Budgets import and overlay

Import budgets from QBO or Xero and overlay budget vs actual columns on the income statement and balance sheet.

You can import budgets from QuickBooks Online or Xero and overlay them as budget vs actual columns on a company's income statement and balance sheet.

Overview

Budgets sync into Levelup through the same integration that imports your accounting data. Once a budget is available for a company, you can select it from the budget picker on the income statement or balance sheet to add a column for each budget alongside actuals, plus a variance column.

You can select up to five budgets at once. Budget overlay is only available in dollar-value mode — it is hidden when you switch the statement to common-size (percentage) mode.

Importing a budget

Budgets are pulled from your accounting integration during sync. You do not create budgets inside Levelup.

Create or update the budget in QuickBooks Online or Xero.
Open the company's dashboard in Levelup.
Click Sync on the income statement or balance sheet header to trigger a manual budget sync.
Wait for the sync to complete.

After the sync finishes, the budget appears in the budget picker on the statement controls.

To remove a budget you no longer want available, delete it on the source system or remove it from Levelup. Deleting a budget removes all of its budget lines and clears the company's budget cache. This action is not reversible from inside Levelup.

Viewing budget overlay on the income statement

Go to the company dashboard.
Open Business economics > Income statement.
Confirm the statement is set to dollar-value mode (toggle off common size if it is active).
Click the Budget picker in the table actions.
Select up to five budgets.

Expected result: the table appends one column per selected budget showing the budgeted amount for the current period, followed by a variance column for each budget. Variance is computed against the actuals total for the selected date range.

Budget totals on subtotal rows (Gross Profit, Operating Income, Net Income) are derived by summing the leaf-row budgets per category and applying the standard income statement formulas.

When at least one budget is selected, the income statement forces a single-period view. The compare-period date range is hidden and the comparison columns (compare-period value, dollar change, percent change) are removed from the table. To return to a comparison view, clear all budgets from the picker.

Viewing budget overlay on the balance sheet

Go to the company dashboard.
Open Business economics > Balance sheet.
Confirm the statement is set to dollar-value mode.
Click the Budget picker in the table actions.
Select up to five budgets.

Expected result: the table appends a column per selected budget plus a variance column. Variance direction respects account nature — for assets, a higher actual is favorable; for liabilities, a lower actual is favorable.

In comparison mode, selecting a budget drops the compare-period value, dollar change, and percent change columns from the balance sheet table. The budget column replaces the comparison.

In 12-month mode, all twelve actual columns remain visible and the budget column shows the total budgeted amount across the same 12-month window.

2-month and compare-period behavior

The income statement and balance sheet both use the same rule for compare-period columns when budget overlay is active:

Without budgets selected, the statement shows the current period and the compare-to period side by side, plus dollar and percent change columns.
With one or more budgets selected, the compare-to period is removed. The compare-to date selector is hidden, and the budget column takes the place of the comparison.

This applies regardless of the date range. If your current view is a 2-month range with a compare-to period, selecting a budget collapses the table to the current 2-month period plus budget columns only. Clearing the budget picker restores the compare-period columns.

Budget overlay is not applied in common-size mode. If you switch the statement to percentages while a budget is selected, the budget columns are hidden until you switch back to dollar values.

Permissions

Action	Member	Admin
View budgets and overlay	Yes	Yes
Trigger manual budget sync	No	Yes
Delete a budget	No	Yes

You also need read access to the company. Manual sync and delete actions require write access to the company.

Limitations

You can select a maximum of five budgets at one time on each statement.
Budgets must be created in QuickBooks Online or Xero. Levelup does not provide an in-app budget editor.
Budget overlay is hidden in common-size (percentage) mode on both statements.
Selecting a budget on the income statement forces a single-period view and removes the compare-to period and change columns.
Selecting a budget on the balance sheet in comparison mode removes the compare-to period and change columns.
Subtotal-row budgets (Gross Profit, Operating Income, Net Income) are derived from leaf-row budgets, not imported directly. If a leaf-row budget is missing for a category, the derived subtotal will not include that category's contribution.
Deleting a budget is permanent and cannot be undone from inside Levelup.

Cash Flow Statement

Operational data