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Budgets & Scenarios: Import
Mick Devine avatar
Written by Mick Devine
Updated over 3 months ago

Calxa allows you to import budgets directly from an Excel or CSV file. It may make sense to budget in this way if:

  • You already have budgets in Excel.

  • You have complex formulas or relationships that are best modelled in Excel.

  • You want to delegate portions of the budget to people who may not have access to Calxa, such as department managers.

  • You have a large number of business units that can be more easily summarised in a spreadsheet.

  • You want to move large amounts of data between budget versions.



  1. Navigate to Budgets & Cashflow -> Budget Tools -> Import.

  2. Select your Organisation from the Selected Organisation dropdown.

  3. At Select data file, set the following properties and click NEXT STEP.

    1. Type of import: choose Budget Amounts.

    2. Budget version: select which Calxa budget or scenario you would like to import data into.

    3. Select file: browse and select the Excel or CSV file to import from.

  4. On the Match fields to column headings step, set the import options and map the required fields to your spreadsheet columns, then click NEXT STEP.


    💡 Required and optional fields will vary by Accounting System. See Import Budgets - File Formats & Options for a full explanation of the required fields and options.


    1. Monthly Amounts: for spreadsheets with monthly values and months as column headings.

    2. Annual Amounts: for annual values with Business Units as column headings. Annual values will be imported as 12 equal monthly values.

    3. I am importing Credit/Debit amounts: Choose the correct option from the drop down that matches the data to be imported.

    4. I have combined account number and name: check this option if your spreadsheet has the Account Number and Account Name combined in a single column.


      Tip:💡 Use this option to import budgets from Xero as the exported budgets will have a combined Name (Number) format. For details on importing Xero Tracking Category budgets see - Calxa and Xero.


    5. I am importing Combination business unit amounts: Check the box to give additional mapping below​

    6. Import Comments: Add notes in Excel to the monthly budget values to import them as Budget Comments. You can also import comments with CSV files by separating the value from the comment with a pipe character like this 120,000 | Comment.

    7. Map Fields: for the remaining options map the Calxa fields to the columns in your spreadsheet.

      Account (Required): provide either an Account Number or Account Name or select both and Calxa will attempt to identify the unique account based on the columns provided.
      Business Unit (Optional): when no Business Unit columns are selected the Organisation budget will be updated. Optionally provide a Business Unit Number or Business Unit Name or select both and Calxa will attempt to identify the unique business unit based on the columns provided.
      Period Amounts (Required): select all the monthly period columns to import and select a format that matches your monthly column heading format.


      Tip: 💡 Format the column heading cell as Text to ensure this imports easily


  5. On the Import and verify the data step, verify there are no errors and click NEXT STEP.

    1. This step allows you to confirm how many rows will be updated and verify there are no errors before any data gets updated.

      Note: see Import Budgets - Errors and Troubleshooting for common errors and how to resolve them.

  6. On the Import the data step confirm the correct number of rows were successfully updated and click DONE.

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