Budgets

Budgets brings together planned costs, recurring services, approvals and forecasts for each company. MSP staff build and maintain the plans. Company users read the budgets their MSP gives them access to. Open Budgets in the sidebar to start.

Who can do what

Your MSP admin sets these permissions in your role.

Permission	What it allows
read_budgets	See the Budgets list, read budgets, export and print. The Actuals tab also needs permission to view invoices.
write_budgets	Create, edit and duplicate budgets, import costs, change monthly amounts, and maintain the product catalog. Shows Budgets Menu, and opens Forecast.
manage_budgets	Everything above, plus approve, archive and delete budgets, delete saved lines, delete several budgets, and save or sync the forecast.
Approve budget items	Approve, reject or reset individual budget lines. Client users with it can also sign off a budget sent to them. Manage includes it; Write does not. A role with only this and Read decides lines on budgets in Pending Approval. See Approve or reject budget lines.

Company users cannot grant themselves budget permissions. Ask your MSP if a button or tab is missing. People with edit access see Budgets Menu at the top right of the Budgets pages.

Menu item	Opens
All Budgets	The list of budgets for the selected company, or every company in Global View.
Products	The reusable product catalog.
Forecast	The forecast worksheet for one company.

There is no templates page. To start from an earlier plan, duplicate a budget or use an import.

Read a company budget

Find and open a budget: filter the list and open the reader.
Read the budget overview: details, categories, quantities and line statuses.
Read Monthly Breakdown: scheduled costs by month.
Download or print a budget: PDF, Excel, print and combined PDFs.

The list Total adds Approved and Pending lines and leaves out Rejected lines. The Overview Total counts every line, rejected ones too. Monthly Breakdown applies each line’s billing schedule across the year. Compare the same measure when you check totals.

Create and maintain a plan

Create and edit a company budget: company, fiscal year, details and Save.
Add and edit budget line items: quantity, price, category, billing and line approval.
Adjust a budget amount for one month: saves right away from Monthly Breakdown.
Arrange budget sections: the order of categories in Overview and exports.
Duplicate a budget and delete unwanted draft budgets.

Import costs

Imports add rows to the editor. Review them and click Save.

Import Microsoft 365 licensing

Add Microsoft 365 licensing costs turns a company’s purchased seats into priced budget lines, using the prices in your product catalog.

Budget and line statuses

A budget has one status. Each line also has its own status.

Budget status	Meaning	Editable
Draft	Being prepared	Yes
Pending Approval	Sent to the client for approval	Yes
Approved	Locked as the baseline	No
Archived	Retired, still kept as a locked baseline	No

Line status	Meaning
Draft	Being prepared
Pending	Waiting for approval
Approved	Accepted
Rejected	Declined. It is left out of the list Total and the Actuals baseline.

An Approved budget can still hold Rejected or Pending lines. Exporting or printing never approves a budget.

Approve and compare actual spend

Approve and lock a budget: submit a budget for review or client approval, sign it off, and lock it as the permanent baseline.
Track budget Actuals: compare the baseline with synced customer invoices.
Resolve Actuals exceptions: allocate unmatched spend.

Actuals needs an Approved or Archived budget and permission to view invoices. To change an Approved budget, duplicate it, edit the copy, approve the copy and archive the original.

Maintain reusable products

Open Budgets Menu > Products.

Catalog changes save right away. They do not add lines to a budget or change prices already copied into one.

Forecast future costs

Select one company and open Budgets Menu > Forecast.

The forecast is separate from budget approval and Actuals. Sync changes the worksheet. Save keeps the forecast rules.

Frequently asked questions

Which guide should a company user start with?

Start with Find and open a budget, then Read the budget overview and Read Monthly Breakdown.

Why do budget totals differ between views?

The list leaves out rejected lines. Overview counts every line once. Monthly Breakdown applies the billing schedule. Actuals uses the locked yearly cost of every line that is not rejected.

Does importing save changes automatically?

Importing into a budget needs Save. Importing into the product catalog saves at once. A forecast sync needs its own Save.

Can a company administrator give themselves budget permissions?

No. The MSP manages permissions. Ask your MSP if an action or tab is missing.

Are budget templates available?

No. Duplicate a budget or use an import to start from earlier work.

Does downloading or printing approve a budget?

No. Approval is a separate step that locks the baseline.

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