Creating Budgets

This guide walks you through creating a budget from start to finish. Budgets define spending limits, periods, and enforcement rules for your company's travel expenses.

Prerequisites

Before creating a budget:

1. ✅ At least one cost center exists
2. ✅ You understand allocation types (Per User vs Shared Pool)
3. ✅ You've decided on a period type (Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly)

Step 1: Navigate to Budgets

1. Go to Budgets in the main navigation
2. Ensure you're on the Budgets tab
3. Click Create Budget

Step 2: Basic Information

Name

Choose a clear, descriptive name:

Description (Optional)

Add context that helps future administrators:

Monthly travel budget for the digital marketing team.
Covers conferences, client meetings, and agency visits.
Owner: Sarah Chen (Marketing Director)

Cost Center

Select the cost center this budget belongs to. This determines:

• Financial categorization
• Reporting grouping
• Organizational ownership

Step 3: Allocation Type

Choose how the budget amount is distributed:

Per User

Each assigned user gets their own individual allocation.

Budget: $5,000/month (Per User)
Assigned to: 3 users

Result:
- User A: $5,000/month
- User B: $5,000/month  
- User C: $5,000/month

Choose Per User when:

• Each person should have their own spending limit
• You want to prevent one person consuming the team's budget
• Individual accountability is important

Shared Pool

All assigned users share one pool of funds.

Budget: $15,000/month (Shared Pool)
Assigned to: 3 users

Result:
- Shared pool: $15,000/month
- Any user can spend from it
- First-come-first-served

Choose Shared Pool when:

• Team/project has a collective budget
• Spending varies by person each period
• Flexibility is more important than individual limits

Step 4: Amount and Currency

Amount

Enter the budget amount per period:

Currency

Select the currency for this budget:

• USD - US Dollar
• EUR - Euro
• GBP - British Pound
• AED - UAE Dirham
• SAR - Saudi Riyal
• IQD - Iraqi Dinar

Step 5: Period Configuration

Period Type

Period Start Day

Which day of the month does the period start?

• Day 1: Period runs 1st to last day (Jan 1-31, Feb 1-28)
• Day 15: Period runs 15th to 14th of next month
• Range: 1-28 to avoid issues with short months

Period Start Month (Quarterly/Yearly only)

Which month begins the period?

Quarterly Examples:

• January start: Q1 (Jan-Mar), Q2 (Apr-Jun), Q3 (Jul-Sep), Q4 (Oct-Dec)
• April start (Fiscal year): Q1 (Apr-Jun), Q2 (Jul-Sep), Q3 (Oct-Dec), Q4 (Jan-Mar)

Yearly Examples:

• January start: Calendar year (Jan 1 - Dec 31)
• April start: Fiscal year (Apr 1 - Mar 31)

Step 6: Rollover Settings

Rollover Policy

What happens to unused budget at period end?

Rollover Percentage (Partial only)

If using Partial rollover, what percentage carries over?

• 25%: Conservative rollover
• 50%: Balanced approach
• 75%: Liberal rollover
• 100%: Effectively Full but allows cap

Maximum Rollover Amount (Optional)

Cap on rollover amount to prevent excessive accumulation:

See Rollover Policies for detailed examples.

Step 7: Enforcement Mode

What happens when a user exceeds their budget?

See Enforcement Modes for detailed behavior.

Step 8: Notification Thresholds (Optional)

Set percentage thresholds that trigger alerts:

You can customize these thresholds or remove them entirely.

Step 9: Review and Create

Before clicking Create:

Click Create to save the budget.

What Happens After Creation

1. Budget Created: Status = Active, soft delete flag = null
2. First Period Created: The system calculates the appropriate period:
   • Uses your configured start day/month
   • If that date is in the future, it goes back one cycle
   • Example: If today is Jan 15 and start day is 1, period is Jan 1 - Jan 31
3. Ready for Assignment: Can now assign to roles or users
4. Tracking Begins: Any assigned users can now book against this budget

Example: Creating a Sales Team Budget

Let's create a budget for the sales team:

Requirements:

• Each salesperson gets $3,000/month for travel
• Unused budget can roll over up to $1,500
• Warn if they exceed, but don't block
• Sales team has 5 members

Configuration:

Result:

• Each of the 5 sales reps gets $3,000/month
• They can accumulate up to $4,500 total ($3,000 + $1,500 rollover)
• If they go over, they see a warning but can still book

Next Steps

After creating a budget:

1. Assign to Roles - Apply to all users with a role
2. Assign to Users - Create individual overrides
3. Monitor Usage - Track spending

Editing and Deleting Budgets

Editing a Budget

Most budget settings can be changed at any time:

• Name, description
• Amount, currency
• Rollover settings
• Enforcement mode
• Notification thresholds

Changes apply to future evaluations. Existing periods retain their historical data.

Deleting a Budget

Budgets use soft delete to preserve historical data:

• Deleted budgets have deletedAt timestamp set
• They no longer appear in active lists
• Historical periods and transactions remain for reporting
• Assignments are effectively inactive (budget won't resolve)

To permanently remove a budget's data, contact your database administrator.

Common Issues

"Cost center is required"

You must select a cost center. If none exist, create one first.

"Amount must be greater than 0"

Enter a positive number for the budget amount.

"Rollover percentage must be between 1 and 100"

If using Partial rollover, enter a percentage between 1-100.

"Budget name already exists"

Budget names should be unique within a company for clarity. Use a more specific name.

Related Topics

• Cost Centers - Organize budgets
• Assignments - Connect budgets to users
• Allocation Types - Per User vs Shared Pool
• Period Configuration - Period details