Money - Budget Manager

The Budget Manager provides the necessary counterpart to PositiveWare's billing functionality. It allows the creation and management of client budgets and the allocation of employee time to these budgets.

The Budget Manager is integrated with the Rate Manager and Billing Manager so that the correct rates are automatically used throughout client budgets.

Using Budget Manager

To use the Budget Manager, click on the Money tab and then choose the Budget Manager option, shown below:



The main Budget Manager page displays the budgets for all clients in the current financial year:



This view can be scrolled forwards or backwards in time by clicking on the << and >> links.

Adding A New Budget

There are two ways to add a new budget with Budget Manager. If your budget is to be for one calendar month, just click on the '+' symbol in the appropriate month

If your budget will span a period other than one calendar month, use the drop-down boxes and calendar dialogs at the bottom of the screen to select the appropriate combination of client and dates:


Either of these tasks will take you to a new budget page:


When creating a new budget, you will be given the choice of copying forward the previous month's budget. If you select this option, details of the previous month's budget will automatically be populated in your new budget:


PositiveWare allows you to create two types of budget:
  • Hourly: The client is billed based on the exact number of hours worked. This is estimated at the beginning of the each billing period. The actual hours worked are then recorded during the billing period and billed at the end of each billing period.
  • Retainer: The client pays a fixed monthly fee based on the expectation of a reasonably predictable and stable monthly workload or of providing a guaranteed availability when needed.

Follow these steps to populate a newly-created budget.

1. Select the billing type for the budget - either hourly or retainer:



2. Enter suitable figures for the client billing into the additional fields that are displayed after choosing a billing type. This example shows hourly billing:

3. Once you have entered the client billing information, you can allocate time to individual employees. This is done in the third section of the budget page:
 


Follow these steps to assign work to employees:

a.) Click on the drop-down box and select an employee name from the menu:

b.) Click the Assign Employee button to assign the selected employee:


c.) Enter the estimated hours for that employee:


d.) Repeat steps a-c to allocate work to additional employees.

Note: To remove an employee's allocation, click on the Drop Assignment link alongside their work allocation details:

 

Saving, Deleting or Canceling a Budget

You can save the budget you are working on at any time. At the bottom of the budget screen there are four buttons that allow you to save, delete and cancel changes:



  • Save: Save the details of the current budget and return to the Budget Manager screen
  • Apply: Save the details of the current budget and continue working on that screen
  • Delete: Delete the current budget. You will be prompted to confirm if you click the Delete button
  • Cancel: Cancel the changes you have made to the current budget and return to the Budget Manager screen

Viewing or Editing an Existing Budget

To view or edit the details of an existing monthly budget, simply click on the current value of that budget on the Budget Manager page:


Adding Additional Plans to an Existing Budget

It is possible to add additional plans to existing monthly budgets. These plans are shown in the second section of the monthly budget view for each client:



Additional plans can be funded from their parent monthly budget or can have their own independent budgets.

Creating An Additional Project

1. To add an additional plan (project) to a budget, click on the Add Plan link:


You will be presented with the Add Plan form:
2. Enter the plan details into the Add Plan form:

  • Plan Name
  • Client Name (select from pull-down list Aligned To)
  • Start & Due Dates (click on calendar icon to select)
  • Description
3. When you have entered all the information required, click on the Add Plan or Add Billable Plan buttons to save the plan.
 


4. You will now be presented with the plan budget page. This is almost identical to the client monthly budget page. The only difference is in the billing type options:


A third billing type, For Allocation Only, is available for additional plans. Choosing this option means that the cost of all actual worked hours for that plan is deducted from the overall monthly budget for that client.

The other possible billing types result in the budget for the additional plan being added to the client's total monthly budget. Choosing any of the other biling types (hourly or retainer) will allow you to create a manage a separate budget for your additional plan.

5. Add an estimated number of hours to the plan's budget and allocate these to an employee if you wish. The procedure for doing this is identical to that described in Adding A New Budget.

6. Once you have completed the plan budget details, return to the montly budget page by choosing the Save option: