Bring in data from another database
Learn how to include operational data in your financial budget for more detailed budgeting.
When you create a financial budget workbook, you can bring in data from another database to budget at a more detailed level. You achieve this with the addition of a Database worksheet tab. The values in this tab drive the corresponding values in the Main tab.
A common example is to bring data from a Sales database into a Financial budget. The same process can be applied to other situations, such as Rebates, Employees, Debtors, Creditors databases.
When setting up the Database tab, have two options for getting the budget values: either manually enter them into the tab (both budgets are in one workbook) or let them flow through from another workbook (two separate workbooks).
This option allows you to do all your budgeting in one workbook. The Sales budget is nested within the financial budget, sitting in the Database tab. The sales values in the Database tab are editable and the workflow is active.
This is a suitable approach when you have small team and small budget regarding the volume of data.
Add a Database tab that connects to the Actuals data stream in the Sales database and apply an offset to use the sales data from the previous year as a baseline for the new budget.
This option allows you to separate your financial and operational budgeting into two workbooks. The Sales budget is managed in a standalone workbook but its values flow into the Database tab in the financial budget. The sales values in the Database tab aren't editable.
Pros
Suitable when you want to manage the financial and operational budgets separately because they have distinct owners, administrators and other users involved in the workflows.
Recommended when the Sales budget has a lot of data. Having all the sales data managed elsewhere improves the performance of the financial budget. The financial people who need to work on the Main tab don't have to wait for all the sales data to be loaded into the Database tab. Read the Best practices for efficient budgeting page to learn more about this.
Con
The Sales budget needs to be republished whenever any updates are made for the changes to flow through to the Database tab in the financial budget.
Create an operational budget workbook for the Sales budget.
Create a financial budget workbook or open an existing one.
Add a Database tab in the financial budget workbook to connect to the published sales budget.
No offset is required in this case because the Sales budget has been created for the same period.
It's a good idea to turn off the Allow users to edit values option to maintain a single source of truth. The sales values can then only be edited in the other workbook.
The following video demonstrates both options when bringing Sales data into a Financial budget workbook.