Comparing different assumptions, such as inflation rates or planned projects, helps you evaluate their financial impact on expenses, assessments, and overall balance before committing to a final budget. If you already know you'll want to compare several approaches, you can create multiple scenarios while creating the budget task, so each is ready as soon as the budget is generated.
Each scenario can have its own:
Inflation rate
Budget forecast basis
Ending date for actuals
Supporting documents
Included accounts
This lets you compare different budgeting assumptions in a single budget instead of maintaining separate budget tasks.
Follow these steps to create multiple scenarios:
In the Cephai Task Center, click Create new task.
OR
In CINC with universal navigation, go to Cephai and click Create new task.
On the Create new task slide-out, complete the required information.
Task Type: Select Budget.
Select HOA: Select which association the task is for.
Budget Name: Enter a name that clearly identifies the budget.
Fiscal Year: Select the fiscal year the budget covers.
Create Multiple Scenarios: Select to define multiple budget scenarios in a single budget task, each with its own settings. This lets you compare projections side by side, for example, modeling 0% inflation, the default rate, and 5% inflation to see how each affects revenue, expenses, and balance.
Scenario Name: Enter a name for the scenario.
Ending Date for Actual: Select any date in the fiscal year preceding the current date. This is where Cephai's historical analysis ends and projections begin. For example, for a 2027 budget with a standard January–December fiscal year, you could select June 30, 2026.
Include Accounts: Select All Accounts. Including only active accounts simplifies the budget, while including all accounts provides a more comprehensive starting point.
Inflation: Enter the percentage Cephai applies when accounting for inflation. Cephai suggests a percentage, but you can edit it or enter 0% to build the budget with no annual increase.
Budget forecast basis: Determines which historical information Cephai uses as the starting point for its recommendations. Choose the one that best reflects your association's budgeting approach. Select one of the following:
Prior Years Budget Trend (up to 5 years): AI uses prior years' budget data as the foundation for budget suggestions. Best when your association plans closely to budget rather than actual spending.
Prior Years Actuals Trend (up to 5 years): AI uses prior years' actual spending as the foundation. Best when actual spending is the most reliable predictor of next year's costs.
Prior Years Budget & Actuals Trend (up to 5 years): AI weighs both data sources. Best when you want a balanced view that accounts for both what was planned and what was actually spent.
Last Year Budget: AI uses the most recently posted budget as the forecast baseline (single year only).
Last Year Actuals: AI uses the most recently saved actuals as the forecast baseline (single year only).
Last Year Budget & Actuals: AI uses a balanced combination of last year’s budget and actuals as the forecast baseline (single year only).
Include seasonality in the budget creation: Some expenses occur unevenly throughout the year, such as landscaping, pool maintenance, or snow removal.
Select to include seasonality where a pattern is present. AI applies monthly distribution to GL accounts where a pattern is detected in the selected baseline.
If not selected, AI distributes budget values evenly across all 12 months regardless of any detected patterns.
Documents: Upload supporting documents, such as contracts, reserve studies, insurance renewals, and invoices, so Cephai can factor them into its recommendations.
Notes:
You can upload documents that are up to 300 pages. This helps support large reserve studies.
You can delete documents while setting up the task, but once the budget is created, documents cannot be deleted.
Uploading a document here starts the analysis, but Cephai does not apply its figures to the budget automatically. You'll confirm the GL account matches and apply the figures after the budget is created.
If an HOA is newly onboarded and doesn't yet have historical transaction data in CINC, Cephai can't rely on CINC data alone and must instead use an uploaded income statement as its primary input. In this scenario, uploading the income statement is mandatory, while all other document uploads remain optional.
Click Save Scenario.
To add another scenario, do one of the following:
Click New Scenario to duplicate and modify an existing scenario, complete the required information, and click Save Scenario.
Click Blank Scenario to create a new scenario from scratch, complete the required information, and click Save Scenario.
Once you complete all fields and upload all files, click Create Task.
The budget task displays as pending while Cephai analyzes your data and generates an initial, auto-balanced budget for you to review.