Creating Budgets

Here you will learn how to set up and manage budgets for your organization. This article will walk you through the 3 steps that it takes to set your budgets up and running.

If you are new to budgets, start by reading our Budget Insights article that covers general information on budgets.

Follow these 3 steps to create a budget:

Step 1: Add a fiscal calendar(s), featuring when fiscal periods start and end.

Step 2: Create a budget(s), specifying the parameters that determine which work orders should fall under the budget. You can create multiple budgets for the same fiscal calendar if needed.

Step 3: Upload the budget template, listing budget costs for each fiscal period.

Contact your ServiceChannel representative to enable Budget Insights.

Only Power User and Admin User roles can create and edit budgets in the Admin module.

Step 1: Adding a Fiscal Calendar

You can create several fiscal calendars, but it is important to ensure that the dates don’t overlap.

⦿ How to Create a Fiscal Calendar

Click the hamburger menu in Service Automation.
Select Admin > Budget Insights. You land on the page for managing budgets.
Click the Create Fiscal Calendar button in the upper-right corner of the budget settings page.
Enter the Fiscal Calendar Name.
Add fiscal periods by filling out the following fields:
1. Period: Enter the period name. The system pre-populates period names (Pd01, Pd02, Pd03, etc.), but you can customize them as needed.
  
  Keep in mind that the fiscal period names will also be used in the Budget Template later when you start completing the budget template.
2. Start: Pick the start date for the period.
3. End: Pick the end date for the period.
  - Ensure that your Start and End dates for the current calendar don't overlap with the dates from another calendar (if any).
  - Ensure that your Start and End dates are listed in chronological order.
  - Don’t skip dates.
4. Quarter: Select the quarter that the period applies to. Select None if you don’t want to use quarters.
To add more periods, click the Add Period button and go back to step 5 of this instruction.

Set up at least 1 period. The max number of periods you can create is 400.
(Optional) To remove a period, click the bin icon to the right of the row.
When ready, click Submit.

When the Start and End dates you entered overlap with the dates for another fiscal calendar, you will get a warning message. To save the calendar, you will be required to confirm replacing the existing calendar with the new one.

The created fiscal calendar appears under the Periods tab. Under that tab, you can make some edits to the calendar and re-save it.

Now that you have a fiscal calendar, you can proceed to the next step and start creating a budget.

Step 2: Creating a Budget

Creating a budget implies setting up parameters that determine which work orders and proposals should fall under the budget.

You can create and manage multiple budgets for the same fiscal calendar. Pay special attention when setting up multiple budgets to ensure that your budgets don’t have a logical overlap in parameters. You should avoid situations when the same work order meets the parameters for different budgets within the same fiscal calendar. Check the example below.

Let’s say you set up two budgets:

One budget is configured by Category. In the uploaded budget template, you put the Repair category to track all repair work orders.
The other budget is set up by Trade. In the uploaded budget template, you put the Doors trade to track only work orders with that trade.

In this case, you should understand that work orders with the Repair category and the Doors trade will cause inconsistency in the budget calculations, as it won’t be clear what budget those work orders should belong to.

⦿ How to Create a Budget

Switch to the Budgets tab.
From the Choose Fiscal Calendar drop-down list, select the fiscal calendar for which you are creating a budget.
Click the Add Budget button.
In the overlay that appears, specify the Budget Name and Currency.

The work orders that fall into the budget allocation may have different currencies. However, the primary currency must be selected for the entire budget that will be shown in the Budget Insights window on proposals and work orders. You will also see the selected currency on the Budget Insights Analytics Report dashboard.
In the Parameters section, select at least 1 parameter that should be applied to the budget.

Select only those parameters that you allocate budget by. For example, if you allocate the budget by the GL code and Location, do not select the Category and Trade parameters.
1. Category / Primary Category. Categories are the customized categories serving as additional categories to the primary ones. Primary categories mean standard ServiceChannel categories. See Managing Categories to learn more about category creation.
2. Trade. Trades can be configured in the Admin module. See Managing Trades for more information.
3. GL Code. GL codes can be configured on the Admin – Accounting page. See Managing GL Codes for more information.
4. Location / Region / District. You can manage locations in the Locations & Provider Assignments module. Regions and districts are specified on the Location Details page.
5. Location Note Header. Select the checkbox if you want to budget by LNH and select the specific LNH from the dropdown. It contains the list of available location note headers that were configured in Admin. Only one LNH can be selected per budget. If you manage multiple brands under the same subscriber ID and these brands have their own budget allocations, you are able to budget by brand, which is managed via location notes today. Learn more about creating and Managing Location Note Headers.
  The selected parameters affect the following ServiceChannel modules and sections:
  - When completing the Budgets Template, you should fill out only selected parameters and leave other columns blank.
  - Work orders and proposals fall into the budget if they meet the selected parameters. For example, if the GL Code parameter is selected, work orders without the GL code will not be assigned to the budget.
  - The Budget Insights Analytics Report dashboard will show you the analysis by the selected parameters. For example, if your budget has the Category parameter, you will see the Budget By Category section on the analytics dashboard.
You can save the specified budget parameters and exit the modal — if you are not ready with the budget template yet. Your next step will be to complete the budget template. Once the template is ready, you will be able to upload it for the budget.
Click the Next button if you are ready to upload the budget template. Learn about Uploading the Budget Template.

Once a template is uploaded for the budget, the budget settings cannot be changed.

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