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Operational Budgeting - Monthly Budgeting

What You’ll Learn: This article is for Editors and Contributors using Operational Budgeting. It explains what you need to know to achieve monthly budgeting distributions. 

When to Read This: Read this article after preparing the Worksheet for a Request Round. 

Build your operating budget month by month! Break down line items to watch your annual totals update instantly. You can apply custom distributions across multiple accounts - such as dividing equally, matching wages, or splitting into quarters, and save your favorite templates to use again later.

There are 4 steps to complete Monthly Budgeting. Select the step below to navigate directly to that section. 

  1. Build a Monthly Budget
  2. Create and Save Custom Shapes
  3. Manage Your Default and Saved Shapes
  4. Review Your Monthly Budget

Build a Monthly Budget

Monthly values and saved Shapes carry over to cloned or new budgets. Any line-item updates automatically roll up into your total account, keeping your figures up to date whether they come from Personnel Budgeting, Capital Budgeting, or manual entries.
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  1. Navigate to the Monthly Spread column in the Operational Budgeting Worksheet.
  2. Hover over the cell of the account you'd like to update and select, + Shape or select Shape from the Action Dots. 
  3. Choose a predefined shape or create your own by dragging the points up or down. Note: By default the annual total remains fixed and the other months rebalance. You can allow the annual total to change by toggling off Lock annual total. 
  4. To enter exact dollars or percentages, enter an amount in the month's field. Pro Tip: Pin a month to hold it while you change other values. 
  5. Select Done to save the shape to the account or select Save and Next to move from one account to another. 

Create and Save Custom Shapes

Editors and Contributors can create custom Shapes to represent monthly distributions. Note: During a Request Round, the Contributor assigned to the account is the only Collaborator that can create and edit the shape. 

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  1. From the Shape Editor, adjust the points or enter values of each month to create a custom shape. Pro Tip: Paste a row or column of values copied from a spreadsheet to fill values forward from the selected month. Be sure Lock annual total is toggled off and no columns are pinned. 
  2. Select Save Template.
  3. Enter a Template Name and optional description. 
  4. Select the Save Template button. Note: You can apply saved shape templates to other accounts. 
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Pro Tip: In the Worksheet, select one or more accounts you want to shape then, select Bulk Actions. You can create a custom shape or apply an existing template. 

To remove a shape, select Clear Shape from the Bulk Actions button or right click on the shape in the Monthly Spread column. These accounts will return to the default distribution. 

Manage Your Default and Saved Shapes

Manage how monthly distributions display across the Worksheet by setting Default Distributions or applying Saved Templates. 

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  1. Select Settings.
  2. Select Monthly Spread. 
  3. Change the Default Distribution on all new accounts or edit, rename, and delete your saved templates. 
  4. Select Save Changes. 

Note: You can edit a Shape by selecting it directly from the Worksheet. Use the funnel icon in the Monthly Spread column to filter by Shape. 

Review Your Monthly Budget

The Monthly Budget report represents each account's monthly values, including differences, against the compared version. 

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  1. Select the Reports tab.
  2. Select the Monthly Budget report.
  3. Use the Comparing and To dropdowns to select version comparisons. 

Pro Tip: Send your monthly Actuals over to the Data Team to be able to view budgeted versus actuals spending. 

Ready to Learn More? 



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