Budget Versions

Mid-year reforecast? A 20% cut scenario your CFO asked for? Versions let you build an alternative plan alongside the one your team is working from — without touching it. When the new plan is agreed, you make it active and everyone moves over in one step.

How versions work

Each version of a budget holds its own plan: its line items, planned amounts, and target budget. Everything else belongs to the budget itself and is shared by every version.

Per version:

Line items
Planned amounts
Target budget

Shared across all versions:

Actual spend — manual entries, invoices, and ad platform syncs appear identically in every version. Edit an actual in one version and it changes everywhere.
Categories — the same category structure in every version
Category access — who can see what never changes between versions

One version is always active. The active version is what everyone in your organization sees by default, and it’s what your integrations write to. Switching plans means activating a different version.

Switching between versions

The version switcher sits in the toolbar of the budget editor and both dashboards. Click it to see every version of the budget, with an Active badge next to the live one, and select any version to view or edit it.

The version you’re looking at stays with you as you move between the Plans Editor, Actuals Editor, Plans Insights, and Spend Insights — so you can review a draft end to end without reselecting it.

It’s also in the page address, which means you can copy the URL and send a teammate straight to the version you’re looking at. If a version has since been deleted, the link falls back to the active version.

Note: The switcher only appears once a budget has more than one version. Admins always see it, so they can create the second one.

Creating a new version

Open the version switcher and choose New version…. The dialog walks through four steps:

Name — defaults to “Version 2”, “Version 3”, and so on. Use something your team will recognize: “2025 Reforecast”, “Budget cut scenario”.
Start from — copy an existing version (the active one by default), or start empty with no line items.
Settings — confirm the budget amount. It’s pre-filled from the version you’re copying, but a reforecast usually plans against a revised total, so it’s worth a second look. Leave Copy planned amounts on to start from the existing numbers and adjust them; turn it off to keep the same line items with empty plans.
Review — a summary of what you’re about to create.

The dialog always creates a draft. Creating a version never changes what your team sees — activating is a separate, deliberate step you take when the plan is agreed.

Whichever options you choose, categories and actuals carry over automatically — they’re shared, not copied.

Making a version active

When you’re viewing a version that isn’t live, a Make this version active button appears next to the switcher. Admins can also activate from Manage versions… using the row’s actions menu.

Activating a version:

Updates the grid, both dashboards, and the budget list immediately for everyone
Moves your integration connections onto the new version — Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Meta Ads, and TikTok line item mappings re-attach to the matching line items, and Google Sheets connections re-point to the new version
Leaves the previous version untouched, with all of its data, ready to switch back to

Etropo confirms what moved after activation. If a connected line item has no match in the new version, its connection stays on the old version and you’ll be told which line items are affected — the spend still lands in your shared actuals either way. To fix it, map the account to a line item in the new version from the integration’s Synced Line Items tab.

Comparing versions

On the Plans Insights dashboard, the Compare control on the Allocation tab overlays other versions on top of the one you’re viewing:

The Monthly Budget Allocation chart draws each compared version as a dashed line, named in the legend
The Budget Growth table adds a column per compared version, so you can read the period-by-period difference

You can overlay up to four versions at a time. Comparison isn’t available on the Distribution tab — those charts are stacked, so a second version can’t be laid over them. The version switcher still filters what those charts show.

Managing versions

Admins can open Manage versions… from the version switcher for a full list of the budget’s versions. The active version is listed first, with drafts below it.

Each row shows the version name, its target budget, how many line items it contains, and when it was created. Click a name to rename it inline. The actions menu on each row offers Make active and Delete.

Deleting a version

Deleting a version permanently removes that version of the plan. Before you confirm, Etropo shows exactly what will go:

How many line items will be deleted
How many Google Sheets connections will be disconnected
How many ad platform mappings will be removed
A reminder that actuals recorded against it stay in your other versions — they’re shared

Two versions can’t be deleted: the active version (activate another one first) and the last remaining version of a budget. Deletion cannot be undone.

Working with versions in Budget Buddy

Budget Buddy can handle versions for you in the web app:

“What versions of this budget do we have?” — lists every version, which one is active, its target, and how many line items it holds. Available to all members.
“Create a Q4 reforecast copied from the current plan” — creates the version. It copies the active version’s plan and stays a draft unless you say otherwise, so nothing your team sees changes. Admin-only.
“Make the Q4 Reforecast active” — Budget Buddy names the version and asks you to confirm first, then reports which integration connections moved and which couldn’t find a matching line item. Admin-only.

Version management is a web app capability. AI assistants connected over MCP can list versions but not create or activate them, and the Slack bot doesn’t manage versions.

Permissions

Admins can create, rename, activate, and delete versions
All members can view any version of a budget they have access to and switch between them

Versions never change who can see what. Access is granted per category and applies to every version — see Access Control.

Best practices

Name versions for the decision, not the date — “Q3 reforecast” and “Flat scenario” tell your team more than “Version 4”
Adjust the budget amount when you create the version — a reforecast measured against last quarter’s target is misleading from day one
Keep drafts as drafts until the plan is agreed — nothing your team sees changes until you activate
Check your integration mappings after activating — any connection that couldn’t find a matching line item is reported at activation, and takes a minute to re-map
Delete scenarios you’ve ruled out — a short version list keeps the switcher useful

Support

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