What is the difference between posted, accrued and committed spend?

Posted is invoiced cost. Accrued is cost already incurred whose invoice has not arrived, such as September contractor work billed in October. Committed is an open purchase order for work or parts not yet received. Actual to date is posted plus accrued; remaining budget also subtracts committed, because that money is already promised.

How is remaining budget calculated?

Remaining = annual budget - (posted + accrued + committed). For the example's spare parts: a 150,000 budget, 103,318 actual to date (posted plus accrued) and 17,400 in open orders leave 29,282, with 80.5 percent of the year's budget used after six months.

What does variance to date tell me that remaining budget does not?

Variance to date compares actual spend with the budget phased up to the last closed month, so it shows whether you are ahead of plan now. Remaining budget looks at the whole year. In the example, the plant has used 59 percent of its annual budget including commitments, which looks fine, but it is 10,158 over its phased budget to date, mostly spare parts after the July gearbox failure.

Does it work for a budget year that does not start in January?

Yes. Type any date in the first month of your budget year on Setup: 1 April for an April to March year, 1 July for July to June. The calendar above the Budget sheet, the month of every Spend Log row and the months closed all follow it.

How do the Within limits, Check and Out of limits words work?

Budget used is spent plus committed divided by the annual budget. A category reads Within limits up to the threshold you set on Setup (95 percent in the example), Check above it up to 100 percent, and Out of limits above 100 percent. The example's inspections category is at 110 percent after an insurer-required fire alarm panel replacement.

Can I add more cost categories or areas?

Yes. Add a row to the Budget sheet and the category appears in the Spend Log dropdown; areas are a list on Setup. The dashboard's by-category and by-area blocks are sized to the example; the Method sheet explains how to extend them and the dashboard warns when a list is longer than its block.

Maintenance and Reliability

Maintenance Budget Tracker Excel Template

Phase the year's maintenance budget by month and cost category, log every invoice, accrual and open purchase order, and see what is spent, what is committed, what is left and which categories are over.

Overview

This maintenance budget tracker is a working Excel tool for maintenance managers, plant engineers and plant controllers who own a maintenance budget. It ships with six closed months of an April to March budget year for a fictional plastic pipe extruder, including an extruder gearbox failure that pushes spare parts ahead of their phasing and an unplanned fire-system upgrade that takes inspections past the year's budget, so the dashboard tells a story on day one.

The Budget sheet is the list of cost categories: each row holds the budget for each of the twelve months under a calendar that starts in whichever month your year starts. The Spend Log holds every invoice, accrual and open purchase order with its category, area and date, and the workbook places each row in its month of the budget year. Per category it compares the budget phased up to the last closed month with the actual to date (posted invoices plus accruals) and shows the variance with its sign.

Remaining budget is the annual budget minus everything spent, accrued and committed, which is what is really left to spend, and budget used is that exposure over the annual budget, the same model as the Maintenance Budget Variance calculator on this site. Each category reads Within limits, Check or Out of limits against the threshold you set, and the dashboard shows budget against actual by month and by category.

What this template includes

Budget sheet with one row per cost category, twelve phased months under a calendar that follows your budget year (April, July or January starts all work)
Per category: annual budget, budget to date, posted, accrued and committed spend, actual to date, variance to date, spent + committed, remaining budget, budget used and a status in words
Spend Log for invoices (Posted), costs incurred but not invoiced (Accrued) and open purchase orders (Committed), each placed in its month of the budget year
Check columns that flag spend outside the budget year or after the reporting date, categories missing from the Budget sheet, duplicate categories and spend with no budget
Dashboard KPI tiles for annual budget, actual to date, remaining budget, budget used, variance to date, open orders and categories over budget
Charts of budget against actual by month and annual budget against spent + committed by category
Monthly table with cumulative budget and actual, a by-category table and spend by area
Method sheet with every formula, and a Verify sheet that re-checks them against an independent reference and the Maintenance Budget Variance calculator

Suggested use case

Use it for the monthly maintenance cost review with finance, to explain an overspend with the invoices behind it, to see how much budget is really left once open orders are counted, or to build next year's budget from this year's phasing.

How to use it

On Setup, set the first month of your budget year, the date your spend is recorded to and your currency label, and list the areas you book spend to.
On Budget, type one row per cost category with its budget for each month of the year.
On Spend Log, add every invoice as Posted, every cost incurred but not yet invoiced as Accrued and every open purchase order as Committed; change the status when the invoice arrives.
Fix anything the Check columns report, then move the spend-recorded-to date to the last closed month.
Review the Dashboard: remaining budget, variance to date, the monthly chart and the categories over budget.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between posted, accrued and committed spend?: Posted is invoiced cost. Accrued is cost already incurred whose invoice has not arrived, such as September contractor work billed in October. Committed is an open purchase order for work or parts not yet received. Actual to date is posted plus accrued; remaining budget also subtracts committed, because that money is already promised.
How is remaining budget calculated?: Remaining = annual budget - (posted + accrued + committed). For the example's spare parts: a 150,000 budget, 103,318 actual to date (posted plus accrued) and 17,400 in open orders leave 29,282, with 80.5 percent of the year's budget used after six months.
What does variance to date tell me that remaining budget does not?: Variance to date compares actual spend with the budget phased up to the last closed month, so it shows whether you are ahead of plan now. Remaining budget looks at the whole year. In the example, the plant has used 59 percent of its annual budget including commitments, which looks fine, but it is 10,158 over its phased budget to date, mostly spare parts after the July gearbox failure.
Does it work for a budget year that does not start in January?: Yes. Type any date in the first month of your budget year on Setup: 1 April for an April to March year, 1 July for July to June. The calendar above the Budget sheet, the month of every Spend Log row and the months closed all follow it.
How do the Within limits, Check and Out of limits words work?: Budget used is spent plus committed divided by the annual budget. A category reads Within limits up to the threshold you set on Setup (95 percent in the example), Check above it up to 100 percent, and Out of limits above 100 percent. The example's inspections category is at 110 percent after an insurer-required fire alarm panel replacement.
Can I add more cost categories or areas?: Yes. Add a row to the Budget sheet and the category appears in the Spend Log dropdown; areas are a list on Setup. The dashboard's by-category and by-area blocks are sized to the example; the Method sheet explains how to extend them and the dashboard warns when a list is longer than its block.