Budgeting

This functionality allows users to create, manage and display budgets in an easy and clear way. It can be used across basic projects, or stages in a multi-stage project.

On a basic project or a stage block, the budgeting functionality is available under the BUDGET tab. For multi-stage projects, users can visualize the summary of the budgeting of the child stages under the OVERVIEW tab.

Overview

Under the Budget tab, users can view the budget line items in two different ways: Table view or Pivot table view. The view can be switched by clicking on the table icon in the search facets bar.

The following section describes the different budgeting views:

• Table view: The Table view lists out the different budget line items in a table with the option to inline-edit and to filter the rows using search facets.

  

• Pivot table view: The Pivot view has two configured visualizations: Table and Column Chart. For both visualizations, there are two possible aggregations: Balance and Sum. In this view, users are able to move any field to X-axis or Y-axis in order to group the results in a different way.

  Users can switch between pivot table views using the drop-down list in the top-left corner of the table.

  • Table: The table view is a multi-dimensional dynamic table, listing the different budget line items based on a specific grouping defined by the user.

    

  • Column chart: As the name suggests, the column chart displays the data in columns, following the grouping defined by the user.

    

    Note

    • New visualizations and aggregations can be configured on implementation-level.
    • The default groupings can be changed by a superuser via the Portal administration.
    Tip

    The Pivot table view configuration is further explained in the Pivot table explanation section.

Budget line items

The budgeting table is based on budget line items. Budget line items are single budget entries that have configurable properties. In this section, we explore the different properties and we explain how to configure them.

Add a new budget line item

To add a new budget line item, simply click on the NEW LINE ITEM button in the budget interface (under the Budget tab). This action opens a New Line item creation window where users need to provide the necessary information.

Properties

Budget line items have several configurable properties.

• Item type: This property defines the type of the item.

  

• Confidence: This property defines the confidence value of the item.

  

• Sub type: This property defines the subtype of the item.

  

• Amount: This property defines the amount of the item in a decimal value.

• Currency: This property defines the currency of the item.

  

• Cost center: This property defines the cost center of the item.

  

• Cost type: This property defines the cost type of the item.

  

• Expense type: This property defines the expense type of the item.

  

Property configuration

The budget line item properties are fully configurable via the administration page:

1. Go to Manage > Option lists.

2. In the Option lists interface, search for 'BudgetLineItem'. This reveals all the option lists relative to the budget line item properties.

   

3. Click on the desired property (e.g. BudgetLineItem.Confidence) to show the values of the property.

   

4. Make the necessary changes (e.g. Add a new value, modify an existing value).

5. Save the changes.

Pivot table explanation

The pivot table is a multi-dimensional dynamic table where users can define the X-axis and Y-axis dimensions. In this section, we explain the pivot table configuration.

Pivot table areas

The pivot table mainly contains six areas, as displayed in the following image.

The area usage goes as follow:

• Area 1: This area is the resting point of the table containing the unused properties. Any property present here is not used as a dimension in the table. Users can drag-and-drop the properties here if they want to remove them from the table dimensions.

• Area 2: This area contains the X-axis dimensions of the table. Any property present here is used as a horizontal dimension in the table (a top header). The order of the properties in this section defines the cascading behavior of the horizontal dimensions (e.g. The first property from the left is the topmost header).

• Area 3: This area contains the Y-axis dimensions of the table. Any property present here is used as a vertical dimension in the table (a left-side header). The order of the properties in this section defines the cascading behavior of the vertical dimensions (e.g. The first property from the top is the leftmost header).

• Area 4: This area contains two fields. The first field defines the aggregation operation: Balance or Sum. The second field defines the property used for the aggregation operation. The selected property needs to be a number for the aggregation operations to work. These two fields define the calculation of the values displayed in the table.

  • Balance: The sum of the selected property values, with the cost expressed as a negative value, and the budget as a positive value (based on the Item type field).

  • Sum: The sum of the selected property values, with all types expressed as a positive value.

• Area 5: In this area users can select the pivot table view: Table or Column chart.

• Area 6: This is the main area of the table. All the calculated table data is displayed in this area.

Pivot table example

The example below references the areas explained in the previous section.

1. First, if we move all the properties from the horizontal dimensions (area 2) and the vertical dimensions (area 3) to the resting point (area 1), we end up with an empty table. At this point we didn't define any dimensions in the table.

   

2. We start by dragging a property (e.g Expense type) from the resting point (area 1) to the vertical dimensions (area 3). This action adds the property as a vertical dimension, expressed as a left header in the table. We can see the property's values as left headers in the table.

   

3. We drag a second property (e.g. Currency) from the resting point (area 1) to the horizontal dimensions (area 2). This action adds the property as a horizontal dimension, expressed as a top header in the table. We can see the property's values as the top headers in the table.

   At this point, we have the data organized per Expense type and per currency (i.e. For each expense type, we can visualize the amount balance values per currency).

   

4. We now drag a third property (e.g. Confidence) to the horizontal dimensions (area 2). This action adds the property as a horizontal dimension, expressed as a top header in the table. We can see the property's values as the second top headers in the table.

   Notice the order of the horizontal dimensions in this case (area 2); Since Currency comes before Confidence, we see the currency values as topmost headers, and for each currency value we can see the confidence values as second level headers.

   At this point, we have the data organized per Expense type, per currency and per confidence.

   

5. If we drag the third property (e.g. Confidence) from the horizontal dimensions (area 2) to the vertical dimensions (area 3), we notice that the property's values are added as second-level left headers in the table. The same order logic is also applied in this case.