Budgets in Glide: an introduction
Budgets let you set out, for each job, how much time you expect the work to take, who should do it, and what that time is worth. Glide then uses those budgets to help you plan: the budgeted work appears on the Scheduler, ready to be dragged onto a member of staff's diary at the right point in the workflow.
This article explains how the pieces fit together. The other articles in this collection explain each screen and every setting in detail.
The building blocks
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Budget template | The master budget for one workflow sub-system, for example the Accounts sub-system of your Accounts & CT workflow system. Each sub-system can have one active template. |
| Job section | A phase of the work inside a template, for example Planning, Fieldwork, Manager review, Director review and Finalise. Each section is linked to stages of your workflow, so Glide knows when the work can be scheduled, when it has started and when it is complete. |
| Budget allocation (budget line) | A single line of budgeted time inside a section: a job position (for example Preparer or Manager), a number of minutes and an hourly rate. Glide works out the value. |
| Default budget allocations | Allocations entered on the template itself. They apply to every client that does not have its own allocations for that section. |
| Client-specific allocations | Allocations entered for one client. They replace the defaults for that section, for that client only. |
| Job budget | The copy of the budget that is attached to a job when the job is created. It can be adjusted for that job alone. |
How a budget flows through Glide
- Switch budgets on and decide who can manage them. This is done once, in System Options and Staff Permission Lists. See Switch on budgets and give staff permission.
- Create a budget template for a workflow sub-system. See Create a budget template for a workflow sub-system.
- Add job sections to the template and link each one to your workflow stages. See Budget template sections: every setting explained.
- Add budgeted time. You can enter default allocations on the template (see Add default budget allocations to a template), client-specific allocations on the client card (see Set a client-specific budget), or both.
- Glide copies the budget onto each new job. When a job is created, Glide takes the active template for each sub-system and copies its sections and allocations onto the job, using the client's own allocations where they exist and the defaults otherwise. See View and edit a job's budget.
- Schedule the work. When the job reaches the right stage, each budget line appears in the Budgets tray on the Scheduler. Drag it onto a person's row to book the time. See Schedule budgeted work on the Scheduler.
- Review. The Budgets Summary report lists budgets across all jobs.
A job's budget is a snapshot
Glide copies the budget onto a job at the moment the job is created. If you later change the template or a client's allocations, jobs that already exist keep the budget they were given. Future jobs pick up the change. To change the budget on an existing job, edit the job's budget directly.
Example used in these articles
The screenshots in this collection use an Accounts budgets template on the Accounts sub-system of an Accounts & CT workflow system. It has five sections: Planning, Fieldwork, Manager review, Director review and Finalise. The client in the examples, Tony & Co Architects, has its own client-specific allocations totalling 2,910 minutes (48.5 hours), worth £4,687.50. Only the Fieldwork section is set to appear on the Scheduler, and only once the job has moved past the Information chased/received stage.
Recording actual time against budgets
Coming soon
At the time of writing you cannot record time against budget lines. This is due for release in November 2026. In addition to integrating fully with our Glide Time module, Glide will also accept actual time totals through the API, and Glide's Practice Engine integration will use this to import the actual time costs, so that you can compare actual time with budget.
Each template has an Actual time data source setting so that you can tell Glide now where actual time will come from for that template: Glide Time, or an external source such as the API or Practice Engine.
The Stage Started and Stage Completed settings on each section are also groundwork for future features. They will let Glide flag on the face of the Scheduler which budgeted work is unstarted, started and complete, so it is worth setting them carefully now.