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- Budgeting & Forecasting
- Features
- Budget controls
Budget controls
Budget controls brings remaining commitments and approved reallocations into the planning picture. Commitments mirrors open purchasing or contract obligations from the system that owns them. Budget transfers record a proposed movement between budget cells and the decision needed before it becomes effective. Finance can review available budget against actual costs and remaining obligations while retaining the original locked plan. A planning alert provides context; it does not replace the purchasing system’s own authorization or posting controls.
OverviewPending Budget Transfers×
Budgeting & Forecasting · Budget controls
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Pending Budget Transfers
Budget transfers
| Transfer number | Version | Period | From entity | From account | To entity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BT-68570 | Q1 reforecast, version 1 | 27 Oct | West region | 4010 Service revenue | Retail operations | |
| BT-49261 | Q1 approved revision, version 2 | 24 Oct | West region | 6400 Software subscriptions | Field service | |
| BT-76743 | FY27 board draft, version 3 | 22 Oct | Distribution center | 6200 Facility rent | Field service | |
| BT-98288 | FY27 approved plan, version 4 | 14 Oct | North region | 5000 Cost of goods sold | Wholesale sales | |
| BT-80092 | Q2 department submission, version 1 | 11 Oct | Distribution center | 4000 Product sales | North region |
6 of 6 records
Shift unused hiring budget to contractorsBudget transfers · BT-68570
VersionQ1 reforecast, version 1
Period27 Oct
From entityWest region
From account4010 Service revenue
To entityRetail operations
What you can do
Understand the remaining obligation
Open Commitments by Entity shows the amount still unrecognized against the relevant account, entity and expected period. A stable source-line and allocation identity prevents repeated imports from duplicating the obligation. Reconcile changes as costs become actuals so the same purchase is not counted both as a full commitment and a posted expense. Cancelled or consumed obligations retain their history. The operational commitment cache can refresh without changing a locked budget lines amount or the snapshot used in an earlier report.
Route a proposed transfer to its decision owner
Cost-Center Head prepares a positive transfer amount and identifies different source and destination cells within the authorized cycle, period and currency. Pending Budget Transfers shows the proposal and its reason. FP&A Director decides amounts up to and including the configured threshold; CFO decides above it. Apply the approved source-availability and closed-period policy and prohibit self-approval. An edit after submission creates another revision, so the decision must authorize the exact amount and cells that will be applied.
Preserve the approved baseline and its changes
Applying a transfer subtracts its amount from the source and adds it to the destination as one balanced, append-only adjustment. The original locked budget line amount remains unchanged. Budget Transfer Register retains applied, rejected and other historical outcomes for review. Effective budget includes only authorized applied deltas through the selected cutoff. A retry returns the existing result, and a correction retains its own authorized trail. Broader structural changes belong in a new reviewed budget version rather than an unexplained overwrite.
What your team sees
- Open Commitments by Entity. Open the related work within your assigned scope.
- Pending Budget Transfers. Open the related work within your assigned scope.
- Budget Transfer Register. Open the related work within your assigned scope.
Rollout checks
Pilot one valid transfer, an above-threshold decision, an unavailable source balance and a duplicate apply request. Reconcile the source reduction and destination increase to zero across the same currency and period. Compare available-to-spend before and after an actual cost replaces its commitment. Verify that none of these operations changes the original locked plan or a previously distributed report.
What it keeps track of
Data model- Commitments
- Read-mirror of open POs and signed contracts from SCM Procurement (and other source systems). Consume budget alongside Actuals so available to spend is current.
- Budget transfers
- Mid-year reallocation of approved budget between Entities or Accounts. Each Transfer is an append-only balanced adjustment: subtract Amount from the source cell and add Amount to the destination cell. Approvals authorize the exact transfer revision. Applying adds its deltas to effective budget, preserving the original locked budget line amount.
- Budget cycles
- The annual or quarterly planning cycle. One Cycle per fiscal year per cadence (Annual, mid year reforecast, quarterly update). Status gates whether Versions inside it can still be edited.
- Budget lines
- The atomic line of the plan. Each cell keeps its version, period, account, entity and scenario. Budget cells are unique within that basis. Forecast cells additionally require rolling forecast and snapshot key; Actual cells require a reconciled ledger snapshot key. A comparison names its chosen bases explicitly instead of joining ambiguous latest rows. Published snapshots and locked plan amounts are immutable.
- Approvals
- Approval-step audit trail for a budget revision or its specific budget transfer. Cost-Center Head submits; FP&A Analyst reviews, FP&A Director approves the planning review and CFO gives final financial approval. External board evidence is recorded separately by CFO. A transfer uses its configured Director/CFO route rather than approving the whole version again.
- Assumptions log
- Audit trail of every Driver, driver value, and driver formula change plus every budget transfer apply. The auditor’s source of truth for “what assumption produced what number when.”
Who uses it
Permissions- Cost-Center Head
- Monitors own commitments and requests transfers.
- FP&A Director
- And CFO make the policy-defined decisions.
- FP&A Analyst
- Reconciles the source population.
- Auditor
- Reads the preserved transfer history.
Set up Budgeting & Forecasting your way.
Start free, then use Proto to change fields, steps and approvals before your team goes live.