Budget template sections: every setting explained
A budget template is split into job sections: the phases of the work, such as Planning, Fieldwork, Manager review, Director review and Finalise. Each section holds budget allocations (who does the work, for how long and at what rate). Each section is also linked to stages of your workflow, so that Glide knows:
- when the section's work should appear on the Scheduler, ready to be booked (Allocation Stage);
- when the work has been started (Stage Started);
- when the work is complete (Stage Completed).
Add or edit a section
- Open the template from Budget Templates.
- Click Add Section to create a section, or expand an existing section and click Edit Section.
- Complete the form and click Save.
Every field has a ? icon that shows a short explanation. Fields marked with a red asterisk are required.
The stage lists show every stage in the sub-system's workflow routes, in workflow order, with each stage's order number in brackets, for example Job started (40).
Name
The name of the phase of work, for example Fieldwork. It appears on the client card, the job card, the job budget page, the Budgets Summary report and on each item in the Scheduler's Budgets tray. Keep it short; up to 40 characters.
Allocation Stage
The workflow stage beyond which this section's budgeted work appears in the Scheduler's Budgets tray, ready to be booked. It only has an effect when On Scheduler is set to one of the Yes options.
- Not Set: the work appears in the tray as soon as the job exists.
- A stage: the work appears once the job has moved past that stage, in other words, once the job is on a stage with a higher stage order value than this stage. Use this to hold back work until you are ready to plan it.
Example: Fieldwork has its Allocation Stage set to Information chased/received. You don't want to book fieldwork until the client's records have arrived. As soon as Information chased/received is completed on a job, the job moves on to the next stage (Allocated and on planner) and the Fieldwork budget appears in the Budgets tray.
Stage Started and Stage Completed
These link the section to the point in your workflow where the budgeted work is started and the point where it is completed. Both are required.
- Stage Started: the workflow stage beyond which the budgeted work is treated as started. It also sets where the section is listed: sections appear in the workflow order of their Stage Started (see Order below).
- Stage Completed: the workflow stage beyond which the budgeted work is treated as complete.
How to choose them:
- If the section's work is covered by two stages, choose both. For example, Fieldwork begins at Job started and ends at Accounts drafted, so set Stage Started to Job started and Stage Completed to Accounts drafted. Glide then knows both when the work has started and when it has finished.
- If the section's work is linked to a single stage, select that same stage in both fields. For example, Manager review uses Manager review for both Stage Started and Stage Completed. This lets Glide know when the budgeted work is complete.
Why it's worth setting these carefully now
These links let Glide work out whether each piece of budgeted work is unstarted, started or complete. A future release will use them to flag this on the face of the Scheduler and in reports, so that you can see at a glance which scheduled work has not been started, is under way or is finished.
On Scheduler
Whether this section's budgeted work should be booked on the Scheduler.
| Option | What it means |
|---|---|
| Yes - In office | The work appears in the Scheduler's Budgets tray (once the Allocation Stage has been passed) and is recorded as office-based work. This is the default for a new section. |
| Yes - Client site | As above, but the work is recorded as taking place at the client's premises. Both Yes options behave the same on the Scheduler; the difference is kept for reporting. |
| No | The work is budgeted but not booked on the Scheduler. Use this for work that is not planned in diaries, such as short reviews. |
Order
Breaks ties between sections that share the same Stage Started. Sections are listed in the workflow order of their Stage Started on the template, client card, job card, job budget page, Budgets Summary report and the Scheduler's Budgets tray. Where sections have the same Stage Started, the one with the lower Order number comes first, sections with no Order come after numbered ones, and any remaining ties are listed by name. Sections with no Stage Started are listed last.
Status
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | The section is being prepared. It is not shown on client cards and is not copied onto new jobs. A draft section has an Activate button. |
| Active | The section is live. It is shown on client cards and copied onto new jobs. |
| Archived | The section has been retired. It is no longer copied onto new jobs; jobs that already have it keep it. Available when editing an existing section. |
A template needs at least one Active section before it can be activated. Sections added to a template that is still in draft start as Active; sections added to an already active template start as Draft, so that you can finish setting them up before new jobs pick them up.
Delete a section
Click Delete Section and confirm. This also removes the section's budget allocations from the template. Jobs that already have the section keep it.
Example: a complete Accounts template
| Section | Allocation Stage | Stage Started | Stage Completed | On Scheduler | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planning | Not Set | Information chased/received | Allocated and on planner | No | - |
| Fieldwork | Information chased/received | Job started | Accounts drafted | Yes - In office | 10 |
| Manager review | Not Set | Manager review | Manager review | No | 30 |
| Director review | Not Set | Director review | Director review | No | 40 |
| Finalise | Not Set | Accounts sent to client | Completed | No | 60 |
In this example, only Fieldwork is booked on the Scheduler, and it appears in the Budgets tray once the client's information has been received. The review sections each use a single stage for both Stage Started and Stage Completed.
Next step
Add the budgeted time to each section: see Add default budget allocations to a template or Set a client-specific budget.