Budgets: plan and track company spending

Budgets let you set aside an amount for a team, project or trip and follow how it is spent. A budget can be backed by a card account and a budget card, or simply tracked through the expenses your people enter.

Where to find it

Left sidebar → Expenses → Budgets. The page has two tabs, Budgets and Transactions. Budgets is part of Expenses for companies that use Travel Code company cards, and each person needs Budgets access (see below).

How to create a budget

Click Create budget.
Budget info: enter the Budget name, choose the Budget owner (the person responsible for it), and optionally add Categories and Authorized users (the people allowed to charge to it). Set the Start date and Expiration date, then click Next step.
Allocate budget: choose where the money comes from in From account:
- pick a card account: the currency comes from that account, and you can issue a Budget card; or
- pick "No account — track this budget through expenses": choose the Currency yourself.
Enter the amount in I want to allocate. To size a travel budget, open Estimate from per diem and click Allocate this amount.
If you issue a new card, set its Card controls (where the card may be used).
Check everything on Review & create and click Create budget.

How to charge an expense to a budget

Go to Expenses → Add expense.
In the Budget field, choose the budget.
Save the expense. Its amount is subtracted from the budget's Available figure.

How to manage a budget

Click a budget in the list to open its details: Budget info, Settings, Comments and Logs. You see Balance, Spent and Available, and how many days are left.

As the budget owner you can:

Add funds;
Freeze or Unfreeze the budget;
in Settings, choose what happens After expiration (Freeze automatically or Do nothing), set Receipt required above, a Receipt submission deadline (no deadline, or within 7, 14 or 30 days), and a Balance notification threshold;
Delete budget.

Authorised users can click Request balance change, and the owner is notified.

How to give someone Budgets access

Go to Settings → People.
Open the employee and switch on Budgets access, or select several people and use Activate budgets.

You can give access that you hold yourself.

Good to know

A budget has one currency. Expenses are charged to it in that currency.
Spend is counted from two sources: budget card payments, and expenses entered by hand while they are pending, pending settlement or approved. Rejected or cancelled expenses stop counting. Hand-entered expenses are listed on the Expenses page.
If spending goes over the allocation, the budget shows "overspending" with the amount over. Expenses are still accepted.
The budget owner makes changes to the budget. Being a Director on its own is not enough to edit someone else's budget.
When the expiration date passes, the budget is marked Expired within an hour, and frozen too if After expiration is set to Freeze automatically. Active budgets accept expenses.
With a balance notification set, the owner is notified each time the balance drops below the threshold.
Statuses in the list: Active, Expired, Frozen.

FAQ

Do I need to issue a card to use a budget? No. Choose "No account — track this budget through expenses" when creating it. Spend then comes from expenses charged to the budget.

Why can't I pick a budget when adding an expense? The budget's owner and its authorised users can charge to it. Ask the owner to add you under Authorized users.

What happens if we spend more than the budget? The budget shows "overspending" with the amount over the allocation.

Why can't I charge a EUR expense to our USD budget? A budget takes expenses in its own currency. Choose a budget in the expense's currency.

I'm a Director. Why can't I edit this budget? Only the budget owner can edit it, add funds, freeze or delete it.

Still have questions? Message us in the support chat or at support@travel-code.com.

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