added on top
Every approved revision, yearly or monthly, is added to the original figure. A revision that reduces a budget must therefore be entered as a negative amount, otherwise it will increase the budget instead of reducing it.
Income and expense are combined
A budget line carries an income amount and an expense amount, and the report adds them together into a single figure. This assumes each account is used for one or the other, not both. If both are filled in on the same line, the two amounts will inflate each other rather than offset.
Execution follows accounting sign
Execution is the net accounting movement for the month. Expense accounts therefore show a positive figure, while income accounts show a negative one. Compare execution against budget directly on expense accounts; on income accounts, read the sign before drawing a conclusion.
Spending is dated by the period it belongs to
Where an accounting entry is tagged to a specific budget period, the report places it in that period. Where it is not, the report uses the date the entry was issued. This means a back-dated entry appears in the month it was dated, not the month it was keyed in — which explains why a month you thought was closed can still move.
Draft budgets are included unless you exclude them
The report does not automatically restrict itself to approved documents. If you only want approved budgets, set the Status filter.
Cancelled records are excluded
Anything marked as deleted in the system — budgets, revisions, consumption entries or accounting entries — is left out of the report.
7. Points to Watch When Reviewing
A few situations can make the figures read differently from what you might expect. None of them are errors in your data — they are consequences of how the report is put together, and they are worth knowing before you raise a query.
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Situation |
What to expect |
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The same Project, Cost Center, Location and account are budgeted on two different documents |
Both rows show the FULL consumption and execution for that combination. Adding the monthly or total columns down the page would count that spending twice. Review such rows individually rather than totalling them. |
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A monthly budget document was cancelled after being prepared |
The month column drops the amount, but Taken In Months may still include it. If the twelve month columns do not add up to Taken In Months, this is usually why. |
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The same account appears twice on one budget document |
The two lines are shown as one combined row, and the monthly allocation figure is the combined figure for that account. Keep one line per account per document to avoid this. |
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An income account is being reviewed |
Execution appears as a negative number. This is correct — it reflects the accounting direction, not a data problem. |
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Consumption is much higher than execution on a month |
Commitments have been raised but the corresponding accounting entries have not been posted yet. Treat consumption as the more forward-looking figure. |
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A month shows spending but no allocation |
Spending occurred in a month that was never budgeted. This is deliberately visible rather than hidden, and normally needs re-phasing. |