How Do I Build Next Year's Budget in Team SPG?

The Budget tab turns a year of your numbers into a plan for a year you have not run yet. Pick a starting point (this year so far stretched to twelve months, your Billable Hour worksheet with its moves, or a past year plus growth), and the tab fills in the revenue, calls, and costs. Adjust anything you expect to change, then track the year against it on Monthly Tracker.

Where to Find It

Open Financials > Budget in the left sidebar. The first time, the tab asks what you are budgeting and where to start. After that it opens your default budget for the newest year; use the year picker at the top right to switch, or New budget to plan another year.

Starting a Budget

Choose the budget year, then one of five starting points:

• Annualize this year to date. The usual choice in the fall. The tab takes what you have billed and spent so far this year (your tracked months on Monthly Tracker, otherwise your current-year Annual Totals) and forecasts the rest of the year. A line under the option says how: your prior year's monthly pattern when you have one, otherwise this year's budget, otherwise a seasonality curve, otherwise a straight line. Overhead is always straight-lined. If none of those sources exist, the option asks how many months your totals cover and multiplies by 12 divided by that number.
• Your last 12 months. Twelve consecutive tracked months added up as one year, with no forecast at all. Needs twelve months in a row on Monthly Tracker.
• Your Billable Hour worksheet. The numbers and moves you worked out on the worksheet become the plan. Each move lands on its own named line ("Truck - new tech (May)"), an Assumes line under the title says what the plan counts on, and a What this plan assumes table above the numbers lists each change with what it was worth in year one when the budget was created. You can also start here from the worksheet: click Create a budget from this at the end of the page.
• A past year plus growth. Pick a year of Annual Totals and a growth percentage. Revenue, calls, and cost of sales grow by that percentage; overhead carries over as-is because rent and insurance do not rise just because sales do.
• Start blank. Your trade and line items with every number at zero.

Click Create budget. The budget opens in the same form as your Annual Totals, with the numbers framed as targets. Under the title, a line says what the budget started from, including which forecast the annualize option used.

Editing the Plan

Every field on the Budget tab works the same as on the Annual Totals tab and saves automatically. Change the calls you plan to run and sell, the revenue you plan to bill, the materials and labor it takes, and the overhead you expect.

The rate this plan needs lives on the worksheet: See this plan's billable hour under your numbers opens the Billable Hour worksheet loaded with the plan, where the report shows the rate to charge, per-technician targets, and how the planned spending compares to healthy industry ranges.

By-technician rows are not carried into a budget. A budget is a company plan; the worksheet derives per-tech targets from it.

Planning by Month

Paid members can click Plan by month to say which months are busy and which are slow. Monthly Tracker then paces your budget against that curve instead of dividing the year evenly, so a slow January does not read as falling behind. There are three ways in:

• Use last year's shape. Shows up when you have all twelve months of the prior year on Monthly Tracker. One click copies that year's month-by-month revenue pattern.
• Mark slow and busy months. Tap each month to cycle it through Normal, Busy, and Slow, then set the Seasonal swing slider. At 40 percent, a busy month runs 40 percent above a normal one and a slow month 40 percent below. The twelve shares always add up to 100.
• Type percentages. Enter each month's share of the year's revenue yourself. The twelve months must add up to 100 percent; Balance to 100% scales your entries to fit, and Even months resets to a flat twelfth.

Under the picker, a twelve-bar preview shows each month's dollar share of the plan. Below that, Which overhead follows your season? lets you tick the overhead categories you spend more of in busy months, such as seasonal help under People or summer campaigns under Marketing. Everything you leave unticked, like rent and office wages, paces evenly. Remove monthly plan returns the budget to even months.

A budget created from your Billable Hour worksheet carries the worksheet's monthly plan with it when the worksheet started from a budget that had one.

More Than One Budget for a Year

Paid members can create several budgets for the same year, for example a realistic plan and a stretch plan, and give each a name. Two pickers sit at the top right: Year switches between the years you have budgeted, and Version of {year} switches between the budgets for that year. The one marked (default) is what Monthly Tracker measures against and what the tab opens first; Make default changes it. Free members keep one budget per year.

Renaming or Deleting a Budget

Click Manage at the top right. The dialog lists every budget you have built, grouped by year, with what each one started from and when it was last updated. From there you can:

• Rename a budget with the pencil, so "2028 Budget" can become "Stretch" or "Realistic".
• Make default for the version Monthly Tracker should measure against.
• Open a version without going through the pickers.
• Delete a budget you no longer need with the trash can. You confirm on the row, and every number in it is removed for good. The default budget of a year cannot be deleted while the year has other versions; make one of them the default first. Deleting the only budget for a year takes the year out of the picker, and Monthly Tracker for that year loses its comparison until you build a new one.

Deleting a budget never touches your Annual Totals or the months you have entered on Monthly Tracker.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which starting point should I use?

If you are budgeting in the last quarter of the year and have this year's months tracked or totals entered, annualize them. Those numbers reflect your current prices and costs. If you have twelve straight months tracked, your last 12 months is the same idea with no forecast. Use a past year plus growth when you do not have current-year data yet. Use your worksheet when you have already worked out the changes you want to make there, so the plan carries your moves.

Does creating a budget change my Annual Totals?

No. A budget is a separate row. The Annual Totals tab and the Budget tab can both hold the same year, and each year picker lists only its own kind.

Where did the saved scenario option go?

The Scenarios tab is retired. Its what-if levers became moves on the Billable Hour worksheet, and the worksheet is now a starting point here. Budgets you built from a saved scenario keep saying so under their title.

What happens to the budget during the year?

Monthly Tracker lets you enter each month's real revenue and costs against the budget and shows where you stand year to date. The page ends with Track {year} in Monthly Tracker to take you there. When all twelve months are in, Close the year on Monthly Tracker turns them into that year's Annual Totals, which becomes the starting point for the next plan.