Marketing Spend Tracking with Etropo

Tracking actual spend is essential for effective budget management. This article explains how to use Etropo’s actuals tracking features and outlines best practices around this process.

Though tracking actuals usually require additional work from your marketing team, the benefits are significant:

• You and your team can make budget adjustments literally on the fly
• No need to ping teammates about the actual spend - Etropo handles that automatically with Slack integration
• You have full control and ownership around marketing budget, no additional work from finance team required. Additionally, marketing spend data lives inside a tool you actually manage. No need to worry about someone assigning costs that aren’t yours.
• You can have a single source of truth for both you and your team. You can decide which categories each team member has access to, so you don’t need to be worried about sharing confidential salaries date e.g.
• Spreading responsibilities across your team. We know how costly your time is. With Etropo you can save some of your time by delegating operational work partially to your teammates.

Actuals Editor

The Actuals Editor is where you record and manage your actual marketing spend.

Basic Usage

To update actual spend values:

1. Navigate to your budget
2. Switch to the “Actuals Editor” view from the header dropdown
3. Find the line item and month you want to update
4. Click on the cell and enter the actual amount spent
5. Press Enter or click outside the cell to save

Automating Actuals Collection

Coordinating with Teammates via Slack

The Slack integration makes it easy to collect actuals from team members responsible for different budget line items.

Best Practices for Teammate Coordination

• Assign Clear Ownership: Make sure every line item has an assigned owner
• Use Comment Mentions: For urgent updates, @mention teammates in line item comments
• Follow Up on Pending Items: Use the budget filter to find items with missing actuals
• Provide Context: When requesting actuals, include information about what specifically needs to be reported

For detailed setup instructions, see our Slack Integration guide.

Google Ads Integration

For digital advertising spend, Etropo can automatically fetch data from Google Ads.

Best Practices for Google Ads Integration

• Create Dedicated Line Items: Structure your budget with specific line items for Google Ads campaigns
• Validate Initial Data: After setup, verify that imported data matches your Google Ads dashboard

For detailed setup instructions, see our Google Ads Integration guide.

Working with Actuals Data

Understanding Actuals vs. Plans

When viewing your budget, you can compare actual spend against planned amounts:

• Actuals Editor: Shows and lets you edit only actual spend values
• Plans Editor: Shows and lets you edit only planned values
• Plans Updater View: Available for active budgets, displays both with a focus on adjusting future plans based on actual performance

Variance Analysis

Etropo provides tools to analyze variances between planned and actual spend.

Best Practices for Actuals Tracking

Timing and Frequency

• Update Promptly: Enter actuals as soon as they’re available
• Regular Cadence: Establish a consistent schedule for actuals collection (monthly is recommended)
• Fiscal Alignment: Align collection with your accounting close periods

Team Collaboration

• Clear Ownership: Assign specific owners to each budget line item
• Training: Ensure all team members understand how to report actuals accurately
• Regular Reviews: Schedule monthly reviews of actuals data with key stakeholders

Support

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