Start here
Set up your plan
The first time finance opens Easel, it asks for the shape of the plan. Everything here can be changed later under Settings.
Set up your plan
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Company name | The name shown at the top of every screen. |
| Reporting currency | One currency for the whole plan, AUD by default. Easel does no currency conversion. |
| Fiscal year starts in month | The month your financial year begins, July by default. |
| First plan month | The first month of the fiscal year you are budgeting. The plan runs twelve months from it. |
Press Create the plan.
Departments
Under Settings → Departments, add each department that owns numbers, for example Sales, Engineering and Marketing. Tick Shared costs department (allocated to others) for a cost centre such as Operations whose costs you spread across the others; see shared costs.
Planning lines
Planning lines are the rows of your profit and loss. Each one is Revenue, Cost of sales or Operating expenses. Mark the line salaries land on as a Payroll line: payroll is paid in its own month, and its detail stays private to finance and the department it belongs to.
People
Under Settings → People, add everyone who plans with you, with a role:
- Finance plans everything and approves.
- Contributor revises and submits the budget for the departments you choose for them.
- Viewer reads the reports and published review packs.
Send sign-in invitation emails a person a sign-in link. More in People and access.
Account mappings
When you move in actuals, each account in your general ledger is mapped to a planning line, to the cash balance, or excluded. The mappings are listed under Settings → Account mappings, where you can change them too.
Next: build the plan.