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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, see which costs matched each line, and find invoice events that still need review. This guide is for company users and MSP staff who can view both budgets and invoices.

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Before you start

  • An Approved or Archived budget
  • Permission to view the budget and invoices (your MSP admin sets this in your role)
  • 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
If you can view the budget but do not have invoice access, the Actuals tab is hidden. Users with read-only budget access can review reconciliation results but cannot resolve exceptions.

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Open Actuals

1

Open the budget

Click Budgets, click … on the budget’s row, then click View.
2

Select Actuals

Click the Actuals tab beside Overview and Monthly Breakdown.
3

Confirm the baseline

At the top, check the locked budget status, the reconciliation period, the currency, and the Customer invoiced spend basis.
4

Read the summary

Start with the four cards under Budget and actual summary. Then use Line outcomes, matched evidence and Unmatched exceptions to explain the result.

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What Counts as Actual Spend

Actuals use tax-exclusive amounts that the MSP invoiced to the customer. Billed project work, licenses, services, and labor 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.
The total Actual spend includes eligible company invoice spend even when it is unmatched or unrelated to this budget’s projects. References control allocation, not the overall total. For a project-only budget, use Line outcomes to assess project performance: the overall variance still compares against company-wide invoice spend for the period.

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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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Find a line outcome

Use the Reference or Budget line text filter, Category, numeric amount ranges, or Match outcome to narrow Line outcomes. Click a sortable column heading to change the order. Filters affect the line table, not the summary cards. Use Clear Filters to restore the line list. Matched evidence, Unmatched exceptions and Manual allocations use separate pagination, initially 25 rows with 10, 25 or 50 available. Use their Columns controls to show or hide fields. These three paginated tables currently have no table filtering or sorting. None of these tables offers a dedicated CSV export.

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Review matching evidence

1

Open a line's evidence

In Line outcomes, click Review N events (for example Review 3 events) on a line with matched spend.
2

Confirm the source

Review the provider, invoice number, date, description, source amount, and matched amount.
3

Check the match method

Confirm whether MSPortal used a budget reference, linked project, linked product, product identity, or manual allocation.
4

Check source status

A Source changed warning means the synchronized invoice details no longer match the information recorded when a manual decision was made.

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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 Review N events 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 licenses, 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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Frequently asked questions

Click Budgets, click … then View on the budget’s row, and click Actuals. The budget must be Approved or Archived, and you need both budget and invoice access.
Actuals uses the locked annualized scheduled amounts, including saved monthly overrides, and excludes rejected lines. Overview sums quantity times unit price once for every line, including rejected lines.
No. It includes eligible company invoice spend in the locked period and budget currency, including unmatched events. Use Line outcomes to review allocations to particular work.
Actuals uses eligible tax-exclusive customer invoice spend. Payment is not required. Internal costs, vendor bills, unbilled time and uninvoiced commitments are not added as spend.
Variance is Budgeted minus Actual spend. A positive result is under budget; a negative result is over budget. Always review source coverage and unallocated events before relying on the comparison.
No. Matched describes allocation of the source events. It does not prove project completion or equality between budgeted and actual amounts.
Currency-mismatch and unknown-currency events are excluded from monetary totals. Also, signed positive and negative remainders can offset. Review the exception rows and count as well as the net amount.
No. It is the latest eligible invoice-event date contributing to that provider and source-grain group. Check the integration separately if expected invoices are missing.
Line outcomes supports column filters and sorting. The paginated matched-evidence, Unmatched exceptions and Manual allocations tables currently provide paging and Columns controls without table search or sorting.
In Line outcomes, click Review N events. Read the invoice, provider, date, source amount, matched amount and match method in the evidence dialog. A line with no events has no review button.
Use Try again. If the error persists, keep the existing approved budget and ask the MSP to investigate. Overview and Monthly Breakdown remain separate views; an Actuals error is not zero spend and is not a reason to approve a duplicate.