Before you begin, make sure you:
Have multiple regional or departmental budgets already created (e.g., US, UK, AU, CA regional budgets)
Verify all budgets you want to merge have the same budget year (e.g., all must be 2025 budgets)
Confirm all source budgets use compatible Group Reporting Templates (GRT)
Have administrator privileges to create merged group budgets
Understand that merged budgets cannot use Group Class functionality (mutual exclusivity)
Understanding Merge Group Budgets
Merge Group Budgets functionality enables you to combine multiple existing budgets into a single, comprehensive strategic plan. This powerful capability transforms distributed regional or departmental planning into unified group-level financial oversight, perfect for executive reporting and strategic decision-making.
Why merge budgets matters for multi-entity businesses:
Executive Overview: Provide CXO leadership with consolidated financial planning across all regions
Strategic Control: Create group-level budgets for board presentations and investor communications
Simplified Management: Reduce complexity while maintaining underlying regional planning detail
Consolidated Reporting: Enable group-level budget vs. actual analysis without losing regional insights
Currency Unification: Automatically convert and consolidate multi-currency regional budgets
Practical merge budgets example: Your organisation has four regional budgets with the following targets for a specific GRT account:
US Regional Budget: £10,000
UK Regional Budget: £15,000
AU Regional Budget: £8,500
CA Regional Budget: £8,800
Merged Group Budget: £42,300 (automatic consolidation in group currency)
Step 1: Access Group Budget management
From your GATHER.nexus dashboard, navigate to the Group Financial Planning section. Click on Group Budget to access the budget management interface.
You'll see your existing regional or departmental budgets listed, ready for consolidation into a strategic group-level plan.
Step 2: Add Group Budget
Begin Adding Budet in which you want to merge so basically you will merge budget to create one budget.
❗Important: All Budgets should have same GRT and Budget year
Step 2.1: Initiate budget creation
Click the Add Budget button to begin creating your first comprehensive budget
structure.
The Add New Budget modal window will appear, showing the comprehensive
budget setup form with all configuration options.
Step 3.2: Fill essential budget information
Complete the fundamental budget details:
Budget Name: Enter a descriptive, strategic name for your budget
Group Selection: Choose the appropriate group from the dropdown menu
GRT (Group Reporting Template): Select your reporting template that is same
you selected for creating previous budgets
Step 3.3: Define budget parameters
Configure the timing and formatting parameters for your budget planning:
Budget Year: Set the financial year for your budget (e.g., "2025")
Budget Period: Select your budgeting frequency from available options
Amount Format: Choose your display format for budget presentations
Step 3: Review existing budgets for merge compatibility
Before creating a merged budget, verify your source budgets meet the requirements:
Budget Year Consistency: Ensure all budgets you want to merge share the same budget year
Example: All regional budgets must be 2025 budgets to merge into a 2025 group budget
Different budget years cannot be merged together
Regional Budget Examples:
Demo Budget CA: 2025, Monthly, CA region
Demo Budget AU: 2025, Monthly, AU region
Demo Budget UK: 2025, Monthly, UK region
Demo Budget US: 2025, Monthly, US region
Step 4: Select budgets for merge
Click on the Merge Budgets dropdown to access budget selection options:
Available Selection Options:
ALL: Select all compatible budgets for comprehensive consolidation
Individual Selection: Choose specific budgets using checkboxes
Regional Budget Selection Example:
✓ Demo Budget for UK: Include UK regional targets in consolidation
✓ Demo Budget for US: Include US regional targets in consolidation
✓ Demo Budget for AU: Include Australia regional targets in consolidation
✓ Demo Budget for CA: Include Canada regional targets in consolidation
Consolidation Logic: The system will automatically combine amounts from each selected budget:
Same GRT accounts will have their amounts added together
Step 7: Complete merged budget creation
Review your configuration to ensure all settings align with your strategic planning requirements:
Click Add to create your merged Group Budget and begin automatic consolidation.
ℹ️ Tip: If you selected merge budgets option then Group class will be
disabled. Same way if Group Class is enabled then Merge will be disabled
Common questions
Q: Can I edit amounts in a merged budget directly?
A: Yes, Merged budgets display consolidated amounts from source budgets. To modify amounts, to edit the budget click anywhere on that specific budget and update the amounts and simply save it.
Q: What happens if I delete a source budget that's part of a merged budget?
A: It will not affect the merged budget.
Q: Can I merge budgets from different groups?
A: No, merged budgets can only consolidate budgets from within the same group structure.
Q: Can I create multiple merged budgets for different scenarios?
A: Yes, you can create multiple merged budgets (conservative, optimistic, etc.) by selecting different combinations of source budgets.
What's next?
With your merged Group Budget created, you can:
Generate executive reports showing consolidated group-level budget vs. actual performance
Present to stakeholders using simplified, strategic budget overviews
Maintain operational detail through access to underlying regional budgets
Create strategic scenarios by merging different combinations of regional budgets
Support decision-making with both consolidated and detailed budget perspectives
Your merged budget system now provides the strategic financial overview that executive leadership needs while maintaining the operational detail that regional managers require.
Have questions or need assistance❓
Contact our support team at support@gather.nexus