Getting Started with Budgeting

After you've received and installed your license including the Budgeting option, you're ready to start setting up the basics.

1. Grant Users access to the Budgeting Module

2. Build and import your Budget structure

3. Prepare your Objects to be used with the Budgeting

4. Import/Prepare your Budget Print outs

5. Setup for attaching your Actuals

1. Grant Users access to the Budgeting Module

Only Advanced Users with the appropriate User Permission get access to the Budget module:

• Can See Budgets

Task Users can have the Can See Budgets permission enabled. They are then allowed to see which Details and Quantities are in the Budgets, but not which Rates or Totals they have.

• Can Edit Budgets

A Task/Booking/Rates User needs to have the Can Edit Budgets enabled in order to do any change in the Budget, including the use of the Scheduling Mode or attaching Actuals.

• Can "Can Lock / Unlock Budgets" (default Off).

If a User has "Can Lock / Unlock Budgets" permissions, he will see an "unlocked" icon in front of the budget name. If clicked, the Budget will go into a locked state and can't be edited by anyone. Mousing over the lock icon reveals a tooltip with the info of who locked it and when: "Locked by [user name] On [date / time]".

• Locked Budgets cannot be renamed, nor deleted. But options "Duplicate" and "Copy To Global Template" are available.
• Actuals can still be attached / detached to the Budget Details of a locked Budget, but you can't e.g. add, remove or edit existing details. You can still use the following options on Budget Details:
  
  • "Copy Budget Line", to allow the user to copy from a locked budget and paste into a new unlocked budget on same project.
  • "Forward Budget Line To Actuals"
    
• Anyone with "Can Lock / Unlock Budgets" permissions can unlock the Budget for further editing.
• Users with no permission to lock / unlock will only see the lock icon next those Budgets that are locked, but Budgets that are not locked do not show the "unlocked" icon for this user.
  
  

These permissions control whether a User can edit Budgets or only view them.
Combined with Project Permissions, you can control that a User can only edit Budgets on those Projects where they have Project Permission.

2. Build and import your Budget structure

In order to use the Budgeting you need a global Budget Structure that all Budgets will follow. Think through your budget structure and prepare a CSV file for import. 

Commonly you might have already a fixed structure for your quotations. This can serve as first idea for your budget structure.

3. Prepare your Objects to be used with the Budgeting

When starting with the Budget module it's useful to revise your object structure to see if you have all the services/resources/activities/rooms in the Object Manager. Please consult with support / your PM for the best approach depending on your needs.

A common approach is to add all similar bookable people/rooms/equipment into Object Classes (with or without Activities) and then only add the Object Classes to the Budget. when later allocating a booked/physical person/room etc. the rates can follow the class. Additionally you have your Extras such as Service, Materials, Expenses.

Once you've setup the Object you can map your "default" objects to Budget Accounts. Read more here.

4. Import/Prepare your Budget Print outs

After you've build a quotation you can print it with your Corporate Templates. To print budgets the Financial Report Designer is used. You can download some Budget Template exampled here.

5. Setup for attaching your Actuals

To be able to compare what was budgeted/ quoted with the actual usage, the Actuals have to be attached to their corresponding lines in the Active Budget(s).