Budgets are essential in making your chapter successful. Without a budget, you could find your chapter lacking funds, making it difficult to maintain housing needs, social events, fundraisers, and connections.
How to set up a budget:
1. To set up your budget, click Budgetsin the left sidebar, and click on then, Click on the GO link on the Create and Manage Budget.
2. Here you’ll see your chapter’s previous budgets. If you are setting up a budget for the first time, there will be nothing listed. We are setting a new one, so click the Create New Budget button.
3. We recommend naming your budget with the school year you are creating the budget for.
- Select the budget term
- Since this is a new budget, the approval status is automatically set to new
- Make any comments related to the budget
4. You can always save and close the budget builder and continue later. Otherwise, Save and Continue.
5. The second of 4 pages contains your Income Budget Details. You will see your chapter’s income sub-accounts along with the income amount. Your income usually consists of money collected from member dues, housing payments, or social event fees.
6. Sub-accounts with incomes will group together with their income amount and give you a subtotal for each group.
7. The third page has your Expense Budget Details. Expenses are what you spend. Typical expenses include rent, insurance, dining costs, national organization dues, and special events hosted by your chapter.
8. Each sub-account amount will add up to the total overarching account.
9. Your goal for creating an effective budget is to “operate within your means” and never have more expenses than your chapter’s income. You should never be spending more money than what you are going to get.
10. Throughout the year as you collect the payments from members, you can review various reporting such as the profit/loss report vs budget report to keep track of your budget.