Budget Editor

The Budget Editor is where you plan your budget. Categories and line items are the rows. Months are the columns. Open it from Budget in the sidebar.

A new budget is empty. Add a category first, then add line items and enter planned amounts.

Add a category

Categories group your line items, for example Headcount, Paid Media or Tools. Only administrators can add categories.

1. Click New category at the right end of the toolbar above the grid, then Add category.
2. Enter the Category Name.
3. Optional: select a Parent Category (optional) to put the category under a master category.
4. Click Create Category.

Turn on Create more to keep the dialog open for the next category. In an empty budget, you can also click New category in the middle of the page.

Master categories and custom levels

A budget has up to six levels: two custom levels (for groupings such as brands, divisions or regions), master category, category, line item and expense. Only categories and line items are required. Learn more in Budget Structure.

• Master categories group categories, for example a Paid Media master category with Search and Social under it. To add one, click New category in the toolbar, then Add master category.
• Custom levels are the two optional levels above master categories, for groupings such as brands, divisions or regions. Each of their items, for example a brand, is a header row with its own totals and access. You choose the custom levels when you create the budget.

Add line items

A line item is one row of the budget, for example a campaign, a contractor or a tool.

1. Click New line item at the right end of the toolbar above the grid.
2. Enter the names in Item Names. Separate names with commas or line breaks to add up to 50 at once.
3. Select the Category. The headings in the list show where each category sits, for example EMEA › Nike › Paid Media.
4. Select the Currency. Etropo selects your default currency first.
5. Click Create Items.

To add a line item to one category, click New line item below the last line item of that category.

Members who are not administrators can add line items only to the categories they can access.

Enter planned amounts

Click a cell, type the amount and press Enter. You can also start to type a number when a cell is selected.

• Paste from a spreadsheet: copy a range in Excel or Google Sheets, click the first cell in the grid, and paste.
• Clear cells: select the cells and press Delete or Backspace.

To select a range, drag across the cells, or click a cell and then Shift-click another cell.

Right-click menu

Right-click a cell to open its menu:

• Leave comment: add a comment to the cell. If the cell already has a comment, the item is View comment.
• Set for all months: copy the amount in this cell to all other months of the line item. For example, right-click a cell with 3,000 to plan 3,000 for every month.
• Clear row: delete the amounts of the line item in all months.

On an actual cell, the menu also has Add expense. Learn more in Expenses.

Undo and redo

Click the Undo or Redo button at the top right of the page, or use the keyboard shortcuts below. Undo applies to changes to amounts, including changes that Budget Buddy makes. Etropo keeps the last 50 changes for the version you are viewing.

Keyboard shortcuts

Edit a line item

Click the name of a line item to open Line Item Details. It has two tabs:

• Details: the Name, Category, Owner, Status and Currency of the line item. It also shows the Cost Center and your custom properties if your organization has them. Click Save Changes after you edit, or click Delete Line Item to delete it.
• Expenses: the dated expenses that make up the actuals of the line item. Learn more in Expenses.

The status of a line item is Draft, Pending approval, Approved or Rejected. Learn more in Budget Approvals.

Manage categories

Administrators manage a category from the ⋯ menu next to the category name:

• Edit Category: change the name and the description.
• Manage Access: select which members can see and edit the category. Learn more in Budget Access Control.
• Move Category: put the category under a master category. This item shows only when the budget has a master category.
• Delete Category: delete the category and all its line items, planned amounts and actuals. You cannot undo this.

Bulk actions

Administrators can change many line items at the same time.

1. Select the checkbox next to each line item. The checkbox on a category row selects all line items in that category.
2. Click an action in the toolbar above the grid.

The toolbar has these actions:

• Move to Category: move the line items to a different category.
• Assign Property: set one value of a custom property on all line items.
• Assign Cost Center: set or remove a cost center on all line items.
• Change Status: set the approval status of all line items.
• Delete: delete the line items with their amounts and comments. You cannot undo this.

Click Clear selection to close the toolbar.

Filter line items

1. Click the Filter icon in the toolbar above the grid, next to Display.
2. Select a filter type: Category, Currency, Status, Owner, Total Cost or Monthly Cost.
3. Select a value. For Total Cost and Monthly Cost, select an operator, enter an amount and click Apply Filter.

You can add more than one filter. Click X on a filter to remove it, or click Clear all.

Plans, Actuals and Variance

The tabs on the left of the toolbar select the amounts that the grid shows:

• Plans: the planned amounts.
• Actuals: the actuals. Learn more in the Spend & Actuals Guide.
• Variance: the planned amount, the actuals and the variance for each month. Variance is the difference between the planned amount and the actuals.

You can edit planned amounts and actuals on the Variance tab too. You cannot type into a variance cell, but you can select it, copy it and comment on it.

The Budget link in the sidebar opens the Plans tab.

Change the display

Click the Display icon in the toolbar to change what the grid shows:

• Properties: show the Owners, Status and Yearly Totals columns. You can change the owner and the status directly in these columns.
• Period View: show amounts by Month or by Quarter.
• Period Filter: turn on This Quarter Only to show only the current quarter.
• Targets: show or hide the target rows. While the target rows show, the Yearly Totals column shows too.

In a budget with custom levels, the first icon on the right of the toolbar, before Filter, shows or hides the items of those levels, for example regions and brands.

Targets

Administrators set a budget target for the whole budget, and a target for each item at the top of it, for example each region. Each target has its own row in the grid, with an amount for each month and the amount that is left.

• Type the budget target in the Budget target row under the totals row.
• To add a target for an item, click its ⋮ menu, then Set target.

Each version has its own targets. Learn more in Budget Targets.

Budget versions

A budget can have more than one version of its plan, for example the live plan and a reforecast. Use the version switcher next to the budget name to open a different version. Administrators click Make this version active to change the version that your team works from.

Planned amounts belong to the version. Categories, category access and actuals are the same in all versions. Learn more in Budget Versions.

Comments

Right-click a cell and click Leave comment. A cell with a comment has a small amber triangle in its top-right corner. Click the triangle to open the comments. Learn more in Collaboration.

Rename or export the budget

Administrators click the ⋯ menu next to the budget name to see these actions:

• Rename budget
• Export budget. Learn more in Exporting Budgets.

For additional help you can reach out to our support team at: help@etropo.com