View budgets in Spark

This feature is currently in Beta. To access the new view budgets experience, or to create or edit budgets, please contact your Client Success Manager.

Budgets allow you to place a limit on company spending for different parts of your program. You can view your annual budget amounts and usage in Spark to track and compare current and historical company spending. You also have visibility into all changes made to a budget.  

There are many scenarios where it might be helpful to view budget data:

• Monthly, to track annual usage and to track budgets before they are maxed.
• Before and after all campaigns to ensure sufficient funding.
• After you have requested the creation of a budget or edits to a budget to confirm the changes.
• After your budgets have reset for the year to confirm the correct amounts.
• Before an internal presentation, you can use the data export.

Note: Depending on your program’s budget configuration, different transaction types will be included in each budget. To confirm your budget setup, submit a support request. You can also access budget reports in Benevity Reporting to answer additional company spending questions.

Permissions

Anyone with the budget manager role can view budgets in Spark. All current change signatories are automatically assigned the budget manager role. Program admins with the role manager role can assign the budget manager role to other users in the future.

View budget data

Go to Manage > Budgets to view your budget data.

Budgets are sorted by % used by default, however you can sort them by any column by selecting the column header.

The table displays the following budget details:

• Budget Name
• Start & End Dates indicate the budget period.
• Active indicates if the budget is currently being used.
• Donation Currency of the transaction included in the budget.
• Budget Total is the total amount authorized for a budget.
• Budget Remaining is the remaining amount authorized to spend.
• Budget usage is how much of the budget has been used in the budget period.
  • Budget usage does not include:
    
    • Non-committed payroll.
    • External match requests in queue.
    • Volunteer submissions in queue.
    • Expired rewards and seeding.
    • Subscription fees.
• % used calculates budget usage as a percentage of budget total.
• Maximum per user is the total budget amount an individual user has access to (matching, volunteer rewards or a combination of both).

Note:

• If one of your budgets has a Budget total, you will see Budget total, Budget remaining and % used.
• If none of your budgets have a Budget total, you will see Maximum per user and Budget usage.

View budgets by year

You can select a year from the budget year drop-down to view all budget data for that year. You can view historical, current, and future budget setup and usage if available.

Export budget data

You can export budget data in XLSX or CSV format, from your Dashboard:

1. Select Manage > Budgets in the top right corner of your program.
2. Select budget year from the drop down.
3. Select Export.
4. Select your preferred format.

Note: When you export budget data, all your budgets for that year are included in the export file.

Budget reports in Benevity Reporting

The below reports supplement information viewed in budgets. They are accessed through Benevity Reporting.

1. Budget Usage
   Similar to the information viewed on the Budgets screen.
2. Budget Usage by Transaction
   
   A line-by-line breakdown of the transactions that are drawn down from each budget.
3. Budget Usage by User
   
   The amount of budget that has been used from each budget line, per user.
4. Matching Campaign Usage  
   
   This report shows Matching budget types and any additional matching campaigns that have been set up throughout the year. The "draws from budget" column indicates if the campaign transactions are associated with a budget. If they are not, the campaign is stand-alone and does not draw down from a budget.

Watch a demo

Here’s a 4-minute demo of the new budgets feature in Spark.