The fiscal year isn’t January
Every year uses your own start date and your own year label.
Finance & administration Department budget
Budget New
Your budget as an editable sheet: any fiscal year, your own GL codes, spending pace against the calendar, prior-year comparison, and exports.
- Any fiscal-year start
- Pace against the calendar
- Last year side by side
Why departments switch
What Budget fixes.
Your department budget as a spreadsheet, not an accounting package. Set the fiscal year your municipality actually uses, build your own GL codes, and type figures straight into the sheet — which shows what you asked for, what was approved, what you’ve spent, what is left, how far through the year you are, and which lines are spending ahead of the calendar.
- Answers a chief’s five questions
- Overspending flagged early
- Board-ready exports
Overspending noticed too late
Each line is labeled Ahead, On Track, or Behind against the percent of the year gone, within a tolerance you set.
Rebuilding the budget every year
Start a new year by copying GL codes forward and seeding proposed amounts.
Proposed vs. approved confusion
Proposed and approved amounts sit side by side with the difference shown.
Inside the module
A closer look at Budget.
Real screens from Station Clipboard, shown with a sample department.
01
Last year side by side
Turn on last year’s budgeted and spent columns while you track this year.
- 2025 actuals beside 2026
- Over-budget line in red
- Ahead and behind badges
02
Where the money is
How much of each line is gone, ordered by share spent, and the biggest approved figures.
- Lines over budget and ahead of pace
- Share spent per GL code
- Biggest lines on the sheet
03
Your GL codes
Codes, categories, what each covers, and how many budget lines use them.
- Your finance office’s codes
- Used codes retire, not delete
- Reorder the sheet
04
Your fiscal year
Set the start date and year label; the module works out the end, the day of the year, and pace tolerance.
- Any fiscal-year start date
- Day 276 of 365 worked out
- Pace tolerance you choose
How it works
From setup to a record you can trust.
Set the calendar
Enter your fiscal-year start date, year label, and pace tolerance.
Build GL codes
Each code is one line of the budget.
Enter figures
Type proposed, approved, and spent amounts directly into the sheet.
Track and close
Watch pace, compare with last year, export, and close the year to lock it.
Capabilities
Everything Budget includes.
Inline sheet editing
Saves as you go, accepts “$1,205”, and updates totals immediately.
Pace labels
On track, ahead, behind, and over-budget flags with a year-progress notch.
Prior-year comparison
Show last year’s budgeted and spent columns alongside this year.
Year lifecycle
Draft, proposed, approved, and closed, with a note on each year — closing locks the sheet.
Roll forward
Copy codes into a new year and seed amounts from last year.
Your GL codes
Codes in use are retired rather than deleted, and codes on a closed year keep their names.
Analytics
Approved, spent, remaining, lines over budget or ahead of pace, and where the money is.
Reports and exports
Saved reports with CSV and PDF exports, plus an activity log of every figure changed.
Part of one portal
Works with the rest of your department.
Members keep one secure sign-in and one set of role permissions across every module you turn on.
Questions
Budget FAQ
Does Budget track receipts or purchases?
No. Spending is a number your team enters — Budget is a planning and tracking sheet, not accounting software.
Our fiscal year starts in October. Does that work?
Yes. Set any start date. The module works out the end date, the day of the year, and how much time is left.
Can we see last year while building this year?
Yes. Turn on the prior-year columns to see last year’s budgeted and spent amounts beside each line.
See Budget with your department’s workflow.
Tell us how you handle this work today. We’ll walk you through it in the full Station Clipboard portal.
Need something we don’t have yet? We build custom modules.