Track Budget Actuals

The Actuals tab compares a locked budget with customer invoice spend from supported PSA integrations. Use it to see whether the company is over or under budget, understand which costs matched each line, and identify invoice events that still need review.

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Prerequisites

• An Approved or Archived budget
• Permission to view the budget and invoices
• A connected ConnectWise Manage, Autotask PSA, or HaloPSA integration with invoice sync enabled
• The PSA company mapped to the same MSPortal company as the budget

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Getting Started

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What Counts as Actual Spend

Actuals use tax-exclusive amounts that the MSP invoiced to the customer. Billed project work, licences, services, and labour can contribute. Internal cost of goods sold, payroll, unbilled time, vendor bills, purchase commitments, and contract totals that have not been invoiced do not. Contract and project information can help match an invoice; they do not add spend on their own.

• ConnectWise Manage contributes invoice totals
• Autotask PSA and HaloPSA contribute invoice-line detail when available, with any difference from the invoice total included as an invoice-level remainder to avoid double-counting
• Credits and refunds appear as signed amounts and reduce spend
• Only invoice dates inside the locked reconciliation period are included
• MSPortal does not convert currencies

The locked period is January 1 through December 31 of the budget’s fiscal year. Quarterly and Monthly period types do not change that date range. The Source coverage section shows which PSA providers and source grains contributed to the comparison. Invoice line means detailed billing rows were available; Invoice total can be a full invoice amount or the remainder not represented by its lines. Different-currency and unknown-currency events remain visible for review but are excluded from monetary totals, including Unallocated.

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Understand the Summary

The note under Actual spend shows how much spend is allocated to lines and how many source events are fully matched.

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Review Line Outcomes

Each locked budget line shows its reference, category, approved amount, matched actual, variance, and outcome. Positive line variance means budget remains on that line. Negative line variance means matched spend exceeds its approved amount. Matched does not mean the actual equals the budget or that the project is complete. Older locked budgets without references or captured matching keys can still receive manual allocations.

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Review Matching Evidence

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How Matching Works

MSPortal evaluates automatic methods in priority order:

1. Budget reference — an exact line reference found in PSA invoice, PO, project, contract, or related details
2. Linked project — the invoice event is associated with a PSA project captured through the budget line’s linked Planner item
3. Linked product — the synchronized invoice item points to the product captured on the budget line
4. Product identity — the invoice-line SKU or product name matches the captured product identity

If the highest-priority matching method identifies multiple lines, the event becomes an exception; MSPortal does not try a lower-priority method to break the tie. An explicit reference that is unknown, belongs to a different budget, or identifies an ineligible line also prevents project or product fallback. Multiple distinct references need manual review. One source event is counted once within a budget. Manual allocation is a user override, not another automatic method: it takes control of the event and suppresses automatic matching, including when you split the event across several lines.

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Common Tasks

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Investigate an Over-Budget Result

1. Confirm the total Actual spend and overall variance
2. Sort Line outcomes by variance to find the largest negative values
3. Click the Review button on those lines to inspect the supporting invoices
4. Review Unallocated and the exception queue for spend not yet assigned to a line

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Check Whether Invoice Sync Is Current

Use Source coverage to compare the provider’s Latest event date with the most recent eligible invoice you expect in the locked period. This is an invoice date, not the last sync time. If an expected invoice is missing, review the PSA integration and invoice sync before changing reconciliation decisions.

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Improve Future Automatic Matches

Copy the line’s short reference and add it to the PSA project, PO, invoice reference, or custom field that flows through to billing. For recurring services and licences, keep synchronized product links and SKUs consistent.

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Troubleshooting

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Best Practices

• Review Source coverage before interpreting the totals
• Resolve exceptions regularly so line outcomes explain the overall spend
• Use matched evidence to support QBR and budget-review conversations
• Add a single budget reference to each project, purchase, or billed item
• Keep company mappings, product identities, and invoice currencies accurate in the PSA
• Preserve archived budgets as historical baselines

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Related Resources

• Approve and lock a budget
• Resolve actuals exceptions
• Budgets overview
• Invoices