## Why set up budgets

Budgets give planners a defined amount of cash or equity to distribute across their team. Instead of proposing compensation changes without constraints, planners work within guardrails that keep spending aligned with what the company intended. Budgets show up at the top of the planner's worksheet so they can see how much they've used and how much remains as they make decisions.

To configure budgets, open the cycle and go to **Configurations** > **Budgets**.


## Choosing a budget philosophy

The first decision is whether budgets should be assigned per planner or per employee. This choice applies to the entire cycle -- you cannot mix philosophies within a single cycle. Switching philosophies deletes any existing budgets.

### Top-down budgets (per planner)

Each planner receives a budget for their worksheet. Because budgets are tied to the planner rather than individual employees, two planners looking at the same employees may see different budget amounts depending on their position in the approval chain.

**When to use top-down:** When leadership wants to control spend at the manager or department level, when you need holdbacks (reserving budget at higher levels before distributing down), or when budget amounts don't follow a simple formula tied to employee compensation.

### Bottom-up budgets (per employee)

Each employee is assigned a budget amount based on a calculation method you configure. These amounts roll up so that every planner sees a budget equal to the sum of their employees' individual allocations. Two planners looking at the same employees will always see the same budget.

**When to use bottom-up:** When budget allocations follow a formula (like a percentage of current pay or target recommendations), when you want a simpler setup, or when you don't need holdbacks.


## Creating a budget

### Step 1: Define the budget


1. Click **Create a Budget**.
2. **Name** the budget. This is what planners see in their worksheet.
3. Choose a **category**: cash or equity. For equity budgets, choose whether to display values as shares or currency.
4. Choose a **budget type**:
   * **Top Down Budget** or **Bottoms Up Budget**: Standard budgets with allocation logic.
   * **Award Budget** (available in both philosophies): Simply displays the sum of the specified columns with no allocation calculation. Useful for tracking one-time awards or spot bonuses where you just want visibility into total spend.
5. Select which **columns should contribute** to this budget (for example, salary raise, equity refresher, promotion raise).

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### Step 2: Configure calculation method (bottom-up only)

For bottom-up budgets, specify how each column's budget is calculated on a per-employee basis:

| Method | What it does | Example |
|----|----|----|
| **Apply a percentage of current pay** | Multiplies a percentage against specified pay types (base, variable, bonus, annual bonus) | "5% of base pay" for a merit raise budget |
| **Sum target recommendation values** | Uses the sum of your recommendation logic values | Budget matches whatever your recommendation matrix produces |
| **Sum uploaded values** | Uses values you've uploaded via Data Upload | Custom per-employee amounts from a spreadsheet |
| **Sum values stored in a column** | References another column in the cycle | Budget derived from a calculated column you've built |


### Step 3: Set permissions

Permissions control which planners can see budget data.

**Bottom-up budgets** have two options:

* **Can view this budget** (default): planners see the budget for their own worksheet only, scoped to the employees they manage
* **Cannot view this budget**

**Top-down budgets** offer more granular control:

* **Can view this budget for all planners**: sees budget data for everyone
* **Can view this budget for themselves**: sees only their own budget
* **Can view this budget for all planners below them in approval chains**: sees budgets for their reporting chain
* **Can view this budget for specified planners**: sees budgets for specific planners you choose
* **Cannot view this budget**: no access

You can set a default permission and add role overrides for specific roles that need different access.


### Step 4: Allocate budgets (top-down only)

For top-down budgets, you need to assign budget amounts to each planner.

The allocation page displays a planner hierarchy built from your approval chains. For each planner, you set:

* **Budget Amount**: what the planner can allocate to their reports
* **Holdback Amount**: what the planner reserves for themselves, not passed down to reports
* **Total Allocation**: the sum of budget + holdback, representing the total budget available to that planner

A planner's budget amount must be greater than or equal to the sum of the total allocations of the planners that report to them.



**Ways to populate allocations:**

* **Manual entry**: Type amounts directly into the hierarchy table.
* **Generate allocations**: Auto-populate using bottom-up calculation logic, then adjust as needed. This replaces existing allocations but doesn't save until you click Save.
* **CSV import**: Upload a CSV with columns "Planner Email", "Budget Amount", and "Holdback Amount". The upload only changes allocations for planners listed in the CSV; unlisted planners are not modified.
* **Sum downstream budgets**: Right-click a planner to set their budget amount to the sum of their reports' total allocations.
* **Clear budgets downstream**: Right-click a planner to clear all allocations below them.



## Uploading budget data for bottom-up budgets

If you have pre-calculated budget amounts per employee (for example, in a spreadsheet from finance), you can upload them instead of using a calculation method:


1. When creating the budget, select **Sum uploaded values** as the calculation method.
2. Save the budget, then navigate to **Data Upload** in the cycle configurations.
3. Select the relevant columns, download the template, populate it, and upload.


## Monitoring budget spend

Budget values appear at the top of each planner's worksheet. For top-down budgets, planners with permission to view other planners' budgets can switch between them using a planner dropdown and filter employees to match.

Budget consumption across the cycle is also available in **Cycle Insights** > **Budgets**. The dashboard gives you a real-time view of how the cycle is tracking financially:

* **Spend vs. Budget**: How much of each budget has been allocated across the cycle, so you can spot under- or over-spend early
* **Total Spend**: Spend broken down by dimension (department, level, location, gender) to surface patterns in how budget is being distributed
* **Average Spend per Employee**: Distribution of per-employee spend to identify outliers or inconsistencies across teams
* **Overspend Distribution**: Which planners or groups are exceeding their allocation, so you can intervene before the cycle closes


## Things to know

* **One philosophy per cycle.** You cannot mix top-down and bottom-up budgets. Switching philosophies deletes all existing budgets.
* **Active cycle changes.** You can update budgets on an active cycle, but planners should refresh their page afterward.
* **Holdbacks are top-down only.** Bottom-up budgets don't support holdbacks because budgets are calculated per employee rather than allocated per planner.
* **Award budgets have no allocation logic.** They display the sum of selected columns for visibility. Available in both philosophies.
* **Audit log.** All budget configuration and allocation changes are logged. Click **View Audit Log** from any budget to see the history.
* **Finalized cycles.** Budgets cannot be created, edited, or deleted after a cycle is finalized.




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