Understanding Your Budget

Your company may have assigned you a travel budget to help manage travel spending. This guide explains how to understand your budget, what the different terms mean, and how to check your current status.

Do You Have a Budget?

Not all users have budgets assigned. Your company's travel administrator decides who gets budgets and how much.

To check if you have a budget:

1. Look for a "Budget" indicator when booking travel
2. Check your profile or settings page for budget information
3. Ask your travel administrator

If you don't have a budget assigned, you can book travel without budget restrictions (though other policies may still apply).

Budget Information Display

When you have a budget assigned, you'll see budget information in several places:

Profile/Settings

Your budget summary typically shows:

Example Display

Your Travel Budget: Sales Travel Budget

January 2024 Period
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Total Allocated:  $5,000
Spent:            $2,800  ████████░░░░░░░░░░░
Pending:          $500    ██░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
Remaining:        $1,700
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Utilization: 66%

Understanding Budget Terms

Total Allocated

The total amount available to you for the current period. This includes:

• Base amount: Your standard budget allocation
• Rollover: Any unused amount carried from the previous period (if your company allows rollover)

Spent

The amount already spent on confirmed bookings. Once a booking is confirmed and paid, the amount moves from "pending" to "spent."

Pending

The amount reserved for bookings in progress. This includes:

• Bookings you've started but not completed
• Booking requests awaiting approval
• Approved requests not yet confirmed

Remaining

How much you can still spend. This is calculated as:

Remaining = Total Allocated - Spent - Pending

This is your actual available budget for new bookings.

Budget Periods

Your budget resets on a schedule set by your company:

What Happens at Period End

When a period ends:

1. Your current period closes
2. A new period starts
3. Unused budget may roll over (depends on company settings)
4. Your "spent" and "pending" reset to zero

Rollover

Some companies allow unused budget to carry forward:

• No rollover: Your budget resets to the base amount
• Partial rollover: A percentage of unused budget carries over
• Full rollover: All unused budget carries over

Check with your administrator to understand your rollover policy.

Per User vs Shared Pool

Your budget works in one of two ways:

Per User Budget

You have your own individual allocation:

• Your spending only affects your budget
• Other people's spending doesn't affect you
• Common for individual travel allowances

Shared Pool Budget

You share a budget pool with others (your team, department, or project):

• Everyone draws from the same pool
• Others' spending reduces what's available
• First-come-first-served

Viewing Your Budget History

You may be able to view your past spending:

Current Period Transactions

Past Periods

Budget Status Indicators

Visual indicators help you quickly understand your budget health:

Common Questions

"Why is my remaining different from what I calculated?"

Your remaining amount accounts for pending reservations. If you have bookings in progress, that amount is reserved even though it's not "spent" yet.

Example:

You think: Total $5,000 - Spent $3,000 = $2,000 remaining
Actual:    Total $5,000 - Spent $3,000 - Pending $500 = $1,500 remaining

The $500 pending is a booking you started but haven't completed yet.

"My budget looks wrong. Who do I contact?"

Contact your travel administrator. They can:

• Verify your budget assignment
• Check for pending transactions
• Adjust if there's an error

"Can I get more budget?"

Your company's policy determines this. Options may include:

• Request a temporary increase for a specific trip
• Have your manager approve an over-budget booking
• Wait for the next period if rollover applies
• Ask your administrator for a user-level override

"What happens to unused budget?"

This depends on your company's rollover policy:

• No rollover: Unused budget expires at period end
• Partial rollover: A percentage carries to the next period
• Full rollover: All unused budget carries forward (may have a cap)

"Why can't I see my budget?"

You may not have a budget assigned. This could mean:

• Your company hasn't set up budgets for your role
• You're exempt from budget tracking
• There's a configuration issue (contact your admin)

"The booking price changed - what about my budget?"

Budget checks happen at checkout time with the current price. If a price increased since you started:

• Your budget evaluation uses the new price
• You may now be over budget even if you weren't before
• The system will apply the appropriate enforcement (warn, block, etc.)

Tips for Managing Your Budget

Track Your Spending

Periodically check your budget status, especially:

• Before booking large trips
• Near the end of a period
• When sharing a pool budget

Plan Larger Trips

If you have an expensive trip planned:

• Book earlier in the period when budget is fresh
• Consider if booking will fit within budget
• Request budget increase if needed (before booking)

Understand Your Policies

Know your company's settings:

• What enforcement mode is in effect?
• Does unused budget roll over?
• Who approves over-budget requests?

Coordinate with Pool Members

If you share a budget pool:

• Communicate with teammates about planned travel
• Book essential trips promptly
• Be considerate of others' needs

Related Topics

• Budget During Booking - How budgets affect your booking