Budget Planning and Forecasting — Now Available
Budget Planning and Forecasting
Available from: v1.0.18
Version 1.0.18 introduces a full budget planning and forecasting suite directly within the platform. Finance teams can now build, collaborate on, and monitor budgets without leaving the unified workspace.
Overview
The Budget Planning and Forecasting feature set covers the full planning lifecycle — from initial budget creation through to real-time variance monitoring. It is designed for finance teams and department heads who need shared visibility and control over organisational spending.
Features
Collaborative Budget Creation
Budgets can be authored and edited by multiple users at the same time. Contributors from different departments can submit allocations, and finance leads can review and approve them within a single workflow. Concurrent edits are reconciled automatically, reducing the back-and-forth typically associated with budget cycles.
Scenario Planning
Create and compare multiple budget scenarios — for example, a base case, an optimistic case, and a conservative case — without affecting the approved budget. Scenarios can be promoted to active budgets when ready.
Typical use cases:
- Modelling the impact of headcount changes on department costs
- Evaluating spend trade-offs across business units
- Preparing contingency plans for leadership reviews
Financial Forecasting
The forecasting engine projects future spend and revenue based on current budget allocations and historical actuals. Forecasts update as new data flows in, giving finance teams a continuously accurate picture of expected period-end outcomes.
Department-Level Budget Allocation
Budgets are structured at the department level, allowing allocations to be assigned, tracked, and reported on per organisational unit. Department managers can view their own allocation and actual spend in real time without requiring access to the full company budget.
Supported allocation types:
- Headcount and personnel costs
- Operating expenditure
- Capital expenditure
- Project-based budgets
Real-Time Variance Tracking
Variance — the difference between budgeted and actual figures — is calculated and displayed live as transactions and approvals are processed. Variances are surfaced at both the department and company level, with drill-down available to the individual line item.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Budget | Approved allocation for the period |
| Actuals | Confirmed spend to date |
| Variance | Budget minus Actuals |
| Variance % | Variance expressed as a percentage of Budget |
| Forecast | Projected period-end total |
Budget Alerts
Configure automated alerts to notify budget owners and finance administrators when spend reaches defined thresholds. Alerts are delivered in-platform and can be routed to connected communication channels.
Alert configuration options:
- Threshold type: percentage of budget consumed or absolute amount remaining
- Notification recipients: budget owner, department head, finance admin, or custom list
- Frequency: trigger once at threshold, or repeat at each defined interval
Getting Started
- Navigate to Finance → Budget Planning in the main navigation.
- Select New Budget and choose the planning period.
- Assign department allocations and invite collaborators.
- Optionally create additional scenarios for comparison.
- Activate the budget to begin real-time variance tracking.
- Configure alerts under Budget Settings → Alerts.
Permissions
| Role | Create Budget | Edit Allocations | View Variance | Manage Alerts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finance Admin | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Department Head | ❌ | ✅ (own dept) | ✅ (own dept) | ✅ (own dept) |
| Finance Viewer | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
Related Features
- Spend Management — track and approve expenditure requests against budget allocations
- Financial Reporting — generate period-end reports using actuals and forecast data
- AI Insights — surface anomalies and recommendations based on budget and spend patterns