Have you tried using the budget function in your cloud accounting software? Xero, and some other cloud account software subscriptions, allow you to enter a budget (create from scratch or import from Excel), and then pull reports over the course of the year to assess how successfully your organization is meeting its pre-established goals. Your budget does not have to be overly detailed and you can edit it as the goals of the business change.
Comparing actual results to budgeted results regularly is a vital activity, even for the smallest business or non-profit. It allows you to detect a growing difference (positive or negative) between your intended path and your actual situation and course-correct before a variance is too difficult to overcome. Budgeting is also a good way to test your predictive abilities and can highlight areas of your business that you may not understand, or need to ask questions about.
Steps to Utilizing a Budget
Create/import your budget into the software
Update the budget for changes to planned goals on a regular basis
Ensure bookkeeping is timely and income and expenses are allocated to the reporting period they relate to (ie: recorded in the correct month)
Add the budget summary and variance reports to your monthly or quarterly review of your business
For those of you using Xero, check out this starter guide to the budget function:
https://central.xero.com/s/topic/0TO1N0000017kp0WAA/budgets#business
Cedar Creek CPA 