How does a PTA budget get approved?

A budget moves through three states in BeeKeeper: working while you are building it, proposed once it goes to the board, and approved after the membership votes. Proposing locks the amounts, the accounts and the fiscal year and records who proposed it. Approving freezes a snapshot of every line exactly as it stood at the vote, with the approver's name and the date, and an approved budget can no longer be deleted.

Can a PTA change its budget after the membership approves it?

Yes, but not by editing it. An approved budget's lines are frozen, so a change is raised as an amendment: numbered in sequence, carrying a written reason and an effective date, and listing each account with its previous amount, its new amount, and whether that is an increase, a decrease, a new line or a removal. Approving the amendment moves the budget lines to match; withdrawing the approval puts them back.

How do I build next year's budget from last year's?

Choose a previous budget as the starting point and every line and amount comes across ready to adjust — the fastest start, and the one most treasurers use. You can also budget from what each account actually did last fiscal year, import a spreadsheet, CSV or myPTEZ export, or start empty against your chart of accounts. Nobody should be typing a budget into a blank page in August.

What is a budget vs. actual report and when should a treasurer run it?

It shows budgeted, actual, remaining and percent used for every account and category, so the board can see where the year stands against what the membership approved. Run it before every board meeting — it is the report that catches a line running over in November instead of during the audit in June. Every account name links into that account's register, filtered to the budget year, so any figure somebody questions is one click from the transactions behind it.

Does BeeKeeper record the motion and the vote for our minutes?

BeeKeeper records that the budget or amendment was approved, by whom, and on what date, with a frozen copy of every line at that moment. The wording of the motion belongs in your minutes, and the amendment's reason field is the right place to paste it so the two documents agree. Presentation mode puts the budget on the screen at the meeting and lets the approval be recorded in the room rather than from your kitchen table at 11pm.

Does an approved budget go to our state PTA or council?

An approved budget is pushed to FutureFund Connect, so a council or state PTA using Connect for compliance filings does not need you to retype the figures. The budget itself stays in BeeKeeper and keeps tracking actuals for the rest of the year.

Budgets & Amendments

The budget the membership approved, on the record

Draft it, propose it, approve it — and amend it the way your bylaws say you have to.

Start free trial See the reports it feeds

Budget vs. actual · FY 2026–27

Amendment #3 · adopted Oct 8 Moved $500 to Fall festival after the raffle result

Fall festival$3,180 of $3,500

Teacher grants$2,400 of $6,000

Membership drive$1,920 of $1,800

Over by $120 · needs an amendment or a vote

One budget, from a committee's ask to the report at the March meeting

Working, proposed, approved — and everything that happens to it afterwards.

A committee tells you what they need
In the spring the hospitality chair wants $600 for staff appreciation and the fifth-grade committee wants more than last year. None of it is in software yet. It is in email, and in somebody's notebook.
You build next year's budget
Copy last year's budget line for line, pull in what each account actually did last fiscal year, import a spreadsheet or a myPTEZ file, or start from an empty page and your chart of accounts. One line per account, so the budget and the reports can never disagree about what was budgeted.
The board reviews it
Proposing locks the amounts, the accounts and the fiscal year, and records who proposed it and when. If the board sends it back, unlock it to working and edit — the name can always be corrected without unlocking anything.
The membership votes
Presentation mode puts the budget on the screen full size at the meeting: your organization's name, the fiscal year, every line grouped the way your board reads it, the totals, and the beginning and ending balances a PTA budget form asks for.
It is approved, and the vote is frozen
Approving takes a snapshot of every line exactly as it stood at that moment, and records who approved it and when. An approved budget cannot be deleted — the thing the membership voted on does not get to disappear.
The year happens against it
Every transaction you post lands on an account, and every budgeted account shows budgeted, actual, remaining and percent used. Nobody has to rebuild anything to find out where a line stands in November.
Something changes in January
The fundraiser beat its target, or the field trip costs more than anybody planned. An approved budget's lines are frozen, so this is not an edit. It is an amendment — numbered in sequence, with a written reason, an effective date, and each account's previous amount beside its new one.
The amendment is approved, and the budget moves with it
Approve it and the budget lines change to match, with the approver and the date on the record. Take the approval back and the lines go back too. Budget vs. actual then tells the board exactly where they stand at any meeting, against the numbers they actually voted for.

A PTA budget is a promise to the membership

Which means it has to be provable, not just written down.

Three versions are circulating

The one emailed before the meeting, the one with the president's edits, and the one in the minutes. By February nobody is certain which numbers the membership actually voted on.

The approved budget keeps changing

A line gets adjusted in October because the fundraiser did better than planned. Nothing records that it changed, who changed it, or what it used to say.

Overspending turns up in June

The line was $1,200. The year spent $2,900. Everyone finds out during the audit, nine months after anybody could have done something about it.

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What happens after the membership votes

Most software treats the budget as a document. Your bylaws treat it as a decision — one that can only be changed the way the bylaws say. BeeKeeper is built the second way.

Four ways to start next year's budget

Nobody should be typing a budget into an empty page in August.

Copy last year

Every line and amount from a previous budget, ready to adjust. The fastest start, and the one most treasurers use.

From last year's actuals

Pull in what each account actually did last fiscal year and budget from reality rather than from the number somebody guessed a year ago.

Import a file

A spreadsheet, a CSV, or a myPTEZ export. Missing accounts are created as it imports, and archived ones it reactivates are called out so you know why they are back.

Start fresh

An empty budget and your chart of accounts. For a new unit, or a year where the program genuinely changed.

Where the budget shows up again

Budget vs. Actual report

Budgeted, actual, remaining and percent used per account and per category, exportable to PDF or Excel for the board packet.

The Treasurer's Report

Receipts and disbursements read against the budget line they belong to, so the report you read at the meeting answers the obvious follow-up question.

Your state PTA

An approved budget is pushed to FutureFund Connect, so the compliance filing your council asks for is not a second round of typing.

And so much more

Automatic bank imports

AI receipt scanning

AI transaction coding

Duplicate detection

Bank reconciliation

Expense reports

Mobile apps

Two-signature Sign-Off

Check printing

Check register

Budgets

Budget vs. actual

Custom chart of accounts

Vendor management

W-9 collection portal

1099 reporting

Form 990 mapping

Treasurer's report

Annual financial report

Balance sheet

Profit and loss

General ledger

Audit Kit

Treasurer Transition Kit

Fiscal year close

Role-based permissions

Permanent audit trail

English and Spanish

MCP server

FutureFund sync

Frequently Asked Questions

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The budget the membership approved, on the record

One budget, from a committee's ask to the report at the March meeting

A committee tells you what they need

You build next year's budget

The board reviews it

The membership votes

It is approved, and the vote is frozen

The year happens against it

Something changes in January

The amendment is approved, and the budget moves with it