Spread Methods provides a way to allocate a total budget expense by AccountNum into each budget month. There are three options:
A) The Manual Spread Method
Enter the required amounts by typing them in manually. In the below example, $50, was budgeted in Jan, Apr and May for AccountNum 000-4111-02. Please note that the Copy and Paste feature is available.
B) The Preset Spread Method
The process to setup and manage these Spread Methods is discussed in Manage Spread Methods.
There are a number of areas in the program that provides this standard Spread Method feature, including the Import Budget Assumptions and Basic Budget Entry. The Basic Budget Entry screen is demonstrated below.
1) Ensure that the "Show Spread Columns" and "Show Period Columns" boxes are checked;
2) Enter the amount you wish to spread, in this example $10,000;
3) From the pulldown menu select the Spread Method you wish to use. In this example, "July Event" was selected.
4) Click into the "Jan" box to activate the Spread calculation. As highlighted in yellow the budget was spread into June, July and August which is how the spread was setup in Manage Spread Methods. Please note that the total is also $10,000.
C) Using Prior Year Budget and Actuals to Spread Data
Provided the "In Summary" box is checked for any given BudgetID on the Manage Budgets screen, the current budget can be spread according to the spread of the selected BudgetID.
For example, we wish to spread this year's depreciation expense of $10,000 in the same way that actuals were realized in 2013.
1) In addition to selecting the BudgetID etc, select the Object, in this case 6230-00;
2) Then essentially follow the instructions in B) above by entering the Amount; and
3) Entering the SpreadMethod, and tabbing over to activate the calculation.
The result is that all the $10,000 was spread into January.
The reason all the $10,000 was spread into January is that this is the timing of the actuals in 2013, namely the total expense for the year occurred in January. Please see below:
